My dates with Baby Katelynn

A bit less than a year ago, we learned that our extended family was growing again.  My sister was expecting her fourth baby.  My brother in law the fire fighter wanted to do a fire house themed maternity session and a fire fighter themed newborn shoot once baby arrived. I was thrilled with the opportunity.  My sister was a little less than thrilled but game for the experience.  So my first official shoot with the new baby started with a maternity session.  I loved many aspects of the shoot, especially the shots from above.

Big brother is ready to protect his new sister when she arrives!

My next shoot with baby Katelynn came just moments after she arrived in this beautiful world.

Here she is with all her siblings and cousins on day 2!

My next session with Katelyn came six days after she was born for her newborn session.  I was able to use some of my new props and super excited to try some new poses but was rather unsuccessful with those as she didn't want much to do with being "folded" up for some of those super cute poses.

Then at seven days new we had our fire fighter session at the fire house.  She was a bit more cooperative with being folded on this day.  Also thankful that our weather cooperated allowing us to pull the fire truck out slightly from the garage.  

I'm super excited because I was able to get the shots dad wanted as well as many that I wanted.  We had a great time and I look forward to doing her next milestone here soon.

April's 10 on 10...

...okay so it's more like 35 on 17!  With all of the rush from attending ShutterFest 2015, I overlooked my post for my project but this overview of my last day of the conference should make up for that!

I didn't start taking any images this day until my first hands-on-class where I was able to learn posing for wedding photography.  Absorbing the knowledge of Bambi Cantrell was a highlight of my conference experience.  Watching her work and listening to her explain the posing in relation to the light helped make things "click" in my mind even more than I already understood.  Having wonderful models also helps with creating beautiful images!

Bambi hard at work setting up poses for us to learn from.

After gleaning information from Bambi, I headed over to a Kiddie Couture Class during the lunch break.  This was a fun little class, hosted by Lori Nordstrom, as well as a few other photographers, and a chance to play with a few different lighting set-ups.  These kids rocked it and were awesome to photograph.

Then I headed to the main area for the platform speaker Vanessa Joy.  She is an inspiration and I enjoy her ideas and suggestions for helping further the reach of my business; now, I just need to take that action.  Changes are on the horizon!

For my last scheduled course of the day, I attended the Continuous Lighting class with Brian DeMint.  I loved his approach and easy going demeanor.  He explained how simple work lights from your local home improvement store can provide the light you need to create equally beautiful shots as those with a higher end light.

During this hands on class, I had so much fun shooting one of the best models, Mindy!  She was absolutely awesome and just knew how to pose and required very little direction!

At the end of my day, I grabbed some dinner with my three guys.  I then saw a shout out for an impromptu shoot with Brian DeMint.  I'm so glad I headed back out for that shoot.  Working with the beautiful Anna was so worth the adventure back out.

To finish off the night, I enjoyed roaming around the hotel/conference center checking out all of the epic shoots taking place!  I just love the collective effort that goes on while at ShutterFest!

This is by far one of the greatest things I've participated in.  And to be able to say I was part of the beginning of this greatness is an even greater privilege; last year was the first year for the conference and you can check out that post here!

I can't wait for next year!