This little family has had me photograph their 3 newborns in the past 3 years (yeah, you read that right; mama is a saint!) With the first daughter, we did this cute photo of her….Then 18 months later, we did the same “pose” with baby #2.     And you guessed it, we just had to get the same pose with munchkin #3 (which by the way is a boy…..his two older sisters are for sure going to be looking out for him!)

They have been a charm to photograph….who knows…..will we see a #4 in another year or two!?  Stay tuned!

All THREE – present day.  :D

In the past 3 weeks, I have had more conversations with people about photography that I have had in a long time. People are enthusiastic about it, and I love it! There is nothing I love more than talking photography. People are upgrading to a dslr (I strongly recommend Canon Rebels for beginners and consumers and trying to understand the power and intuitiveness of their newest gadget.

Most of my conversations almost always evolve around to my camera.  And my lenses.  ”Your camera is amazing!” “I wish I had a camera like yours so I could take better pictures”  ”That is a huge camera, I bet it takes amazing pictures”.

Yeah.  No.  Ok. First of all, my awesome camera is a Canon 50D gripped body, with a couple L lenses (50 1.2 and 24-70 2.8).  It is about 3 years old, I am not full frame, and I shoot jpeg (until just recently; I now shoot RAW).

My point?  It ‘aint all about the camera folks.  It is all about finding the right light, experiencing emotions and “capturing” them, interacting with the person(s) you are photographing, composing the picture, and knowing the camera you are shooting with… so in other words, your camera is just a tool.   Here is my most treasured piece of equipment:

Yeah, that is my eyeball.  And guess what?  I took this picture with my iPhone….with a $20 macro lens attached. I wish I had a picture of my brain, because that is my 2nd prized tool in my photography (but yeah, that would be gross).  And I am learning every day….more and more about how to see light, how to recognize a picture taking opportunity, how to take it the right way, and how to edit it correctly.

What about this one?

I took this last week of my babies asleep together after a long couple of days on the beach…with my iphone.  I know it is grainy, and not perfect, but I love how the light from the lamp falls over them and creates that safe, secure and innocent feeling of the picture.

My next point is editing your photos.  I am posting this picture here to illustrate 2 things:

1. Take a picture on purpose, not as an accident: As you can see the “after” is quite a bit different from the before.  But the before is on purpose. I underexposed it a little more than normal because of the backlighting; I did that because I could (and knew how).  By shooting with my camera in full manual mode, I was able to achieve this. If I had taken this same photo in “Auto” mode, who knows what the camera woud have focused on, let alone exposed the picture at!  I don’t want to take a picture 20 times before the camera finally gets what I am wanting the photo to turn out like…manual mode = full control.

2. Editing to enhance your purposeful photos…. I edit probably 99.7% of all my client photos, and probably 75% of all my personal pictures.  Shoot, I even have *apps* on my iPhone and iPad to edit pictures!  I edit to enhance my serious photos; not distract, fix, or dorkify them.  Yeah, there are times where I think I am funny and add captions with one liners, or add devil horns to a friend’s head….thats not what I am talking about.   Editing adds to the picture; it creates a sense of style.  Learn how to do this and you will be amazed at the endless possibilities.

In a nutshell… The best camera is the camera you have with you…….USE IT!  It doesn’t have to be a big bad fancy pants camera either…. And if you have a dslr, get to know it….sleep with it under your pillow.    If you invest in a digital camera, know that you should ALSO invest in some sort of editing software….not only to edit, but also organize all your files.  (Lightroom, iPhoto, Picasa to name a few).  And lastly, learn to see light and take pictures.  Lots of them.

This was my last session of the year; a sweet little miracle who when I photographed him at 5 weeks had already spent half his life in a hospital. He is doing excellent now and is being loved immensely by his beautiful family.

I read this on Facebook yesterday that a friend had written in her status and I couldn’t have said it better: “This Christmas when everyone is together … the kids are wild and going nuts … and it’s super chaotic … close your eyes and take in all the joy and laughter. These are the best times in your life people … fleeting moments … relish in them …and then tuck them away in your heart forever and always.” Thank you Bailey……

Merry Christmas!

I photographed this little man’s big brother a little over a year ago……and you can tell they are from the same mold! Baby A was a perfect angel for his first big photoshoot….I suppose he got some tips from his older brother since he has been modeling since he was a wee lad!

