Photo Display at the Avon Library in Avon, Colorado.

This week marks the last week of my 2 month display at the Avon Library, featuring 50 of my favorite photos from the last couple of years.  It took a while to get the logistics of the display organized, including hoarding photo frames for about 6 months leading up to December (much to my husband's dismay, due to the lack of room in our garage!).

Given that our closest Michael's is in Denver, I surprised myself by being able to make it down there 3 times over the fall to collect numerous supplies including spray paint, mod podge, brushes, canvases, ribbons and a couple of frames.  A lot of the frames were given to me by friends or found in thrift stores, which gives the display an eclectic look.  I based the color scheme on a pad of scrap book paper that I found in Denver.  I was hoping to cover some of the frames with the funky designs, but that didn't go according to plan and alas, the pad is still sitting untouched in my closet.

For 2 weeks I was getting up at 5am to paint, repaint and frame the photos.  I had to get up early to do it before work and also before Maxwell woke up.  Although he wouldn't have made a good helper in the paint department, he was a great helper when it came to hanging the display, handing me nails and the hammer whenever I needed them.  Russ was also a big help in making sure all of the frames were safe and sturdy and not likely to drop off the wall!

Seeing as I'm in the photography business and not the framing business, I learned a few lessons the hard way.  For example, if you don't smooth everything down with Mod Podge, it will bubble up on you and you'll be forced to order re-prints and you'll need to pay extra to have them rush ordered.  I'm hoping to show the photos again in the Vail library later on this year.  That can only mean one thing...storing the photos in our little garage for little while longer!  Oh well :)

The Hooker Family Photo Session in Eagle Vail, Colorado.

The last time I took photos for the Hooker's, it was only Jen, her 4 month old son Trace and Jen's mother Marcy.  Marcy is the leader of our Mountain Mama Care group, that I have written about in previous posts. Jen had asked me to help her with some family photos again and she wanted a similar style to our last session, using a black back drop.  This time around, I got to shoot the whole family though, with 3 generations and 3 dogs!

Here are a few of the photos from the session.

Marcy and her dog, Juicy.

Older brother Wyatt was able to join in the fun this time.  

Wyatt and Trace

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The whole family.

The Bailey Family in Beaver Creek. Through the Lens Series, Entry 39.

We're nearly at the end of the holiday season for another year, and now that Christmas is over, I can post some holiday card photos.

The Bailey's had requested for their photos to be taken at the Hyatt at Beaver Creek in front of their fabulous fireplace in the Great Room.  We took the photos on Thanksgiving afternoon, which meant there were plenty of people in the Great Room area coming in from their day on the slopes.  Luckily, we didn't have any problems getting in front of the fireplace and we were able to re-arrange the furniture.  We had plenty of bystanders watching us and even helping out a little and the photo shoot was done in half an hour.

I raced home afterwards to collect the boys and to head out to a friend's house for Thanksgiving dinner.  As soon as I pulled up to my house, I realized I had left my hand bag in the lobby, so we had make a pit stop back at the Hyatt on our way to dinner.  Luckily it was still there!

I hope everyone is having a fun holiday season and enjoying time with family and friends.  We're freezing here in Vail with a high today of 14 degrees (-10 Celsius).  Wherever you may be and whatever temperature you find yourself in, happy holidays to you and yours from me and mine!

Haley's Maternity Photos in Edwards, Colorado. Through the Lens Series, Entry 37.

It's a been a few weeks since my last blog post, but I have plenty to post about.  I've been really busy with lots of photo shoots for christmas cards, so there will be more to come on those shortly.  I have a 50 photo display up in the Avon library (which took some time to get together with a lot of help Russ) and I'll post some photos of that soon too.  In the mean time, I'm going to go back a few weeks and post some photos from a maternity photo shoot that I did in Edwards for Haley and Mike.

To get the maximum effect from a maternity shoot, you don't want to do the photos any earlier than 36 weeks.  I've done a couple of sessions before that, but 36 weeks seems to be the general rule of thumb.  Haley was right at 36 weeks when we took the photos.  These were taken right around Thanksgiving and we didn't really  have much snow at the time, but we found a nice patch of snow outside Riverwalk and we took the rest of the photos around the Riverwalk area.

I loved the red top that Haley chose to wear.  It looked great against the late fall, early winter colors.  As I've mentioned before, I always love it when husbands take part in the session and Mike did a fantastic job helping Haley through the snow.

