So one thing I love about children’s portraiture (and my clients specifically) is they come back year after year. I LOVE getting to know a family better with each year and each session. The time spent together unfolds easier each time as the children get to know be better. This year, Trey turned two and we had such a great time at his photo session! Normally, I’m a little hesitant to bring a two year old into the studio because they just need lots of space…and the studio can be rather confining. But I was excited to see how it went in my new studio and I know Trey is a pretty mellow dude. I love it when parents bring in toys they know their children love. Trey brought along his truck (which I immediately called his bike and by the end of the session none of us knew what to call it anymore!)

I love how he’s using his toes to help hold up this classic children’s book

When we finished up at the studio, we headed over to the FlatBranch park sprayground for a little fun in the sun. Scroll down and see why I said, “I’ll never work again in this town!” after this session. Congrats to Trey’s parents! The first grown-ups I have convinced to get into the water too! Look out parents!

p.s. I think we all had a great time!

People just can’t get enough of Miss Delia Mae. To satisfy the masses, here are a handful of images I made on Tuesday afternoon.

This morning I looked outside my studio window and I saw this guy cleaning the windows at the bank across the street. It seemed a pretty scary situation, but I guess these guys are fearless. This reminds me I have a plan to start making images daily of what happens on my corner-9th and Broadway. There’s always something going on down there! Check back and see what I capture next!

This morning I had the pleasure of photographing my friends, Ardith and Ryan’s, little (BIG) boy, Simon. He is the spitting image of his daddy. It’s really uncanny.

Poor guy, he is on vacation, missing his daddy, in a different time zone and TEATHING…

Still, we managed to get a handful of great shots. He has an amazing ability to hold his toys with his feet as you’ll see below:

Thanks for bringing Simon by, Ardith! It was fantastic to see you and to finally meet this guy! What a cutie, what a sweetie, what a complete and total flirt! He DOES love the ladies!

I swear, I did NOT force my children to come to the studio with me yesterday!  It was their idea.  They really WANTED me to take their picture.  For everyone who keeps asking why my OWN children are not featured on the website….here they are!  Joseph is 8.5 and Isaac just turned 4.  (He’s wearing his home-made party hat)

As always, I hope you enjoy!

Delia Mae (my new neice–surrounded by 4 boy cousins) was born 4 minutes before midnight last night, July 11, 2008.  She was 6 lbs, 10 oz and 20 inches long.  Linda and I had the pleasure of having big brothers Emmett and Liam over for a sleep-over last night!  This morning I brought them home to meet their new little sister and, of course, to have her first photo session!  The following are our favorite 16 images from this first batch.

 This is the sign Emmett had us write and put on the front door this morning.

Congratulations Hardy and Debbie! I don’t think we could be any happier or more proud this morning.

So every year I have a blast entering a variety of photography competitions.  One of my favorites is the Black and White (b&w) magazine’s ‘Single Image’ contest.  This is a great magazine marketed to collectors of fine black and white photography.  It has definitely served as an inspiration for me and my work over the years.  They have two contests each year–the single image contest and the portfolio contest.

    Some interesting information about the contest:  Last year 830 photographers from around the world entered.  There were roughly 5,500 images submitted and these were narrowed down to 200 winning images.

  Both years I have entered, I have been honored to receive a merit award for one of my images submitted.

 This year I thought I’d give you a preview of the images I’ve submitted for consideration.  It’s a long process on this contest–The entries are due the beginning of June and the awards are announced in mid October.  I love the process of going through images and deciding on what I’ll enter.  For this particular contest, there is no limit to the number of entries, but there is an entry fee per image.  I try to keep my entry to under 10 images.   Enjoy! ,br>
This first image is titled:  ”Dakota” and is from the first session in my new studio

  These next two are quite special to me–they are entitled “Flakey’s Funeral 1″  and “Flakey’s Funeral 2″  This past fall we lost our good old cat Flakey to a variety of diseases.  It was an emotional time for all of us and I was grateful my family understood my need to process this through my lens.

“New Beginnings”  — For Christmas this year, I bought myself a toy camera–a replica of the cult classic ‘Diana‘ What fun!  This is from my first roll of film and is a shot of the new retaining wall built behind the new Jimmy Johns on West Broadway.

   ”Respect for H.S.” is an image I have tried to emulate for a number of years.  I think I finally got it with this one.  The first copy of B&W magazine I received was a Christmas gift and it had an image similar to this on the cover.  Howard Schatz is the amazingly talented photographer I’m trying to copy here.  In fact, the first year I entered the single image contest, Howard Schatz won the gold award for the category I placed in as well and I was just so honored to be considered among the same pages as him.

