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Winter Clothing ideas for Families
Just to give you an idea of how you should dress for your sessions. A lot of people ask what to wear, and how to coordinate so we thought it was a great idea to pass on this suggestion.
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Christmas Break
Lots of action during the break! We’ve had the very first niece added to our Family!! I don’t have any photos just yet, at least not any that I’ve taken! 
and we all know how I like to post my photos! Anyways more on that soon as we meet her!
Secondly, we have a new cousin on Bret’s side of the family. Super cute lil boy that I had the pleasure of playing with during the break! As well as his older sister ! Here are some of the photos I took!
This was a watch and wait moment. Another reason why I love my iphone pics… it’s easy to wait with this and always be ready… everything working together. There were plenty of great shots I missed bc I was not quick enough though!
I love this one even though Bret’s big foot is in there. Still cute.
Our Tree, someone commented that this looks like such a sad tree bc of the color. So I took this too.
The girls reading blocks.
I love kids. So cute…. 
One of Grandpa for fun… 
Cute one of the Family! And that’s all for this week folks.
Posted in Children, Events, Family
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Lanier Christmas Party
One of my favorite events to photograph is the Lanier Law Firm Christmas Party in Houston. I am there every year. Tons of people, fun and play. I’m going to attempt to show you how I like to shoot events.
First off, making sure I cover details and decorations! People want to remember what things looked like at their parties. Especially if it’s an annual party.
This way they can see what they like, and what they might change next time. Details are always important, but the people are far more important. I see way too many “fly on the wall photographers”. I think this is a horrible way to approach event photography. I know we all think that people at their parties, would rather not be bothered, but that is a lie. Everyone like photos of their friends and family. Focus on that first. If it’s a wedding I follow the Bride and Groom.. Most times they run into a friend at some point in the night, and would love photos.
If it’s a huge event like this, I just tend to walk around a lot. If you know people even better, stop them. Take their photos!
Stop families! Stop anyone that you know the host knows. The better you know your host, the better job you can do. Know who their friends are, if you don’t know, ask. You can ask anyone really, most the time they will tell you. If you don’t want to ask, then my approach is to stop everyone. Interrupt nicely, and politely ask if they would care to take a photo. Stopping them and grouping people for a photo makes a much better picture, than someone walking in the distance.
And a few Sting photos from the concert.
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Harshbarger Family Photos
Over the Thanksgiving week I had a couple of sessions. This is an all boys photo shoot, Grandpa and the boys.
Little guys in photos are hard to catch and even harder to get them to sit still. I usually take the follow and surprise approach to photographing the active kids.
In order to get “the little guy” to look at the camera I moved him around, closer to grandpa.
Individual Poses:
This was a surprise him shot. You can just let kids be kids. They really can’t do wrong, even with him not smiling it’s still a good photo.
This was the only good shot of both the boys together, at this point Max wasn’t cooperating at all. Be patient and wait, eventually he may just give you what you want. You Can’t force them to look at you, keep calling their name, and be as playful as possible.
Sometimes family members yelling silly things will get you a more natural smile.
Again just be patient with little children, they can’t help it. If you wait for that moment and are ready you can get a great shot.
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Bambenek Family
Family sessions and babies can be a big challenge. How do you get the child to smile? Pay attention? My answer, you don’t. You let the family interact and you capture that interaction. Smiles come with playing and attention. At all cost try to keep the baby/toddler happy.Take breaks if it’s needed…
Cute family interaction here. Candid’s are a great tool… and if you can help facilitate them even better. With slightly larger children you might bring a Nerf ball or a Frisbee. Play pile on Dad….
Play in the grass and the leaves.
walking shots are great, especially if you can find a pretty trail.
If the kids are happy enough, do what is called Break downs. Individuals of everyone, or at least the kiddos. And maybe a couple shots of just mom and dad. 
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Babies and biddles.
Baby shower’s…. not a lot to say about them. They are typically boring and expensive, but always good fellowship. So needless to say I got a few great shots of the kids, and families that were attending the shower. It was actually very entertaining bc the ladies were spectators watching the men try and change diapers on dolls.
The food and pumpkins we made. Baby is named Brooklyn.
The baby guests… These were shot with flash on camera. I believe these two were metered though, no flash. Lots of window light, very pretty coming into the room.
Like I always say, Candid’s Candid’s Candid’s!
And a couple of Family Portraits…
All taken outside with only a flash. Lovely Missouri is always great on scenery.
Posted in Children, Maternity and Newborn
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Thanksgiving….
A few shots from our Family at Thanksgiving…. Happy Thanksgiving from our families to yours…
These were shot in front of an enormous Christmas Tree at the Lanier Library. Tree was decorated by Kathryn Lanier Hunt: The Potter’s Wheel, Houston.
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Babies and biddles coming soon…
I took some photos at my sister in law’s baby shower. I will post soon. Sorry it’s been a crazy couple of weeks. We’ve had a break-in, photography is okay though… We will press on. I’ve got a new laptop and we will update you soon. So sorry I’ve made you wait so long.
Oh and did I mention we’ve been added to Groupon? Well we have. So be looking for Groupon Deals coming to your computer soon.
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Maternity session
Last week I did my second maternity shoot and we had a blast. In order to prepare, I bought some letters at Hobby Lobby and proceeded to paint them blue. I set up a full studio in my living room! I have a few other maternity sessions coming up, so this week I’m going to get more letters and cover the pink spectrum.
Stephanie is an Army Wife, her husband Shane is oversees… And we took these photos so that she could send him something, and he could be a part of everything.
For this shot, we have a black backdrop, and Stephanie is sitting on my coffee table. I used three lights, one of which is my hair light. The hair light is over the back of the backdrop peeking down, with a set of barn doors and a grid on it.
We used a sheet off my bed, because the blue was nicely lit against the black backdrop.
White is a very difficult color to photograph, very easy to blow out the white. So be careful. I tend to try to set my lights at about F8-11 at the highest.
The letters that I painted. I’m planning on using the giant LOVE letters for future engagement sessions. That’s all for today!
Posted in Maternity and Newborn
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