Here are a few of my faves from the session.  

I love the lighting on this shot.

To see more maternity photos, go to The Maternity Collection

Halloween in Happy Valley. Through the Lens Series, Entry 36.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!  It's 6:30am and I've been up since 5am editing a maternity session from last weekend.  We have a big day ahead of us with a Turkey Trot and feasting with friends this afternoon.  I'm going to squeeze in another Christmas card session this afternoon too, so getting my editing out of the way at 5am is the way to go for me today.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm working on Christmas card photos, so I can't post them just yet.  So now is a good time for me to put up a few photos from Halloween.  Russ and I both big fans of Monsters Inc. so I couldn't resist buying a Sully costume for Maxwell this year.  Unfortunately for me, he was not as enthusiastic about the idea as I was.

We got to celebrate Halloween 3 times this year.  We went Trick or Treating in Minturn the night before Halloween with our friends Emma, Evan and Tyce.  This is my favorite event for Halloween because the people watching is fantastic.  Minturn's main street consists of store fronts with homes dotted throughout and both the businesses owners and the home owners go all out to make it special.  It's also a small enough town that you can be done in an hour, which is important in the valley, because you never know how cold it might be.

The next day they had a big party at Maxwell's school and parents were invited to come along.  We played in the gym and the kids had a big picnic with cookies, candy and a little bit of fruit.  We ventured on to Miller Ranch that night as you can see by the photos, Maxwell was done with that silly costume by this stage.  He was much happier to be munching on pizza in his Superman t-shirt.  Maybe we'll try a Superman costume next year...

Happy Turkey Day!

Getting dressed in the back of the car in Minturn.  We learned pretty quickly before leaving for Minturn that costumes and car seats don't work well together.  

Emma the Pink Unicorn and Evan the Bumblebee in Minturn. 

Tyce the Dragon.

Halloween at Daycare with Ben the Cowboy.  Maxwell wouldn't let me get one photo with the head on his outfit!

Hmmmmm, sugar cookies or chocolate chip.                                            I'll start with a sugar cookie.

So happy to be out his costume at Miller Ranch.

Down on the Farm at the Pumpkin Patch. Through the Lens Series, Entry 35

With the holidays just around the corner, I'm using all of my spare time taking lots of family photos for clients who are eager to get started on their Christmas cards.  I'm really enjoying doing these photos, but the issue is that I'm not able to post any of the photos to the blog or Facebook, because everyone would like it to be a surprise for their family and friends when they receive their cards.

This is giving me a little time to go back and have a look at some personal projects from the last couple of months that I haven't had time to post about.  I'm going to start with some photos from a recent trip we took to Osage Farms in New Castle, which is about an hour west of Vail.  Osage Farms has become very popular with our local farmer's markets in our area and being that it's an organic farm, they are now selling their veggies and herbs at Whole Foods.

Growing up, my brothers and I were lucky enough to spend plenty of time on plenty of farms.  For 3 city kids, we were constantly visiting friends and relatives that farmed cows, sheep, chickens and pigs to name a few.  I also come from a family of green thumbs.  We were always coming home from my Nana's with buckets of fejoas, plums, apples and kiwifruit.  Not to mention the vast veggie patches we've always had at the various houses I lived in, in Hamilton.  So, it was fun to take Maxwell and his buddies to Osage Farms to see the pumpkin patch and to learn about eggplants, sunflowers, melons, chickens and biggest basil plants I've ever seen (they were up to my arm pits!).

Obviously, this was fun for the Mums as well.  As you can see from the photos, the highlight of the day for the kids was clearly the wagon.

Studio Photos in Edwards with Miss Evelyn. Through the Lens Series, Entry 33

Now that the weather has turned and Vail finally has some snow, my work is heading back indoors for the winter.  With all of the weddings and outdoor sessions from the summer, it has been a while since I've done a studio shoot.  When Jenny called and asked me to photos of Evelyn at 4 weeks old, it was time for me to dust of the props and load up the car.

Luckily for me, they had some wonderful lighting in their house, so I didn't need to bother with the studio lights.  Natural lighting is always going to produce much nicer lighting.  Evelyn was amazingly calm and patient throughout the whole shoot.  She let us dress her up in all kinds of fun girly outfits!  I could go on and on, but she really is a beautiful baby (as you can tell by the photos).

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the session.