Ava’s doctor came to our house today for her 1 week old check-up. Dr Q drove 40 miles to see us. Shocking, isn’t it? How many doctors still make house calls?
The second shocking thing about the check-up today is that Ava grew 2″ since birth! Yep, two INCHES in a week! That’s just crazy.
While lying in the comfortable (NOT!) hospital bed only a few hours after I delivered Baby Ava, I found out that my client, Lisa W., was in the same hospital and about to deliver her baby too!
She was due 1 week previous and I was due to deliver in another 2 weeks, so our due dates were actually 3 weeks apart, so we never expected to deliver so close in dates. Further, we live 40 miles apart from one another, yet we were at the same hospital, at the same time!
If you still don’t believe just how cool this is, check out these facts:
* Our babies were born 1 day apart.
* Her son was born 8 lbs 6 ounces. My daughter was born 8 lbs 4 ounces!
* Her son was born 20″ long. My daughter was born 19.5″ long.
* This is Lisa’s second child. Her baby boy is named Ian. (Same as my second-born!)
Interesting, right?!!
Here are a few photos I took during my visit to their room…
Meet Ian
I would’ve loved to take a photo of our babies together, but we were on different floors, so I wasn’t able to bring Ava to their room for a visit. Darn!
Congratulations Danny and Lisa!
If you want to see photos of Lisa and Danny’s photoshoot when baby Ian was still “cooking”, click here.
As a photographer, I have so many “favorite” photoshoots…
Photoshoots that had the perfect light; photoshoots of shy kids who ended with giant smiles that surprised even their parents; photoshoots of people who weren’t sure that having a photographer follow them around for a couple hours was something they’d enjoy, but they loved it and do it every year with me; photoshoots of amazing people; photoshoots where kids ask me to come home with them; photoshoots of ordinary things whose images turn out extraordinary; photoshoots of clients who turned into friends.
…but this one, I’d have to say, may have topped them all: A photoshoot of my own newborn!
Baby Ava joined the World 2 weeks early at a whopping 8 pounds, 4 ounces this past Thursday.
Ava at 3-Days Old
I am sure you’ll see more photos of Ava as time goes on. 
I posted part 1 yesterday because I projected it would take a long time to go through the images from my out-of-town shoot.
This is so typical of me with photography… I ended up staying up late last night to finish going through all the images from Zac’s newborn shoot and worked on editing them today when Melia was at school and Ian was making a mess in the house. *Sigh* Sometimes you have to give a little (let your toddler mess up the house) to get a little (time to work)! 
This is a long photo blog. I couldn’t help myself. You’ll see why! (I didn’t give away the farm either. The full gallery is over 80 images, and I only put my favorites in my client galleries!)
In Natural Light
When I do an at-home shoot, the first thing I do is walk through the home to find which areas have the best light.
The “prettiest” rooms aren’t always the rooms with the best light, which can be hard for some clients to understand why we can’t shoot there. With Andrew and Mike’s house, every square inch was like a museum. Just gorgeous.
With the light source behind the baby, I had one of the parents help with the reflector. This way, we get nice warm light where we want it from using only natural light from the windows.
Eyes: a Window Into the Soul or a Mirror?
If you look closely enough, you can see me crouched in front of the ottoman in Zac’s eyes!
I love that this image is very soft, but his eyes are piercing. This would look amazing on a large canvas wrap.
Curves, Lashes and a Fuzzy Blanket
It is such a simple photo of Zac bundled in a baby blanket, but it really stopped me in my tracks when I was going through all the images.
A Bubble and a Double-Chin
Zac’s expression in this image cracks me up! He was leaning up on this chair and sloooowly slid down as I was shooting.
We let him slide down to see what he’d do, and this is what we ended up with: his mouth blowing a tiny bubble and his adorable double-chin!
The way he is looking at me gives him so much personality. It is hard to believe he is only 8 weeks old.
Not Bride’s Shoes!
These baby Adidas sneakers were SO ADORABLE that I had to take photos of them by themselves. I decided to shoot them like they were bride’s shoes!
Mid-Section Shot
I took this while Andrew and Mike were changing Zac into his trendy vest outfit. They stood over Zac for a couple minutes and gazed at him lovingly.
I purposely focused on Zac to show how he is looking right back at them.
