Top 10 photos from 2015

This picture was taken in Austin Texas. It poured rain the day before I got there.,Like, record-breaking rainfall. It actually flooded the airport the day before I was due to fly in. So, as her mom and I were looking for location spots around Austin, we came across this park. It is normally a walking trail and volleyball court. But the lake behind it had flooded and it was about a foot underwater. For this photo I was actually kneeling in the flooded volleyball court. The net was off to my right, and the lake that she is standing in is simply normally a bank that goes down to the lake.I had my knees and hair in so much mud. We both smelled like an aquarium when we were done with the shoot. But, that sunset that night is completely real! It was a very magical day. Because it this is a travel session, I had to come with minimal props. So I actually spent the night before this cutting those ice fairy wings that she’s wearing.
Location: Austin Texas

I don’t use glitter anymore because of the littering problem, but this image is just so magical that it ended up being one of my favorites for this year. I love the sparkles, I love her little fingertips, I love her eyelashes and that you can see that she’s blowing the glitter herself. The sun in this photo edging everything in gold just makes everything more magical. Location: Georgia State Botanical Gardens

This is actually the winner of this year’s memorial princess sessions. Lexi has cerebral palsy. She has a body that does not obey her, but a mind that is perfectly fine. She’s just like every other teenager inside her head. Well, maybe not like every other teenager. She has a crush on the Egyptian god Anubis. I’m not really sure I’d call that every other teenager crush. This session was a challenge, because she cannot sit up on her own. I didn’t want her wheelchair in these magical snow princess photos, so we got her out of the chair and laid her down on the ground on a foam wedge to keep her head up. So that’s how this image was taken. She is looking at me upside down and laughing at me because I’m teasing her about her crush on Anubis. We were also talking about Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. She is nonverbal, because her body does not obey her. You can have a yes and no conversation with her, however. She sticks her tongue out when the answer is yes and keeps it in when the answer is no. She also has “curly words”. These are words that always seem to make her curl up no matter what we were talking about. Her body just does what it wants! Location: Private Farm in Watkinsville GA

This photo is special for me for three reasons. The first is that the older girl does not think that she is beautiful. After she saw these photos, she told her mom “I guess I am pretty!” For a preteen, that is a huge accomplishment. I remember thinking at that age that I was also a not pretty girl. It’s hard on your self-confidence. The second reason that I love this photo is very personal one. This photo was actually the first session of this year, and it came about 2 weeks after Christmas. But the day after Christmas, we had just lost one of our cats. I was struggling and this session provided a welcome distraction from my grief. The third reason I love this photo so much is all of those crystals hanging from the tree. They are really there, and each of those crystals belong to these girls grandmother. Her mom brought them to me a couple of days before, and I washed them and hung them all on fishing line so that I could put them in the tree. I spent about an hour and a half hanging crystals from the tree just prior to the session. Even as tall as I am, I needed a ladder for most of these! Location: Fairyography Studio on Lumpkin St in Athens

I have used this girl as a model for many other fairy sessions. For this photo session, I definitely wanted some thing that featured her simply looking like a regular little girl. We ended up putting her hair up in little nodded pigtails, and this one ended up being my favorite of that photo session because of the back lighting through this tall yellow grass. I love her Amber honey colored eyes and the little flyaways in her hair. She looks so calm just sitting there looking at me. No fluff, no fairy wings, nothing but her pretty face. Location: Georgia State Botanical Gardens

This session was hilarious and very magical. This girl is a dancer, so I wanted to do some sort of Swan Lake related something. I had custom angel wings made and bought this dress specifically for this photo session. I had bags and bags of white feathers that we threw all over the place for these pictures. This one is my favorite because of the wild abandon that I can see here. She is actually dancing, spinning around and throwing the feathers in the air. I love that you can see the edges of the feathers all picked out in the sunlight, and the movement of her hair and dress as she’s dancing. I think that if this photo has shown her face, it would not have been quite as powerful. Location: Private Garden in Athens

I originally came up with this concept of a circle flower hoop swing and I wanted to make it into a super amazing marketing piece, so I hired a video guy to shoot a video of the session while I was taking pictures. A lot of crafting went into this session. I made the skirt full of flowers, I hung the crystals from the tree, and my husband and I actually built the circle swing and covered in flowers. It’s since made several mini transitions to look very different for very many sessions. This one initially didn’t start out as my favorite photo from the session. It was originally a much closer image that I liked better, but this one seemed to grow on me as I was editing. I love the flowers, the back light, but most of all her expression. She seems really easy with life and the camera in general. As a fun aside, this tree branch is actually no longer able to support the weight of that hoop swing. Location: Thomas Orchard, Watkinsville GA

Being a children and family photographer, you get families that stay with you for years. This family has been with me since before the youngest girl was born. I do a family session for them every fall, and each time we pick a different location if we can. I style the wardrobe for this family as well, so when I built the session I built it around the skirt that the middle daughter is wearing. It is the same green as the younger daughters dress. So I knew I wanted green, cranberry, and ivory. The mom of this family is my dentist and so I have a special connection with her. She’s actually my dentist after I was her photographer, because I have been so afraid of going to the dentist since I was about 14. She is kind and gentle and never hurts me. I cried in her dental chair for first appointment out of nerves, but I didn’t even feel a thing that whole hour. It was wonderful, and if you ever need a dentist I can highly recommend DeAnn Smith in Watkinsville. Location: Georgia State Botanical Gardens

This pair of sisters came all the way from Costa Rica! They have family here in Athens, but they have been in Costa Rica for a long time. It was actually not all that cold for the session, but because Costa Rica doesn’t really have winters they were freezing. I told the older sister to snuggle up her younger sister to keep her warm and this is the resulting photo. I love that they both have blue eyes and it goes so well with the ice fairy look. Location: Georgia State Botanical Gardens

The mother of this girl saw the original hoop swing covered in flowers and wanted the same photo session for her daughter. Her daughter was the correct size to fit in the same outfit, so that’s what we did! I ended up picking a different tree for this session to make it look slightly different. I also filled mason jars with flowers and hung them from the tree beside the flower swing to give some additional color. I love the light in this photo, and her big smile. Location: Georgia State Botanical Gardens

January 14, 2016

Top 10 Per year

Top 10 Per year

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