It’s Family Photo Season in Kansas City — Family Portrait Session in the Park! October 23, 2009

Fall is such a great time for family photos. I love the colors of the trees in this area, which help brighten up the dreary weather we’ve been having this fall. :) We somehow missed the sprinkles right before and right after this session, and I was so happy! My portrait sessions for the year are starting to wind down as the weather gets colder and we all start to stay in our cozy homes for the winter. :)

I really love getting to see families multiple times for portrait sessions. The last time I saw little Carson, he was little and definitely not as fast as he is now! It’s amazing how quickly little ones grow up and how quickly they become very quick. I get some great exercise during sessions with kids around this age, for sure, and it’s so much fun. Here are some of my favorites from our session at the park!

Carson has the biggest, bluest eyes!

His little grin is the cutest!

How cute is this? :)

Thanks so much for asking me to take your family photos again! Have a great fall season!

Kansas City Family Photos: Antioch Park October 20, 2009

Fall is a great time for family portraits. It’s perfect for great colors, beautiful scenery, and just in time for Christmas cards or gifts. :) We have some great parks around Kansas City that provide beautiful backdrops for families who want fall-themed portraits. One of the prettiest right now is Antioch Park, which has about every color of tree all packed in together. It’s really beautiful!

I met up with this beautiful family for an afternoon session at the peak of the fall season — which we all know goes by way too fast here in the midwest. I love the photos we captured of them!

I like to do “matching” photos of individual kids, which make for great collage-style framed prints on walls, partnered with family photos. I try to think about how my clients might want to use their images as pairings after the shoot. Here’s an example — these two boys are so cute! Here’s George:

And his big brother, Hank:

Aren’t their outfits cute? I love the sweaters and matching blue Chucks.

Some more family photos!

This one is too cute. :)

More individual shots of the boys:

I love this one of dad playing with his boys! Having two boys would be quite adventurous. :)

A few more favorites of the entire family:

I love taking photos of moms and dads together, too. Aren’t these two beautiful together?

We also played in the leaves. I love the shot of Hank’s shoes in the leaves.

Thanks so much for asking me to capture your family photos! :)

Family Photos at Shawnee Mission Park October 8, 2009

Shawnee Mission Park is a popular place for photos this time of year — I had two in one week out there! The second was for this cute family. I love photographing children and getting to spend some time with them. Kids just really crack me up, and I love how everything is so neat to them. Especially at the age of this little guy, Connor. At almost 2 years old, the world is one big wonder!

Fall is a great time for family portraits — I especially love the sweaters that come out in the fall. :) Here’s Connor with his parents:

He is just so sweet! Look at those pretty blue eyes and his adorable little smile. :)

I love this one. Connor liked to lead the way. 

He also liked to run to my camera. :)

And then give me one of these looks… :) What a cutie!

How cute is this one? :) It just makes me want to shout, “YAY!!”

We also visited the boats, which was very exciting for a little boy.

And one more with mom and dad… taken right before he stood up and ran for the next awesome thing. :) I love kids. I wish we all had that same sense of adventure after we’re grown-ups. :)

Thanks for asking me to take your family photos! It was a really fun time, and Connor is so sweet. Have a great fall season!

Kansas City Baby Photography: Troy, 9 months old September 1, 2009

I can’t believe how fast babies grow up! I’m sure their parents feel the same way — one day they’re a little newborn baby, and before you know it, they’re headed off to college. :) The last time I saw little Troy, he was just 4 months old. Now he’s just turned 9 months old and I can’t believe how big he is! He was all smiles during our session, which was amazing. 

Here are some photos of our session at the park!

Babies at this age are so exploratory — everything is interesting! :)

I think Troy knows how cute he is… just look at this face. :)

We took some fun photos with Mom and Dad, too.

I absolutely love taking photos of parents interacting with their kids. These are too cute.

These photos marked Troy’s first time sitting in the grass. The grass was VERY interesting. :)

More fun photos with Mom and Dad! :)

And we’ll end on one with a facial expression that just makes me smile so big. What a cute boy! I can’t wait to see how much he changes over the next few months! :)

Operation Love Reunited Session at Loose Park August 14, 2009

I met up with these lovely ladies to do an Operation: Love Reunited session for the deployed soldier in their life (just don’t tell him… the photo shoot is a secret!). I’m so excited to send him an album of photos of his girls. We met up at Loose Park for a session on a very warm August night. :)

See how gorgeous they all are?

I always take a variety of group shots and individual portraits of family members for OpLove sessions. I imagine that deployed soldiers love to have a variety of photos with everyone in them, and good close-ups of the faces they love. :)

I love capturing smiles and giggles and happy faces to brighten the soldiers’ days.

It was so great to meet you. Thanks for asking me to take photos of your family to send a little piece of home to your soldier while he’s away. :)

 

The photos and other content of this publication do not imply any endorsement or recommendation by the Department of Defense.

6 Months Old: Olivia in Manhattan August 10, 2009

We got to see little Olivia again this past weekend. You might remember her from her 6-week session earlier this year. She now almost 6 MONTHS old… I can’t believe how big — and adorable — she’s gotten over the past several months! Babies just grow up so fast.

