Portrait Photos of My Nieces - Squeaker and Bella

My nieces are the cutest things in the world. Sam (Squeaker) is three and the most articulate person I know. She does not say 'farted,' she is not that impolite; she says, "Excuse me I flatulated." (Considering that is her parents just being awesome, but she says it very clearly.) Ella Bella, the youngest, is always smiley, but she kept turning away from my camera. They were both difficult to catch since Sam was fast and Ella was shy. It was just too much fun running after them all morning.

Now I realize these are all vertical. I have some horizontal but I definitely need to vary my camera angle some more.

Senior and Professional Portrait Photography

I had the express pleasure of photographing two sisters last weekend. One was for her senior portraits and the other was for a professional set for a website. We had a lot of fun changing outfits and climbing through flowers. They are really beautiful young women.

Photo Slideshow of Johnny Duke Perino

Here is a slideshow of the photos I took of Johnny Duke Perino. The music is Anything Like Me by Brad Paisley.

Portraits of My Niece: One Year Ago

Just before my husband and I left to sit in D.C. for a month and then move to Germany, we went to the drag races. I took the opportunity to take my niece's one-year photos. She was just about to walk on her own. (I think she took her first steps just two days after we left.) But she still had those chubby baby cheeks.

She would walk with help, but every time you took your finger away she would just plop down on that Wrangler butt.

Our Mustang (hee hee, my husband will laugh that I said 'our') and my brother-in-law's Camaro in front of it both cooling off between runs.

Chubby baby cheeks, I just want to squeeze them.

Pointing at 'Daddy's Maro' as she calls it now.

Portraits of My Niece

My niece is turning two on the 23rd of this month. So I figured I'd catch up on the photos I took of her during her first year. I'm so jealous that I don't get to do her two-year photos, my friend Cora gets the pleasure of that as well as pregnant belly pics of my sister's second baby.

I really want to try to get into some portrait photography here in Germany. People are my favorite subjects. Buildings are cold and heartless, landscapes are too vast, but people are warm and loving and all so very different.

So onto the photos I took when Sam, or Squeaker, was nine months old.

My sister pregnant with Sam.
Sam when she was 3 months old.
Sam when she was 6 months old.
A slideshow of Sam's first year.

Portraits of My Niece

When my sister was pregnant for the first time I had this dream of being the most awesome aunt, the one that lets you drive fast on your 16th birthday and the one that takes you for drinks on your 21st. I also wanted to have a nickname for my niece. But I didn't want to just pick one, I wanted it to mean something. So just a few days after she was born, she presented it to me. Whenever she was hungry she wouldn't really cry, she would just squeak. Squeaker. I have it on video and everything. Even now when she's two years old, she is quite the squeaky little thing, squeals when she's excited and all. I took photos of her every three months during her first year. Here is the link to the three month photos. And here is the link to the slideshow I made of the whole year. Now I'll post the six month photos. She was sitting on her own but not crawling and certainly becoming very animated!

Portraits of My Sister

I was backing up photos yesterday and happened upon some of my older stuff. I have been wanting to post the portraits I've done, so over the next few weeks I will. I got a lot of practice when my sister was first pregnant and after my niece was born. It makes me sad that I'm missing her second pregnancy, and my niece going from one year to two. These are two of the belly pictures I took for her. We went hiking quite a long ways, and I think she was eight months here, she's a superstar when it comes to being healthy.

The Hair is Dead

I got it cut. My hair is gone. Yay! It's so perfect because it's now getting hot here in Germany and it's lovely to let my neck breath. It's crazy, I think I got the best haircut of my life and I couldn't even communicate with the girl. All I could say was, 'Ich moechte eine neue Frisoer.' (I want a new haircut.) I showed her where, put my hair in a ponytail and had her cut above it...and thirty minutes later I was a whole new person.

I kinda figure you don't want to see the ponytail. It's always kind of gross to me. Like a dead fish or something. So here's the package. And coolest part that I didn't notice until after I was walking out of the salon. The place was called Hair Killer! How apt.

Here's another self portrait I took the same day. (My hubby helped with these since I wanted specific framing and the crazy flying hair.)

I have an extreme passion for books. So this is what you would normally see if you looked into my house any given day. Me with a book and a cup of tea on the couch. Always in between writing and house chores of course.

I Feel Like Cousin IT

I'm done with this hair. It's killing me. Literally. In my sleep at night I find it trying to choke the life out of me. During the day it gets caught on things and causes me so much pain. Either that or it's so static-y it attempts to fly away with me. It's heavy and messy and sooooo long. I'm done I tell you, done. Next chance I get, it's gone. (At least the majority of it will be on its way to Florida for Locks of Love.)

Celebration Give-away and a New Project

I'm really embarrassed to show you these, but I have an explanation. I've never done self-portraits because I've always thought it's a tad selfish and stuck up. I like hiding in the background. But the more I thought about it, two reasons to do self-portraits popped into my mind. One is that I can truly stretch my abilities as a photographer because I have to do them by myself. From idea to execution it is all me. Even the candid moments don't involve someone else. The second reason is that in a way it's not selfish because my family and friends would probably like to have some photos of me. Ones where I'm not in the back of a group or hiding my face from the lens. So there you have it. This is my 100th photo, and the beginning of a self-portrait project.

It's also a contest in celebration of 100 followers and the end of the '100 Photos' project. Please fill in this form to enter. The one thing you have to do to enter the contest is click on the '100 Photos' link at the top of the blog and tell me in the form which of those photos you would choose as an 8x10 for your prize. I'll leave this contest open until March 31. Thanks so much, Followers, for sticking with me this far.

And then came Moriah

And here is the fourth baby, sweet Moriah. Born with the craziest set of hair and the longest legs I've seen. The music is by Jim Brickman.

The Gurley Family

Jud and Bri Gurley and their adorable little ones. This was just before the fourth was born. And my first attempt at portraits of active kids. Geez were they hard to keep up with. They were so great considering it was really cold outside and we kept telling them to take their coats off. One tip, once you get them in position take a million shots because they love to make faces.

My sister's family

I'm going to post the portraits I worked on this year. The first set was the 2 month pictures of my niece, and we decided to do family portraits at the same time. I took these after having a few years away from my camera. So things only got better from here.

My Niece

One week ago my niece turned one year old. It's been a year of adventure and surprise. She is the first grand child on both sides and it has been a blast to watch her grow and learn. I will miss her dearly while in Germany. Especially getting to take photos of her constantly. To document her changes I took pictures of her every three months. So this slideshow goes through her 3rd, 6th, 9th months and her first birthday. The music is by Jim Brickman.

Bryan - Senior Portraits

Be kind, it's my first time. (Eww, that rhymed.)

This is my brother-in-law, weird to think that he's a senior in high school! Sure tells you how young I am though. Here are a few of my favorites. And being a boy he didn't want to do much with it. So we got it done.






Let me know what you think. They are my first senior portraits, and I'm hoping I get to do more.

My Niece

Please enjoy this slide show of my niece's first nine months of life. She is a sweetheart and a very happy baby. We are all very much in love with her. The photos are by me, the music is "Picture This" by Jim Brickman.