Today is their BIRTHDAY!!! Today they have told me they are no longer “babies”…. Last night my daughter slept in her own bed all night (without crawling into my bed in the middle of the night). She was very proud of herself  this morning.

I can not believe it has already been FOUR years! I can remember the moment I laid eyes on them when they were so tiny, laying in separate beds in the NICU… I can remember how my daughter had such a tiny little mouth and dainty features, my son was only a few ounces bigger but shaped more “boy” in features, his fingers a bit bigger, his head shaped a little different, yet both so similar, so small…

They still have the same differences. She has her daintier figure, and he’s just a bit boxier, like a boy… Yet they are so similar as well… Twins are so interesting, watching how they play and interact, intrigues me. Sometimes they crack each other up over something that apparently I just do not “get”.. Truth be told, the first 9months of their life, they were not really very interested in each other… It has been a process for them to grow their relationship (which seems odd to me, since they’re twins).  But now they really have a strong bond to each other, even at times they’d rather beat each other up…..

Today we had cupcakes and sang songs… These are just a few images from our small celebration for my two BIG personalities

This one I have lovingly named: “My Knight in Shiny Plastic Armor”

Yes… this is a Hannah Montana wig… She LOVES the show, and well, we’ve been calling them rock stars since they were born..

(she was singing a Tyler Ward song in this picture)

Our neighbor friend and my Knight, in battle.

I guess this means he won.

My dear friend came over today to get an idea of how to work with studio lights. She has recently just started up her own photography business “Kaptured by Koren”.  She has mostly done outdoor, natural light with a very natural and un-posed style. I have loved watching her grow in her craft the past few months. Her style is so natural, I know she’s going to take off in her business!

I got her in front of my lens for a few minutes, these are just a few

I had the pleasure of having a friend over today who is just starting her photography business Kaptured by Koren. I got to show her a bit about using indoor studio lights. For once my children actually sat down in front of a camera (go figure?! It was for her, not me of course!). When she left, I put my SD card in to upload the images from today, and low and behold I had forgotten all about a trip my family and I took a month or so ago to “Pittock Mansion” above Portland Oregon. It was my first time going to visit the site, I had wanted to go for the past 15 years! Slightly damp, overcast, and jacket weather, my family walked the grounds and I got to wander around with my trusty camera strapped to me.

Here are a few from our trip to the mansion:

I will work on putting up a few from today’s get together with Koren as well! It was SO nice to get my camera back out of my bag. It had been tucked away for over two weeks since we started getting sick. SO glad we are feeling better again, it was not a fun couple of weeks!

The past few weeks have been miserable!

First my kids catch a cold. Then I end up with a sinus infection. My eyeballs ache, the pressure in my head is unbelievable!

I HOPE this goes away soon, I need to get out with my camera and get inspired! No more aches and pains…

A while ago I added my business to a baby photographer “finder”. This is a site that helps parents find a photographer in their area. It has brief overviews of information for each photographer and allows previous clients to leave testimonials.

I invite you to visit the site and leave your testimonial if you would.

babyphotographers.com

This week so far has been runny noses, coughing and not a whole lot of fun for my sweet kids. Thankfully so far it has just been a “cold” and nothing more, so I am grateful for that.

I do miss last week. We went to the park, we took walks, we played in the back yard… It was fun to see the sun out and enjoy the nice weather and good health.

Praying we get to enjoy the sun that is promised to us this week as well. Hope my sweeties get better soon!

Here are a few from our day at the park!

At least it appears like spring is on the horizon.  I know that is still 2 months away technically, but winter’s end is always a game of many seasons in this area.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. I took the twins to the park and played. We took a nature walk, and had a great time outside. When my husband got home he told me he wanted me to go get a picture of Mt. Hood so he could hang it in his office at work. (What? Leave the house without the kids?! Um YES!)

