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A Boudoir Portrait Share

I usually share these on the Fig Leaf Studio blog, but I wanted to share over here because I think many of you may not subscribe over there.

This is from a session I got to do on Saturday.

I like to start out a session with some “beauty shots” - close-ups of the face. This helps us to ease into the session, as clients are typically nervous having boudoir portraits made.

I *love* the fake lashes - I think they add so much to the shots! I’m even hoping to wear some myself one day! I think they’d make me feel like a movie star. What do YOU think?

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Doing My Son A Favor

I have a bunch of things to do to prepare for upcoming sessions (YAY!), and posts to write both here and Fig Leaf Studio, so I was hesitant to do this.

But my oldest son begged me.

And because I can use this to my benefit (getting him to sit for me when I want to practice ), I’m doing him a favor.

B. is a huge fan of ROBLOX, an online place for kids of all ages to create characters and build places. He describes it as “a really fun multiplayer game”. They have a new “Ambassador Program”, which allows them to earn more “tickets” which members can then spend to purchase clothing and accessories and such for their characters.

Sooo, I’m helping him to earn more by posting the links here. Whether you click on it or not, he’ll get 2 more tickets a day.

I am warning you, ladies (since most of you *are* women)… don’t introduce this to your husbands!. Unless you want to give him something to do while you watch a chick flick, or better yet, while you peruse Fig Leaf Studio without giving him a heads-up about your secret plans to have boudoir portraits made.

*As this post can be construed to be a bit sexist, I just wanted to warn you to be careful, too. I’ve only heard of men falling in love with playing at Roblox (and children of both genders), but I’m sure there are many women who enjoy it just as much. I’m just not one of them.

** Roblox admin: The links are here a couple of times! However, I changed some of the wording to make the post applicable to the blog. Here’s the official link for you, in case you need it to be EXACTLY as you have it.

Free Games at ROBLOX. Check out what I have been building lately!

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Fun Things To Do With Your Photos

I’m behind on posting - I have an administrative post to make and a green product review to post (and that doesn’t include the things I need to post at Fig Leaf Studio), but I wanted to share these fun sites before the weekend, so that you can play with your photos when it’s cold & windy out .

This first thing is something that a many photo editing software programs can do, but it’s made super easy by being able to do these online. Plus, it goes beyond what many editing software programs can do, unless you want to spend a lot of time in those programs.

BeFunky.com is free and easy to use, and really just super cool! You don’t even have to register, which I really appreciate (it saves time not having to do so, and sometimes you just wonder what they’re going to do with your information).

Here’s a photo I made of A. the other day - he was being so patient and tolerant of me as photographer, but pouted for one second wondering when I’d be done. I loved the photo I got!

Here’s what I got when I used “inkify” at BeFunky

Pretty cool, eh?!! It’s totally befitting of the photo.

There are a bunch of fun options, and I know my kids and I will have fun turning them into comics and such.

Okay, if you thought *that* was cool, you’ve got to see this next thing. Even if you have photo editing software of the highest caliber, you are unlikely to be able to do this, at least without a lot of skill and time.

Isn’t that amazing? It is to me, especially that it took me less than 5 minutes and about as many clicks of my mouse to create that heart collage! I just selected all the photos in a file - didn’t even have to add them one by one (there are 35 there), selected the heart shape (it’s perfect for sweet little L., isn’t it?), and a few seconds later it was done.

Wanna do it yourself? Of course you do! Head over to Shape Collage to download the software. Not only do they have fun templates for you to use, you can create your own.

I can imagine so many fun uses for these applications: personal blogs, avatars, sharing with friends and family, even using them for your Facebook profile or Twitter avatar and such! Since you can do letters and words, you could do your child’s first initial or their name and fill it with photos of that child. If you’ve got a child learning their alphabet, you could fill a letter of the alphabet with photos of things starting with that letter…

If you use it and post online, I would love for you to post the link in my comments (or at least sent to me personally) so I can see the amazing things you’re doing with these.

Have a wonderful - and warm - weekend!

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Little Bird Little Bird

This little guy was passed the usual “sleepy newborn” stage that most child photographers prefer to photograph newborns in (usually within the first 10 days), but he was my sleepiest and most cooperative newborn yet!

I just couldn’t get over how peaceful he was!

How willing he was to just lay where he was set and sleep. Or at least *really* relax.

I don’t think I heard a peep out of him after his initial disrobing.

Once he was full on momma’s milk, he was a happy guy.

Ready to stretch out and take a long nap.

Eden, I’m so glad we were able to get these done! Thank you, big sister L. and little 16 day old L. for allowing me to capture these sweet, sleepy moments.

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My Boys’ Birthday Portraits

I started the tradition of creating birthday portraits for my kids last year. Yesterday and today was my oldest and my youngest sons’ birthdays, so we went out for a session today while my daughter was at a birthday party “just for girls”.

