Blog Promotion

I am discovering that many folks don't know that can can easily subscribe to my blog by e-mail. Everytime that I update the blog, you will be notified by e-mail. (I am a blog fanatic, and I subscribe to a bunch of blogs by e-mail.) See this box for your e-mail address under the archives? (About right here as of May 27th) ---------------->

(That's where you sign up!)

Anyway... as an incentive to sign up, I am offering half off session fees for anyone who signs up for my blog between now and the end of June. I will e-mail you a coupon that will give you 50% off your June, July, or August session.

So basically, you get $40 free for getting e-mails of cute kids, sometimes in a Tiffany's box, sometimes being held upside down, sometimes pouting... but always, always very cute.

:)

Beth

Water

An old friend of mine recently asked me to take pictures of her two year old. Now, most people dread "the terrible twos", but personally, two year-olds are among my favorite to photograph. So curious... so boisterous... so independent... just hilarious!

So this particular little guy had recently learned to love water. And my goodness, is he ever smart! If he saw a pipe in/near the ground, he said "water". If he saw a puddle, he said "water"... everything was all about water. So you can imagine his face when he saw the fountain..."WATER!!!!". He was so excited.

Mom is pregnant with twins, and was a real trooper... carrying him around - sometimes upside down. ;) She was even a trooper when the little guy discovered throwing the ball into the fountain to create a big splash: all over her. (Gotta' love two year old boys!)

Here are some of my favorites from the session. They definitely require 'narration'... ;)

Enjoy!

Beth

Discovering water in the fountain...


"Water"... (notice the "W")... so cute!

I just sprayed my mom with the ball in the water!!!

Discovering the biggest stick ever....
Classic two year old expression, (all this from this big, mysterious stick...)
Upside down. (This is probably my favorite.)

Hanging out with mom....

Classic two year old "I object" face...

Lollipops

I am fortunate to have many wonderful families that I deal with, and on Saturday one of my favorite families came to visit me for a shoot. They have just had a beautiful little girl (check out her eyes... have you ever seen any so blue???) ...and anyway, they were a ton of fun to photograph.

It's always fun to photograph families - but it's sooo much more fun to photograph children and families who I know and who feel comfortable around me. Most of you know that anything goes with me... but for some reason, most of you don't pick up on that until your second or third visit... ;)

But anyway, we thoroughly explored my collection of lollipops. (What a wonderful invention!) We had big ones and small ones, and the only real dilemma of the day was when mom stole the center (tootsie roll) inside the lollipop - big drama! (Oh to be a toddler again!)

Anyway, here are my favorites from the session.

Enjoy!

Beth

E-mail and Website Issues

This morning I received a call (from England of all places), notifying me that my website was not coming up... and after pondering the situation for a minute, I realized my Blackberry hadn't been beeping non-stop. (Which, I have to admit, was kind of nice!) ;)

At about 2pm, I got a TON of e-mail on my Blackberry (in excess of 50 messages) - so now I know that something was definitely wrong.

If you sent me an e-mail and I have not responded to your message, I think it may have been lost in cyberspace.

Please feel free to call me at 248-425-6008.

Thank you!

Beth

Kids and Keys

On Saturday morning, I had the pleasure of meeting a new family, with a super cute little boy who just turned one. He is just starting to walk, and it's adorable.

He wasn't feeling real well during the shoot, and fortunately, Mom brought Goldfish to cheer him up a bit. However, Mom also brought keys...

To this day, I will never understand kids obsession with keys and cellphones. Want to make a child happy? Give him keys or a cellphone to play with (and just hope he doesn't hit the "talk" button!)

Anyway, here are my favorites from this session...

Enjoy!

Beth




This picture cracks me up! I had his mom doing crazy stuff (I think at this point I asked her to do jumping jacks???)... anyway, when she started, this was the expression I got. Sooooo funny!


Keys... yea!
Keys... yum!
See, I told you - kids like keys!!! ;)

A Mother's Day Gift

Yesterday, I photographed a family I have known for many many years. The daughter is one of my closest friends, and she and her sisters decided to buy a photograph session for their mom for Mother's Day. For that reason, a lot of the session was really focused on Mom, her daughters, and her grandchildren. She was a trooper, and made sure she got pictures with each of the kids...whether they were happy about it or not. She even went on a little expedition for ants with one of her grandsons - all in the name of tricking the little boy into smiling for a picture. It was lots of fun.

Here are some of my favorites from the shoot...

Enjoy!

Beth

Rachel (Take One)

On Saturday, I met Rachel for the first time. Not only is she beautiful, but she is extremely kind and really a lot of fun to be around. (It's my experience that sometimes really beautiful people are not always super kind... but not this girl!)

Rachel is currently a junior in high school (she will be a Senior in the fall) and came to me for High School Senior pictures. About 10 minute into the shoot a terrible thunderstorm started. (Hail, torrential downpours, etc.) So instead of calling the whole thing off, we bailed and went to the studio, where the weather is always a lovely 70 degrees and dry. ;)

We still need to complete the outdoor session, so I'll post those after the session is done.

Here are my favorites from yesterday... Enjoy!

Beth

Head Shots!

Tonight I did some head shots for my good friend who I have known for almost 13 years now... Now, to be honest, I am not a big fan of doing head shots (they are usually pretty boring!)

Head shots are quite a bit different than regular pictures, because you must communicate an image, rather than the actual person you are photographing. The goal of head shots are to communicate to the casting director/art director that your pictures fit within their vision for their creation (whether it be a advertising piece, movie, catalog, etc.) For that reason, its very important to portray many different looks. (And you almost always have to look at the camera. B-O-R-I-N-G!!!!!)

How'd I learn all this stuff, you say? One of my dearest friends in the world, Gina is an actress. ;)

Anyway, here are some of my favorites from today...

Enjoy!

Beth

Okay, so this totally does NOT qualify as headshot material.. but it definitely captures her accurately! :)

Josh and Mary's Engagement Session

Josh and Mary had their Engagement session yesterday night. The sunset was gorgeous, and these two were a lot of fun to shoot.

Josh is a family friend that I have known for years. It's really cool to be able to take pictures of him with his beautiful soon-to-be bride. (I am excited for the wedding in September!)

Here are my favorites from the session...

Enjoy!

Beth