The "O" Family~kaptured by koren

I had the joy of shooting another family this week. My friend, Ronda, from my MOMS group at church wanted me to get some good family shots for them fro Christmas cards. She came up with a great location that I never would have even thought. It was a new medical clinic in Battleground, WA, and it was perfect. There were great architectural lines to the building, plenty of light, and best of all, it was empty on a Saturday morning. I was nervous because this was the most people I've shot at once, and it was and indoor location. I'm more used to shooting outdoors. Another struggle I had was posing such a large group of people (I know I need much more experience with that). The kids were AWESOME, so well behaved and took direction great. I had to bring my brood along, too, so with trying to keep them in check and trying to think of shots to take, it was a bit harried but I think all in all we got some good pictures. Here's just a few:

I REALLY love this one of them all on the stairs, I just wish the parents in the foreground had been more crisp and clear.

Kids

Today I was able to catch a few shots of my friend, Stacey's, kids while they were over for a playdate. Her son is not one to sit and pose or even turn to me and smile so he was a little tough to catch, but still grabbed some cute ones!

Everyday life

Life is good, I can't complain. I believe I have ALL my Christmas shopping done. Woo hoo! I think all the Christmas parties are done *sigh*, and now we can just kick back and wait for the big day. The kids get off school today for their break and sleeping in is on the docket for me. :) Enjoy the season.

Christmas Stuff

Here's a few pictures from some Christmas stuff we've been doing. I had a Christmas Caring party with some women from my MOMS leadership group. What a great group of women. We just got together, ate some yummy treats and played Catch Phrase. I was also able to have one of the gals, Angela, take a decent picture of Nick and I a couple great ones of Jordan. She's a photographer and helped me with some uses on my camera.

Haworth Family Photo Shoot

I had the privilege and honor of doing my first real photo shoot yesterday with my long time college friend, Aimee, and her husband and daughter. I was nervous and excited all at the same time. God really answered my fervent prayers of NO RAIN. We have been getting poured on lately and for that little bit of time early Sunday morning, not only did we not have any rain but it was warm too. Thank you, God. :) Aimee and I played college volleyball together, I saw her fall in love and get married, we shared in each other's joys of having children, and now she let me join in making family memories. Thank you so much, dear friend, for thinking of me for this, for trusting me to do a job to the best of my abilities and for being pleased with my work. I hope this is the first of many! So....enjoy. My first "real" photo shoot, the Haworth family, Aimee, Brandon and Brooklynn!

Such a sweet, joyful little girl!

Aimee is so great with Brooklynn, they're both beautiful women.

A great loving family!

She LOVES her daddy! And he's a great one, too!

My FAVORITE of Aimee and Brandon!

A Few More...and Opportunity is Knocking

I'm still experiment with my camera, finding angles visual points of interest, learning from those more experienced than myself and continuing to bug my kids to be my models. I'm trying a new photoshop download called Lightroom that a few of my friends have recommended to me. I'm just doing the free trial because it is pricey. I think I still prefer my picnik editing site because I can understand it better and it's much cheaper. :)

Since getting my new camera and posting more pictures some amazing opportunities have come my way. Three of my wonderful friends have "booked" me for photo shoots. And the funny thing is, they are for shoots that I really don't have much experience in: a family of 3, a husband and wife, and a maternity shoot. But it will cause me to grow and learn so much more. I'm so honored and thankful that these friends have trust and faith in me to give me a "shot", so to speak. :) I'm really excited to be stretching my tiny wings.

These are some shots from my upgraded picnik editing. I also have more collage options as well which I like putting together.

And here are some Lightroom edits. I really like some of their features.

Pictures with Daddy

Since getting my new camera and posting some pictures, I've gotten a lot of feedback from friends and family. I even have my first "photo session" with a friend of mine and her husband. Unfortunately, I'm used to shooting adults or really people other than my family. So, lucky Nick, he got to be my "big kid" test dummy. It's hard. I'm used to telling my kids what to do and they don't really care, but adults are a bit more inhibited. Uh, oh, now I'm nervous.

Anyway, I took him and the girls out and tried to grab a few shots of them funning around. Here are my attempts.