My friend Andrea [and her husband Jerry] have the two most beautiful little girls!  Taylor is such a sweetheart…before we started our session she brought me a beautiful drawing of a princess with hearts.  Pixie is also such a cutie!  Even though their were some fussiness and a little bit of attitude (not much really…just a tiny bit) during the session, I have found that my approach while photographing children is patience.  I have been enjoying photographing kids as kids…smiles, then a little jaunt, then some grouchiness, then some more smiles, then some candy, then some more ideas, then some “let’s go”, and then to end it all usually a little “but I don’t want to leave!”  I think this is the approach I will keep using during children sessions as it seems to work best with the comfort level of most children.  Andrea – thank you so much for bringing you beautiful girls to my studio!  I can’t wait to see them again very soon!

Where should I start…there are so many things I could say about my little brother and sister.  To start, I love them dearly and worry about the day when I don’t get to spend as much time with them as I do now (no, I’m not just saying that because they are my biggest fans).  Rachel is always reading my blog, looking at my pictures and critiquing my work.  She even wrote me a few poems to feature with my upcoming posts, the first of which is written below.  Jacob is my little brother who reminds me very much of myself.  His brain is full of facts and he loves to ask questions like when am I getting a studio and what city will it be in or what new camera am I going to get next…he is even so generous he has offered to borrow me his own money to buy my equipment.  Nice guy!

We had planned on getting there pictures done early December but with everything going on we did them just before Christmas.  It was so hard to find time in our schedules (with daylight, of course) that we ended up taking the pictures just as the sun was coming up…early!  And as Jake said, ” Do you have any idea what time I was up ’til last night? Like 11 PM!”  I asked if he wanted me to let him go back to bed and he shrugged me off.  I don’t play favorites with them, but I needed to explain my reasoning of why there are so many images of Rachel and not that many of Jake.  He decided to take a break until we were almost done shooting.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and enjoys our [severe] Minnesota snow.  It wouldn’t be the holidays without it.