do you believe in miracles?

i do.

a fun-filled morning with gators. and mosquitos. and heat.

you know it's going to be an interesting morning, when you're walking with your client to your first location and a gator dives into the nearby water. i thought that mom was going to have a heart attack. or panic attack. or some kind of attack. needless to say, we quickly left that area for less gator-filled areas.

our arms and faces made a scrumptious brunch for a colony of mosquitos. my arms are still itching. poor miss a though, those mosquitos loved her. the longer the session went, the more bumps appeared on her arms and face. and the heat didn't help. i certainly hope it was worth it for mom.

this little girl is one of the most beautiful creatures God created. she was a beautiful baby (and you can see her starting at four months old on my website). and she just gets more and more beautiful every time i photograph her. this last session, it struck me how she is now a toddler, a very photogenic one at that.

i'm only partway through proofing. but i know that mom is eager for a sneak peek. so, without further ado...

addie's new bff

for forever, addie has been asking to ride horses. she has an imaginary horse farm with around 1,000 horses. these live in our yard. and follow us beside the car whenever we go somewhere. and then, she rides them through the store. sigh. she is so my child. i had an imaginary horse farm when i was her age. but in my defense, mine were always happy to stay in the imaginary barn when i wasn't home.

anyway, i finally found a stable where she could take lessons. and, thanks to prodding from my friend kendra, actually scheduled her for lessons. she started last friday afternoon. i know that her kindergarten teacher heard all about it. in fact, anyone who would listen heard about it.

her first lesson was with astron. apparently, he is the go-to horse for newbies. he was so good with addie. and her instructor said that she did really well for a younger child. i guess, the young ones normally have lots of problems controlling the horse at first. but addie did really well! i hope she keeps loving it.

and the people there were the nicest ever. so much friendlier than the snobby gymnastics moms. they were nice to me even though ian was screaming and crying because HE wanted to ride a horse (he has to wait until he's five).

so, i wanted to share a few pics of addie with astron. and then, i have to share another one because there is the coolest old building that i'm taking addie back for real pictures sometime soon (and you know, i totally asked!).

a little sneak peek

i seriously love my job. maybe it's because, at my very core, i'm just a big kid. i don't know. but when i have subjects who keep me on my toes and will play with me, i have the best time ever (of course, then i worry that i was too busy playing and maybe missed something with my camera). but those times, i normally get some really fun pictures.

last saturday, it rained. and rained. all. day. long. i was really sweating whether or not this session was going to happen. this family was only in town for the weekend, and the weather didn't look promising for their entire stay. i headed out to where they were staying, praying and hoping the whole time. while we ate dinner, it poured. then, it started to let up. the mom and i decided we'd go ahead, even if we had to do their portraits with umbrellas as props.

but, as i made my way to where they were, the sky cleared. that's right. it rained all day long and stopped when i was about five minutes from my destination. thank you, Lord.

anyway, we went ahead with the session. T and L were lots of fun. T and i had races, threw sand and jumped in the water. L was covered in sand and generally tried mostly to avoid my camera. mom wanted a shot of them together. and i got some. but i'll keep her in suspense with those. because i want to make sure they are perfect before she sees them. so, i'll share a silly one instead:



and really, what is a post from me without some close-ups. mom knows how much i love taking close-ups. so, i went for some extreme close-ups with this session. and seriously, with such gorgeous boys, can you really blame me?