celebrating with blue skys and blue balloons

05.17.13

If the photos don’t speek for themselves, our 4th child due in Oct is a boy!!! 3 brothers close in age and our nurturing first born girl who I always envisioned as my only girl. Each child is uniquely interested in this pregnancy. Addi is focused on coming up with boy names and counting down the months, Westin is talking to my Mom about getting him to the hospital on time to “watch Daddy cut the cord” and Bennett is practicing being gentle by not poking out eyes on baby dolls.

 

Bennett’s backyard farm party

04.13.13

Since infancy Bennett has loved anything to do with animals!  So before my 2 year old baby grows up any faster I wanted to give him a farm party.  And since I love a backyard party we had the animals come to us.  Lots of animals!  But first we grazed on Chili, pigs in a blanket, cornbread, fruit, party snacks, chocolate chip cookies and the yummiest cupcakes (the only thing I can’t take credit for that my wonderful friend Sara made).  An appropriate celebration for my sweet boy who has filled our lives and our hearts with such great magic over the past 2 years!

 

first trimester complete!

03.25.13

My excuse to where I’ve been? Making a baby of course! We are now 12 weeks along and happy as ever to be this much closer to a family of 6! I was sleepy a lot of my first trimester but didn’t forget to take lots of pictures! But I’m just very behind on looking at them… so here I’m sharing just a few of my favorites to tell the story of the past two months.

 

my boys and dirt

01.24.13

My hope with this session of my boys was that they didn’t know I had my camera along; but enjoyed just being boys on a little evening adventure!

 

tips on capturing “sun flare”

01.18.13

Sun flare can bring a little magic to an otherwise ordinary image. While in Denver a few weeks ago I knew my baby’s first time experiencing snow must include a little magic. Especially because when I was little I truly believed the snow was magic falling from the sky. I look at these images, and although it was cold, the apearance of the sun brings an overall warm feeling; and a special calmness and peace to the moment. Photography is all about a feeling an image brings to you. These images inspired me to share a few tips on sun flare with you:

Basic tips to achieve sun flare:
Use manual settings. If you follow your camera’s metering, you will end up with a silhouette because it will try to compensate for the amount of light entering your lens. Instead, exposure for the subject.
Place the subject between you and the sun. But you do not want to aim directly at the sun. Shoot with the sun off to the side, filtered through a tree, or as I did in the images above with the horizon and my boy’s body to help filter the sun. Try changing your camera angle slightly to watch the difference in flare and effects through your lens.
Shoot during the golden hours when the sun is low. 1 – 2 hours before sunset or after sunrise.

Some of my favorite personal images from this year involve sun flare – here’s two portraits of my older children to help inspire you to use the magic of the sun:

Have fun practicing!