Here is a cutie. Taylor first session was her newborn session. I love to see children as they start to grow up. This first photograph drew me in, but at first  I was not sure why, but after studying the expression on the bears face, I can see that Taylor’s expression kind of matches the bear’s expression, and it kind of makes you want to laugh, but then you want to say ‘awe” first. This session was in celebration of Taylor’s new sibling who is due to arrive on planet earth in about 2 more weeks. {We did shoot some mommy belly photographs, but I like to keep those private from my posts unless the mom’s really want me to show them.} I do have to admit, Taylor stoled the show for this session. Here are just a few images from the session. I love the simple innocence of some of the images, and some of her fashion modeling was kind of cute too! Congratulations Brad and Amber, I can’t want to see the newest addition to the family.

Several years ago I photographed Shannon and Peter’s wedding which was one of my favorite weddings to shoot. They had a wedding in the countryside, and I remember one of the scenes we found a barn in Arlington Tennessee with an old airplane sitting just inside the door. {Shannon and I took several shots of her and the plane just a few minutes before her wedding, that was just a blast for both of us.} In this post you’ll get to see their new baby boy and just a few of my favorite images from the session. Shannon had come in just about a year before for her maternity session, and I’ll show you one that I don’t think she’d mind me sharing. Probably one of my favorite maternity photographs because it was so different and fun. Anyway, Shannon is another incredible bride that had me photograph her wedding and has become one of my family session clients. I hope you enjoy these. {I know you will love their new baby boy, he is just full of fun and happiness!}

I get a lot of requests for the “Modern Art” Collection from mom’s what want something unique from their newborn session. I blend my lifestyle portraiture approach into the photography session and spend some extra time getting simple images that I can use to create works of art for canvas print enlargements. Most moms order a 24 x36 Gallery Wrap Canvas Art Print that they can hang over the babies crib or bassinet in the babies nursury. This work of art becomes the focal point in the new nursury, when family, friends and other guests come by for a visit, they are not only smitten with the beautiful new baby in the home, but they are amazed by the beauty of the Canvas Art Print. The great thing about Canvas Prints with the large Gallery Wrap edge, it goes with any style home decor, both traditional and modern. When we create these beautiful canvas prints, we are able to do some amazing art effects in simple black & white, sepia tones for aging techniques according to the clients personal taste. We also work ardently to find just the right accessories for our art images, maybe a blown glass bowl, a hand woven basket, or some special flowers or leaves. I also encourage moms to go shopping to find some items or objects that they may want used in the session, it adds some fun to the session to use items that can become familiar icons around their home in the future. Some of my favorite places to shop around in Memphis are Pier One, Pottery Barn, and some other gift shops in Germantown. There are also a few new art galleries downtown in the South Main Art District that offer some beautiful blown glass vases, plates, bowls and artefacts. A small basket, or a piece of pottery, or special platter that serves not only as a piece of art, but a reminder over the years what a simple miracle it was to see the birth of their child and how much they have grown. The modern art sessions can take a couple of hours depending on the new baby and feeding schedules, I focus more on getting artistic photographs with limited scene changes, as you really only need just one for your fine art piece. The rest of the images from the session can also be made into a modern coffee table book. I offer some beautiful leather album designs and several modern art book choices. Images like these deserve the investment into an album that will last over 100 years. Here are some images I photographed from a recent session.

I do quite a few editorial magazine shoots, usually fashion shoots with professional models, lots of incredible clothes like Armani Fashions or Nicole Miller. I got a call from one of the editors at Southern Bride Magazine asking me if I’d do a children’s shoot for one of their issues.

Of course I said yes, and soon the date was set. The theme of the shoot was designed around “Cupcakes and Candy”. If you have not been to a really chic & posh Southern wedding lately, one of the hot items is a “Cupcakes and Candy” bar, full of Godiva Chocolates, pretty and colorful candy items, and jars and jars of different candies for guests and children to enjoy. {believe it or not, the children on this shoot did a great job not wiping food all over their very expensive outfits.}

For this shoot the fashions were provided by Strasburg Children’s Fashions, Halo Hattie, Bella Bliss, and Baby Deer, which are all very well known lines in the children’s fashion industry.  The candies were provided by Dinstuhls Fine Candies, and the cupcakes by LaBaguette. For the shoot, Magic Mr Nick’s was brought in to entertain the kids, and he also brought some live doves, which were a big hit with the kids on the shoot.

Angela Dacus with Southern Event Planners was brought in to create the setting for the party shoot. Also, my wonderful wife, who happens to be the owner of Eston Salon, bought in her hairdesign team to handle the beautiful hair and makeup for the kids. I get some calls from time to time to shoot children’s parties, so if you have a party coming up, this spread from Southern Bride will definitely give you some ideas on how to plan an incredible kids party. {Here are some of the actual spreads from the magazine issue from Tennessee and Alabama editions in 2008.}

{and, yes, we ate a lot of candy on the shoot}

The fall in the old town square in Collierville offers some beautiful backdrops for family portrait sessions. For this session, the cousins all gathered for a fun time in the park near the old train station. The kids were having a great time playing in the park. I love to catch kids being kids. They all climbed on top of the old park bench and made my job easy. {Well, kind of easy. Catching moments like these really does require lightning fast response by the photographer, or the kids simply run on to the next moment in the park, they don’t sit still long} The emphasis of this shoot was to get some family group portraits along with along with lots of photographs of the kids having fun together. Even though there were some fall and holiday colors in the park, the first image just reminded me of what could be an old photo, so I simply aged the image and let the highlights blow out a bit. Their faces tell the story. I’ve known most of the family for many years, as they are good friends and clients of my wife. I love the opportunity to photograph families and offer them memories for generations to come.

Jamie is a hairdresser who works on my wife’s team at the salon. She and her husband Nick have become a fun part of our salon family which we have grown to love so much over the past few years. Jamie asked me about a year ago if I could photograph her family at the park for a special gift for her parents anniversary, and of course I said definitely. I shoot lots of group portraits for weddings almost every weekend of the year, but I usually don’t get but about 3 or 4 minutes to work on the styling of the groups, so it’s nice to be able to have plenty of time and set everything up without the rush. For their main group portrait, I wanted a vert classic family styling for the shoot, not quite as edgy as some of my lifestyle portraits. In this post you’ll see our final image selection for their wall portrait, and just a couple of family group shots of Jamie and her husband, and one other shot of her sisters and their husbands. This was a fun session we did on a beautiful day at the park, one of those perfect days with beautiful skies and great temperatures. Thanks Jamie!