Christmas Photo Shoot 2011

Who knew that a strand of Christmas lights, three Christmas outfits, and my camera could create one of my most treasured Christmas gifts ever. Yes, I shot these photos and I am considering them a gift to my own self. Do not judge. :) I just am absolutely in love with the way that these turned out. The images are AS sharp as I would have wanted them to be, but I did the best that I know how in low light. I will get better someday hopefully. (The above photo is my oldest daughter)

My son is seen above with genuine excitement on his face that I had just plopped a bundle on lights on his lap. Boys and technical things I guess. Almost every photo I have of my son, some part of him is blurred. He cannot keep all of himself still enough for me to get a good photo, most the time. But, this is real life people, might as well show it like it is, blurry hand and all. 

Oh man. This is my youngest daughter. She was pretty excited about putting her pretty Christmas dress on (which kinda shocked me). She was extremely willing to do this photo shoot. Best one yet of her. I don't think that she stuck her thumb in her mouth the whole time! Score! 

I am really proud of these, and just wanted to share them with you all. I will post the full set of the entire session on my online gallery. You can check out the link below! Thanks for reading, and I hope your Christmas season is filled with joy overflowing, and peace never wavering. 

Christmas cards fast?

Have your Christmas cards done yet? If so? You may go back to your uber productive life. If not? I have an easy, beautiful, and fast solution... All of these way cute Christmas cards are missing one thing! An amazing photo of you and your family! Well, you know what? I can SO help you with that! 

All we have to do is get together for an hour photo session. AND for I will personally order the Christmas cards of your choice (from Sam's Online Photo) for you! There are about 100 more to choose from than the ones that I have posted here. You get 30 cards and envelopes for $25! AND I get them SAME DAY! So, when you decide which card you want, you will be able to pick them up the next day! (all normal pricing for the actual photo session will still apply, see bottom of blog page for details)

Make the investment of beautiful family photos this Christmas season. AND remember you will also get the 45 free photo gift tags with your session! (whether you order the Christmas cards are not, if you have a session, the gift tags are yours!) Email me today to book your session!

The beautiful (and chilly) Geis Family...

I love blogging about my photo sessions, because I get to pick out my favorite photos from the shoot. But, today it was extremely difficult. I got to shoot one of my most favorite families in the world, the Geis family. It was a cold one, I think it was only 40 degrees outside in downtown OKC on Sunday. But, they had the best attitudes and were SO easy to get good photos out of. 

Dana and Jeff, such an amazing couple and mom and dad. 

They were such great sports. I know them well enough to ask them to help me try to pull off all of these poses that I have been wanting to try for awhile now. 

What's up G? 

Oh. my. gosh. These girls. Love them so much. I made them smile for me for an hour in 40 degree weather and they still gave me a hug at the end and told me "thank you." Love it. 

AAHHH!!! I love this shot!!! It is UBER (wink, wink)  AWESOMENESS! That is all I have to say. So Geis dudes, follow the link on the bottom of the page to look at your full session! Thank you so much for letting me do these. I hope you love them as much as I do :)

Tinsel and Treasure...

I attend an AMAZING church called Northview Community Church on County Line Road and Northwest Expressway in Oklahoma City. We are having our annual Tinsel and Treasure Craft Show! 

( Craft- def. something made with ones HANDS and not mass produced across the ocean by a robot. And usually hot glue is involved, somehow.) 

Anyways, it is from 9am-5pm THIS Saturday. I am sharing a booth with a good friend where I am selling these Reusable Window Clings that look like faux stained glass, they are kind of awesome. :) AND I will also be exposing my photography business to the public for the first time! (cause the internet does not count I guess) I am excited. I am also going to be advertising a special that starts TODAY:

SPECIAL OFFER

48 free photograph gift tags with every session booked by December 15!

They look like the above except with your awesome new family photos inside the blank white square! 

So, come by the craft show and check out my portfolio, buy some crafts, hear me sing (I am gonna me playing up some Christmas tunes as well), and then sign up for family photos! 

Thank you for listening to my house on a hill photography commercial, you may now go back to your previous facebooking or pinteresting. Thank you!

the Liszeski family

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take family photos of the Liszeski family. It was a beautiful afternoon in Martin Nature Park in Oklahoma City. 

The family wanted all sepia and black and white photos, but the autumn colors were so beautiful I could not resist slipping a few full color ones in there. 

Five handsome boys, what good sports they were.

Those eyes on that youngest! Amazing. 

Thank you Liszeski family. Your photos are beautiful, I hope you enjoy! Follow the link at the bottom of this page to see all of your photos...

My Family (that I got to have because I married the best man ever...)

