Love me some babies!

Kristina came to me when I wasn't blogging, and we had a maternity session. I love Kristina - she's gorgeous and so fun to be in a room with.

See!

This girl didn't even get a stretch mark! She's got some incredible genes!


And she passed those incredible genes to this beautiful baby girl!


Baby Smiles!




Baby girl was much more interested in seeing what I was doing than sleeping - but like all babies, she eventually gave up, and let the sleep take over.




Kristina, she's gorgeous! I'm so glad you've let me into this window of your life :)

Happy Valentines Day

Daddy got the girls a rose each. Mommy made heart shaped brownies. Claire got in trouble and got her Valentine Brownie taken away for the day (she'll get it tomorrow.) I have to say, I am stunned she was willing to take any pictures!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!

let there be LIGHT!

That's right... I have my studio lights up and running! YAY! I bought the lights back in November because I got a great deal, but I didn't get any of the equipment to make the lights work with my camera. I got to actually use some studio lights while at the conference in Detroit, so that fueled me to finally get the right stuff, and get mine up and running.

So here's how my weekend has gone. Get the stuff Thursday. Try to make everything work together in harmony when I get off of work at 4am. Fail misreably, and go to bed unhappy.

Friday, fresh and determined to make it work, mess around with them for over a half hour without anything working. On a whim, attach my backup camera, which works instantly. Compare the cameras, and FINALLY figure it all out.

My eureka picture:

Yep, its my cat Vash, on top of a suitcase that I should have put away a couple weeks ago. Adjust some settings, and get a proper model...



Well hello Claire Number Two. Yes, that is her name. And we don't shorten it! You must say it all out, or Claire (number one) will yell at you. Although neither of my girls were home... they had gone to grandmas with Daddy. So Claire Number Two made a good substitute.



Just relaxing in her chair. So after a while of shooting Claire Number Two, I decided I needed a better model. Perhaps one that could breathe. So I went trapsing around the house 'Here Kitty, Kitty'ing... until I found my sleeping cat upstairs. Brought him all the way downstairs, and somehow got him to not immediately run away when I set him down.



Whats that Vash? You don't want your picture taken? Tough cookies mister.



joke was on me... he bolted after this shot.

So today, I actually didn't get to play around in the studio until the girls' bedtime! Bedtime, however, did not deter me. Now, the thing with my girls, is at this stage in the game, you have to let them think that they in fact are running the photoshoot. Olivia wanted her pig to have her picture taken.



Thats a mighty fine pig Olivia! Can you set your pig next to you real quick?



Thanks lady! Nice smiles! Okay Claire, are we taking a picture of zebra on a zebra print?



Phew, almost couldn't see him there! Now, can he sit next to you, and you can both smile please?



....

I wish I could say that this is an outtake of Claire. But it isn't. She held this position, while I was doing anything and everything to coax a smile out of her, for a full 2 minutes. Then I gave up, because it was really bedtime, and I wanted to take a few picture of them together before we brushed teeth.





I'm really excited about what this means for my sessions! Opens up a whole world of possiblities, and I can't wait to dive into it!!

Well hello stranger!

So I haven't blogged in a while. I guess that would be a bit of an understatement! How do you start a post after taking an almost 5 month hiatus? I logged back into blogger, and saw that I had something like 15 new comments, which sounds like hardly any given I hadn't blogged in so long, but in reality, not a lot of people comment, so I was excited to see what I was in for. Turns out, there's cheap wedding dresses out there, insurance, a few websites that sounded terribly innappropriate, and one comment thanking me for helping him with his college assignement. I think I turned off my spam filter somehow...

So what have I been up to for 5 months? Taking a much needed blogging break, for starters! I love to blog, but I think I finally managed to burn myself out on it. It was kind of bound to happen. But I also spent a lot of time learning and spending time with my girls. I went to a conference in Detroit at the beginning of January, which totally helped focus me on where I want to be with my photography career. Definitely good things are happening this year for Platypus ;)

I might end up sharing some last images taken in 2010... but I might just skip those, and move on to 2011. So if blog posts seem out of order for a bit, sorry about that!!!!

I'll end this one with images of Claire. Every year in June, I take pictures of my oldest daughter Olivia in my wedding dress. My youngest Claire's birthday is in December, and wearing a wedding dress in 20 degree weather probably isn't the wisest parenting decision I could make. So instead, I take images of Claire in my fancy winter coat.