   ’Separation Anxiety’   One of my favorite birth pictures

‘Two Hours’ is another birth picture that just had something about it I fell in love with.  I love the light, the huge yawn, the little fist in the corner…

 And finally, ‘Three Goats’.  I took this while doing a family portrait session at Goatsbeard Farm (BTW, if you’ve never had their cheese…you have GOT to go to farmers market, Hy-Vee or the Root Cellar and try some!  It is a little piece of heaven produced right here in mid-mo!)  I knew as soon as I snapped it I would be entering this image into the contest.

This question has come up a few times lately in family sessions with children who are over the age of two.  It seems everyone has already been trained by this age to “say cheese” when a camera shows up.  I playfully mention they must not have read my blog yet!

   I guess looking into the camera and saying cheese or anything else, really….it just doesn’t capture who we really are.    

I always try to talk to parents ahead of time and let them know not to worry about trying to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time.

 I let them know I don’t really care if the children look at me at all.  Eventually, they do end up looking at me…I’m pretty funny sometimes.     

Mostly I like to spend some time getting to know the kids I’m working with until they trust me enough to look at me or to play around a bit with me.

Ultimately, I want the experience to be a good one for everyone–especially the children.

    I recently heard of a dad who chose not to come to the session with me because of his childhood memories of his family’s portrait sessions.  wow.   

This is my goal–to create a generation of children who grow up loving the memories of their family portrait sessions. 

I’ve found that the families I photograph year after year are building these kinds of memories and relationships with me.  Every year their images seem to get better as the children and I build on our relationship.   

Okay, so I got a little off track there….   

 I certainly don’t walk around showing my teeth with a static smile on my face….I’m sure you don’t either.  

So please, don’t say {cheese}!    

Hang out, give kisses, tell secrets, tell jokes, talk about stinky underwear (Thanks for that one, Tim!  evidently it’s from the Chipmunks movie), blow bubbles, eat cookies, eat ice cream, play in the fountain, hide jelly beans in funny places (images coming from that one soon!)….anything but look at me saying {cheese}. 

 Here’s an example of “look at Stacie and Say Cheese”

    And a few examples of just hanging out:   

I know, I know…it almost seems cliche to have a family portrait session at Shelter Gardens…but there’s a reason all those photographers are there jockeying for position nearly every evening.  Sometimes everything just falls into place - perfect light, perfect white dresses, plenty of bug spray, and Voila!  A really fun and magical photo session.  I’ve known these girls since the youngest was 5 weeks old.  One great thing about being a children’s photographer is getting to see the children grow up!     After we finished up at Shelter Garden, we hopped in our cars and drove to the small sprayground at FlatBranch park.  WOW!  The light was fantastic and the girls had a BLAST playing in the water.  I now want to end all photo sessions this way!  (Thanks to silverbox photographers for the great idea!)     

What was it about this 5 month old that made me fall in love with him? (enough to think ever so briefly about having more children…)

 Was it his instant smile? 

   His jowly cheeks?

   His gorgeous smiling blue eyes?

   Maybe it was that hint of red hair that reminds me of my own baby (who just turned 4 {aaack!} last week)?

   Perhaps his ability to discreetly cover himself during his nude shoot?  Or the fact that he didn’t pee or poop on the backdrop?  (which, mind you, is NOT a big deal in this studio…it’s certainly more the norm to be peed on than not when you’re working with naked babies!)

   Well, whatever it was….I just fell for this guy (I like his mommy, too!).  The feeling seems to have been somewhat mutual….I’ll include this email testimonial I received from his mom days after receiving their cd of images.

 ”You are not just getting your pictures taken.  You, and whoever is lucky enough to be with you, get to participate in the creation of art!  Stacie creates a calmand fun atmosphere where she actually captures the very essence of your child (Ethan has about 50 faces and really she brought out every one).  As students we almost let the cost scare us off but I am so glad that we begged all of our family members to pitch in, and after the session I could not help but feel that Stacie did not charge enough.  There is no clock card punched when you walk into her studio - you are just there for however long it takes - and you can tell that she takes her time going through each image (cropping and transforming). She will even help you out after you get your pictures if you want to play with any of them.  If you are thinking about capturing a moment in time with you and your family this is an investment you can not pass up, why pay less and be disappointed when with Stacie the only problem you will have is deciding which pictures you want to frame =)” 

Thanks Karen! -stacie

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