Every year I go through my entire year’s worth of client photos and pick my top 10. These are not specifically my best photos, but they are the ones that either I enjoyed the session, loved the final image a lot, I had to work my ass off for and therefore enjoyed the challenge, or was special to me for some other reason. Below I will list the images I chose, why I chose them, and the camera gear included.
I love working with toddlers. They are a challenge because you have to chase them around and they don’t put up with any of your shit, but when you do get a magical image, all that hard work makes it even better. I love the angle of this image and the colors. But my favorite part is the tiny tilt of her little head, her ridiculous toothy smile, and the little indentions that you can see on her hand for her knuckles. Eventually, kids lose the fat on their hands and they start to look more adult-like, but for now, this little girl still has her baby knuckles. Sigma Art 85mm 1.4 on the Sony 47r4 I definitely love my ice fairies every year. I grew up where snow was not super uncommon, and I just love the winter. So every year I do my best to make Georgia into some sort of winter wonderland in my head or the computer at least. I love this photo because this girl chose her own pose. She is extremely pretty, and knows how to stand so that she looks beautiful. Not a super common trait among children for sure. I love the light in this image, but I also love the expression on her face. She looks like she’s contemplating something and just standing there thinking about it. Sigma Art 85mm 1.4 on the Sony 47r4This image is extremely special to me because that is my sister! I am child-free by choice, and for a long time my sister was in that same camp with me, so I never thought that I would ever do maternity pictures for her. They changed their minds however, and are embarking on the super special journey of parenthood. I was absolutely thrilled to get this image of them as the family they are now before things change completely for them. Sigma Art 24-70mm on the Sony 47r4 some kids love pretty dresses and wings and crowns and princess anything. Not this kid. She hates all their crap and refuses to do it anymore. I’ve done several fairy sessions for her and her twin sister, but this year she was having 0% of it. So we decided to go with what she does like. What she does like, is goats. I love this session so much because it’s so outside of my normal realm. How on earth could I make goats magical? For this session, I got head-butted by a cow, and a goat nearly ate my camera eye cup, but it was all worth it. Sigma Art 85mm 1.4 on the Sony 47r4 Magical photos are definitely my specialty and focus, no matter the situation. I really enjoyed this maternity session because the mom looked good in literally everything I put her in, and the morning was absolutely beautiful by itself. She actually looks better in red than green, but I chose this image because I love the expression on her face and the pretty background. Sigma Art 85mm 1.4 on the Sony 47r4This image was taken during a class that I taught in Cleveland. I had this specific shot planned out which I don’t do very often. But I knew that I wanted to finish up the class with a bang and smoke grenades are quite popular with the students. I chose the purple smoke grenade to go with her purple skirt and a leotard, and she was able to hit this jump over and over and over back and forth a couple of times while the smoke grenade was going off behind her. Sigma Art 24-70mm on the Sony 47r4 This photo is from a class that I taught in Seattle. I saw this hillside completely covered in these tiny little white daisies. I knew that I wanted to lay her down in it and get an overhead shot, but then I backed up to let other people take their photos and saw this one angle instead and liked it better. This class happened to be quite a challenge because this little girl does competition gymnastics and is quite comfortable on stage, as long as she knows what to do in what’s expected of her. A photo session with 12 other photographers staring at her and cameras going was quite a different story and she got very nervous. We all did our best to make her feel comfortable and she was all smiles by the end of the shoot. Sigma Art 85mm 1.4 on the Sony 47r4This is another one of those challenge images for me. This girl was not enjoying her day, is very particular to begin with, and then I stole her shoes and made her walk in the wet grass, which entirely murdered her afternoon. She is a thinker of a child and doesn’t smile very easily. I did get smiles from the session, but to me this image is the one that held my heart. Her soulful gaze and swoopy hair really make this one-of-a-kind. Sigma Art 85mm 1.4 on the Sony 47r4 and another challenge session for me. Murphy’s Law was completely in effect for these photos. I made a mistake in the packing up of the session and thought I was packing for an 18-month-old girl. I just happened to have the size of dress of this kid in the car in a happy accident. Then the weather changed while I was on my way to this shoot. It was about to rain, and we had a very short time for pictures before the rain knocked all the flowers off the shrubbery, so this was pretty much our last chance to get these photos done. Unfortunately, I put two batteries on the charger before I left, and left them there at the house. I showed up with 7% battery charge in my camera and had to get my husband to bring me my spares. Let me tell you, I looked super professional in front of these clients. I felt horrible and did my best to get beautiful photos despite my poor preparation. Not only do I love this image because it’s beautiful, but I love this image because I was completely flustered and embarrassed and still managed to get something usable. And on a very personal note, I love that she still has her glasses on in this photo. As an entirely nearsighted child without my glasses, I often felt very unpretty and it’s very special to me when I can make a child feel beautiful with her glasses still on. Sigma Art 85mm 1.4 on the Sony 47r4 it’s also really important for me to make all of my subjects feel beautiful, especially teenagers. We all struggle with self-confidence as teenagers, and it’s super critical for me to have any teenager in front of my camera feeling amazing. This girl not only rocked her session, but this image in particular I absolutely adored. The lighting, her hair, her wings, and the dress is amazing, but my favorite part is her graceful, gentle fingers wrapped around that branch so that she can smell those flowers. Sigma Art 85mm 1.4 on the Sony 47r4
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