Contest just in time for the holidays!

****Contest is closed*****

I wanted to do a contest for those families who helped make this first year in business so great! Each one hired and trusted me enough to capture their family dynamics and for that I am grateful. I have grown so much this year and I hope to continue to grow into 2010 and beyond.

To say thank you to my families I have chosen my favorite images from family sessions and included them in this post for you all to vote on in the comments section. The contest starts now and will end Sunday December 6th at 8pm Central time. Each person may vote once so pick your favorite! The winning image will receive a $100 print credit (digital images and holiday cards excluded). So get voting and spread the word so that your image can win! :)

**Please leave your name along with your comment. :) Thanks!!**

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Thank you once again to my wonderful families. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Fall Session-Virginia Family Photographer

I was lucky to shoot a session with Heather and Andy last week at their home and on Vanderbilt Campus. I loved that they came prepared with three outfits to dress up in and the colors they picked were so vibrant! Awesome job guys. :) Hope you enjoy your sneak peek!!

Andy can totally make Heather laugh. I loved it. You could tell how much she loved him just by how she looked at him.

More laughs. I love this one.

Sassy.

Hello beautiful eyes!

Christmas card maybe? :)

I hope you both enjoyed your session! Your pictures will be coming shortly.

Fall Session-DC, Washington DC, Virginia,

Photographing friends is always fun and slightly more relaxed. Had a blast yesterday with Amanda and Steven and their little boy. After all my sessions with toddlers photographing a 5 month old felt like a breeze! We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon with beautiful temperatures, a fantastic backdrop, happy baby and a few leaves. :) Hope you three enjoy your sneak peek.

Loves from Mom.

This little guy had a serious leaf obsession. :)

Love the BW for this one.

He was totally smiling at Dad. I was right over Dad's shoulder.

One of my favorites. Thanks for the ideas Steven!

Pictage PartnerCon in New Orleans!

I am happy to announce that I made it back alive from New Orleans. Those of you on the down-low know that I got sick while in New Orleans and wound up coming back earlier than planned. But enough talk about being sick. I'm finally on the mend though still suffering from headaches, cough and sinus problems.

PartnerCon was my first ever photography conference and it was such a learning and enriching time for me. It allowed me to evaluate what things I need to change about my business and how I can take steps to better my business, my editing, my branding and myself.

I got to hear from wonderful speakers like Jason Aten (I loved Jason's presentation!!) about ten steps to better my business, Melissa Jill who shared her three tips that made her business sucessful, Nathan Holritz who gave me extremely invaluable tools that will help speed up my workflow, Kevin Swan whose frank, no holds bar approach to marketing was a wake-up call to start focusing and of course the wonderful couple whose images are below, the Grays (from Nashville!) who shared their ups and downs in the wedding industry and what they do to stand out (that is a very watered down description of their talk... it was fantastic and I'm not just saying that because I think they might read this). And the images are the result of a fabulous shoot I was lucky enough to go on with the Youngrens. They're a husband/wife wedding team from San Diego who were kind enough to take 25 of us photographers around the streets of New Orleans giving us pointers on how to improve our skills, how to better interact with couples and what to and not to do.

I will be forever indebted to the knowledge I received last weekend and only wish that I had been in a clearer, less "sicky" mindset. But alas, it was what it was and the information I gleaned will help as I continue my journey in photography. Thank you to every speaker and the Youngrens for a fantastic conference week. And thank you to my MOM who flew in to watch my little girl to only return home and pick up the same thing I had. Love you Mom, without you this would not have been possible!

So, it totally doesn't hurt that the Grays are GORGEOUS! Gorgeous people make my job easy.

Jody has an infectuous laugh and beautiful smile.

In this shot you can see that I'm shooting through the other 25 or so people that were there. Getting a great shot was not always possible but I thought, hey, shoot anyways and I actually this one because it shows that I wasn't the only one there. That and Jody's laughing at all of us.

Finally, I just had to include this image. It's not perfect, heck, I don't think it's even in focus but I kid you not, I was the only one there without an iPhone. I lie. There was another girl I hung around with who didn't have one but seriously, everywhere I went, iPhones iPhones iPhones. Our conference could have been an Apple commercial.

Hope you enjoyed! :)

Vanderbilt family session-DC Family Photographer

I must make this short and sweet... it's way past my bedtime but I could NOT wait to post these pictures. My session with Kate and Brent and "big boy" as his parents call him was a blast. We wandered around Peabody Campus (part of Vanderbilt University) where the leaves are in full fall peak. We could not have asked for more beautiful weather! It was cloudy and raining this morning which worried both Kate and myself but by this afternoon the clouds had cleared and the most gorgeous fall light I have ever seen set in. These images took little editing because of the fantastic light. Note to self: do whatever you can to constantly shoot at this time of day.

Hope you three enjoy your sneak peek. :)

(In my excitement and tired disposition I just now realized none of these images have watermarks. Oh well... )

We started out at home with Kate reading to B.

They had these awesome couches next to the windows. Had to have a shot here.

When we drove onto Peabody campus I just knew that we had to follow the road back and take some pictures around these trees!

Don't the colors of the leaves just add so much life to this image?

Brent and B have a very close bond as is seen in this image and the next few.

One of the few I converted to B&W. I just couldn't do it! The colors are too rich and beautiful.

Now for some one on one time with Mom.

More loves from Dad. This picture melts my heart.

These leaves looked as though they were on fire and I made sure we got a few pictures near them.

Canvas!!!

I can't tell you how giddy I was leaving this shoot though I totally acted normal don't worry. Once I had driven away though I pulled over and scrolled through all the images really quickly. Thanks again Kate and Brent, it was a great afternoon!

Second shooting my first wedding

I was fortunate enough to second shoot my first wedding as a photographer a few weeks ago with the wonderful Jennifer Creed whom I now consider a good friend. When my husband Scott and I found out that we were going to be moving to Nashville Jen was one of the first to email me and let me know that if I ever wanted to second shoot with her that she would be more than happy to have me come along. This Southern hospitality thing is wonderful! ;)

And so we were able to shoot Tyler and Kati's wedding a few weekends ago and I was as nervous as could be. Kati and Tyler were wonderful to work with, their love for each other radiating in their eyes and the glances they stole. It was such an honor to be apart of their special day. And Jen was equally as wonderful, always giving me pointers, showing me how and why she did certain poses and being a great mentor. While I know I still have so much to learn I thought I would post a few of my favorites from the day. Hope you enjoy! :)