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This is my last Love Through the Lens session to post, and it's definitely bittersweet. Love Through the Lens was truly SUCH an amazing experience for Ben and I. We met some incredible people who were willing to get in front of our cameras to support a great cause. We feel humbled and blessed to have been a part of this. It rocked our world. :) (p.s. I'll be posting a LTTL follow-up entry to detail the total amount given, and the experience as a whole, so be sure to check back soon!)
The Dickins kids are Faith, Bethany, Drew, and William. They are probably some of the cutest, most photogenic people I've ever been around. And they're cool. And sweet. It's kind of like the best of all worlds, really. :)
Here's a few of our favorites from the day!
William is the youngest, and he lucked out in the fun-older-siblings department. :)
a little brotherly bonding...
...and sisterly love!
:)
Who doesn't love to swing?!
Favorite group shot!
I try to take at least one 'no face' shot during every session we do. I think attire/shoes say a lot about someone's personality. :)
William and I made a deal; if he gave me one 'nice smile'...
...he could make any face he wanted. (I'm kind of partial to this one, really :))
Faith and Bethany got in on the face-making action too. :)
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103
My posts have been a little light on words lately, but it's not because I don't have a lot to say - it's because I have literally no time to say it. I've been running in 562 directions, and the word 'chaos' is actually an understatement for my life right now. I think things are finally slowing down (but I don't want to talk about it in case I jinx it) - so my long-winded blog posts will be returning soon. I can hear the shouts of joy from all of you as I type that...:)
The Walbrown family (consisting of Randy, Kim, Allison, Ben and Cara) participated in one of our Love Through the Lens sessions, and they are a super fun group to be around. They laugh a lot together, which I believe is the key to a happy, healthy family. And they make monkey faces. How can you not be cool if you make monkey faces?!
The kids - Ben, Allison and Cara.
Then we added the parents to the mix. :)
Mom and Dad need a few by themselves. :)
There's something about this shot that I really love.
Probably my favorite family shot. :)
Ok - so you may be familiar with our personality boxes. If you are a client, you can request them, and we'll make it happen during your shoot or event! The Walbrown kids didn't request a personality box, but after spending some time letting them have total creative freedom in front of the camera, I decided that they definitely deserved one. There's a WHOLE lot of personality in these 9 frames. And I can't take any credit for the awesomeness of the faces or poses - that was all them. :)
Allison:
Yay! I love them! Thanks so much again for doing this with us!
(03.05.10)
Shannon :
hahaha, I love the crazy peace sign tourist one!
(03.05.10)
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98
In photography (much like anything else), we have days that are a little more challenging than others. The lighting is inconsistent, we're struggling for creative ideas, we get stuck in traffic, our jokes just aren't funny. On days like those, we simply have to take a few deep breaths and push hard to make our shoot successful.
Those days are balanced (fortunately) by really, really great days. The location is beautiful, our client is up for anything, our creative juices are flowing, and the sunshine comes out to play.
Last Saturday, we had a great day. :)
It was windy. Ok. It was whip-your-hair-in-136-different-directions windy. But we still had an amazing time. All the components lined up: downtown Kissimmee was beautiful and serene, Carly was up for anything, our creative juices were flowing, and the sunshine came out to play for a little while.
It's days like Saturday that make us love photography. And it's clients like Carly that make the 'job' part feel non-existent.
Carly - we had such a great time with you this past weekend. You are truly one of the best, most easygoing people we've ever photographed, and we really enjoyed getting to know you. Your smile is contagious, and so is your compassionate spirit. Seriously - you're awesome! :)
Like I said, it was windy. But apparently, the wind loved Carly.
Carly is really photogenic. So photogenic, that if she wasn't also super sweet, you may just have to despise her out of jealousy. ;)
Love this.
Hello, sunshine.
I LOVE these next two. Though they look similar, I love them for completely different reasons. I also love that Ben snapped one of them, and I snapped the other. Team effort. :)
Um, yeah - so we just painted this mural on the wall real quick for the shoot. No biggie.
Gorgeous.
:)
Megan:
AH! Carly is so awesome. I'm really glad she got to do this with you guys! You did a great job!
(02.09.10)
Carly :
You guys did an awesome job and it was great hanging out with you! SO much fun =)
(02.09.10)
Nana:
What a cutie!! Really "alive" pictures. Great job!
(02.10.10)
tina morrow:
Really great pictures! Very pretty girl.
(02.13.10)
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97
...and here's part two of our LTTL Saturday in Ft. Myers!
A little later than I originally planned, but I was dealing with this for the past few days:
I hate being sick. Besides feeling physically terrible, it throws off how I function and messes up my routine. Wah.
Ok let's move on. :)
The Mezger family is a really fun group to hang out with. Ben and I aren't used to really large family sessions, but this family of 9 definitely made our job easy and enjoyable. They have a blast together, and share a lot of love for one another. :)
Since there are quite a few members of the Mezger crew, let me do a breakdown for you:
The whole clan.
Kent and Jenny. a.k.a. Mom and Dad. :)
Tyler and Kari. Kari is the daughter of Kent and Jenny, and Tyler is her husband. P.s. Kari is the one who contacted us to get this session lined up. :)
Kevin and Lacy. Kevin is the son of Kent and Jenny, Lacy is his wife.
