I’m also posting more often to our business blog. *GASP* You mean you didn’t know I had a business blog??? Oh, but I do. It’s at cdostudios.com, and I’m officially inviting all of you to come on over there and see what I’m up to. I do try to keep it in the general topic of photo shoots and photography, but I try to infuse a touch of my quirky humor in and some personal bits now and then. Eventually I’ll post “events” and “specials” as well, but we haven’t quite made it that far in our marketing just yet.

I don’t post every day, though I try to do a new post every Monday, and it’s my goal to have 2 blog posts a week up there for now. So if you need a diversion, or one more thing to read online, here you go!

Your welcome!

P.S. You’ll have to scroll down the page just a skooch to see the “From the Blog” section.

Anyway, I finally got enough lights, though I quickly realized that the “icicle” lights were NOT going to work like I envisioned them, but live and learn and try something else. Eventually I got it set up the way I wanted. Though in my rather tight studio space this was a little challenging. I knew I wanted to use the “natural” light from the windows, but I had to have quite a bit of space between the backdrop lights and my little munchkins. SO it took a bit of tweaking and a lot of test shots with one of the kid’s toys, but eventually I got it the way I wanted, and here’s my results.

I just had to throw in that last one of Myles. I know he was just staring at the light that I was using, but it’s just such a sweet shot, and looks so Christmasy. At least I think so.

Anyway, here’s my sweetie Ella de Bella in her 1 yr old portraits! Started w/ polka dots so that she could have a picture that “matched” the boys. I love these! She totally wrestled that giant 1! Tossed it down then picked it back up, all while standing up on her own.

Look at this face!! She did not know what to think of all this girlie tule!

But then she cheered up.

She totally forgot about the tutu when I handed her the sprinkles!

A favorite!! But then, they all are! Ha!

Finally, cake time!

Okay, so I have no idea why these look a little funky on the blog. If you want to see the “real” photo just click on it and it will take you to the flickr page. I’m too lazy right now to figure it out. Ha ha!

It’s just the perfect size for 2 rather rambunctious monkeys. They thrashed about in it in the house for a little while, and then Mommy had a stroke of brilliance and tossed it, and them out into the yard. Kidding… they walked out.

But they ended up having so much fun in their box on the grass that I had to go join them. Not in the box. Not on the grass either. But I sat in a lawn chair and snapped some fun pictures of them just being lads.

These grins are irresistible, but you just know that lurking behind them are boys full of boyness.

Here’s how these box things work…

First you rock forward,

then you rock back,

rock forward again…

then back again….

…. and forward again.

Till you’re all worn out and then you crash in a heap in the bottom of the box.

Got it?

Good.

Dad and Lads (I actually took this one. They were posing for camera settings, ha!)

De Bella

Qade-man. I just can’t believe how big this boy is getting. *sniff*

Ma-ma and Ella

Bros

Here is we!

Fun!

Hands on eyes and in mouth, but I love it anyway.

Looks like all 3 of them are at least “saying” the same thing.

One of my favoritest!

Awwwww….

Extra fun!

We got to the location, and it was a touch darker than I would have liked because of some heavy cloud cover. But oh well, can’t chase the clouds away. So there was an open field with beautiful sunflowers that worked swell, yay! The boys, I think, never stopped talking for one moment of this session, and believe me we hurried!

After the first few attempts at photos in which we couldn’t get the kids to look the same direction at once, of course why should I expect it? Ha! Qade promptly sliced his finger while trying to pick a flower, poor guy. Those flowers may be pretty, but they don’t like being picked! SO of course he was dramatic for awhile after.

Since everyone was “done” with the sitting on the ground idea, we tried a standing up pose. But Myles refused to hold Qade’s hand until Daddy said, “Okay guys let’s pray.” Then he did, but his face looked like THIS!

So we walked a bit farther into the field to get some of the mountain in the background. The lads decided that the grass was just way too difficult to walk through on their own.

Qade amused himself while we struggled to get the others situated.

Thought we’d try a “people pile” picture, I mean, how hard can that be? But it was starting to sprinkle just slightly so we got lots of hands over eyes, and in mouth pictures from this set.

Then we decided to give the fence a try….

As you can see, it was an adventure. Yes, these particular shots make me feel stressed because I remember what it was like, but they make me laugh too. And that’s part of the point. If you can have fun, and make memories, AND get great photos from a session, you have succeeded! We did have a great time. It was fun to see Allison and she did a fantastic job snapping photos of our family! I didn’t get my “dream shot” but then, I don’t know that I need to. I won’t be creating any canvas wraps with the photos we got, but I will be filling my house with prints, because they are REAL memories and something that we will smile at and chuckle over for years to come!

Someday, I know, I will get “the” shot of our little family, and I’ll be able to have that awesome gallery wrap, but perhaps it’s just as well to wait till the kids are a wee bit older and can take and follow directions a bit better. In the mean time, I have plenty of happy memories from our little “Sun flower shoot.”

Oh, and in case you were thinking that the pics in this post are what I’ll be printing, they aren’t! They’re only snapshots along the way. TOMORROW I’ll post the “real” photos. Stay tuned for that!

Enjoy!

The big FOUR!

Love this!

One more….

Might just be my fave!

Here’s a cheesy little smile! Gotta love those lil teefers!

Ever wonder what in the world is going through their mind?

Love this shot! In color and like this!

One more smile I caught. She’s my sweetie!

This seems, to me, like one of the most uncomfy ways to watch a Baby Einstein that I can imagine! Ella didn’t seem to care though.

The lads were outside riding their “bikes” down the hill one afternoon. Myles is our little stunt dude for sure, and LOVES taking risks that his bro absolutely won’t.

See how proud he is of his ride! Funny lad!

Qade had fun too, but on a tamer part of the hill. I love this lad’s smile!

This was probably the first time I’ve EVER seen them play nicely on this tandem swing! Most of the time one or the other wants to ride it alone. This was a special moment!!

Ella, loves to be outside too. But until she starts crawling OFF of her belly, she’s going to spend her outside time in the excersauser!!

Love her face!!

I’ve been lazy, busy, lazy, unorganized, lazy, traveling, lazy, and the studio is a mess, so I haven’t got Ella’s 10 month or Qade’s 4 month pics done yet. It will happen this week, oh yes!

Ta ta for now

(That reminds me, I saw the new Pooh movie, and wasn’t that impressed, though I was happy that they stayed true to the “classic” with the characters and all)