Remember this baby I’m obsessed with? Here’s more from their session. I don’t have a lot to say on this one that the photos don’t say for themselves. This baby was adorable and fascinated with the camera. I admit I’m posting a lot of the photos that made me laugh as opposed to the “awww” photos, but her expressions are so cute and so full of personality, I couldn’t resist.

This last weekend, I held my first day of mini-sessions in San Antonio. It was a humid, humid day and my legs are covered in bug bites (I’ve counted over 20 on my right leg from the knee down alone!), but I had so much fun meeting a lot of really cool people and some of the happiest babies ever. Seriously, one baby thought my camera was hilarious — wish they all did (but you’ll see her preview another day).

This preview is actually from one 45 minute session if you can believe it! We had a LOT of people and broke up a mini-session into five 10-minute micro-sessions. Here are a few photos from their gallery!

This was, without a doubt, one of the hardest times I’ve had picking and choosing what to show you of their session. And believe it or not, they have many, many more on top of this. I don’t know how they’re going to possibly choose, but it should be fun for them anyway! I know, I’m going to overwhelm you with photos, but I’m telling you, I had trouble narrowing it down this far!

Let’s all just pause though and take a look at how cute they’re dressed. I love the colors and loose coordination! Andrea, you did such a great job choosing your wardrobe, but I knew you would!

I walked away from this session with some battle wounds on my legs, but it was so worth it! I will do anything to try to get a shot the second it’s happening. Sometimes that means jumping into cacti-filled flowerbeds without looking (oh yes, I did), kneeling on rocks, climbing fences and walls, lying on the ground, and running into brush without stopping to think what could possibly be in it. Thank goodness I got my tetanus shot a few weeks ago!

The theme running through this session was snails, in case you can’t tell! I love the family’s interaction around their daughter’s curiosity and interest in collecting and analyzing the different snails she encountered on our walk.

You can see some of their couples shots here.

And perhaps one of my favorite shots of the day…

Oh. My. Goodness. Can I just say, I am incredibly jealous of this family’s photos. You hear that, Ginger? It’s not fair! I absolutely adore all of them for different reasons, including all the ones from Part One that we did indoors. And even better news for them? These aren’t even all of them! They have even more to choose from in their gallery.

Let me take a few minutes to talk about my sessions, something I’m sure I’ll probably say again on this site because they’re just things I feel strongly about. I want to say it here though because they’re all visible in this one shoot.

1 Creativity. Before each of my sessions, I set aside time to brainstorm just for that session. I think and think and think, and I come up with new things for each family. One thing that really sets me apart from a lot of family photographers — even a lot of on-location photographers trying to do what I do — is that I hate using the same location twice. So far, I have yet to do that. I also don’t have a lot of go-to poses I run all of my clients through. I think about your family individually and come up with new ideas just for you. I don’t want any of my clients’ photos to look just like another clients’ photos.

2 Spontaneity. While I spend a lot of time planning for my sessions and show up with ideas in mind, I don’t let that stop me from catching other moments or improvising when external forces aren’t going perfectly, like the weather for the first half of this session. Whether it’s a ladybug crawling on someone’s clothes, a father comforting his daughter after she fell in the creek, a wrestling match between a mother and her son, or kids stopping to check out a dragonfly (below), I don’t want to miss it. It’s all a part of your family’s story, and my goal is to capture a story during our sessions. This is exactly why albums and books are such ideal products for my clients, so they can flip through and see their story — all the details, all the memories, all the laughs we had together during our session.

3 Perfectionism. I am a perfectionist with a capital P. I notice every tiny detail of every one of your photos. I will never forget a conversation I had with one of my clients a few weeks ago after her session. As we were chatting, I asked, “What does your husband do for a living? I was editing out a small tanline on your husband’s face from sunglasses, and while I was doing that I was wondering what his job must be.” The look of surprise on her face was priceless. There have been times I’ve had a family all set up during a session, looked through my camera, noticed something wasn’t right, and said, “Okay, let’s move over here. This isn’t going to work.” Sure, it would be easier to leave everyone there and pretend nothing’s wrong, but I wouldn’t be able to stand it.