This is us! The whole lot of us. My hubs is the oldest of six and when we get together for our yearly family photos, it is pretty much a blast. For me anyways. I am pretty sure my kids don't love it until it is over. We took them in the new Myriad Gardens in Oklahoma City, and the new children's garden was a pretty good reward for my kiddos when I was all done making them smile for me. 

Ariel usually always takes our photos for us, I kinda am in love with this one. 

Here are the sisters. So beautiful. I am so grateful to be a part in this family, and I am really proud of our photos this year. The link is at the bottom of my blog page for my online gallery, just text me for the name and password, and then you can download them to your own computer and post them like crazy, as you wish, on facebook. 

The Windblown Lady Broncos

My daughter plays on the Lady Broncos Pitching Machine team. I was supposed to take their photos before their game on Monday night. YEA, Monday night. The night when the bottom dropped out, and within an hour it went from 80 to like 60 degrees, yea, that Monday night. 

Somehow, with some good wind in the face positioning, we were able to get some great shots. I am very proud of how these team and individual photos turned out. I don't know if it was my photography skills are how beautiful these girls are, but they turned out amazing. 

I feared for my camera's life with this shot, but it turned out so, SO cute. Thanks ladies! Your prints are ready and you will get them soon!

The Fabulous Hunter Family

The above is the divided Hunter Family. Each sporting their colors proud. Grammy is neutral, as you can see with her "House Divided" shirt. Love it. Speaking of love, I will say this early and get it out of the way, otherwise I will be talking about it the whole time... the Hunter's property is beautiful. And I am jealous. Not gonna lie. 

Brannon, on the bottom right, claimed this one as his favorite picture. Hmmm, I wonder why?

Well, this was an attempt at recreating an old photo. I don't think the slide was equipped this great task that we were asking of it. But, I like the end result of this photo. 

LOVE this property. (Sorry, I had to say it again.) We made the most of were the sun was on this warm fall sunday afternoon. 

Fun times by the fire pit. The kids are smiling because the promise of ice cream when the photographer was done with them is drawing ever so close! 

I had such a fun time shooting this family. I think there are some families that the world looks at and just wishes that they could be a part of something THAT fun and wonderful, and I believe that the Hunter family is one of those. Thank you again guys! Your link to your full online gallery is at the bottom of this blog page. Grammy has the name and password you will need to view them. Enjoy!

Soccer Teams...

I got to photograph two different soccer teams today, both YMCA teams. The kids did great! The younger of the two teams had FIFTEEN kiddos! And yes, I actually did get a few team pictures when every single one of them is actually looking at me. It was awesome. Then I took photos of the "Fire Breathing Penguins." (the coach said the kids call themselves that, awesome.) They were a team of twelvish year olds. So fun, they are actually the OLDEST team I have had the privilege of shooting. They were great, and I got to try a couple of cool new poses that I saw on Pinterest last night. It was a good day. My family tagged along and got to see a few on their friends that were on the younger team, and got to play on the playground at the twelve year old game. Then we ate Braums, and now I am tip toeing into TMI territory, so I am ending this entry. Thanks teams! I will have your prints ready soon!

4 shoots in 3 days

I have four shoots this weekend and Monday. Three sports teams and one beautiful family of 14 people. I am so excited! I am married to a very handsome "realist", so I am aware that I will not always have four shoots every weekend. Even still, I am very grateful for every opportunity I have to photograph. I feel like I learn something new every time, and of course you get to meet new people and that is always fun. The sports teams are fun for me because I like the challenge of trying to remember all their names before the shoot is over. At least by the time I have seen their name on the order sheet, and typed it into my computer 5 times,  I know it. :) I am excited, and hope that this is only the beginning and that I am able to give each of my costumers a product that they love and are proud of, and hopefully want MORE of down the road. 

The Gerding Family

I got to photograph the beautiful Gerding family this morning. It was a bit windy, but a great cloudy morning. For the lighting that I like in my photos, clouds are my best friends. 

We got a few great family shots. No one was run over, there is not much traffic on this road. 

I love baby hands. 

Carson was loving kissing on his baby sister.

Mommy told him a funny story that he obviously loved. We had such a good time. Thank you Gerdings! You can follow the link to my gallery at the bottom of the page, and see all of your photos after you enter the name and password I gave you. Enjoy!

RAW

I am a bit embarrassed to admit this right now, but I experimented with shooting in RAW for the first time yesterday. I read a blog (via Pinterest of course) that told me in detail the benefits of shooting in RAW. I had, about 2 years or so ago, asked a fellow photographer why her photos were so amazing, and the first tip she gave me was that she shot in RAW. Well, it sounded like way too much work to me, so I decided to stick what my normal size photos. Well, I was working on a PC at the time, and a little program called iphoto that came with my macbook takes the "too much work" argument down. So, after reading the blog I set my camera to RAW and took this shot of my eyeball by my window. Looks pretty cool. I am real curious to see how much more space it will take up when I shoot at my session tomorrow,  and I am excited about how much more detailed my photos will be. It is so fun to experiment and expand your knowledge on something you feel like already is amazing, and making into something uber amazing! Hopefully. I am a dreamer by nature, realist in everyday life. So, we will see!