A friend of mine on Facebook tagged this picture to my wall and I thought it was so neat! I am not the originator of the shot, but thought I would send it on over to Pinterest. I also want to do a little experiment……if you are here visiting from Pinterest, leave a comment below as say what city you are visiting from. I am just a little curious as to how popular this new social networking site is! Happy Pinning!

This wonderful family wanted something different (again) and I was MORE than happy to oblige!  IF you can’t tell, they are into cars.  The whole family……mama included! A fun session with amazing results….!

To start with, here was the co-star of the shoot…….a beautiful black Continental convertible:

And on to the really important stars:

And there you have it!  These boys are surely going to be heart breakers…..so handsome!

So I had the chance to take this family’s pictures the day before Mister P headed back overseas for 3 months….even though it was so unbelievably hot and we were sweatin’ like sinners in church, I still managed to get some amazing photos for them.  Enjoy!

I had the honor of photographing this volleyball team in from out of state a couple of weeks ago! They were here in Atlanta competing in Nationals, and they apparently kicked some serious booty! We had planned on doing everything outside, but were kindly detoured inside by a giant lightning monsoon….we made the best of it and they totally rocked it out. They all could be models, right? Congrats girls!

For more shots from this session, visit our Facebook page to see more!

When I get a mom to appear in a portrait with her kids, I absolutely LOVE it.  Before recently, it actually didn’t happen much, because I really didn’t push the issue during sessions.  Until now.  I am guilty 100% of not wanting my picture taken……but man, do I love it when I get a great picture with my kids.  I treasure it no matter the quality, situation, or how we look.  I owe it to my kids to make sure I document how I look with them as they are growing up!  AND SO DO YOU!    So why not get dolled up for your session and make sure you jump on in.  Don’t make me force you…..!

Anyhow….I decided to do a contest for Mother’s Day.  All I have to say is that Moms rock.  Power to the Mama.  The world would crumble without Moms…..and one deserving mother pictured below will win a fabulous prize this Mother’s Day.

Here are 11 portraits from the last bit of some of my clients with their child(ren).  I went through and chose some of my favorite portraits with moms and I came up with these.  Aren’t they all amazingly beautiful?  Every mom will get an 8×10 print of their portrait for just being in the contest.  This contest will take place on Facebook; all of the photos below are in an album labeled “Mother’s Day Contest”.

The “Mother” portrait with the most likes by noon on Mother’s Day will win a 16×20 Gallery Wrap Canvas of that portrait! So what are you waiting for?!  Go on over and hit that like button……..I am pretty positive all 11 moms will appreciate it!  You can vote for more than 1 photo, by the way…..

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And now….without further ado……… some of my gorgeous clients.  Who are amazing mothers.   Go VOTE!  ((You can either click on the photos you love and it will take you to their facebook image that you will vote on, or you can click HERE to see the album.))

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the skinny: Don’t cheat.  I’m not sure how one would cheat with a contest like this, but I’m sure there is a way and I would love it if that didn’t happen.    The contest will end at exactly Noon on Sunday, May 8th, East Coast time.  The photo in the “Mother’s Day Contest 2011″ album on ACP’s facebook page with the most ‘likes’ will win a 16×20 Canvas wrap of THAT photo.  We will take screen captures of each photo with the amount of likes right at noon so we have proof of exactly how many likes each photo has. The winner will be announced that afternoon via ACP’s facebook page. To like a photo in any of ACP’s albums, you have to be a Liker….(or like us.).  For your like vote to count, you must still be a Liker of ACP through the end of the contest.  Wow.  Is “Liker” a real word??  Anyways. If you don’t like ACP, then your vote doesn’t count.  All 11 mamas will get an 8×10 of their photo in the contest just for being in the contest. If there happens to be a tie, then MY mom will pick the winner out of the portraits that tied.  You can vote for more than one portrait.  Shoot, you could like them all if you wanted to.

I have had the pleasure of working with the In-Flight Group at Delta Air Lines the past couple of months, and many more to come. For the most part I have been doing pretty formal photos, but today, I wanted to shake it up a bit…….thank you to these awesome Facilitators who humored me and brought out their inner goofiness and helped me get this awesome catch!

And next time you are on a Delta aircraft, give your flight attendant a huge smile and tell them ‘Thank You’ for doing such a great job keeping you safe and happy!