...and they have two adorable girls, Lanie and Addison. Seriously, how cute are they?! I love this photo. :)
We broke the group up into several smaller groupings to get some of these shots. This one is a sister photo. :) Jess is on the left, Kari is on the right. Jess is Kent and Jenny's youngest daughter. (Have I sufficiently confused you with this dialogue about the family tree??)
Another big group one. Good looking family, right? :)
She's so precious!
I'll wrap this up with my favorite. :) (P.s. I need to point out Kevin in this photo - he is holding Addison while jumping, and managed to get pretty high off the ground, make an awesome face, and not drop her. AND she didn't cry at all. That's skills.)
Thanks Mezger fam! We had a great time with you all! :)
Windy:
This is my favorite post ever! I knew this awesome family when I was younger and my brother in law was the youth pastor at CCC in Ft. Lauderdale. Absolutely gorgeous family! Great photos!
(02.05.10)
Kari:
Ben & Amy,
Thanks so much! These pictures are amazing. We had a lot of fun doing these photos. Thanks for your great work! Can't wait to see the rest!
tina morrow:
Love these pics! The little ones are so beautiful! :)
(02.05.10)
Kristin:
These pictures are soooo cute! My favorite are the last two! Looks great!
(02.08.10)
Jenny:
Thank you Amy and Ben! These pictures are great and we had so much fun. Sorry you've been sick. I think about half of us have had something this past week too. Hope you are feeling better! Thanks again for a job well done!
(02.10.10)
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96
I sometimes have days when it seems like everything is fighting against me. My bangs look funky. I dropped my toothbrush on the floor. Putter puked. Twice. I lost my LipSaver. I have no gas in my car. And I hit a bunny. (*ok, I've never actually hit a bunny, but hypothetically speaking) Days like that make me want to throw on sweatpants, climb into bed, and sleep until I can start over tomorrow.
I had a day like that on Saturday. No dropped toothbrush or low gas tank, but we had a different issue. The weather. Leading up to Saturday, weather.com was predicting 30% for Saturday. Ok, well that's a 70% chance that it won't rain, my optimistic side was cheering. But my realistic side argued, It's Florida. It will change. My realistic side is such a Debbie Downer sometimes. Saturday rolled around, and alas - it had increased. A lot. By 50%, to be exact.
We had two LTTL shoots lined up in Ft. Myers, and against our better judgment (and that huge green blob sitting over the state of Florida), we decided to risk it.
AND WE WON.
We beat out the weather by about 15 minutes (torrential downpour ensued as soon as we pulled into Chick-fil-A for a post-shoot meal). Our victory made me want to channel my inner 5-year-old and stick my tongue out at the meteorologist, but I contained myself.
The sessions on Saturday were rain free, and really fun. I couldn't be more excited about Love Through the Lens, and the joy that it has brought us over the last couple of months. It's truly been an inspiring experience, and we are so thankful for the response that we've received about this opportunity. It will be back in the future. That's for sure. :)
Our first drizzle-free Saturday session was with Levi, Jessica and Matt. Levi's first birthday was in January, so the shoot was a celebration, and Levi was definitely the star. If our future child can be ANYthing like this baby, I will be happy. THRILLED, in fact. He is adorable, happy, and full of personality. And he can work the camera like it's his job. :)
Enjoy a few from the day!
Let' start with my favorite from the session. Ben was holding Levi's juice cup, so even though he's not walking by himself yet, he was determined to make his way over to claim his prized possession. :) (I love Matt and Jessica's expressions in the background!)
A little fun in the air with Daddy. Matt threw him in some crazy, spiral motion and I was seriously impressed. I was also impressed that Levi didn't throw up in the process.
I mean, how can you not love that face?!
Ben and I have known Matt and Jessica for awhile, and it was so cool to be able to hang out with them and watch them interact with Levi. They are seriously amazing parents, and Levi is loved tremendously.
Jessica and Matt - if Levi signs with Baby Gap as a model and becomes all famous, just remember us little people. ;)
Mommy and Levi time.
I can't get over the cuteness. He was probably about to give someone that pile of leaves in his hand. He likes to share.
If you aren't this excited on a slide, you're doing it wrong.
I think swinging was the highlight of his day. :)
*Stay tuned for the second LTTL shoot we did on Saturday - it will be posted tomorrow!
Jessica:
LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. You guys have done it again...I never doubted you. :) Thanks so much for taking the risk and coming down for the pictures. We are so thankful for both of you.
(02.01.10)
Nana:
Oh, my, what an adorable child!! Those eyes!! Great pictures!
(02.01.10)
Grandpa Dan:
That kid must come from good stock!! - I think there's both beauty and genius in his lineage...
Great pics - you guys do good work!!
(02.01.10)
Cousin Kandi:
You've done an amazing job capturing Levi's spirit! He's such a great kid. I can't wait to see more pics!
(02.01.10)
Karen Todd:
He's such a beautiful ,happy little guy. He makes me smile every time I see his pictures. Great pictures!
(02.01.10)
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Wow! They look great! Thanks so much for the time you spent with us...I can't wait to see the rest :-)
(03.08.10)Such beutiful siblings and so much love is evident!
(03.08.10)