We went for a visit and also brought along our “son” (Petey) who Olivia was extremely interested in… Petey, being the good boy that he is, was very patient. :) It’s a good sign for the Short (notice the capitalization of the word) children in our future… sometime way, way in the future. Well, unless we keep hanging out with adorable babies like we have lately. :)

Anyway… Miss Olivia Belle charmed us with her smiles. She is too cute.

On her mom’s lap:

What a sweetie.

I took all of these photos in one little corner of their couch in the living room. Proof that the location doesn’t always matter for adorable photos. :) Keep it simple… that’s my motto. Simplicity is key.

Favorite!

No, wait, maybe this is my favorite. 

I think I said, “awwwww!!!” more times during the creation of this blog post than any other time in my life. :)

Seriously, that profile kills me with its cuteness.

Baby feet!

Olivia loves her rubber ducky:

After all those smiles, I’ll leave you with “the serious face.” :)

Oh, she just melts my already super-soft heart… :)

Tucker’s 6 month baby portraits at Shawnee Mission Park July 3, 2009

You  might remember this little guy from the portraits we took when he was just one month old. His daddy was deployed during that time, and his mom got in touch with me to do an Operation: Love Reunited session. Well, I’m so glad to report that his dad is back safe and sound and I got to see the whole family for Tucker’s six month portraits! :) I can’t believe how much he’s grown!

We met up at the park for this session. Check out Tucker’s gorgeous blue eyes! Can you say, heartbreaker?? :)

His parents obviously love him… and he thinks they’re pretty funny:

Those eyes are even gorgeous in black and white!

And he makes the best faces! What a happy boy!

Some family photos:

I love the next two:

Brandi, call me if you ever need a sitter. :) I could stand to play with this cute little guy for a day!

One with dad…

And one with mom…

And let me explain this last one… :) This one’s for grandma. Tucker’s dad wore this exact western outfit when he had 6-month portraits taken… only Tucker’s dad fit into the jeans and boots that went with it. Tucker is a growing boy, so the shirt fit… and the rest, well, didn’t. :) We improvised and came out with this cute shot:

I can’t wait to see you all again at the next session! Have a great 4th of July! :)

Family Photos at Home, Overland Park June 25, 2009

I met up with this family at their Overland Park home. One of my favorite things about photography sessions in my clients’ homes is that I get to capture them doing the things they normally do in a place that’s comfortable, familiar and cozy! It’s especially great for young children to stay in their home environment — because they love to show me their favorite toys (which makes for great photos!). I love how these in-the-home photos turned out!

First of all, this family is just beautiful. Their children have the most gorgeous brown eyes:

Adam showed me around his room, from “his guys” (stuffed animals) to his Pinnochio toy that was his mom’s when she was little!

We did some family photos on the couch, like this one:

And got little miss Kate to sit up all by herself (isn’t she precious?)!

We also went outside, and I got to witness the very first red cherry tomato of the season! Makes me wish I would’ve gotten my tomato plants planted before it was too late… 

We got some family photos in the backyard:

And then headed back inside (out of the extreme heat!) for my favorite portion of the day. These were all taken in the master bedroom, which had beautiful light.

I love this one!

What a sweet girl…

And I love this series of the whole family, and snuggled together!

Thank you so much for inviting me into your home for our photography session! It was such a joy to meet you, and I am excited for you to see the entire gallery of photos! :)

Operation Love Reunited Session at Overland Park Arboretum June 18, 2009

I met up with this family for an Operation: Love Reunited session at the Overland Park Arboretum. They had an adorable baby girl 5 months ago, and her dad is getting ready to leave for a military deployment next week. I was so glad that we could schedule in a session before he is away from home for a year. A big thank you for putting up with 100 degree heat index today… although I think we finished our session in record time. :)

Hopefully these photos will help this soldier take a little piece of home with him overseas.

I love these photos of dad and daughter! :)

And, of course, we had to get some with just mom and dad together. :) I think that’s so important!

What a cute family!

Thanks so much for asking me to take your photos before deployment, and thank you for the sacrifices you make every day (and especially over the next year) for our freedom.

 

The photos and other content of this publication do not imply any endorsement or recommendation by the Department of Defense.

Family Photos at Loose Park, Kansas City June 16, 2009

We are back from HOBY — it was an awesome experience, as always, and I’ll post more about it later! :) We’re trying to get back into the normal routine and play catch-up from all of the things we did right before we left for the conference. If you are waiting on your images, please know that we’re working very hard to get them all out as soon as possible! :)

The night before we left for HOBY, I met up with this adorable family at the park for photos. I don’t know that I’ve had a more smiley little baby boy than Matthew. :) He was so well-behaved and so fun to photograph!

The whole family was just great!

I love this — we have so many awesome photos of everyone smiling into the camera. Matthew is an 8-month-old model, I’m telling you! :)

Such a happy family… I love photos of babies with each of their parents. These are great to have now and in the future, when he grows up!

I love baby facial expressions! Matthew had just so many happy faces! :)

Thanks so much for asking me to take your family photos! :) We’ll definitely have to do it again sometime. And when I have kids, I’ll be asking you for the secret to raising an extremely happy baby. :)