I intended to finish this blog post yesterday, but my sweet little baby had other plans for me. ;-)  But since I've been a terrible blogger this past year (sorry!), I thought I could at least wrap up the year by choosing my personal favorite thirteen photos from 2013.  I got a further boost toward this idea from How to Photograph Your Life's posting of the top 50 fan photos of the day from 2013 (in which I was honored and humbled to have a photo at the #3 spot!)  You can see a video of those amazingly inspiring photos with Nick Kelsh's awesome commentary here.  

It was soooo difficult to choose my top 13!  I had to be very careful not to simply choose the cutest or most lovely people (which would have been impossible anyhow…I don't know how I get so blessed to be photographing such beautiful subjects all the time!).  I tried to focus on the photos that really moved me, personally.  The ones I was proud of capturing.  The ones that tell a story.  So if your gorgeous face or baby is not here, please don't take it personally!  ;-)  I love you all, and it was a fabulous year of photographing!  Thank you so much to all of you who have let me take a small look into your lives with my camera.  It has been an honor!

So here they are…in no particular order.  My favorite photos from 2013!

Dog on sofa.

Yes, a dog made my top thirteen! I just love the colors in this photo. And that the dog was such a great model. Seriously…look at that face! :)

Cuddly kiddos. These sweet boys posed with their sister like this all on their own when I told them to get in close. I just loved the sweetness! And the colors. And the faces. 

I just love the personalities of these girls! This family was so much fun.

That little guy in the foreground. Ohhhh that little guy in the foreground. :)  I love the reality of this photo (photographing large families is always an adventure!). And the excessive bug bokeh is kind of fun, too!

These girls. :) Little sister waiting expectantly for Sleeping Beauty to wake up!

This personality. Love.

I looooove baby feet. And this shot was just fun.

That face. And the fact that this baby was just lounging on a white ottoman looking down at me (with mom nearby, for safety, of course). But that face!

And that face! I just love moody lighting in black and white. And moody babies. And this face. 

I got to photograph so many beautiful mommies with their babies. I loved the lighting of this beautiful mommy with her sweet new baby all snuggled up.

And the colors in this photograph of this beautiful mommy with her beautiful baby…okay, big girl. ;-) But they are always our babies, right, mamas?

Love. I was so blessed to be able to capture so many beautiful interactions between couples and families this year. I love this couple's transparent love for each other.

What else can I say about this one? It was so fun trying to capture this jump! And it was even more fun taking some silhouette shots of the jumping, too. This family was a blast.

I have so many great memories from photo sessions this year!  Thanks again for trusting me with your family's memories.  Much love and many blessings to you all in the coming year!  I hope to see many of your smiling faces again, and many new faces, as well!

Happy New Year!

It is certainly a different kind of challenge photographing one's own newborn. Cranking the space heater while already postpartum-roasting is far from comfortable. Being only nine days out from delivery makes it difficult to get down low and into different positions. Then add in that smash-face-against-wall exhaustion those first few weeks offer, and baby-brain, and it becomes quite difficult to even remember what to do!  I did not get all the shots I intended to (I just ran out of steam!), and some of my experiments didn't quite turn out how I had hoped. But I am still happy with the handful of shots I was able to get just putzing around in my living room!

So here he is, just nine days old. 

Oh, how I love babies. :)

He truly is a lovely baby...and born to an equally gorgeous family, of course!

Glorious.

Baby H. Born 8 pounds 10 ounces 21 inches of pure awesomeness.
I am so blessed to be able to photograph such sweetness!

My website has also had a big makeover this spring, so I hope you have had a look around! I worked with a good friend to have a new logo designed, and I LOVE it!

I will be finishing up my last handful of scheduled photo sessions over the next several weeks before I put myself on maternity leave. I'm hoping to blog many of the photo sessions before the baby arrives, and then I'll do my best not to bombard this blog with too many of my newborn's photos! ;-)

I will announce my return sometime early this fall, along with some possible print packages and pricing. I plan to offer some special mini sessions (holiday card photo, anyone?), as well as some full sessions. If you are interested in a session this fall, please contact me now to get on a waiting list! No commitment needs to be made at this time, but my session times will be very limited this fall, and I don't want you to miss out!

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for a blog post (hopefully later this week!) about the sweetest little newborn baby session!

But first, a note about some changes that will soon be happening around here. ;-)

This May (oooh, it's coming so soon!), I'll be "relaunching" my business and this website. There is a logo in the works, and I'll be making the website more colorful, easier to navigate, and more pleasing to the eye. I also plan to start blogging my shoots on a regular basis! I do this job very very part time (my main job is Mama!), so my goal is to average one shoot a week. My new package rates will reflect my goals, and I look forward to booking spectacular, custom photo shoots with many of you this spring/summer! (You know, if the snow ever actually melts...)

Okay, so here are a few peaks at the awesomely fun shoots I've been doing!

First I was blessed to attend this adorable little guy's first birthday! He is just a doll, isn't he?

His big sis thinks he's pretty awesome, too!

Then I got to go see these lovely, stoic little ladies again.

Documenting little sister's 6 months was so fun!  She's just so adorable. Look at those cheeks! SQUEEEEZE!

And then there was this sweet and handsome little man's themed shoot in preparation for his first birthday party. Oh, the awesome things my clients come up with! The airplane, jacket, and hand-knit hat are all his! And of course that adorable smile...

My most recent shoot was for this sweet little girl's first birthday. Seriously, how adorable is she???

Fun with backlight! She is so pretty!

I have lots of fun shoots in the works for the next couple months, including a mother-daughter shoot this weekend!  Yay!  I can't wait!

Stay tuned! :)

~Kellie

This month's theme is "THANKFUL."  Whatever we are thankful for is fair game for the challenge.

I chose the photo below mostly because I am so thankful for these two men in my life: my son and my husband. I am thankful for the beautiful bond they share, the love they show me, and the blessings I receive daily having them both in my life. I am thankful for the enthusiasm they both have for life, including my son's recent obsession with trains (okay, my husband's a bit obsessed, too! hah!). But this photo also represents another thing I am thankful for: my recent foray into the photography business. This passion for photography started out as a hobby. It slowly expanded to taking photos of and for friends, and to the eventual launch of my business. This photo was one of the very first taken with a telephoto lens I received as a thank you gift for photos I took for a friend. It was such an unexpected blessing, and such an encouragement. For all of these things, this photo makes me abundantly thankful.