I always love working with this family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My littlest one was looking through a cabinet in my bedroom the other day and didn’t know I was shooting these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My brother and his family during our extended family (13 of us!) vacation to Laguna Beach, Calif., in July.

 

 

 

We braved the heat in July to get a couple outdoor shots.

 

 

 

You almost can’t go outside in the summer in Phoenix. And summer starts early here. By May it’s hot — well at least by my standards! But late this month we were blessed with absolutely amazing weather. It gave me a chance to meet the Ezell family who drove roughly an hour for me to take their family photos. We had a great time and their little boy was such a hoot! Here’s a sample.

Mom said: “Show me your sad face!” and this is what he did!

A friend gave her brother and his family a photo shoot as a gift after their second daughter was born. Here are a couple of my faves from that shoot.

Mom’s hands

Dad’s hands

Big sis

Sometimes getting the older kids to smile is just as hard, if not harder, as the little ones. The little ones really just aren’t sure what we want or try to overplease, while the older kids may be a little embarassed.

During a recent shoot with my 10-year-old son, I tried nearly everything to get a smile out of him. Even a tiny smile would have been fine, but this is all he had.

So I bribed him, too, with a milkshake and a promise to stop shooting when I got a good smile. I resorted to telling jokes that only 10-year-old boys could laugh at and wound up with photos like these:

(Stop telling stupid jokes!)

(Seriously, Mom, enough with the stupid jokes.)

And then of course there’s the perfect smile and the non-look:

When he finally loosened up (and got a little involved with the background and the reflector) I got some really good shots of him actually smiling.

 

Sometimes it’s hard to get the little guys to give a good smile. Especially when they’re your own!

With this first picture, it really captures what I wanted to: her shirt says Future Rock Star (she’s always saying she wants to be on stage) and I think the attitude reflects the shirt. So I was fine with her not smiling.

But I really wanted a nice, updated shot of her smiling. So I bribed her with a milkshake and the promise to stop shooting as soon as she gave me a good smile, and we headed out for another quick shoot. While as her mom I know this isn’t her best candid smile, it’s still pretty good.

About a year ago, I took what was my favorite picture of my 7-year-old daughter. It has been replaced. She loves to pose for the camera but she’s still getting used to smiling naturally in front of it. I took these toward the end of a recent session when she wasn’t expecting it.