camryn turns one & so do i.

Happy birthday to my beautiful first model! I cannot believe it was almost one year ago today that I had my very first session with this sweet little girl.

Since it’s coming upon my one year anniversary as a professional photographer, I would love to share with you how I got started.

I have always taken good pictures. I have “the eye” as my friends and I like to call it, but I wasn’t confident enough to really put myself out there. I didn’t want to look silly. Last November one of my besties called me to ask if I could take some newborn pictures for a friend because her little one cried through her whole first attempt at a session. My first instinct was to tell her absolutely not, I have never taken pictures of a newborn baby before, and I am not trying to make people think that I think I’m a professional photographer at this point. But my friend made me feel so good about myself, like I could do anything. Like I was already a professional to her. So I googled how to use my Rebel for newborn photos and accepted the challenge. One year, lots of YouTube videos and some serious upgrades equipment-wise later, here I am.

I cannot put into words how grateful I am to my friends Lindsay and Becca for giving me the confidence to follow my dream. And also to the people who hired me when I was just starting out, still learning, and giving me such amazing feedback. To say thank you to everyone who has helped me make my dream a reality, I am thrilled to give away a family session to be redeemed in the 2016 season. No need to enter, no need to share my page or get me “likes”, if you hired me during this first year to take photographs of you, your kids, your family, you are automatically entered into this giveaway. Thank you again to everyone who believed in me and my art, I only hope that I made you feel as good in your photos as you have made me feel this past year.

grasso strong-er than ever.

Many of you from the Batavia area know the Grasso family and their story. This past winter both Nick AND baby Gia had to undergo extremely scary and invasive surgeries that led to weeks in the hospital recuperating. I am so pleased to be able to say that: both Nick and Gia are stronger than ever, prayer works, this beautiful family is moving on. So now we can talk about something else, like how pretty Beth is.

a day in the life of a newborn session.

I get lots of emails and messages about newborn sessions. I will be the first to tell you that I am NOT a master newborn poser. I am not a tiny baby whisperer. I specialize in toddlers and uncooperative boyfriends/husbands (because let’s be honest, they have almost the same temperament). I try to make it very clear what I’m about as to not disappoint clients looking for magic to happen. If you want magic, you’re going to have to go to a studio and pay studio prices. I have considered choosing a seminar to attend that focuses on newborn poses, and when I do, you’ll be the first to know.

Also, it is important for people to understand that I only work with natural light. So if you have a baby in the colder weather and do not have a decent amount of natural light coming into your living room, master bedroom or nursery, I cannot help you. Summer babies, call me anytime. That being said, here is a look into what goes down during a typical cold weather newborn session. Family pictures are always included because I do not spend a lot of time posing your new baby. You’ll get a few portraits/birth announcement options, and that’s pretty much all that’s promised, the rest is heavy on the lifestyle. The art of the everyday. The good stuff.

sponsored by marshall’s.

Living in Batavia, I struggle finding unique and adorable locations to have my sessions. Typically I do my scouting on back roads and borrow people’s farms and hay-bales without asking. This lady right here did alllll the talking and got us into the back orchard at Green Acre Farm & Nursery in Greece. No customers allowed. It was a dream.

Michelle had about 400 outfit changes and hung her clothes on their hangers all around the orchard. It was like a very rustic Marshalls. I had a blast photographing these two, and loved how well Chris tolerated our crazy.

it’s fall y’all!

I traveled down to PA to visit one of my besties a few weekends ago right outside of Philly. Luckily, I didn’t get caught up in Pope traffic, and even more luckily I was able to set up my first fall session of the season with this gorgeous family. My favorite part was when little Lo told me I was her best friend. My second favorite part was mommy’s top. Business in the front. Party in the back. These are my kind of people.

I was super excited with the turn out because it’s not easy to get a two-year-old to look at the camera AND smile. They don’t take bribes because they literally can live without anything except their mom. And we couldn’t threaten to take her away. Obviously.