What Was Really Happening
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…
Teen Zacky
He is only 8 weeks old, but from this photo, I can almost see what he’ll look like when he is a teen! This will be his “come hither” look! I can see it now!
Pondering Life
I mean, seriously! What can an 8-week old be thinking about that creates that face? “When do I get milk?” “I wonder if I need to poo.”
Embraced with Security, Love, and Protection
Zac is one lucky little dude.
Jack, The First “Baby”
A Contemplative Hairy Man
Even when parents successfully divide their attention between all their children (and that includes pets), sometimes the older sibling still feels jealous or even resentful.
I love this contemplative look on Jack’s face. He looks like a person!
Feeling Like the Fourth Wheel?
Do you see Jack’s little face peering in the window?!!
Reporting Jack
I kept my mouth shut about Jack in the window until I got the shot. Then I told Mike and Andrew, and out came laughter and “awwwww”.
What makes this image truly hilarious is the look on Zac’s face as his parents turned to look at Jack! It’s as if he preferred having all the attention from his parents and is now disappointed.
Some Favorite Family Portraits
One of my favorite couples in the World were recently blessed with THE most amazing “gift”: a new baby! It makes my eyes water just thinking about how amazing Mike and Andrew’s life will change with their new addition of Baby Zac. I know in my heart that Zac’s life will be a great one with parents who will love him beyond what’s imaginable and who will be great teachers of compassion, art and humanity.
And last but not least, Zac also has the most awesome Auntie Annie (*wink wink*) who he can always count on when he can’t talk to his parents and who is also his very own personal paparazzi. Talk about icing on the cake!
Since I just returned from our trip this morning, I haven’t gone through all their images yet. But I am too excited that I must share a few tasty ones today. It’s like a sneak peek of their Sneak Peek!
Enjoy these few visual treats of 8 week old Zac…
The Determined Look
“Who Me?!!”
Zac is practicing his innocent look for when he is a toddler and becomes mobile and curious! (Hey, it’d work on me! Just look at that face!)
The Sweetest Bathroom
(FYI to Photographers: The sink — though beautiful and perfectly clean — made for a pretty newborn set, but it wasn’t the most comfortable place for a naked baby, so we had him in there for about 10 seconds! As an artist, I want to get the perfect shot, but it is imperative to always keep in mind the safety and comfort of your subjects. Don’t wait until they say something. In the case of Baby Zac, if I took longer and waited til he fussed, we would potentially miss critical shots after this set because he would no longer be happy.)
And A Smile! WOOHOOO!
Daddy Andrew stood to my left and got Zac’s attention for this shot. It made Zac turn towards his dad and give a little gummy smile!
Stay tuned for another sneak peek of Zac!
These amazing little guys were born at 35 weeks, which is considered full-term for twins!
Congratulations to Scott and Janine for bringing such darling little babes into this World. They are so in love with Guillermo and Gregory that they are already talking about giving them a sister — or at least Scott is!
The Best Gift Basket Ever
At 20-days old, Gil and Greg look ever-so-cute in a little basket.
We did the shoot at Tessie’s house (Tessie is Janine’s sister) and her livingroom wall happened to be yellow… as was the basket lining.
Together with the tan and brown bears, you’d think we had planned out all the details of this set.
Here are the fun-loving parents, Scott and Janine, who are enjoying their two gift baskets.
Here’s Looking At Me!
I must’ve taken 20 shots to get this one of them with their eyes open and looking directly at me. SCORE!!!
The parents are looking at the babies and the babies are looking at the camera. I couldn’t have dreamt up a better composition.
A “High Key” Family Portrait
High Key refers to a high contrast, bright (from behind the subjects) portrait.
This is simple to create in a studio, but we were in a house with very little natural light because it was raining and overcast outside.
To get this shot, I put the family in front of a patio door (the brightest area of the house) and I did the rest in post-processing. I looooooove the result!
The straight-out-of-the-camera image looks more like a silhouette of the family with blinds as their backdrop. Most people would discard this image from their gallery, but not I!
Even when I took the shot, I had a high key portrait in mind. And unless I lugged a lot of heavy lighting equipment to Tessie’s house, the only way to achieve this shot was in post-processing. Ahhhh, the power of Photoshop!
I’ll post a “Before and After” blog in the near future to show everyone some pretty cool transformations!
Guillermo & Gregory in the Buff
I love that the twins are completely awake, so you can see their gorgeous eye color.
