Maternity Photos in Beaver Creek with Lili and Nico. Through the Lens Series, Entry 15

Today is Maxwell's first birthday, which is great segway into today's post about Lili and Nico's maternity photos.  I met Lili and Nico through mutual friends a couple of years ago.  Lili works as a nurse in the Labour and Delivery ward in Vail and we were lucky enough to have her as our nurse during my labour with Maxwell.  She played a very special role in helping our little man arrive safely into the world and we are eternally grateful to her and the amazing team or nurses in Vail for that.

When I found out that Lili was pregnant, I instantly wanted to do her maternity photos.  Did I mention that she also taught our labour classes?  Any woman that can teach a group of husbands effective ways to help their wives during labour deserves a good photo shoot right?!

We scheduled the shoot for last Thursday at a time when Nico could join us.  Lili was 35 weeks pregnant at the time, which is the perfect time to do maternity photos.  I know I've mentioned it before, but I'm loving the fact that so many husbands are taking part in maternity sessions now.  We took photos in various locations around Bachelor Gulch and Lili and Nico were so fun and easy going that it made for a really great session.

3 days later we had Lili's baby shower at the Alpine Arts Center in Edwards.  We made cute little applique shapes on onesies and t-shirts for Baby Ty and ate delicious cupcakes as we watched Lili open her presents.  Just standard fare for a baby shower...except that Baby Ty was born the next morning!

I've never had a maternity session that cut it so close.  Just 4 days earlier we were taking photos, so it was a huge surprise for everyone.  Lili, Baby Ty and Nico are all doing well.  So congratulations to the Browns and happy first birthday to my sweet Maxwell D!  Thank you to Lili for helping us out on this day 1 year ago and I hope you enjoy the photos.

PS:  There are people reading this post in New Zealand and America.  This blog is just not fancy enough to keep up with spelling variations across different continents.  Words like labor/labour and center/centre are going to pop in various forms, so bare with me as I try to decide which variation to use.

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Engagement Photos in Beaver Creek with Annique and Wally. Through the Lens Series, Entry 14

There's nothing like a 5 week whirlwind hiatus to get you behind on your blogging, but that's where I'm at right now.  I flew back to New Zealand early April with Maxwell and we arrived back, with Russ in tow, late Wednesday night and we've hit the ground running as we always seem to in our household!

Annique and Wally were the lucky winners of my Valentine's Day Engagement Photo Shoot Giveaway in February.  We met up at Beaver Creek on Sunday afternoon and took advantage of the beautiful spring foliage and the interesting emptiness that takes over the Vail Valley during the off season.  The staff at the Golden Eagle Inn saw us doing the photo shoot and came outside with champagne for the bride and groom-to-be.  That's just a classic example of how everything changes around here during the warmer months and the locals get to relax a little bit more.  The weather and lighting were perfect and Annique and Wally were fabulous to work with.  Here are a few of the photos from our session.

I have a very special maternity shoot this afternoon, so hopefully I'll be back up to speed shortly.  It's also Maxwell's first birthday this week and we have some very special visitors coming from Georgia to help us celebrate.  In the mean time, we'll just focus on getting back to a normal sleep pattern!

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Studio Photos in Eagle Vail with Evan. Through the Lens Series - Entry 13

Evan was only 19 days old the first time I took photos of him and he was small enough to fit in a tiny blue basket as he slept. Fast forward 7 months and now he's a gorgeous baby boy with the longest eyelashes in town! Evan was a dream model and he sat and babbled and giggled for the whole session. He even brought his own sheep. A man after this kiwi girl's heart!

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The Levy's 20th Wedding Anniversary in East Vail. Through the Lens Series - Entry 12

The Levy's had plenty to celebrate on their recent trip to Vail.  Stef and Jay were celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary and it was the 10th year that these 3 wonderful families have vacationed together.  Stef had coordinated everyone to perform a well rehearsed dance number to surprise Jay when he arrived home from a day on the slopes.  I had to hide in the pantry while everything was being set up, and as the music started I had to jump out of the pantry and capture everyone's slick dance moves as they came down the stairs. With tuxedo and bridesmaids t-shirts on, everyone made their grand entrance and then Jay was whisked away by the dancing crowd and onto the back patio where an elaborately made ice sculpture was waiting.

