We so lucked out on the weather for our mid-November photo session. With sunny skies and temps in the upper 60′s, the Moses family and I hit Lighthouse Beach in Evanston to capture their family. The kids posed and smiled on cue, patiently waiting for the promised romp on the beach at the end of our session. And after all the little ones I shot this fall, I have to admit that I really enjoyed working with older kids who listened and followed instructions. It kinda shocked me at first when they did what I wanted the first time I asked. The Moses kids made my job so easy and we had a blast. Thanks guys for such a fun session!

Sweet and sassy Miss A turned two – seems like it was just yesterday we did her one year session. My favorite part of the session was when she started calling me “lady”. “Hey Lady, come over here…hey lady, watch this” As you see, she is a little princess into proper tea service so it seemed only fitting that she referred to me as a lady…

Yep, another gorgeous family I had the pleasure of capturing! Not only are the Quick boys absolutely adorable, they were such well behaved little troopers that patiently went along with my posing requests. They made my job so easy, and a ton of fun. I have to thank Nicole for introducing me to Elawa Farms, the picturesque location for this shoot – I’m definitely keeping it in my repertoire. This is one of those shoots that produced so many beautiful images that it was hard to narrow them down, here are just s few of many…

I absolutely love the image below – he is so proud to be a big boy standing up with his brothers! The way the two older boys are holding his hands just makes me know that they will always protect and help their little brother – melts my heart…

previous post: fun family portraits 

While finishing up Everly’s first year with her one year portraits, we took the opportunity to get some family shots too. Such a cute family, right?!

next post: fall family portraits at elawa farm

previous post: Everly’s first year

Oh the Gribble family – I just love them! I’ve had the pleasure of photographing them since their oldest Charlie was just a tiny little guy and have so enjoyed watching him grow and change (to see last year’s session, click here). I started with him as a little, smiley chunky monkey and now he’s three and posing in his driving mocs with his hand in his pocket for me – it’s crazy how quickly they grow up. Charlie is even more mature now that he’s a big brother to sweet little Leo. It’s only been a few months since Leo’s arrival from China and it’s like he’s always been a part of the family. It was really sweet to watch the two boys together – Charlie protective of Leo and Leo idolizing Charlie. These two boys will have quite the life together filled with love, laughter and adventure.

March has been busy! I again participated in Janie & Jack’s in-store portrait promotion, doing not one but TWO stores for the spring promotion – Orland Square and Northbrook.

Four days shooting anything can be tiring, but four days of photographing little ones was exhausting. A ton of fun, but exhausting. For eight hours a day I danced, sang, mooed and fake farted in an attempt to keep these kids attention.  I needed them to sit relatively still and smile, but right where the light was optimal on my white backdrop. And that sweet space of light on a studio set up is all of about 2 feet. Some kids did this no problem, but many had a hard time, not wanting anything to do with sitting still.

The fun comes in figuring out what works for different kids. After two and half years of capturing little ones of all ages, I have developed a pretty good repertoire of attention gaining and interest retaining tricks. Some kids didn’t require any, some took up my whole arsenal of stunts and then some. I had several parents who thought their session was a complete diaster because their child was not in the cooperating mood, but I assured them that I always manage to get a few shots. At the viewing and sales appointments, I had a couple of parents who were absolutely blown away but what we managed to get after such a challenging shoot. I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction from amazing parents with beautiful images of their children that they will treasure for a lifetime – love it!

I met so many beautiful kids and wonderful parents over my four days – I truly enjoyed (most ) every exhausting moment. Here are some of my favorite images ~ be ready for some extreme cuteness…