I met this baby girl at a wedding recently and had the opportunity to capture her one year portraits as well. The title says it all. She has the best cheeks ever! Such a cutie and a great sport as long as there was “Pirate Booty” — a fun kids snack– hidden in strategic locations.

My favorite shot is the one of her looking studious reading the book she brought along to play with.

I had the pleasure of photographing this little girl before she was even born when we captured her mother’s maternity session. A few weeks later she surprised her parents with an early arrival!  She chose to make her entrance into this world during the middle of an important football game and to commemorate the occasion her parents brought along some team spirit to to use for props (both teams!).

Happy Birthday sweet baby!

Twelve days old!  I can’t even imagine how shocking life is when you’ve only been alive for a few days.  This little man was a real trooper.  He tried very hard to keep one eye on me at all times!  I have several shots of him with just the one eye opened!  He finally drifted off to sleep after at least a good hour of fighting and snuggled in for some cozy shots.  Too sweet.

I had another chance to try out some new posing and lighting techniques for newborns. This little guy was a super happy camper. No wimpering. No crying. In fact he was totally into it whenever the lights fired off! Who knew. He even let us put him in a moses basket just for the heck of it!

One of the great opportunities of being down south, is the chance to attend all the workshops, seminars and photography events that I can muster in one year.  The first progam I attended was Sandy Puc’s “Bellies and Babies” Tour. Sandy is an extraordinary photographer who has been photographing children for what sounds like at least two decades. Her work is beautiful and dreamy and she provided those of us in the audience a glimpse into her techniques and workflow.

One of the areas she really worked into a science is the art of photographing a newborn. Getting great photographs of the baby or the baby with her mother can actually be fostered through a quick run of a handfull of poses.

In the past I would just sit and watch to see what would happen or I tended to wait until babies were about 3 months old. After seeing Sandy at work and incorporating her poses and techniques, I felt much more prepared for the unknowns of the newborn! For the first attempt with my new found arsenal, I enlisted the help of a local mom and her little girl, Kallyn, to do some modeling for me.  Thank you for your patience and allowing me the opportunity to photograph your beautiful baby girl!