Dear website,
I'm sorry I've neglected you!
I'm here to give you love and attention in the form of more regular blog posts of full sessions.  

Lets begin with the Niefts....
(the IE in IE2 Construction for those of you that always wondered what that stood for).  
​This  family is special - partners in business and friends in life.  
Brushy Creek on a Saturday evening with Mike, Cody, and Kailey.  

Sweet baby Zachary.  This family is special to me - I did Zachary's older brother's newborn photos, milestone sessions, Christmas minis, family sessions, bluebonnets, cake smash, you name it.   This by far is the most satisfying part of the job.  Seeing clients become friends and being trusted with the opportunity to capture all of their most treasured family memories.  

Zachary had a semi-untimely arrival date as my studio is under construction!  I am so excited and will be posting before and afters of my permanent space.  I cannot wait.  
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So for his newborns I packed up my essentials and we did an in-home studio shoot.  Here it is from start to finish.  Would you ever guess this was in his home?  We utilized single windows, one light, and most of his shots were taken on the living room floor right next to the kitchen!

We wrapped up Zachary and got sibling shots done first. 

You want to incorporate your own idea(s)?  The answer is always YES!  Mama wanted some shots of baby with this gifted handmade blanket.  Of course we can work that in!

Time for parent poses!
​Check out the behind the scenes.  

And last but not lease a shot of baby in his crib

Thank you to this wonderful family and all of the opportunities you've afforded me!  My shutter button is ready for more milestones, birthdays, and family sessions!  

Christmas Music
Mimosas
Cookies
Crumbs
Candle wax milk
Half a dozen Christmas Trees
Sparkles
​Snowflakes
Lights
Camera
Action
Smiles
Organized chaos
A full day that I look forward to every year.   Here are the cutest little cookie thieves you'll find in the Lone Star State.  Enjoy!

I proudly present to you a parade of collages and select favorites from this year's fall time-slot sessions - 30 minutes each at one location over several hours.  I get a little nervous every year about weather, and this year gave me a run for my money but we made it. 

I always try to put together a little collage for people in their gallery.....mostly because I like to save them to my phone.   Nice and condensed.  During fall family sessions it gives them a glimpse of what their Christmas Card could look like.  I always find it so interesting to see which photos people pick!  

Enjoy!  These make me so happy.

And thank you so very much to my friends who are clients and clients who have become friends.  Best job ever.  

My 2.5 year old goes to preschool every morning and I get to spend every afternoon with him.  I love it.  And then I complain about not having enough time to work. I will get so excited to pick him up only to get bored an hour after playing.  It's the standard tug-of-war within our mom-hearts.  

This particular afternoon we had been in the backyard playing for hours....we did it all.  He refused to go inside.  I got bored.  So what to do?  Goof off with my camera.  Bingo!  My brain is entertained again!  

I wanted to try to get a real life-throw-leaves-in-the-air-qintessential-fall-photo.

We made a pile and I snapped away.  
Fail
Fail
Fail.  What do you do when you don't get the shot?  Photoshop those leaves in, baby.  

For those things we can't change, the baby cried in every picture, it rained, I do the best I can to still deliver you a gorgeous image.  But for not getting the right silly little leaves picture, or you had an untimely pimple,  Photoshop to the rescue.

Heres how.

Below.....great throwing arms in the air!  But where did the leaves go?  (Angry emoji here)

Leaves!!!  But you're running away! (Angry face emoji)

It goes on like this for ten more photos.  I'll spare you.
Call it quits and work on it later....so here it's later.
First.  The image is dull.  Lets look at the final product and before we get to the leaves lets notice the changes to exposure, temperature, white balance, and contrast. 

Everyone's different....for me I edit in Lightroom first.  When I want to get creative I go into photoshop.
Once I adjust the image to my liking to Photoshop we go.
First.....use a simple overlay.  Plunk those leaves on top of the image, move them around, and adjust them as necessary.  
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The blurry overlay and the leaves overlay

Then I grabbed some of the leaves from the image where he's running away and moved them onto the "hands up" image to blend the colors and make it look more real.
Simple as that my friends. 
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Here we are again:  Before and after!

Obviously in photoshop you can get really creative and change the background from the ugly fence or add in a light flare.  But these are for me, in our backyard, and this is what it looks like so I kept it.

Here's a light flare example.  Very instagram-y.  Remember that friends.....it takes a lot of work to fake perfection ;)

Last year I knew I wanted to do fun Christmas minis and the cookies and milk theme was just the ticket.  Let's be real - the kids need something to do/play with while taking pictures to guarantee those big beautiful smiles.  Cookies and milk was a must. 

Spilling milk all over my set isn't a huge concern if its one kid...but time slot after time slot all day long....gross.  

So last year I played around with resin.  The milk container exploded.  I know.  Struck by terror at the thought of exploding glass on your children I quickly moved on.

My creative brother to the rescue.  Candle wax.  Brilliant!!!  Purchase white candle.  Chop up.  Melt in double boiler.  Pour into milk cups.  Insert white straw.  Boom.  Non-spillable fake milk.  Genius. 

​And Ben and Pen are back again for Promo Photos!  I just LOVE them this year.  

