{A Little Nemo for Miss S}

2 is a tricky age. Toddlers are either on or off and it's a pretty short window of time to shoot when they do decide to cooperate. I never really know what works until we are in the moment. All my toys, props etc. today, were not working until we found our secret weapons.... Little Nemo crackers(a.k.a. fish crackers) and a little gorilla mommy monkey acts. Who knew these were the key to finally cracking some smiles with little Miss S. I'm happy that I was able to grab some expressions that are authentically her. I think mommy and daddy will agree. Here are a few of my favorites from today. Thank you Miss S and Family for spending some time with me this morning.

Enjoy them and more to come real soon!

XOXO,

Tonya

{Purple Fairy}

Miss Purple Fairy met up at the park with me today on a cloudy, windy, March afternoon. Mommy contacted me for some special 2 year birthday pictures. I had to brush off my fairy God Mother wings and try to remember some magic words to encourage the Purple Fairy to flash me her baby blues. A little abracadabra and viola! The results were just magical! Happy Birthday, Miss Y! Always a delight and treat to meet up with you, sweetie. There are many more magical images to share with your daddy, mommy, grandpa and grandma too so stay tuned!

XOXO,

Tonya

{Client One Year Book Sneak}

This just arrived today! I had to snap off a few pics of it before hand delivering it to one of my lovely clients this week. They have been with me for a year now and during that time, I have had the awesome privilege to document their adorable baby boy's 1st year. I only offer these books as part of my Watch Me Grow Package that includes 3 discounted photo sessions for months 3, 6 , 9 or 12 months. If you would wish to learn more about these sessions, please go here on my main website or call or email me with questions about booking the series. It is an awesome investment and the best part aside from getting a discount on milestone sessions, is you get to have a baby book just like this one that includes your favorite images from all our sessions which is just priceless.

Happy Saturday Everyone!

{Inquisitive Mr. B}

Inquisitive- Definition; showing curiosity.

This sums up my latest photo guest. It also describes most 15 month olds at this age. They are discovering new things about their world each day and eager to try them out. However, I do think some babies have that extra drive to determination to practice what they have learned. His mommy shared that he knows how to turn her iphone slider on button which I thought was hysterical! I can't even open up my iphone half the time.

The other way this age explores things are through their mouth. They are also in a constant state of teething so everything literally goes into the mouth. I had to post a series of shots today of that happening. No matter what we gave him to hold, it went into his mouth...even my cell phone! LOL!

Just loved the colors this wise mommy used as she followed some of my suggestions. I really am digging all the turquoise background shots. It really made his eyes and hair pop with color. As it rained outside this afternoon while I edited, these images made me long for spring to come even more.

Enjoy your sneak peek, C Family.

Thanks for sharing some sunshine with me today.

I loved meeting Mr. B. :)

More to come in your private gallery.

xoxo,

Tonya

{Spring Fling Just For Kids}

{Save The Date}

{A Saint Patrick's Day Newborn Session}

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

This sweet piece of sunshine came to see me today on his one week birthday. Once lulled to sleep he was such a perfect peach to photograph. Though I love how all these images turned out, my favorite images happens to be the tie photos. He appears to be flexing his muscles. They made me giggle! I also love the one with his daddy. His cute puckered up smile is so precious!

What a very lucky lil man to have such love and affection of a great mom and dad who waited with great anticipation for his arrival.

Thank you L Family for sharing a bit of your sunshine with me today. Can't wait for you to see the rest in your private gallery.

XOXO,

Tonya

{Design Friday Part III}

Welcome to Design Friday Part III. Todays post is a peek into my home gallery. These 16 x 20 Canvas prints are hung in a portion of my hallway that doesn't get any direct sunlight. I think it's important to preserve your images the best way you can. I love these photos of my boys. They were taken several years ago but for me, it marks a time of innocence that I don't want to give up just yet. In fact, the are positioned so they are the 1st thing I see when I walk out of my bedroom so I get the delight of seeing them every day. If I was to do them all over again, I think I would invest in the Giclee Canvas Gallery Wraps where the images wrap around all the way on the canvas.

One of the things I am trying to do this year is to encourage my clients to find a purpose for their images. As much as I want my clients to have all their images, I think when it's all said and done, there are usually 3-5 images that end up being their favorites. It's so super easy to just throw the CD in a pile or leave it on your desktop. I get that, however, you are more likely to do something with your images right away than to tell yourself you will do something with them later on down the road, trust me. That's why during our ordering session time, I try to get a feel of which images they love and why. I offer helpful suggestions on how to arrange them in their home no matter how big or small of a space they may have. This is one of the many added benefits of hiring me as your custom portrait photographer. Above all, I want my clients to experience what I experience when I look at my favorite photos...joy...love...and happiness.

Happy Friday!

Tonya

{Self Portraits}

When I turned 40 a few years ago, I became super self conscious about how I looked on film. The camera tells no lies when it comes to laugh lines and wrinkles and believe me, I have plenty! So the idea of taking close ups were pretty scary for me. It's probably one of the reasons I have so few closeups of myself. It's been on my mind that I need to step in front of the camera and just get over all that. When I woke up today, I had no intention of taking photos of myself but the yummy diffused light in my studio was beyond great so I was actually kind of excited to seize the moment and just do it. I enlisted the help of my youngest son to see what we could capture. He actually took all of the pictures but I helped set up the exposure settings. He also had to practice on finding the right focus points but other than that his natural eye for composition is what made these as great as they are. At 9 years old, I think he's just a phenom! Hmmm...I wonder who he got that from? Now don't get me wrong, there were plenty of bad ones and yes, I did soften some wrinkles in photoshop but they are still there (just zoom in!) but at the same time, it's still me. I think every professional photographer should get on the other side of the lens from time to time. It's a humbling experience. After all, if you can't see the beauty in yourself, how can you see the beauty in your subjects?

Are you are interested in a mini portrait session?

Call or email me for details

tonya@designsbytonayr.com