So I was off…. Driving down 205 towards the Columbia River, I was looking at how stunning the mountain was. Even the clouds were beautiful in the sky, patterned in small little thin poofs, I was excited to find that “perfect spot”!  I had planned to get off hwy 14 and go to an area I am already familiar with, but as I got closer to the bridge to Oregon the Mountain was just looking SO beautiful! I thought surely I can get closer! So I went into Oregon and started my way along Marine Drive. (Forgive me if you are not from the area and have no idea where I am going with this)… As I was driving, the mountain was right there in front of me, looking beautiful. The problem was the power lines, so I kept driving. Funny enough, as I kept driving closer to the mountain, the mountain started to get SMALLER! (what?!) I was so discouraged! Eventually I ended up making a great big massive circle back to Washington and to the spot I had meant to go to the first time.

Sadly, I was not at all happy with any of the images I got of the mountain! I felt like my little trip was a complete waist. I turned my back on the snow covered mountain, and felt hope! Before my eyes, nearing the end of the day, the sun was right there, covered with a mist of thin clouds just enough, the water sparkled, the sky looked amazing. I focused my camera towards the 4:30pm sun, the glisten of it on the water, the silhouette of tree’s and birds against the sky….

Yesterday was a beautiful, stunning day. I thanked my God for giving us such beauty.

I am so glad I did not stay discouraged. I had a lovely couple of hours enjoying Gods amazing creation with just my camera and me.

Ever try a 5 minute photo session?

What kind of look can you get in about 5 minutes of shooting? Aside from the 5 minutes of set up time tonight, I was surprised to see the outcome. I simply draped two different lengths of cloth to the back of a chair (so I didn’t have to dig out the background stand), set up a single light with umbrella, set the kiddo where I wanted them and was ready to go!

This was very impromptu with my niece and nephews this evening. They were excited to sit in front of my lights and be cute for me. I managed to get about 8 keepers in 5 minutes!  These are just a couple of my favorites that  I would love to put into a story board for them.

Yeah can you even believe the curl on him. SO sweet!

Editing and processing took more time then the shoot, but that is only because I accidentally erased these three so I had to download them to lightroom again

Hope everybody in my area enjoyed the SUN today! I will be posting some more images I got today another day. We went to the park and had a nature walk!

I have had numerous clients tell me they love “all of them” and say they “wished they could order them all”. With that I have finally decided to offer a session disk!  This disk will include all of your sessions best images ready for print. With that I will include information on some of the best places to get high quality prints made. You will also receive a license copy explaining all the uses allowed with the disk (many print labs will require to see this before doing prints for you).

session disk

*This offer is for a limited time. This offer does not include Weddings or other events.

I suppose this is what happens when the kids are not at all interested in the camera being out of the bag. I waited until they were asleep to even work on these! (sad?) I love to watch my kids play with their hot wheels together, because it reminds me of me with my little brother. We used to lay out our mom’s blanket that had a design in it that fit nicely as our “road”.  First we would line all of the cars up in one big line, then take turns picking our favorites, to divvy them up between us. Then we would use pillows and blankets to be our make shift garage on either side of one of those plastic fold up car “tracks”.  That way we each had our own space to store our cars, while we “drove to town”!

My kids play with the cars much different then my brother and I did.  I did teach them how to divvy them up, but from there they just take turns catapulting them into the wall with a make-shift catapult out of Lincoln  Logs.  Tonight my son did “drive around” with the cars for a bit, as I was digging some out to photograph. He is less concerned with the drive, and more focused on the workings. I was never like that as a child. Actually, it’s quite embarrassing to say, but I was an airhead. Thanks to my parents who are non to shy about telling me as much as well, but I can at least admit to it now. Always in dream land.

That must be why I have had so much fun using the toys as my recent inspiration… I loved playing with the cars as a child, and when I played with them, I created elaborate stories about who was driving them. I never really shared those stories, they just ran like a little movie inside my head as I lay on my stomach in my parents living room, playing cars with my little brother.

Enjoy