A beautiful Lily: Ladner Newborn & Family Portraits

I was so excited on a somewhat cloudy morning to head to my old stomping grounds for a newborn photoshoot right near my old high school. Becca and I went to high school together and, funny enough, are both teachers now only Becca teaches at our old high school and, after having her second little baby, is on maternity leave again. Her oldest, Logan, is just a bit younger than Ben and I was so excited to have a chance to photograph their newest addition - Lily!

Here are some of my favorites pics of her gorgeous little family! They picked some beautiful colors for the photos and had a great home with just the right amount of natural light.

Logan was amazing for the entire shoot and, it definitely helped that he could settle in with dad and watch some Nemo while Lily had her photos taken.

I absolutely loved the light in this particular spot and the way in which Lily looks so little when held in her mom and dad's hands. She's so precious!

Father & Daughter.

Some more shots of this beautiful family. I love the colors in Lily's dress and how she's just sleeping so peacefully through it all.

Now for the star of the show. She was so amazing throughout the whole shoot and endured a number of wardrobe changes. I had a bunch of new fabrics to try out and she was happy to oblige :)

Lily has such beautiful hair for a little newborn - hair that a lot of kids don't even have at age 1 or 2!

I got some gorgeous hats from a store on etsy, KnitWitWoolies, and had a lot of fun trying them out on Lily. I love how the pom pom on the bottom rests on her little bottom. So cute. Richard and Logan were enjoying some movie time while Lily was getting her photos taken and I love that you can see them blurred out in the background of the bottom photo!

A few of mom and dad with their little princess. Check out her smirk as she lays in her daddy's arms. Love it.

I love the little one-eyed look in the bottom photo. She looks so happy to be hanging out in that bucket :)

Becca shared with me that their beautiful little girl is named after the flower that Richard always buys for her so she had a few on hand for the shoot. I love it when clients come with creative ideas like that - it makes my job even more enjoyable than it already is. As you can see she wasn't too into this hat at first (another etsy find!)  but, a pee and a poo later and she was good to go :) All in all, considering that was the only drama of the photoshoot, I'd say we fared pretty well!

I know from experience that, when the older sibling is only 2 and a bit, it's hard to get a good photo of baby and big brother but we got a few in this spot and then some more later when we were outside. Logan did really well and Lily looks so contented with him snuggling her.

A few more faves of this little beauty.

While Lily got a bit of a milk break, I headed outside with Rich and Logan for some father/son time. I love how much air Logan is getting in the top picture!

We even took some at the park right across from their house where Logan loves to play. What an awesome place for a kid to grow up and Logan was so good about coming back into the house. Such a great little guy.

A few of Lily and mom and dad. Have I said yet how amazing Becca looks? Such a beautiful mom.



Such a fun family. I love how Lily has her eye on the camera in a lot of these pictures.



Becca & Richard, thank you for inviting me into your home to photograph your beautiful family and precious new addition. I had such a great time and it was wonderful to reconnect with you, Becca, and meet your other half and kidlets! I hope you enjoy your photos and maybe we can even find a time to get our boys together while we're off on leave together :)

Lung Family of 3 (Derby Reach Heritage Site)

A number of years ago we started attending Jericho Ridge Community Church in Langley and have met some awesome families in our time there. There is especially a great community of women at this church and, this time around on mat leave, I've been able to join some other mothers in the Friday morning gathering on the 'time starved marriage.' I met Kara through this group and through the mass baby showers every 6 months that Jericho Ridge is so awesome about organizing and was so excited to have an opportunity to photograph their family before the arrival of a little brother or sister for Jonas!

We headed to Derby Reach Heritage Site - a first for me - and I was so pleased with the venue. Beyond the awesome scenery it was an absolutely perfect day for photos considering the forecast was for rain all day. As I waited there for the Lungs' to arrive I couldn't help but praise God for the beautiful place we live and for granting me just the right amount of picture perfect cloud cover!

Here are a few of this gorgeous family!

I love the bottom photo and think it will be particularly special if Kara ends up having a girl :)

With Jonas turning 2 on Friday, I couldn't believe what an awesome listener he was the entire time! Way to go little guy :)

Being a mom of a 2 1/2 year old myself, I'm learning to come armed with some toys to help 'encourage' participation amongst the little ones and the Thomas the train worked fantastically for Jonas!

Kara looks just gorgeous, especially for someone who is only weeks away from giving birth!

Such a beautiful family!

Even though there were plenty of backdrops at the Heritage Site, we headed across the street to get a few pics overlooking the water and, again, I was so amazed by this beautiful spot and, on a cloudy Wednesday afternoon we had it mostly to ourselves. I love the way that Howard and Kara are looking at each other in the bottom right photo. Such a loving couple!

And Jonas was still happily co-operating - kind of a dream kid from a photographers' stand point.

We were trying to get Jonas to kiss Kara's belly but he wasn't into it. When I suggested that he and Kara both show their bellies, he started to perk up :)

Quick wardrobe change in honor of our Stanley Cup finalists and there were just too many to share here so I had to share a handful!

