Happy Family: The Smith's

This session was wicked fun and I'll probably post a little more than what you see today but here are some of my favorite images from the day.

So we started inside. Meet Cookie, Katie and Jack. My little adventurous buds.


Cookie came everywhere with us. I absolutely loved it, and so does Katie.


So when we were in the woods here, the kids started telling me about this BEAR that comes around every so often. I forgot to ask their parents if it was a true story. Needless to say, I am thankful the bear was feeling camera shy.






"Photographers Note**
I am going to go out on a limb and say that every photographer has struggled with how best to pose their clients. Am I right? It's a really hard skill to master but once you have it (so I hear!) directing your clients becomes second nature . When I think of posing I like to think of natural. I don't want to overly pose my clients yet I need to direct them a little bit so there are no dead arms or awkward body positions - yet even still it happens.

For the way that I work as a photographer posing only goes for newborns and adults. Energetic, young, antsy, and free spirited kids are another story all together. And I LOVE that!! There are not too many kids in the world, that I have come in contact with, that like to pose. And you know what? I am not really a fan of overly posed kids anyway. I want to capture them just, well, being them. So in the two photos above we were just standing in the woods talking, I ask a lot of questions and I am a really good listener when stories are being told. While I am listening I put my camera to my face and say tiny little commands like "be serious" or "stay right there" or "WAIT! DON'T MOOOOVE A MUSCLE!!!" And that usually catches kids off guard enough for them to just be still for a moment with a natural look on their face. These two pics are totally against posing rules - but that's why I love them. They are real, raw and very straight forward.

You see I don't necessarily want a smile. WHAT!???! Blasphemy you say!!! Kids from like 2 years old to, like, I don't know, 22 years old have these really fakey smiles - some kids know how to fake it better than others. And that's what school photos are for anyway. I want natural, real, dreamy, thoughtful, and sometimes serious facial expressions that mom and dad know best. And if I happen to catch those real, fleeting smiles and big-open-mouthed-belly-laugh smiles - I am TOTALLY psyched! But I don't force it.

So there you have it, right smack dab in the middle of this family post. I just spilled my confusing guts. End note. :)**

So annnnyyyywayyyy - Hi COOKIE!!!!


And then we jumped:


Ahhh dreamy, I so need a photo of me and my kids like this. (For some reason the quality is not converting on the blog and it looks a little weird - kind of pixelated, right? It's totally not pixelated over here on my puter though. Hmmm...)




One big happy family!


One little lovely laying on the earth!




And my fave of Katie from the day!!!!


xo,

Katie