snow in colorado! yeah!

these boys o' mine just love the snow. and now that casey is old enough to enjoy it as much as aaron, i am acutally looking forward to the season this year. (plus we live by a really cool sled riding hill so that is a real bonus!) and i am thinking we just might venture up to vail to enjoy their snow tubing mountain this year!

colorado makes my heart sing. i have never felt more at one with a place before we moved here. this fall will be 9 years here! here's to 90 more!

rose's boys...

what a cool family! they are full of energy, life and love for one another. the boys jumped right in and weren't afraid of the big bad camera (i had the 24-70mm lens on it--the big guy!). they jumped into trees, took off their shoes and fully participated in the session from start to finish. here are some of my favorite images.
all of the smiles and giggles filled me with joy for the upcoming holiday season. families like this make me realize how much i love my job!
happiest of holidays to rose, mark and the boys!

special date...

we went painting today for our "special time" while the little guy was at home with dad getting ready for his nap. aaron has always expressed an interest in artistic endeavors--especially painting and working with bright colors. his focus impresses me. i watch his brush strokes and how peaceful he looks as he places the color on the paper. while in college i found a similar peace with my watercolors and black india inks in my little world of abstracts. (secretly it makes me smile that he has just a little bit of me in him.)

we had a wonderful time together and plan on heading back on tuesday night for a tie dye event. anyone want to join us?

portraits....getting the right shots quickly

my friends, my models--and, this past saturday, my teachers. i struggle with getting quickly to the 'real shots'...the relaxed and fun ones. the ones that exist after the poses and the fake smiles. i thought today, since i know these folks pretty well, that i'd get better images of them.

wrong! my time ran out before i could really get the true images...before i could capture the true intimacy that i know exists within this family.

the sun was an issue for sure so there are more shadows in the images than i'd like but we did have fun hiking around this open space park. i ended up taking over 400 images--mostly posed ones. but i did get some candids that i liked.

my lingering question--what is the secret to getting the 'right' images in a quick period of time? and how do other photographers factor in the need reel in the fidgety kiddos within that quick time period too?

anyone feelin' my pain? been there? drop me a line please!

photo sessions...

lately-with all that is going on in our new world of "autism"--i've been at a loss for words. the only ones i can think of are "overwhelmed" and "stressed" and they come to mind quite often.

but i've been on a ton of photo shoot these past two weeks so i've got lots of images to share. hopefully they will make up for my lack of words.