Kara had mentioned that she had some photos taken when she was pregnant with Jonas like the ones below so we decided to recreate it. I can totally empathize with other moms who are trying not to shaft the second child simply because they're the second child :)

With the end of the photoshoot in sight, we decided to get a few final ones of Jonas and his mommy before he has to share her with another little one and the end product was adorable.

The love this family has for one another is so evident in their interactions and you can see it in every photo. Jonas was such a great sport, Howard, you had such an awesome attitude throughout the whole session and, Kara, I can't say enough how amazing you look!

Thank you guys so much for letting me get to know your family a little more through this experience. I am really looking forward to the arrival of your little one (though probably not as much as you're looking forward to not being pregnant, Kara :) ) and getting to know your family better in the years to come.

Zacher Family in Fort Langley

 

 

I have had the absolute privilege of getting to know Val Zacher and her family over the past 5ish years and have had the chance to photograph them as a family since Daniel was born :) It's crazy to think that I knew Daniel as a little baby and now he's a full blown 3 year old! Since then, they've welcomed Bridget Ann into the family last April and I've had so much fun watching these beautiful kids grow!

Last time we did a photoshoot, we were trying to avoid the snow/rain and ended up only being able to get a 30 minute session in so, when I saw that the weather was going to be perfectly cloudy for our shoot, I decided to try to get as many combinations/locations in as possible and we had a great time.

We started out at the trains in Fort Langley and here are a few of my favorites. Daniel is definitely screaming '3 year old' in these photos and I was happy to capture it as I'm on my way to that stage in just a few short months with Benjamin ;)
While I was taking some pics of Val and Bridget the train went by and I was able to snap a few of Daniel and Ed. He just loves his daddy! I also love the bottom photo because it captures the unposed reality of what it's like to try to get a 3 year old to pay attention in a photoshoot for almost an hour and a half. Daniel was kind of getting sick of it early on but, with a few breaks to allow him to burn off some energy, he got right back into it and stuck it out for the whole hour and a half - pretty awesome, I'd say!

The fam!

I probably got about a dozen hilarious ones of Daniel and Ed like this one below on the left but just picked one for the blog. Daniel was totally not prompted to pose like that but came up with it on his own and I love it :)

Next we headed down to the water and took advantage of the fact that Bridget is walking now so we could get some good ones of her and Daniel by the logs. I love getting shots of the siblings. It also makes me excited for when Jacob can start to walk and I can see my own boys interact. Daniel is such a good big brother :)



At this point we started to lose Daniel's attention again so we gave him a little break to practice his sweet jumping moves!

Bridget needed a break too so Daniel planed himself in the middle of the sidewalk and gave me an awesome action sequence :) Thanks Daniel!

Yep, he's a boy :)



More of this gorgeous family down by the water. At this point there may have been some threats that Daniel might not get his promised treat of ice cream if he didn't start looking at the camera so you can see that he's looking quite reformed in the top left picture :) As a parent of a 2 1/2 year old I fully support the 'bribe them with a treat so they'll endure family photos' method. I use it all the time!

A few more sibling interactions :)

I'm pretty sure they couldn't get any cuter :)

A few of the lovely couple just by themselves!

Finally, we had joked earlier with Daniel that, for the last picture, Val & Ed were going to throw him into the water so I figured that'd be a fun way to end off the shoot!



Thanks so much to all 4 of you for such a fun afternoon! I am so happy to call you guys friends and be a part of your family memories. Looking forward to watching those beautiful kids of yours grow as long as your Ontario family lends you to us here in B.C :)

Follett Extended Family Photos: April 17, 2011

I've been lucky to follow the Follett family over the past few years as they've added two beautiful boys to their family and was very excited when Lindsay asked me to take extended family photos when her sister was in town from England.

We headed down to Fort Langley (such a beautiful location!) and I was a little nervous at first considering Greysons' reaction to our last photoshoot but, it seemed clear, after the first batch of photos that he was ready to co-operate!

Here are some of those first family shots!

From this spot we moved on to the big orange and black trains that were a highlight for Greyson. We did some smaller groupings here and tried not to overstay our welcome with Greyson! Greyson & Piersons' Aunty Kim and Christoph were in town so we got some shots of the two of them as well!



They are such a beautiful couple so I had to post this one as well!



Aunty Kim had just met Pierson for the first time so I made sure to snap some photos of her with her beautiful nephews!




We were also happy to get some of Grandma and Grandpa with the boys and Pierson was SO smiley!

 It was so great to see Lindsay with her sister and parents so we made sure we got some of the 3 lovely ladies of the family and some of just the four of them! Such a nice memory :)



These ladies are so beautiful and it was fun to watch the 'Brownlee' family interact!



On our way to the next location, we saw the train go by and I was able to snap some pictures of Greyson as he was fully enamored by it! What a cutie!



We headed down to the water but snapped some pics at another great location along the way and Greyson was still participating! At this point, I think we'd already been shooting for an hour and I was amazed at how well Greyson did!

Here are some more of my favorites down by the water!

And some more!

At this point we were getting close to the two hour mark but all of the family was doing a great job of keeping Greyson entertained!

It was finally time to let Greyson call it a day but, before we did so, I was able to get some shots of him and his mom!

What a great day! Beautiful weather, co-operative kidlets and a wonderful family to work with.

Thanks Follett & Brownlee families! It was my pleasure :)