A few more keepers

We were supposed to take pictures of Ethan and Bella together, but Ethan was having too much fun with his cousins to really feel like taking pictures. I think some of these turned out well for a squirmy subject. He's looking a little GQ here. How adorable is he in his suit and tie. He really was very patient with us even though he didn't really want to be there he still stood by that tree for half an hour. What are you going to do though... he's only 3. It was hard to get one of Ethan where he wasn't moving. This is a little over exposed, but you can see more of his suit and I like the startled face he's making. It looks very old fashioned.

One more of the beautiful Bella. She loves her feet.

What a gorgeous family. Could they get any more photogenic?

The Jacksons

Kate and I along with Summer, Bella, Ethan, Tyler & Chase all headed over to the Reiff house to take some family pictures. The house is the perfect studio. Brenda has the house stocked with the best props not to mention goodies for taking family portraits. The outdoors was even perfect although I think Summer was a little worried that it wasn't finished enough for pictures, but I think they turned out great. I loved the color ones so I had to put them on as well, but the sepia are my favorites.

Here you can see one of the many Christmas decorations in the home. We had to take a Christmas picture while we were there. I love the tree behind them. The colors were great. The boys were fabulous while we were taking pictures, although they were a little tired and distracted by this point. I'll have to put in a progression of pictures of Ryan in these pictures. While everyone mostly had the same face plastered on, he was making faces through several (one asleep, one ubersmiling, and one half dead). It was really funny actually. Sometimes I don't catch it while I'm taking the pictures and get a good laugh out of going through them later.

Like I said before, the boys were super cooperative. They get cuter and cuter everyday and those missing teeth on Tyler are ADORABLE!! I can't get enough pictures of my neice and nephews.

Summer was a big help for the pictures of the whole family. She had really great ideas and she could get the boys to smile real smiles.

I think overall the day was a great photo success. I'm so lucky to have such photogenic people to take pictures. It makes my life a whole lot more fun and easier for that matter (less editing). Thanks for having such great kids Kate and Ryan, and Summer and Steve! Thanks Carl and Brenda for letting us use your house. It is SO beautiful! Next time we'll have to plan it better so we can be there when you're there!

Bella's photo shoot

Its been hit and miss taking pictures of this sweet little girl. We keep trying to make plans and the seem to keep falling through, but with the persistance of a mother watching her little ones grow up right before her eyes we finally caught a few pictures of this gorgeous baby. She was so happy to be naked! Summer is such a great mom, she could get Bella to smile on cue!

As you can see she has her token accessories on, pearls and flower headband. With our little makeshift studio we managed to take a few keepers. We had a velvet-like blanket, a couple of flood lights, a couple of reflectors (equipped with holders - Ryan thanks) and as many crazy expressions as we could come up with to keep Bella smiling.

Kate and I both had fun taking pictures, but she and I love the post processing results. It helps to have a good picture to go from, but with Photoshop anything seems possible.

Summer thanks for opportunity to take some pics and use my camera this weekend. Its been gathering a little dust lately. I also took some pictures of Kate and her family which I am still working on and will post probably tomorrow ( I forgot a disk at home).

Belated Halloween

Yes I know its WAY past Halloween and you may have seen some of these pictures elsewhere, but I thought I would put something new up on my blog. It was a really fun Halloween. BFBA, the office where I work, went all out decorating for a recruiting event. It is the first year that we've been allowed to dress up for work and well, of course some of us went a little overboard.

People were a little nervous to be around me. As you can see I looked a little agitated and like I might bite. The outfit wasn't too hard to throw together. The teeth and the makeup really made the costume. I had the dress from Highschool (wow been chubby forever :) There were a couple of people who were even scared....ooooooooh!

I think this picture was before lunch. I was starving and tired. Good thing it was a cloudy day!

I don't know how I can top this next year!