Baby S is both joyful and a joy to know. He is curious, charming, and smart.

S’s name means “smile,” and he was always full of smiles whenever I came to visit. When I arrived at our portrait session, Baby S had just woken up. He greeted me with beaming smiles and laughter. His mom and dad had told me during our consultation that this is how they are greeted everyday when Baby S wakes up from his naps. How lucky they are! How cute are his two front teeth??

Mom told me how she loved all his little details—how his toes curled, how he held things with his fingers, his curly hair, how he smiled and frowned. These were some of the details that I made sure to capture during our session.

I was so touched by Mom and Dad’s dedication to their son. They told me how they so much enjoyed playing with Baby S. Baby S hasn’t learned to walk, yet, so they spend a lot of their playtime crawling around the house.

Dad loves the time he has with Baby S, and they are so eager to see each other when Dad comes home from work. Mom and Baby S wait on the stairs by the door for Dad to come home.

This is the smiling face that greets him!

I love how, in lifestyle photography, we can capture the beauty of everyday life. A baby’s life is about finding joy the simple things, such as a bath and playing with water. The way his hair curls and sticks up melts my heart.

I loooove this image of Baby S nursing and sharing a quiet moment with Mom. There’s no closer bond between baby and parent. Breastfeeding is beautiful, nurturing, and natural and is never something that should be hidden away.

Our session was an adventure, not only at home, but outside, too. We found the beautiful Concannon Vineyard to spend the afternoon.

Baby S is adorable in all his shortness. His tip-toes just barely touch the ground as Mom and Dad help him learn to walk.

The peaceful, happy images that portrait photographers show of babies and children can be a little misleading in the sense that we might think that only the most well-behaved kids produce good images. Quite the opposite. All kids have their moments of frustration and tiredness. Young babies have a lot of them. But, I’m happy to provide break-time to my portrait families to recover from these moments of frustration. I also love capturing some of those grumpy expressions. They are a part of our personalities just as much as the happy expressions.

Patience also pays off, resulting in images that make my heart skip a beat. I love how dramatic this family portrait is. Can you imagine this as a large wall portrait?

What a cutie!

My heartfelt thanks to the S. Family for sharing your family time with me! It was an honor and a privelege!

As you might know from my previous post, that I’ve been adding voice-overs and video clips to my still photography to create portrait fusion slideshows.

I’m smitten by the results.

I love how mom’s or dad’s thoughts can be preserved for the future. When Baby J. is all grown up, he might not remember very much about being baby. Who does? I barely remember anything before age 3. But he can have a little token of the love he experienced. This is even a fabulous memento for mom and dad, because let’s face it—it’s hard to get around to recording all the little details about your baby growing up. Did you really fill out all of your baby’s 1 year calendar with all his miletones? I tried for my first baby and got it mostly filled out. I failed miserably for my 2nd and 3rd. I meant to write down all those neat, cute, funny, amazing things they did. I really meant to! I never got around to it, because life just got in the way. I can never reclaim those moments. How cool would it have been to have something like this?

Enjoy!

It was also a treat for us to take pictures of each other and our kids. We moms (photographer and non-photographer alike) are so often behind the camera and rarely in front of the camera. It’s a shame that even though we spend so much time with our kids, there aren’t more pictures of us with the kids.

Here’s Ajira’s little boy, Chesaweh. Despite his blue eyes and blond hair, he is the spitting image of his mom. And oh, do his blue eyes sparkle! Chesaweh was putting everything in his mouth! Yum, wood!

I’m a sucker for baby lashes.

Chesaweh had gotten hurt and started crying.

This is what Ajira calls, “the lip.” Heart-breaking, isn’t it?

Mom makes it all better.

If there were just one thing that I could tell you about Ajira, it would be that she is such a compassionate woman. When we were checking out a little cafe as a pit stop, there was another mother who came rushing out with a crying baby. The woman was frazzled and upset and desperately trying to calm her baby. Ajira’s heart clearly went out to this woman, who was a complete stranger! I could see that Ajira wanted so much to reach out and help.

Here’s a serious portrait of Ajira.

In reality, most of the time was spent like this. We laughed a lot.

Thanks for hanging out with me. We must do it again soon!

Big sister Ava loves being a princess. She knew plenty of princess moves, including the very important turning-daddy-into-a-frog move. And how gorgeous is her hair??

Little sister Audrey was such a friendly, happy baby during our session. I don’t believe I’ve ever met a happier baby. I put my hand out to greet her for the first time, and she immediately reached out to pat my hand. Audrey is just beginning to learn to crawl. She was fascinated by all the things on the ground, but she was never too, too busy to beam smiles all around.

Dad provided excellent airplane rides. What more could a baby need?

I just love this image below. We took a little moment to photograph mom and dad. Isn’t it adorable how the kids are in their own little world, and Ava is so tenderly caring for Audrey?

Thank you so much to Ava and Audrey’s family for spending time with me. I had so much fun!