Little did we know, they were looking all-innocent and sweet, but in actuality, they were peeing on my velvet cloth!
The Proud Parents
How peaceful it is to watch your babies sleep…
When I was going through my photos from today’s shoot and saw this one, I cheered aloud… all alone in the room… like a crazy photographer!
The babies are SMILING!!!!
At this age, they smile as a reflex, not socially, so to have both babies smiling simultaneously for a photo is like hitting the jackpot!
Doesn’t Janine looks fantastic? Who’d know she was carrying twins just 20 days ago?!!
The C. Family signed up for my Now and Then Collection earlier this year.
In the span of under 4 months, the C Family went from a family of three to a family of 4!
PART 1: THE “NOW” SHOOT
Here is a shot of Alice and her 9 months belly! You can click here to see more photos from that July, 2009 session.
And these photos are from today…
PART 2: THE “THEN” SHOOT
All Smiles
Evan, at 3 months old, was full of smiles. He would smile every time I looked at him!
Evan’s dad, James, claims Evan isn’t always this way, but ha! I don’t believe him. Evan was chillin’ and smilin’ for most of the session!
Piercing Eyes
I waited and waited to get a shot of Evan lifting his head enough to catch the light in his eyes. And voila!
He has amazing eye color that looks goldish-brown with hints of blue!
I love this angle of his head because it looks perfectly round and you can see his adorable double-chin. The “circle” of his head also matches all the circles of color behind him.
Daddy is Funny
James was hilarious to watch when he was entertaining Baby Evan. He even got Alice and I laughing.
Cuddle Time
I brightened this image a tad to purposely get the bottom washed out. I think it makes the photo look dream-like.
Your Wish is My Command
Thankfully for me, Evan is not my son because I’d probably give him EVERYTHING he wanted if he looked at me with those eyes!
Does he not have the sweetest face?!!
Where was Nathan you ask? He was busy playing in the sand, sweeping the ground with branches, running, climbing, and laying down.
The Landscape
I took this shot to highlight Nathan’s facial profile in such a way that it’d look like landscape!
And I loooove the colors in this image. The background looks like a playground of colors. Okay, pun intended. It WAS a playground!
Water Play
Nathan thought there was a water fountain at this park, but the only water was on the grass and from this drinking fountain!
So why not play with the drinking fountain?!! Yeeha!
Amazing Light
Good photographers take photos of things (ie., people, places, animals, objects). Great photographers take photos of light.
It is the light on Nathan’s face that makes this photo incredibly interesting.
(FYI to photographers: This image is straight-out-of-the camera. There was no editing performed.)
Autumn Fun in the Sun
It is the end of October, but the weather still says Summer. It was in the mid-70s and sunny!
A Natural Family Photo
We shot a few formal family photos, but this time, I told the parents to let Nathan do what he wanted and not ask him to sit if he didn’t want to.
Part of the fun in capturing a 2.5 year old’s spirit is to let him be independent. And this is one of the shots I got from letting him do what he wanted.
Nathan was playing with me by running to the bench to get apple slices and then running towards me and stopping right in front of my camera to show me the handful of apple slices clenched between his teeth! It made for wonderful, natural shots of the family.
For those of you who follow my blog, you know that I am starting to play with textures. This is Day 2 of Texture Fun!
So I loved the texture I put on Ria’s photo, but do textures work well with babies? Let’s investigate…
Heart Feet
Mommy In The Mirror
So far, I think the textures work for the top two photos. (They are different textures, if you were curious.)
For photographers: I put a Photoshop mask on the key faces, so that the subjects don’t look dirty. That’s just personal taste. I don’t like squiggles and dirt on faces…. though I guess you’d think differently if you saw my monkeys!)
Dad’s Chest Makes A Great Bed
Just for comparison because I’m not quite sure if I like the texture on this third photo, here is the photo without the texture…
What do you think? Texture or no texture for photo #3?
Stylin’ in his designer duds and Paul Frank Bugaboo, 11-day old Brenden eats well, cries quietly and only when he’s hungry, and sleeps a straight 4+ hours at night, leaving his parents, Soon and Christine, looking fresh and well-rested for today’s photoshoot!
I was in amazement, can you tell? Now if only every parent had that same good-newborn-sleeper-so-you-can-sleep-too experience!
