Little baby girl R. – just five days old =)  Thought I would send you all into your friday and weekend with a little precious baby smile.  She’s beautiful and looks just like her mommy!

Wedding weekend for me – see you all soon! Oh and thank you so much for the kind comments and messages lately, be it on posts or in general.

You all make it worthwhile.

xo

dani

… your heart needed a little tug today:

Just a reminder to appreciate the small things in life, they change fast.

xo

dani

We’ve returned from our vacation, and it was great! Just a reminder that DLP is closed until June 19th and emails will be returned starting the 16th.

I did cave on vacation, however, and shoot with one of my favorite families two sundays ago.  I met J & C and their super cool mom  in 2008 and have had the chance to photograph them several times since.  When Mom contacted me a few weeks ago that they would be in town I couldn’t resist the opportunity… especially when I just had to meet new baby sister L.!

I look forward to sharing more from this session, these kiddos have the most amazing, piercing blue eyes and are just darling.

What do you get when baby decides location number one is not the choice for a nap? You shoot at location number two after a quick car ride and become Urban Baby. It worked out well, and she’s awefully sweet!

 I hope everyone is enjoying their June.  I have made a huge decision to scale back this year in the amount of appointments I book.  I am booked for regular appointments into October and will be offering a “sort-of” mini opportunity for any remaining bookings.  There are two weddings coming up in July, and I am really looking forward to them.

See you on the 19th,

xo

dani

…where I have been…

Little Mackenzie is a new addition to our family, my son is happy to now be a “big” cousin, as he’s been the littlest =) I love her middle name. In Polish, I am told this means “Lucky” – you can swoon now if you need to.

Then there is Baby J. who is quite possibly one of the most content little smoocharoos ever.  His little eyes were open most of the time, I can only pretend to know what he was thinking of the colorful light patterns he was probably taking in.

I love a good sequence.

Big Brother D. and Big sister M. were digging their new status’ as caretakers.  Tiny guy J. probably would have hung out on his sister all afternoon had that been in M.’s plans!

 I can be found plastered to my PC screen finishing up a wedding for the next week should you need me.  I am anxiously awaiting new contact lenses, as this “holdover” pair is much harder in texture and irritating the you know what out of my eyeballs.   Astigmatism sufferers unite!  I had a 2.75 diopter on my right eye when I really needed a 4 (yes, blind) and I’m finally after so many years of knowing this, changing lenses -  I’m looking forward to having a bit more depth of field.  I use my left eye through the viewfinder, supposedly, that is weird =)

Wishing you a happy monday,

xo

dani

(I prepared this post last week on sunday, as I have been doing them ahead of time – lucky me when I decided to post this that it said “wishing you a happy monday” – love when things work out – silly, eh?  These sessions are two weeks old, sorry for the lack of a preview to these families, as they have already received their galleries)

The HAIR on this child is unreal.  He is twelve days old, and has the softest, silkiest hair in the world.  Little E.’s hair can take K-pak’s finest and make it look like nothing.

This little peek-a-boo image is just what I wanted it to be, therefore, it gets to go before all the wordy-words.

Oh, how this minute hairy little being just made me so happy today.  Shot at 1.4 – I love how the focus just falls away and leaves the details to do the speaking.  That’s as little as it gets, and he won’t be this way much longer.

Little E. came to us as a baby model for a student who is doing some shadowing (and shooting!) for her Senior Project.  And, what a wonderful job this sleepyhead did.

He just slept, and slept, squeaked like a mouse, and slept some more.

He even let in an ever so miniscule smile.

Delicate little fuzzy wrinkled boy =)

He also even hung in there long enough for the student to get this at the very end, just when we’d thought he’d had enough, she was able to snap this one as he calmed back down.  Didn’t she do an amazing job?!

I think there’s a future there for you, Ashley.  However, she’s all into this “psychology” thing. Hmph   She will do great things no matter what she does though, I have a feeling.

A few conversions, I am slowly starting to embrace haze and noise a little.

 More itty-bitty rolly wrinkles =)

And because everyone loves a good pull-back image… my kitchen + lightstands/crossbar, 14.99 pier one clearance curtain and the elusive nest rug from pier one as well. No draping over a couch today!

Man. I’m telling you what. I sure love going on location for that personal touch but NOT traveling today, and using my kitchen (shhh) when my husband remodeled the kitchen he purpously left the island detatched, so we can change it’s direction or move it out of the way entirely, so that helped a lot today. Everything I needed was right there and swapping out material items was so easy and quick.  I only had to haul it from the basement. Not from the basement, to the car, to the client, to the car, to my basement.  How I dream of a natural light studio one of these days.  I also dream of winning the lottery to see that such an idea would ever exist =)

Have a great weekend and enjoy this little cup of sugar I’ve left you with =)

xo

dani

Welcome, little C. Your brand new, gentle face holds all the words I cannot find.

xo

See that red hair?!

xo

dani

Have a great weekend,

xo

dani

Things on one end of the “entanglement” spectrum are semi-stable and I did have a chance (even with the level 2) to go and meet baby C.

He’s got those oh-so-squeezeable rollies and the teeny remnants of lanugo on this little shoulders.  Hairy babies are the best =) {says the mom of a son born with hair on his ears; who kind of didn’t want it to fall out as fast as it did!}

Oh, and the eyelashes. Such a sigh there – so beautiful and intricate.

I thought, while I had the opportunity, I’d also share a bit with you into a few methods… not so much a tutorial, I can’t say I feel qualified to give one just yet but into how it works for me. First you see my processing dilemas I face.  Sometimes I prefer a softer, collected vintage tone and others a bit more primary.  When I cannot decide I usually discard it from my workflow until the very end and see how the rest of the gallery pans out and pick which fits its “flow” the best.

I also get a real eyebrow-raise sometimes when I tell parents of new babycakes’ that I will be taveling on-location to their home for their portraits.  For this session I was blessed with a room full of beautiful light to work with, but sometimes I have to work harder to find locations within the home that are sufficient – and this is fine… but it was nice to have some space to move around as the room was larger.  I use several different platforms - the photo above is on a giaaaant leather and fabric rug from Pier One that weighs about a million pounds, just on the floor –  the one below is a square bean bag (I know it doesnt look square but it is), a giant square bed pillow (yep, square again) or whatever is available within the home.  Occasionally I will use a seemless if the location requires it but not often.  As you can see, I just drape the remainder of the blanket onto the client’s couch.  This is okay to do because if I shoot at a wide aperature, this will not be clearly in focus what-so-ever and will not take away from the subject, and gives it a clean look as well.  Fairly simple and simply manipulated to keep baby where I need him/her and nice and cozy as well with a portable space heater. Can’t go wrong there, white noise and warmth all in one =)

The smell from the kitchen is luring me away from here – there’s a great dinner awaiting me… yessssss!

I hope you enjoyed little C. and the very small look into the set-up and how it contributes to what you see in the final product =)

Okay, now I really mean what I said about being away for a while.  If you have any extra room for some thoughts (or prayers if that is what you do) I’d be okay if you sent them by way of my family and I.  Thank you kindly.

xo

dani

I am having a severe case of writers block due to a complete heavy heart mental entanglement of far too many thoughts.

However, I think little D. speaks volumes of sweet happiness and maybe that’s all that needs to be spoken, anyway =)

Happy Sunday to you and may you have a fabulous start to the work week on Monday.  I will more than likely be away for a little while, but I do appreciate you stopping by, so thank you!

xo

dani