The focus actually fell on this closeup (silly fluffy fur caught it instead) but I like her expression in this one so much better than any of the ones where the focus was dead on.



For comparison, here's Claire at one year old


Such a dreary December day...

And then here's her at 2 and a half


She'll be mad at me when she's older, but I missed taking the image in December... I took it last June when I took Olivia's picture. I know I know, she's going to have such a second child complex!!!! I can't help that her birthday falls during the busiest month of the whole year!!! I was convinced when I took these pictures 6 months ago, that when I took her 3 year ones in December, they'd look identical (minus the snow.) But I actually think I was wrong... Claire's grown up a lot in the last few months (or as much as any 3 year old can I guess.) She's so much a 'big kid' and not my baby anymore. She wants to do everything for herself, and she can do anything her big sister can do. Silly peanut!

So here's 'baby Claire' six months ago


and my sly big kid now

Happy Beggars Night!

Have a happy and safe Beggars Night! These are from Boo at the Zoo a couple days ago :)





HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

I'm back! With Sidneys Sneak Peek :)

In case you didn't notice, I took a hiatis from blogging. It's mostly because I've had a busy month (the girls started school, and I went on a 'vacation' in North Carolina where I got to be a second shooter at a wedding) But Saturday I had a great time with Sidney at Highbanks Park taking her senior portraits.

Sidney takes photos in her past-time too, so we incorporated her camera into some of the shots. My favorite part while doing this? She actually took pictures - she wasn't faking! I LOVE that!









We also did a mini trash the dress with Sidneys last prom dress (which I found gorgeous!) We did some wading in the creek and playing in the playground... it was close to sunset, and I just love the light!



When I saw these roots, I kind of fell in love. Sure its not your typical senior picture type of portrait, but I figured Sidney might like it ;)



I had a blast Sidney! I hope you enjoy them :)

Playing around at Easton

Easton Shopping Center has what I learned is called a "Splash Pad." When they first built Easton when I was in high school, I think the splash pad was more meant to be a beautiful water art type thing that you could sit and enjoy while taking a break from shopping. I would say within a year, kids started coming and playing in the water. Now parents bring their kids decked out in swimsuits, and they make a day of playing in the water. I used to make fun of those parents. I have learned in my parenthood stage of life, that you should never judge what you don't know. I take the girls to Easton, decked in swimsuits, to play in that water thing all the time. I really should stop throwing rocks in this pretty glass house I'm in.

So, this day we met up with Haley and Karen, and also our good friend Jacqui, who also had family in town. Big 'ol group of us!

Haley was, of course, soaked by the time we got there


Normally, Claire is our water-baby (totally brave and willing to get soaking wet even in full clothes) and Olivia is the scaredy cat. Claire had an off day this day, and really had ZERO desire to get wet... or be set down... it was tiring.

Olivia played her same song and dance where she wants her hands and feet to get wet, but not her whole body, or more specifically, her hair.




Also in our group - Becky, the last bride I worked with! I love Becky... she's adorable, and really is willing to do anything. It had been raining right up to when we went to Easton, so everyone had umbrellas on them. Jacqui convinced Becky to take an umbrella into the fountain, fully dressed, and pose for me. I love people!










I'm shocked I could even take anything, we were all laughing so hard!

During all this, Claire was being a pip. Refused to even be set down, let alone go and play. Frankly she was acting like a little baby, and not like an almost 3 year old. So she got passed from person to person, everyone trying to warm her up to socializing with us.

I always joke that Claire gets her blue eyes from Karen. EVERYONE on my dads side of the family has brown eyes. My mom has blue eyes, so thats where I got my recessive gene from, and made it possible for her to have blue eyes, but its just fun to joke that she favors Karen in the looks department (in reality, Claire is like a mini-Tim)


Oh, finally cracking a smile Claire?

There we go... all better!


Look, at this point she even let me set her down!!


Now we totally convinced Haley that she needed to drag Olivia through the fountain. Up until this point, Olivia had only ran around the perimeter of the thing. But Haley got her up and through the fountain ;)




Haley herself had zero problems going through the fountain. She wanted me to take some images of her walking through the fountain when it was going full blast




And then... we all held our breath... Claire walked towards the fountain


She actually enjoyed herself (somewhat) when Haley carried her through the fountain




And we'll leave on an image of Olivia's standard pose by the fountain


Butt sticking out so only it, her hands and her feet get wet


Here's hoping lots and lots of images can (slightly) make up for my lack of blogging of late. Happy Summer!!