The 3 mother's met when their kids started going to daycare together in Texas.  Those 3 babies are 16 years old now!  Each set of parents have been married for approximately 20 years, so it was fun to take photos of all of them holding their wedding photos, outside in the snow.

This was such a fun event and the kids were unbelievably polite and sweet.  Here are a few photos from the day.  Happy Anniversary Stef and Jay!

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Engagement Photos in Vail Village with Niki and Ben. Through the Lens Series - Entry 11

Well, this post should bring me up to speed with my postings!  It's been absolutely chaotic around here with a ton of photo shoots and I'm trying to squeeze in a few more before my upcoming trip to New Zealand in April.  We're leaving in 3 weeks time and I have more shoots and more editing than I know what to do with, plus Russ is being whisked away to help open a restaurant in Maine and another in Alabama within the next couple of weeks.  It's definitely a happy kind of chaos though as we're both working on things that we love.

This is my favorite part of the winter season...the first day of spring!  Spring in the Rockies means skiing in a
t-shirt, spending more time hopping from deck to deck on the mountain than actually skiing and some really great free concerts to keep the Spring Breakers and locals entertained.  It's also universally a time of new beginnings and a great time to get outside and take some photos.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to be asked to take engagement photos for Ben and Niki.  We decided to take the photos in several locations around Vail Village.  Niki and Ben were boyfriend and girlfriend in 7th grade and they met up again last year.  Ben proposed in January and they are planning a wedding for next year.  They were awesome to work with and extremely photogenic, so that makes my life much easier!  Here are a few of their engagement photos.

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First Birthday photos in Eagle Vail with Emma. Through the Lens Series - Entry 10

I thought that this entry would bring me up to speed on my blog entries, but I'm still one post behind so I'll have to work around the clock to get where I need to be.  The Through the Lens series started as a way of ensuring that I posted at least one entry per week.  Luckily, I've been a busy bee this week with 4 shoots, so I have plenty of material to post here.

Last week marked the first birthday of Miss Emma Louise, so we had ourselves a wee photo shoot to celebrate the occasion.  It was an unseasonably gorgeous day in Vail and I shot the session with our porch door open to let in lots of natural light and we had no problems with temperature.  Our biggest problem was trying to keep Emma and Maxwell from crawling out the door. To have a little girl in my house with lots of ooey gooey pink loveliness was a nice change.  The pink decorations were left over from Emma's first birthday party, so they made for great props.  Kim (Emma's mother and my dear friend) was able to borrow 3 baby chairs for the day.  They were so fun to play around with and the perfect accessory for children that aren't quite standing yet.  I really need to invest in some of those!  The highlight of the shoot was definitely the cake smash.  Emma was more interested in putting her feet in the cake!  

Kim and I were pretty exhausted after the shoot so we celebrated on the deck in the spring sunshine with a well deserved glass of wine.  I love the spring time in the Rockies!  Happy first birthday Emma Lou.  xxoo

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Caro's Maternity Photos in Eagle Vail. Through the Lens Series - Entry 9

I knew the time would come when I would fall behind with the Through the Lens series of photos, but I have a legit reason!  I've just been overwhelmed with a lot of photography projects this last couple of weeks, so now I'm in the catch up stage.

To get me back into the swing of things (or my A into G as we say in NZ), I'll start with this series of maternity photos with the beautiful Caro, her husband Skip and their adorable dog Perro.  We spent some time shooting on the Eagle Vail golf course, but we couldn't spend too long out there.  We've definitely had an unseasonably warm winter and pregnancy certainly keeps you much warmer than usual, but as you can see, we still have plenty of snow.  I'm loving the fact that more and more husbands are taking part in maternity sessions.  They definitely bring something special to maternity shoots, not to mention the dogs that seem to be stealing the show lately!

Caro is an extremely talented graphic designer with her own company based in Eagle Vail called Caro Creative.  She is also the creator of Something Good, which is a wonderful organization which donates a
t-shirt to a child in need for every t-shirt that is purchased.  She's also helping me with some White Starfish Photography re-branding, so keep an eye out for that in the near future.  The last photo shows a design that she created for their new addition, who will be named Oliver.  We're all very excited to meet him and it won't be long now!

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