Wherever it takes me...

I have been spending a lot of time on building a good foundation for this little hobby of mine lately. I have business cards now, I got a cool new bag today for my camera and equipment, and OF COURSE my new cool wireless remote that I talked about yesterday. (I wonder if I can mention the wireless remote in every blog that I do on here? If so, it will need a cool name like "Wiro" haha, get it? WIreless ROmote?) OK, so new bag, Wiro, and business cards, things are happening in the house on a hill world. But, what is a photographer without people to stand in front of the camera and smile? All of you amazing people that want me to take photos of you are making this happen for me! And I am so grateful. If you like what I do with the photos, spread the word, please? I don't like asking for free publicity. But, today I will. :) You gotta start somewhere. I have heard my hubs say that a few times, and it is so true. I am excited to see where this little hobby takes me. And even if it only takes me to the zoo, downtown OKC, the Paseo, local parks, and people's backyards, I am good with that, TOTALLY good.

I got a new toy...

I take pictures for my mother-in-law every fall for her Christmas cards. I take them of our whole family, there are 14 of us. I love it, but every year I have to position us so that the place that I stand is easily RAN to after I press the delay shutter button. WELL NO MORE RUNNING FOR ME, MY FRIENDS. Sorry for caps, it was needed. I am excited. I got myself a wireless remote for my little camera. Yep, I will point, it will delay for 2 seconds to give me time to put my hand down, and I will no longer look like I just ran up 10 steps, cause I had. "That's what I'M talkin' about!" -Gru, "Despicable Me." (I could hold a whole conversation in movie quotes just so you know.)
 I would also like to give a shout out to the lady at Epperson Photo, she was quite knowledgable and quite tolerable of my screaming kid.

Pinterest Inspired

This day I was on "Pinterest" looking up some inspiring photo tips, saw and few, and decided to have an impromptu photo session with my three kids. The best light was... well, in the bathtub in my bathroom! I styled their outfits to go with the color of my bathroom walls and did my best to get some good shots. My kids are so used to having a camera in their face that I don't always get the best "happy faces." My oldest girl loves it, loves to pose. My middle son, pretty much hates it, but he gives the best expressions. My youngest girl is 2. Enough said. Most photos of her will have a scowl on her face, period. But, her eyes are so amazing it doesn't really matter if they are angry eyes. :)

My first returning customer (that isn't family, anyways)

Baby Abby came and did an in-home session with me when she was 9 months old. We had done her first photos at about 3 months I believe in a local park. I didn't have anyone to watch my own kids the morning of her appointment, so I set up a little area in front of some windows and tried to get some good shots. My six year old helped with keeping her happy and entertained. She was a great assistant. 

Some old friends get married...

These two are some old friends that I grew up with. They are very precious to me. When I got invited to their wedding, I decided I would take along my camera, and my zoom lens and do my best to get some good shots of their vows. I then printed them off and gave them as my gift. SO fun for me. I hope they enjoyed them. 

My sister-in-law's senior portraits

These are taken at the park and surrounding area in my neighborhood. We wanted a real natural look, with the pop if color of the red gerber daisies. She was a softball player, so the bright yellow ball gave a great color splash as well. 

Brown Family

These are from last fall. What a fun family, and I think the mom styled everyone very well. They look great.

Senior portraits in the Paseo

This was my first time taking photos in the Paseo. I will be back! The colors there are amazing and so inspiring! Gayla looked amazing, and we had a blast doing them.

Shirola Family

I loved doing these photos. The family had the unique idea of having me take photos while they made their favorite chocolate chip cookies together. She plans to decorate her dining room with the photos.

I was randomly at a Lady Broncos pitching machine team game the other night, (yea, why would I be there? I have virtually NO connection to the team) and decided to take some pics! 

 Message me on facebook if you are a parent of one of the girls and I will give you the name and password you will need to see and download the photos of your little softball girl!

Follow the link at the bottom of my page to my gallery once you have obtained the name and code! 

(just wanna keep photos of our precious girls private)

ENJOY!

Abby is ONE!

Precious Abby, my first client, EVER! Thanks Kaycee and Kim for giving me the chance to photograph this fun girl! (and Kaycee you better be making plans to take her back to that zoo with a bathing suit on to play in that, oh so coveted, water area!) Here is a link for your direct download of her photos... Thanks again!

www.gallery.me.com/houseonahill#gallery