Brenden & Brenden’s Stunning Mommy
Lounging In The Buff
Who Needs A Crib…
…when you have a drawer?!! Tee hee.
Modern Art Baby
Peace & Love
Watching your own baby sleep is probably the most peaceful sight in the World to a parent!
Surprise Kisses
As Mommy Christine admired all of Brenden’s deliciousness, Daddy Soon came over and surprised Christine with kisses.
Hmmmm… although in this photo, it looks more like Soon is pulling a Mike Tyson and trying to bite her ear!
That would be no surprise to me as I witnessed him playfully “biting” Brenden’s feet and pretending to devour Brenden’s head throughout the photoshoot! He is one nutball. Maybe that’s why we get along so well!
Qu’est-ce que c’est?
I don’t remember my Middle School French very well, so here’s the English version in case I butchered the spelling… What is it?
Just for kicks, can you tell what this is or how I created the photo?
Georgia and Lia were born 7 days ago! They only weigh 4.9 lbs and 5.1 lbs. Yep, they’re teeny tiny and so precious!
I feel so honored when I do a newborn shoot because the first couple weeks — and sometimes longer — is an adjustment period for the family. So to invite someone into your home isn’t always easy, especially when you’re sleep-deprived! So, thank you, K. Family, for inviting me into your home to take photos of your gorgeous girls!
Introducing Lia and Georgia
Our healthy and gorgeous momma, Lisa, whom I took maternity portraits of a few weeks ago, was on bedrest for a good portion of her pregnancy, so it is really amazing that she kept these babies cooking for 36 weeks! (Click here to see photos from Lisa’s maternity shoot.)
The Proud Parents
Lia, Georgia and George’s ear
George made a comment about how he loved a photo of Lisa that I took from their last shoot, but his ear was in it. So this one is for you, George! Tee hee.
(I do like this photo though, which is why it made it into my blog! I think Lia is thinking about how to solve our economic crisis!)
Boxer Babies
I love this photo because of Georgia’s expressive hands around her face and the twins’ legs intertwined.
Before Lia (on the left) fell asleep, she kept punching Georgia in the face. I think Georgia’s hands are up to defend herself, like the way boxers do.
The Cutest Baby Part
I love baby feet! Seeing Lia kick her feet up on the edge of this basket was a moment I had to capture!
Lia reminds me of my Melia when she was a newborn because she didn’t curl up in fetal position as expected, but rather was more comfortable all spread out!
Asleep in Daddy’s Arms
Watching a sleeping baby — especially when it’s your own baby — is THE most peaceful thing in the World to see!
I love this photo because of how Lia folded her arms to her chest and the soft window lighting. Just beautiful.
Think Fast
Baby and newborn shoots test how quickly you can think on your feet because you can’t control what they do, and expressions and positions can last only seconds.
Some surprises from today:
1) Even at 7 days old, these twins didn’t have the “newborn curl” where they sleep with their legs pulled into their body. Also, Lia was pretty active, so there were some set-up shots I wanted to do with them that we had to skip.
2) The best newborn attire is their birthday suits, and well, being naked can trigger babies to go! Let’s see… I think there were 2 poops and 3 pee sessions during our shoot, which meant several clean-ups and prop changes. I think this is inevitable with naked babies. Plus, with 2 babies of my own, I’ve been peed and pooped on before, so this was no big deal. I just felt bad for Lisa and George for all the extra work they needed to do!
Yin and Yang
I absolutely love this shot of the girls in the bowl. The head-to-feet position and the circular bowl makes them look like a Yin and Yang symbol!
The photo may appear as though they are sleeping and relaxed, but they were wiggly and Lia kept kicking Georgia in the head. And there was also some peeing, but hey, they’re in a bowl, so everything was contained!
Salad, Anyone?
The bowl shots are my favorite set-up twin shots, so here’s another one because I couldn’t decide which one was my favorite — the color one above or this sepia one.
I am a photographer who likes to keep things natural, so I don’t bring studio equipment, artificial lighting or background sheets to an indoor shoot. It’s just me, my cameras, some lenses, and a couple accessories. I use what’s available to me.
For a shoot that takes place inside someone’s home, I will walk around their house to find the best areas for photos. Since our shoot started at 7:00am due to scheduling reasons, there was only good light in 2 areas: the nursery and one corner of the dining room.
So this salad bowl was a perfect prop because they were on the dining table!
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