Aiden and Dylan's mom, Erica wanted some new photos of her boys for their portfolios, so we met at the park and got creative with finding ways to get the boys together to smile. I would say we rose to the challenge!
Luke’s 2nd Birthday at the Beach
Luke's mom and I had been emailing back and forth about whether or not she'd wanted me to capture Luke's birthday, and I'm so glad she changed her mind to yes at the last minute. They are a beautiful family, and are really kind, calm, sweet, friendly, and chill. Getting there, I had been stressed with other stuff I had going on, but their calm energy is contagious, and I felt much better leaving than coming. Thanks for having me, guys! If you ever want to hang out, call me. Seriously, you are that cool!
Lucas’ First Photo Shoot
It was right after this little guy's bris that I decided to take my photography to the public, and I've been friends with his mama since we were in Elementary school, so it was especially exciting to shoot Lucas with his family. He's grown so much since his 8th day! He was too busy studying his surroundings to smile much, but I was definitely able to capture the closeness and love in this family.
So You by Erica Sue with Sew You by Erica Sue: Curious George and The Man with the Yellow Hat
I like to make my kids’ Halloween costumes, b/c then we get to be creative and make what we can’t buy, and we also get to choose the materials. The store-bought polyester is such a sweat factory, and when I make costumes, I choose a lighter weight cotton as much as possible. I also like to do theme costumes. Here are some from the past few years. Two years ago, we dressed as characters from Phineas and Ferb. This is the project I bought my sewing machine for! We even got my parents involved as Phineas and Candice’s mom and Doofenshmirtz. Last year, little one and I were The Cat in the Hat and Sam I Am, and big one was Harry Potter. Since they also get to wear their costumes in a storybook parade at school, we stuck with the storybook theme. Little one loves Curious George, so he has the whole family hooked. Naturally, we choose Curious George and The Man with the Yellow Hat.
There are a ton of creative people out there, and patterns, so I started with some of their inspiration and guidance. I got Butterick B3238 for my monkey’s head piece, and McCalls M4951 for The Man with the Yellow Hat’s boots. For The Man with the Yellow Hat, we had a white shirt we didn’t need and I got a pair of light khaki pants at Goodwill when school started, that we were lucky enough to find in his size, and I dyed these with yellow dye from Wal-Mart following this method from danamadeit.
For The Man’s Hat, I loosely followed this tutorial from Melly Sews. My yellow felt was flimsier than felt usually is, so I had to use a craft weight interfacing, and on the brim, I didn’t turn anything inside out since felt doesn’t fray. I just made a sandwich of felt, interfacing, and felt. The Man’s tie was an inexpensive Ebay find, and I painted the dots on with fabric paint.
For Curious George, I used June Tailor printable fabric (purchased at my local Joann’s) to applique the Curious George logo onto an old red shirt, and added sleeves by tracing another faux layered long-sleeved shirt. The pants were made by tracing an existing pair of cotton pants. Instead of making a separate waistband, I folded the fabric over at the top and inserted the elastic that way.
The kids had a great time wearing their costumes to the Halloween event at our local Goldcoast Railroad Museum as well as Trick or Treating. For our Train Museum visit, my original goal was to get to the museum early to get some "golden hour" pics there, but then I would not have gotten these amazing shots right outside of the Lime on Kendall drive, where we had dinner with the family. The boys would have been too busy with the bounce house and the trains, and this railing, although not sexy, turned out to be a great spot for the boys to stop moving for a few minutes and participate in a photo shoot for me! And I love how these images captures that childhood fascination with sitting and climbing on railings. Sometimes, the best plans are the ones we didn't make!
For The Man’s Hat, I loosely followed this tutorial from Melly Sews. My yellow felt was flimsier than felt usually is, so I had to use a craft weight interfacing, and on the brim, I didn’t turn anything inside out since felt doesn’t fray. I just made a sandwich of felt, interfacing, and felt. The Man’s tie was an inexpensive Ebay find, and I painted the dots on with fabric paint.
For Curious George, I used June Tailor printable fabric (purchased at my local Joann’s) to applique the Curious George logo onto an old red shirt, and added sleeves by tracing another faux layered long-sleeved shirt. The pants were made by tracing an existing pair of cotton pants. Instead of making a separate waistband, I folded the fabric over at the top and inserted the elastic that way.
The kids had a great time wearing their costumes to the Halloween event at our local Goldcoast Railroad Museum as well as Trick or Treating. For our Train Museum visit, my original goal was to get to the museum early to get some "golden hour" pics there, but then I would not have gotten these amazing shots right outside of the Lime on Kendall drive, where we had dinner with the family. The boys would have been too busy with the bounce house and the trains, and this railing, although not sexy, turned out to be a great spot for the boys to stop moving for a few minutes and participate in a photo shoot for me! And I love how these images captures that childhood fascination with sitting and climbing on railings. Sometimes, the best plans are the ones we didn't make!
And they are almost 4
Ever since I took my photography public, and became friends with Rebecca, and saw the kind of pictures she posts on Facebook (which all happened in a relatively short timeframe), I knew I wanted to get her in front of my camera. She is extremely photogenic and very willing to try different angles to get that perfect shot. Oh yeah, and she makes it look effortless. And this is the result!
We started talking about doing maternity photos a few weeks back, but mama wasn’t feeling up to it at the time, and promised she would let me know if she felt better. I was pleasantly surprised to get a text from her earlier this week asking if I was up for it this weekend. As luck would have it, I did have a sunset time available, which she agreed to, “if she was still pregnant.” “Why?” I asked. “When are you due?” This mama will be adding to her family any day now, which made it extra special that we were able to capture his appearance pre-appearance!
We started talking about doing maternity photos a few weeks back, but mama wasn’t feeling up to it at the time, and promised she would let me know if she felt better. I was pleasantly surprised to get a text from her earlier this week asking if I was up for it this weekend. As luck would have it, I did have a sunset time available, which she agreed to, “if she was still pregnant.” “Why?” I asked. “When are you due?” This mama will be adding to her family any day now, which made it extra special that we were able to capture his appearance pre-appearance!
