Christmas Card Pictures

Today, we made pictures with Gigi, Granddad, Greg, Jillian, and Caroline for our Christmas Cards this year.  All three kids looked so adorable in the Christmas sweaters/outfits from Gigi and Granddad!  The pictures turned out really great of everyone, and I can't wait to get our cards made and sent out to friends and family.  Here are some of my favorites!

SJ's First Birthday Portraits

We had SJ's first birthday portraits taken at Tonsmeire Studios this week.  SJ did an excellent job and loved every minute of it.  He looked absolutely adorable in them!  SJ has really grown into such a handsome boy - and he loves to get his photo taken!  We can't believe he's already one... we love our sweet SJ!

Future linebacker pose!

Time for the cake smashing!

  

Of course, we needed one of SJ and his favorite girl - his Sissy!  I love this beautiful picture of these two!

Our Family Drawing

Katie Anne drew this picture of our family all by herself, and I think she did such a wonderful job!  That's me on the far left, walking Ginger on a leash.  I'm holding hands with Katie Anne, and she's walking Abby on a leash, too.  Then, there's Daddy holding SJ on the far right.  I think this one's suitable for framing!

The Cool Kid Just Showed Up

Rock Star!

Katie Anne the Photographer

One day last week, Katie Anne came up to me and said, "Mommy, isn't Peach looking so cute today?  I think I need to take a picture of him."  She wanted to use my "big girl" camera for her photoshoot.  She started out a little weak, and we wondered if the photographer and model had the chemistry needed to make this shoot work.

However, after a quick lesson on using the display to get Peach in the picture, things started to improve quickly.  Peach is a natural model, and he worked it for the camera with all he had.

A photojournalistic shot from a slightly different angle:

An interesting flash maneuver (also known as toddler finger over the flash) cast Peach in a soft glow:

Then, the photographer wanted to branch out and take pictures of a few other people in the family.

Ginger is hard to catch:

Dorfee, however, is much easier to catch in a picture:

A picture of Mommy:

And then, the photographer wanted a few shots of herself.  I was more than happy to oblige!

Photo Fun

On Sunday, while we were celebrating Saunders's birthday, Katie Anne was in a posing mood, and she was very into having her picture made.  She had picked out her entire outfit that day (she adores this new shirt from Target), and she really wanted to pose for pictures in it.  So, while VJ was grilling steaks and Doc and Saunders were talking on the patio, Katie Anne and I roamed around the garden and tested some of the settings on my camera that we never have time to try.  We made some neat digital macro shots of flowers, some interesting color-enhanced black and whites, and just a lot of pictures starring KA while I tried the manual settings out.  Here are some of the pictures we made!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Wordless Wednesday

9 Silly, Cheesy Pictures
in honor of
09/09/09

How to Get Cute Pictures of a Toddler

Take pictures at a 10:1 ratio. That's my main tip.

Are you wondering how to get cute pictures of a toddler?
(Assuming you think I take cute ones of Katie Anne ... and I do, so there's no arguing that.)

As Katie Anne showed with Hoppy, you've got to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince, and you've got to take a lot of silly and strange pictures to catch a good one. I take about 10 pictures of Katie Anne for every one I actually use on the blog or in her scrapbook. When she was a baby, people used to ask how I got all these great pictures of her looking at the camera and smiling. I would say, "You should see the 400 that I took that week of the back or side of her head!"

Or, the ones like this...

I have noticed that professional photographers just snap-snap-snap away, while most amateur photographers try to pose for the perfect one or two shots. So, I take a page from the pros' book and just shoot. I love to use the continuous setting on my camera. I also set up the camera to take a shot every ten seconds while we're crafting or whatever, and then I just leave it alone on the table while we work. Deleting is free!

There is quite a bit of charm in the silly ones, though. So, I got the idea this afternoon for a little photo illustration of the process I go through to get a few smiling-into-the-camera pictures!

Mom, seriously ... we're done here.
"Go, go -yes, I think go. The joyfulness is over."
(Who can place that quote?)