I thought the light was perfect for our session - cloudy, yet bright. That was fine during A.’s session, but as soon as we started B.’s session (10 minutes later), the sun came out.

As soon as we were done, however, it started snowing. I was wishing it had started during the session; I thought that would’ve been fun!

However, by the time we got home it was snowing hard - huge, heavy, wet snowflakes! Less than an hour later, it had stopped and the sun was shining again.

B. has such a hard time looking at the camera. It’s as though it’s the sun shining right in his eyes! We had to play a few games to get any with him looking at me *and* having his eyes open enough to look normal.

Oh, and he found a $1 bill right when we got to our location. It was like a birthday present from God/Universe/Whateveryoucallyoursource!

Happy Birthday, my babies.

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Want Boudoir Portraits? Now’s The Time!

I’ve got a rockin’ deal going on over at Fig Leaf Studio!

I want to build my portfolio and I’m discounting big time for the first three two one woman who sign up and pay!

You can read all about it here at my boudoir photography blog.

Here’s a fun photo I haven’t even shared on the boudoir site!

"Want your shirt back, Honey?"

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Something To Make You Smile

It’s not a photo, it’s a video. It’s a commercial, actually! Tell me this doesn’t make you smile.

It’s even more awesome when you watch The Making of T-Mobile Dance.

Have a beautiful day!

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Saving Money

While professional photography is certainly not a necessity, most people enjoy having professional portraits of their children made to display in their homes and share with friends and family.

It’s a difficult time for so many people right now, so in light of this I’ve decided to make some changes to my pricing structure.

The fee for a session with me will continue to be $150. However, $100 of this will now apply toward prints, digital images or a collection. It will also apply toward the $250 minimum order, so in essence you will be saving $100!

I will be adding smaller digital collections as well, so watch for those… I’ll be sure to post when I’ve got them added to the website.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions.

Just to make you smile, here’s a recent photo of my little one (already almost 4 years old, I can’t believe it!) made a few weeks ago before a haircut.

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It Took 27 Years…

It took 27 years before I got my own orchid.

Orchids have been my favorite flower since I was 12 and worked in a little flower shop on base. The owners were friends of my mom, who worked on base and frequented their shop. When they needed a bit of help, they asked my mom if one of her daughters would be interested.

Of course I was interested in getting some pocket money, and the work wasn’t going to be frequent, so I jumped at the chance.

My first day working there I walked around in order to familiarize myself with the offerings. For some reason I was particularly drawn to the vases, especially the curving shapes and fragility of the stem vases.

I poured boiling hot water into a bucket and plunged the stems of baby’s breath into it! No way, I’m sure you’re thinking - I must be remembering wrong. But I’m not… I was amazed back then, too. This is the secret to getting those little closed buds to open, and quickly. It was fun to watch them just pop open, one after another.

I swept the floor and cleaned up the other debris, and on a break I got to look around some more. That’s when I discovered the orchids.

I was amazed at their beauty, their colors, and their unique shapes. I imagined that one day another flower would replace them as my favorite, but in the 27 years that have passed I’ve only grown to love them more.

I’ve wanted to own my own orchid, but several things have kept me from doing so: their expense and their complicated care.

I’ve been slowly applying the principles of feng shui to my house and decided that I wanted to have something “luxurious” in my Prosperity Corner. An orchid plant fit this description perfectly for me, and having read so much about their care (I’ve even taken a class about orchids at a local nursery), so I knew I could care for one if I was just willing to pay attention.

I hinted to Dave that an orchid might make a nice Valentine’s Day gift, if he was inclined to give me one, but didn’t really expect one. What I mean to say is that I knew that my desire for one was strong enough that I would be getting one soon, but that it didn’t need to come through Dave.

Yet it did. I was overjoyed.

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First Portrait Session Of The New Year

Kristin and John were given a gift of a mini session with me by their friend, Hilary, a stylist at Salon Essentials whom I met last year.

January and February are typically not good for outdoor portraits here in Fort Collins… they tend to be cold, cold, cold! Or at least warmer but super windy.

I couldn’t believe how we lucked out and had warm weather and calm breezes during our session at the park. Unfortunately, their little guy, D., was so distracted by other kids, playground equipment and remote control airplanes that I got nary a smile from him.

However, I think he’s beautiful and shines without a smile!

His eyes are so beautiful, and look at those luscious lips! I bet his mama wants to kiss them all the time!

Of all the photos from this session, the next one is my favorite. Not so much for the gorgeous blue skies and good looking family, but for a little secret I was told at the end of our session.

You see that mountain behind them, just to the left of my logo at the bottom of the photo? That’s Horsetooth, where John proposed to Kristyn. I think it’s so sweet to have that in their family photo!

This is a couple that absolutely dotes on their son, and it was just a joy to watch them watching him.

Thank you, Kristyn, John and D. - I truly enjoyed our session in the warm February Colorado sunshine.

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