iheartfaces week 13, Dramatic B&W :: Killeen, TX Senior Portrait Photographer

Black and white imagery celebrates a simplicity of color, a high contrast of light and dark. Your subject has to speak for itself without the bold statements of bright colors. Even in the digital age, a dramatic Black and White image can be a challenge. But iheartfaces presented this challenge and who am I to shy away from that?

Come join the fun!

Wind and Fire :: Killeen, TX Senior Portrait Photographer

Senior sessions are among my favorite. Today I got to hang out with a vibrant, beautiful, ambitious woman who has such a definite plan for her life. I have no doubt she will seize all that is offered to her in this world. Throw an infectious and ready smile into the mix and you have one incredible senior. Best of luck to you!

Fingers, cheeks and toes :: Harker Heights, TX Children's Photographer

She's nearly 5 months old. She weighs in the 75th percentile. (Trust me, I knew those cheeks were going to tip the scale.) She is already interested in my food and wolfs down rice cereal with an enthusiasm that leads me to believe she might be a competitive eater one day. When cereal isn't handy, she gnaws on her fingers and sucks her thumb. I was concerned that her girth prevented her from nibbling on her toes, as well, but I was encouraged when I caught her in the act. Either she is very limber or she is whittling away that Buddah belly. Whatever the case, it sure is cute!

iheartfaces week 12, Angles :: Copperas Cove, TX Photographer

So much of photography is conveying to others how you see the world. Do you see repeating patterns? Do you see details? Do you see the big picture? How you see the world subconsciously translates to how you see through your camera's viewfinder. Compelling photography makes the viewer pause a moment, take a second look, ask himself how that shot was achieved. More times than not, the photographer simply photographed the ordinary in an extraordinary way.

iheartfaces is asking us this week to give that pause. Show a face from a different angle. I love photographing young children. Their eyes have no guile, their smiles no reticence. Sometimes, though, it is hard to elicit those pure gleeful smiles with a large camera pointed at them. So I get Mom and Dad involved. Crouch low. Make those quadriceps burn. Capture the love between child and parent.

Head on over to iheartfaces and share!

Quick Smiles :: Killeen, TX Family Photographer

When contacted by another photographer for a photo session of HER family... I always get a little nervous. I mean, goodness, she knows how to do this stuff herself. She will know when I am a bit lost or faking it (and trust me, that happens!). But the good side of working with another photographer is just meeting another creative mind. Someone who knows how hard it is to get four people to cooperate simultaneously. Someone who knows not to get stressed when her daughter doesn't want to sit with the rest of the family. Someone who is open to entertaining whatever crazy idea I throw her family's way.

I was so pleased to work with this beautiful family and see the easy way they interact and enjoy one another. It was, indeed, a great way to start a gorgeous Sunday! Enjoy your peek!

iheartfaces week 10, Jump! :: Killeen, TX Photographer

iheartfaces has me jumpin' for joy this week...or at least the folks I photograph better be jumping! This week's challenge distressed me a bit, for I had a picture in my mind's eye and I wasn't able to execute it. You now, the weekend when I wanted to get my very athletic stepson to jump over me for a really cool shot, he decided to have a ton of homework to tackle. Then it rained. But something triggered in my mind after seeing Karyn Kuniyuki's entry: I have another picture of that same man jumping. He must love to jump. And I have to say, he gets some height!

Whether you have the picture you envisioned or another fun one, come on over to iheartfaces and share your photography!

She and I

The afternoon gets long. 4 o'clock seems to be the longest hour of the day. Not quite dinner time. Past nap time. Daddy is still at work. So I drag the kids outside for an impromptu photo shoot. Something to entertain me as we listen to the seconds tick by. My three year old doesn't want to go. Ah, but I let her use my point and shoot camera and now she is the first one out the door.

I set a sheepskin in the grass, plop the baby on it and settle in the grass to start taking pictures:

I look to my right and what do I see? Mini me, also taking pictures of the baby:

Here is her capture:

She wanders off and snaps some pictures of the grass, the baby's socks, a bush. But she also catches me at work, with some nice sun flare, I might add:

And this is what I was seeing while she was taking pictures of me:

I will have to save this and look back at it when she is a renowned photographer. When folks ask when she started taking pictures, I will say when she was three. Of course.

Like the Loch Ness monster, here is rarely seen footage of me, in my natural habitat. Baby in one arm, taking pictures with one hand, hoping not to shake. Sometimes it works.

Whistles and Trains :: Temple, Texas

Temple, Texas is only 30 minutes up the road. Not so far, really. And I have heard talk of this wonderful, glorious place with old trains, a really awesome playground and train tracks you can walk on without fear of the law chastising you. Or getting hit by a train. It only took me 7 years to get over there and see it for myself. If you have young children, you MUST treat yourself to this little trip! If you have an eye for artistic scenes, you, too, must head on up. You will not be disappointed!

Four Months :: Harker Heights Children's Photographer

Four months have passed since my newest sweet daughter came into the world. How go things for us? I still have not slept through the night and there are times when she wants to eat every two hours. On the nose. Like she is some sort of tiny Mensa member with the ability to follow the atomic clock. These are the nights I wonder how I will survive the next day. Then, when 7 am rolls around and I hear her stir, I go in and say "Good morning, Boobee-do" and I am rewarded with the largest, happiest, gummiest grin known to man and all is forgiven.

She is already wearing 6 month clothes and has surpassed her sister's weight at 6 months. To say she is a chubby baby is putting it mildly. We have to watch for things getting lost in her leg rolls. Her cheeks stop her from holding her head up for long periods of time. We will not struggle to keep pants on her as we did with her sister.

She is contented, amenable, quick to smile when she hears a familiar voice and in love with her play gym hanging animal toys. She has started vocalizing, drooling and gnawing on anything handy. She is a thumb sucking, blankie holding, pacifier hating tiny person. And she is so loved.

Snow! :: Harker Heights Children's Photographer

The long promised pictures of the Blizzard of 2010! Okay, naming it a blizzard might make the folks north of the Mason-Dixon break into hives as they seek to find words adequate to describe the record snowfalls they have endured this year, but three inches of frozen precipitation is worth a mention in Central Texas. Schools closed. Fort Hood closed. There were delays the next day. We were incapacitated by this stuff! But the kids were thrilled as they did the revolving door of in the snow, in the house to get warm, in the snow, in the house to get warm. ALL DAY. Even my husband and I got in on the fun with a snowball fight. My three year old said it was a draw. My husband said he was surprised I could throw so well. For a girl.