Luke on the Bed

Sometimes when I don't have a "project" I start to feel frantic. I love taking photos of Luke, of course, but it does get rather repetitive. There's only so much I can do. Last weekend I was dying for a project of some sorts, so decided to do photos of Luke on our bed. I used it as an opportunity to get in some practice with my new flash! I didn't quite get what I was looking for, so I may try again on some future weekend. I wanted more action shots, and Luke was only interested in trying to climb off the bed. But here are my favorites:






Daddy brought the Alligator from New Orleans, as a gift for Luke. He loves it!




He loves talking on the phone...

Sophie's Cookie Decorating Party

This session was different than any of the sessions I've done yet. I liked it! My colleague Jen, who I did photos for back in November, asked if I would be interested in taking photos at her daughter's cookie decorating party over the weekend. Of course I was interested!

Sophie had 6 of her friends over, and they gathered around the kitchen table to cover cookies in bright colored frosting, sprinkles, and candies. Such a cute idea! I am happy to say I got a lot of cute shots, and had a difficult time picking out the few to share here. Oh, and my watermark is different because I don't have the file I normally use on me right now. I just threw something else together in the meantime.




Sophie, the hostess.






The best part of decorating cookies is eating the cookies, of course!







After the fun with the cookies, the girls bobbed for apples and then played dress up!






They took dress-up time quite seriously.


A princess parade!

In other camera-related news, I purchased an external flash, the Speedlite 430EX II. I was super intimidated by it at first, but now that I've had some practice I can say I LOVE it. I've been experimenting with bounce flash, and am surprised that it is easier than I expected. Who knew you could use a flash and have photos that look like you DIDN'T use a flash?

Brooke

My niece, Brooke, will turn one on February 23rd. She's exactly 5 months younger than Luke. Kinda cool. I took some photos of her last week, and we're going to put a few of them on her birthday invitation! Photographing her presented much of the same difficulties as photographing Colton - what 11 month old wants to sit still and smile for a camera? There are things to explore!

Anywho, it should be fun designing the invitation.

Here are some favs:













In other news, I think I may need to look into getting an external flash. There are too many situtations where the lighting is too low and the subjects too fast (aka speedy children) to go without a flash. I refuse to use the built-in one. Blech.