AA Photography
is now offering a subscription service via email so you'll be the FIRST
to find out about mini session offerings, giveaways, and special
offers! To win a FREE Spring Lifestyle Family mini session, all you have to do is...
CONTEST RULES:
1) Become a fan of AAP, if you haven't already.
2) Click this link and subscribe to the new e-blast!
2) Share this link on your page. (Every time you share this link, you add an additional entry to win!)
That's it! :)
Preliminary details of the lifestyle mini session: the sessions will
take place at a local farm in Southern Maryland where your family will
be able to freely walk around and interact with the farm animals and
pick strawberries. (I have reached out to a wonderful farm in St.
Mary's County and I'll release those details as soon as I've confirmed
with the farm.) This session is not posed. Instead, I will be
capturing images of your family interacting with each other, picking
strawberries together, interacting with the petting zoo animals while you're creating loving Spring memories. The sessions will be offered in
early-mid May and time slots will be announced soon!
Final
details of the *WINNER* of the FREE spring mini session will be released
through this subscription e-blast, along with more details on the
Spring Lifestyle Family mini sessions. Good luck everyone!!! And
remember, share, share, share!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
So, your family's photography session is coming up and you've dug through everything your family owns and you STILL can't come up with something for them to wear. You want them to look adorable in their photos, but not too stuffy. And you definitely want them to look like themselves.
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| thechildrensplace.com |
Here are a few tips to get the creative juices flowing:
1) Dress in layers. During the colder months, you don't want your little ones with blue lips and chattering teeth. Layering clothing gives images texture and color, and serves an even better purpose with keeping the babes warm.
2) Think pattern/texture. Cable knits, furs, linens, denim. They all have different texture. And each type of fabric photographs differently and picks up or reflects light differently. Don't be afraid to mix and match. You don't want things too matchy-matchy anyway. (Remember those 1990-ish images where everyone's wearing a white shirt and jeans? Stay away from that!) Everyone has their own personality and sense of style. Show it!
3) Don't be afraid of color! Green and yellow go great with deep purples. Red goes well with purple too! Brown and pink. Yellow and grey is super popular these days. Find a piece that you love that has multiple colors in it and use that key piece as inspiration for the rest of your styling. If you have a red scarf you're in love with, then pair that with red pants and a sweater to match, for baby boy.
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| gap.com |
4) Choose timeless pieces. Your images will last forever. After the children have grown and left for college, your photo will remain the same. Trends and fads fade away and are replaced quickly. (Do you ever cringe when you look back on the 80's white washed jeans, shoulder pads, and poofed bangs? I do!) Stay away from Dora the Explorer and Mickey Mouse prints. Solid colors always look great layered with prints of stripes or plaid or gingham. For little girls, tasteful flowers or lace is always beautiful and timeless.
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| gap.com |
5) If you've hit a road block, ask for help. The people who work at the Gap or the Children's Place are always willing to offer up suggestions when you ask. And the clothes they have for kids are ADORABLE and you can almost always find great sales. Walk around the mall and window shop. The mannequins are styled in ways that are perfect for inspiration. Check the web! My Pinterest Board is always being updated with ideas for your sessions.
Hopefully, these ideas will help point you in the right direction! And remember, your family photo session is the best representation of YOU. So don't lose your style in someone elses details. Go with what makes you comfortable and I'll help you showcase it!
Lifestyle photography is quickly taking over the market. Ask any mother who owns a camera (whether they're a 'photographer' or not) and you'll discover that this style of photography has been around for a long, long time! Of course everyone wants to have a few posed shots of everyone looking at the camera and smiling. But lifestyle photography captures your life as it is at this very moment! That's whats so exciting about it!!
Amber and I have been talking about planning a little lifestyle session for her and the kids for about a month. I was really excited when our schedules synced up and we were able to put this idea into action.
It's always an honor to photograph a friend! And it's even more of an honor when she's also a fellow photographer. ;) A couple hours of doing laundry, running around an empty laundromat and pushing the kids around in the little carts was a great way to spend our afternoon.
PHEW!!! With over 400 images to choose from, blogging a post like this was tough. And so many of the images were perfect. So be prepared for a larger-than-normal share. Enjoy!!!
Me: "Ethan. I hardly have any pictures of you! Let's get dressed and head out to take some pictures."
Ethan: *face in the DS - slowly looks up at me* "Moooooom. Do we HAVE to?"
Me: "Yep! Let's get out of this house!"
It took quite a bit of coaxing on my part. He HATES any reason to 'have' to fix his hair. But after several minutes of begging on my part, he complied. I'm glad he did because I captured THESE!
About an hour after leaving the house I sat down to edit them and my mouth dropped open. WHERE did my baby boy go?!?! Seriously! Just last year he was still holding on to some child-like features. And now, even though his shoes are untied, his jeans have holes in the knees, he laughs at talking muffin jokes and farts...he's clearly growing up. And these pictures of him are evidence that I no longer have a baby on my hands. I have a young man! This scares me.
And it also means that I absolutely HAVE to take more pictures of him. As he is. RIGHT. NOW. Because I seriously feel like I blinked, and he was grown.
So far, this Lifestyle Project 52 has started off strong! We're now already into week 3 and freezing time - as it is at this very moment - was the inspiration for this week's entry. Since I've been following my kids around all day long with my camera not too far behind me, I was lucky enough to snap this shot. Thea was playing in her room while I sat in the hallway watching her. She's so little. She's so curious. She's soooo brutally honest! ("Thea, can you give mama kisses?" *Thea violently shakes her head no*) EVERYTHING about her at this very moment makes me want to freeze time, as it is right now.
Within seconds of me capturing this, she looked up just a teeny bit too far and ended up toppling over. Hahaha. She's so funny to watch!
This week I've been working hard (with my little helper, of course) to try to get out from under this huge, growing, massive pile of laundry that seems to be never ending. I usually take the baby into the laundry room with me, sit her down on the floor and begin sorting and loading and drying. Once the washing machine is started and it fills up with water she'll usually start pawing at me and climbing up my legs. She's actually deathly afraid of the washer. But for some reason, this day was different.
I sat her down, started another load and turned away to sort the rest of the laundry. The next thing I know I turn to pick her up and find her with her face pressed against the machine watching the clothes tumbling around. She was hopping up and down excitedly and since this was the first time she wasn't crying for me...I HAD to grab my camera.
I laughed pretty good while I watched her being a little curious.
2012 brought along a ton of challenges. But I'm happy to say that 2013 is here and I'm tired of looking behind me thinking of what I could have done better. This year I've committed myself to participating in two 52 week projects. One of them is a lifestyle project documenting our lives, as they are right in this moment. This project is near and dear to my heart. My family is growing and the years seem to slip past me way too fast. So with the help from Paint the Moon Photography I'll be doing my best to make sure I capture something - at least once a week for a whole year.
This past week's prompt was "nightly rituals". This is my take...
Bath time.