The link is live!  They book fast!  Copy/paste to book!  https://instant-scheduling.com/sch.php?kn=2730993&typId=60653&step=2

It's a genuine honor when anyone allows me the opportunity to capture that special 1st Year.  Its an even bigger honor when it's a close friend.  You have many photographers to choose from, there are a lot of of that love to do this....and when you pick me! yay!  I am truly grateful.

I am so appreciative of the McKinley clan....We've done cake smashes, family photos, baby pictures, newborns, you name it.
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And the timing was just right that I got to capture Elise's entire 1st year.  

On a Sunday morning Tom, Ben, myself, and a car-load full of baskets, fluff, and camera equipment had a little play-date/photo session.  So fun to take pictures with friends. 
We laid down my faux flooring, moved the dining room table over, and set up shop!

​SMUSH!!

SIX MONTHS!  
Time's a flyin'. 

Happy Birthday!!
Wildflowers in the park followed by a bubble bath because folks....it's been a HOT summer.  And this was the perfect way to arrange an outdoor photo shoot in the sweltering July heat.  
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Can't wait to see how this cutie will grow!  Cheers to many more fun photo shoots!  

Ben turned two, folks, and have we entered the "terrible" phase?  Not any more terrible than the baby phase if you ask me!  Each stage poses its challenges but to me, toddlerhood is where. its. at.   I love the firsts that come during this time.  First steps, first tricycle, first time going down the "big slide", wanting to show off to us all the things he can do.  Running, kicking the ball, building lego towers and playing from sun up to sun down.

Sure beats bottles and being up all night if you ask me!  

I thought I'd feel a little sad that he is growing up so fast, but no way Jose.  This is getting fun.  

And there is nothing better than standing in the kitchen taking care of dinner and suddenly I feel those sweet little arms wrap around my legs for a giant hug out of the nowhere.  Or the time he declared "mommy favorite".  OMG.  And I know I'm only going to be his favorite for a very, very limited amount of time.  

And the pictures.  I took care of Ben's earlier in the day so that I wouldn't have to torture my husband for too long by doing some family pics in the evening.  I set the camera modes, Grandma was here to press the shutter button, and I was ready to rock.  

But I somehow stacked every chip against myself.  5 o'clock on a Friday.  Ben hadn't seen Tom yet....he was super clingy and needy for him.  It was 100 degrees and we were all sweating bullets.  Friday after a long week no one had any patience.  Oh, and we were next to a playground which was literal torture for a toddler.  

Somehow we managed to get a lot of cute ones and a lot of real pouty faces....both I'll cherish.  
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Think your kids are the only ones who pout?  Even my "in-house talent" doesn't want to do a 100 degree photo shoot next to a playground.  I actually kind of love this.  And this is why we don't give up, try everything, and take a zillion pictures because in there somewhere will be the "one good one!"

And we're back!!
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The would-be perfect dad/son photo.  But like I said.  Every chip stacked against me.  Didn't try for more.  Too hot.  Red cheeks.  Sweaty husband.  Wrap it up, Erin!  Wrap it up!
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Happy Birthday, Ben!  Quite simply:  to us, you are the best. 

Whenever someone asks me how many kids I have I say, "oh, just one."
That ends right now.
No I'm not pregnant. 

But I don't know why I reduce my one, spectacular, amazing kid to a "just".  

I think that response began to convey that somehow we're not roughing it as much as families with more than one.  Sure, one is easier than 2, or 3, or 4, but it's come to my realization that I'm shortchanging the miracle that having a child is in the first place.

I was a reluctant mom.  It took me a long time to accept that I was pregnant.  A long time to embrace being a mother.  And now as we celebrated my second Mother's Day I am on board.  Like....on board.  He's incredible, we've hit a stride, I've adapted, embraced the role, and I will never refer to him as my "just" ever again.

I hope all of you had a terrific Mother's Day.  It's fun to be celebrated and take a minute to reflect on the job.  For those of you trying, I hope you made it through the day and keep envisioning that kiddo in your life.  Believe it and good things follow.

And of course the pictures.  I dragged my husband to a dreadfully humid muggy buggy creek to take some pictures of Ben and I on Mother's Day.   We match.  We held hands.  I just love him.  

You have a family session coming up and you are checking the weather every five minutes to be sure it's sunny.  Why?!  You don't need sun for beautiful photos and quite honestly a nice cloudy day creates beautifully dreamy photos.  

Take bluebonnet season for instance.  It was horrendously cold during the day of our bluebonnet mini sessions and the sun was hidden behind a super thick veil of dark heavy clouds.  But the pictures came out absolutely stunning and the lack of sun deepened the purpley-blue of the flowers.  

Are they adorable or what.

And the flowers look so gorgeous in that shady light.  Compare that to a few sunny photographs I took outside of our mini session day.  Still beautiful but the flowers look totally different.  I think I prefer the cold and cloudy day to the "perfectly sunny day for photos" look.  

The cloudy day photos are rich, creamy. and dreamy. The sunny photos provide a lot more contrast, yellows, and whites.  In the first photo the kiddo is situated in the shade and the background ends up pretty blown out....taking the yellow wildflowers almost completley out of the photo.  As compared to the cloudy day pictures where those are fully on display.  All are beautiful.  But totally different.  Which do you prefer?  And next time you have a session on the books, don't stress about sun!!