While I never think to myself, “I’ll just fix this in Photoshop,” (with the exception of zits and scrapes and things I can’t fix with my camera) I am a perfectionist when I edit my clients’ photos as well. You have no idea how I agonize over every photo. Although it would save me a lot of time, I don’t just run everyone’s photos through standard or purchased Photoshop actions. Each one is scrutinized and dealt with individually.

And it’s pretty much guaranteed that after I post photos here or in your gallery, I’ll go back through, fix something minuscule no one will ever notice but myself or another photographer with an acutely sharp eye, and re-upload it without anyone being the wiser. If it winds up in your final photos, it was meant to be there. I am insanely critical of my own work, which I hope I never lose because it means I get better with every single shoot. The day I find a photographer who’s as much of a perfectionist as I am and remotely in my price range is the day I can actually have family photos taken of us. It’s a blessing and a curse, I suppose.

4 Fun. People always tell me that my clients look like they’re having fun in their photos. That’s because they are. I don’t think most people realize how many technical and creative thoughts are constantly cycling through my brain throughout their entire session for all the laughing and joking and running after children I do. But I also know when to step back and shut up — sometimes I don’t want to interrupt a child playing or a romantic moment. One of my favorite moments from this session was hearing Ginger and Paul say as they were sitting underneath the tree, “This is really relaxing.” How many people describe getting family photos as relaxing?? I considered that mission accomplished.

5 Professionalism. I handle my business very professionally. I provide my clients with luxuries that they won’t get with part-time, on-the-side, cheap photographers. Everything offered and delivered to my clients are of the highest quality, no expenses spared — from my welcome packets to boutique packaging on orders to unparalleled quality of prints and products from professional imaging labs that don’t work with the general public. At the same time, I do not nickel-and-dime my clients with hidden fees that they’ll be surprised by when they receive their invoices. I want my clients to feel spoiled, not only with beautiful final images but with their whole experience working with me as their photographer.

Having said all that, you do not want to miss out on my current giveaway of a photography session, one 8×10 print, and two 5×7 prints. You only have a few days left, and it’s a $250 value! This opportunity really won’t come along too often, so don’t pass this up!

Want some more good news? I’m offering you more opportunities to get your name added into the drawing even if you’re already entered. Write a blog post about me and my photography before noon on Tuesday linking to this post AND the giveaway post and get your name added TWO more times into the drawing. Make sure you leave a comment on this post with a link to your blog post.

This is big one, people. This means that you could potentially have your name entered FOUR times – once for a comment, once for a Facebook link, and two for a blog post linking to this post and the giveaway post. Umm…yeah, that will increase your odds by quite a bit! Good luck! I can’t wait to see who wins!

Well, I just can’t help myself, so you will be seeing more than usual from this session. It was a long time coming (we had to cancel twice due to bad weather), and when I pulled up at our third appointment it was pouring so hard that I had to stop driving on their street because I couldn’t see where I was going. We were determined to wait it out and see if it cleared up though. We are in Texas after all. And I think it was worth the wait! I love the photos we got. This first post is from our waiting-out-the-storm time indoors.

I just have to say, this family was (well, is) so awesome. I love when clients put their total trust in me and just go with my ideas without any hesitation. They gave me free reign of the house, and when I started pulling apart their neatly made bed and setting up in their master bathroom, they totally went for it. I really appreciate their trust and laid-back attitude. As I’m sure you can tell, we really had a good time and so many laughs.

After a few minutes the weather actually did clear up so we headed out. And this family gets even more props for their total enthusiasm and compliance as the park we shot in was soaking wet after a Texas downpour, and, again, they were up for absolutely every idea I threw at them. But you’ll have to wait for the next post to see those photos.

Here’s your teaser for what’s coming up next! Are you excited yet? Because I am!