Capturing the Holidays with Your Children

If you have kids, you will probably know what I mean when I say every holiday moment is worth a thousand words! The look on your child's face Christmas morning is probably the greatest feeling ever! (Well, mostly...) Everything about winter and the holidays go great together! You can make something crummy like freezing weather and being snowed in a good thing. It's time to get creative in capturing your children's holiday moments so get out your camera, shove it in your pocket (or if you're like my, sling it over your shoulder) and get to clicking that shutter! To make this holiday fun and creative try doing some of these projects: 

1. Capture your kids playing in the snow. Get them as they make a snowman, build a fort, throw a snowball, catch snowflakes with their tongue, make snow angels or go sledding!

2. When they come in from playing outside make up a cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows and a candy cane stirrer! Give them a couple homemade cookies (like decorated gingerbread men) and capture them enjoying every yummy moment!

3. Bundle up together and go for a walk. Take pictures of the snow and icicles. Take pictures of the little details too, like your kid's mittens or snow boots since they'll likely not fit into them next year and it's a great way to preserve this years memories.

4. Do some Christmas crafts with your kids! Nothing brings out the holiday spirit like fun crafts! It gives you chance to slow down and spend quality time with your kids and the chance to capture real laughs, real smiles and some priceless moments :) Here's a great link for some easy, fun projects: http://crafts.kaboose.com/holidays/christmas/christmas-crafts.html

5. Allow your child to help make Christmas cards or perhaps doodle on the cards you bought! Maybe they can have the task of putting the stamps on or decorating the envelope with stickers? Kids love to be helpful and it's fun! Make an afternoon of it! Perhaps even throw in some gift wrapping and let them add the bow! Don't forget to have the camera out :)

6. Have your child write a letter to Santa! They can decorate the letter and the envelope. Perhaps they can even draw Santa a picture! Not only is is fun to photograph them while they do it, but also photographing the end result...that way it's a permanent memory!

7. Get your kids involved in decorating the house or the tree and make it a tradition if it isn't one already! Capture photos of their chubby little hands hanging ornaments on the tree or hanging their stocking. Take a picture of daddy holding them up to put the star on the top. If the moment arises where they toss a handful of tinsel in the air...instead of getting mad...take a picture and join in :)

8. Capture the magical moments of Christmas Eve! Get pictures of the kids putting out milk and cookies and leaving a note for Santa, or sitting by the Christmas tree in their adorable pj's waiting for him to arrive, or while mommy and daddy tuck the kids in and read a Christmas story. That's the real magic :)

9. The very first moments of Christmas morning! Need I say more? Capture the face I was talking about...the priceless face they get when they first see Santa's present and all of their gifts, their reaction as they open their first toy and play with it, the look of disgust as they get clothes (or worse...socks!) and even the pile of toys they now need to make room for in their bedroom! It's also the perfect opportunity to capture pictures of them perhaps helping mom and dad put the toys together that "need some assembly".

10. One of my favorite things to capture is my child helping cook dinner and Christmas shouldn't be any different! I know it can be a hectic time, but slow down and give your child the chance to help (if they aren't glued to their new toys). Take shots of them stirring the batter, licking the spoon, adding too much seasoning or sneaking nibbles here and there of the yummy goodies!

Now there are a ton of other things you can do with your child over the holidays, but hopefully this will give you a head start on the creative aspect! It's the simple details and moments that sometimes mean the most and say the most. I challenge you all to capture at least one amazing moment this holiday season and at the end of the year I will have you all post them to my business page on Facebook and I will choose my favorite image! The winner will receive a surprise gift! You won't want to miss out....not just on this, but on the magic and wonder of your children's Christmas experience this year! I hope this inspires you and you all have a very safe and merry holiday season :)

Feel free to comment below to share with us your own ideas for capturing the joys this holiday season...the more ideas, the merrier! And don't forget to share this to get the word out about the little contest :)

When a Dream Becomes a Reality

I have always been a strong believer of making lemonade with the lemons that life hands you. Just add a little sugar and water to sweeten it up! Combine that with the fact that I believe everything in life happens for a reason and you get one bubbly, optimistic person that you just love to hate haha...yeah, that's me :) It just drops my jaw when I look back at what may have seemed like an insignificant decision at the time but ended up changing the path of my life so drastically. 

One of the first major life-changing choices came to be at the age of 17. That morning I chose to continue driving my car even though I knew I was extremely tired. That decision led to an accident that claimed the life of my only brother and almost my own. It still boggles me how I even made it through the first few years. But I did, and I owe it all to Hospice. Dale Marie Clark welcomed me with open arms and saved my life. I got involved with Hospice over the years by eventually going through their training program to become a co-facilitating counselor at Hope's Place for Grieving Children. 

It was then I found my calling...working with children. I then broadened my horizon and became a Behavioral Health Professional and specialized in working with children diagnosed with autism. These families were strong and amazing. They welcomed me as one of their own children and I spent years learning more than I could ever put into words. And though I was happy doing what I was doing, I felt like something was missing.

Then another fateful twist in life landed me in the arms of the man of my dreams. I had had my eyes set on the Air Force. I took the ASVAB and scored a 92. Needless to say, they wanted me as bad as I wanted in. But the day I was to be shipped off, my recruiter called to tell me that he thought he could have squeezed me through admissions through a loop hole, but in the end I couldn't go. It turns out that not having a thyroid and taking replacement medication puts me as a medical liability. As much as I was devastated, I quickly realized the reasoning behind fate when I met the love of my life later that same day. Though we've had our ins and outs, 8 years later we are together and happy and created the most amazing son ever! Vincent was a major turning point for the both of us!

I know so many of you have heard the same ol' story of how a women became a mother and got an "fancy" camera and then suddenly they have their own photography business. Soooo, yeah, that's me. I admit, I have always been obsessed with landscape photography and as the daughter of one of the most amazing photographers I know, it's no wonder...it's in my blood! I had just never thought of photographing people. So along comes Vincent and I gain the courage. I also gained the support of my sweetheart, Dominic, along with friends and family. I slowly built my photography business from the ground up and what started off as a little idea soon became a big deal. After just over 1 year in business, I have over 100 clients and 85% of them have already been to me more than once! Talk about blessed and being more thankful than I could ever express. But, I swear, something was STILL missing!

Then fate gives me one more twist that puts me in the place that I am now...just following a dream. I had seen a "Space for Rent" on the sign outside of a local business for months and decided to stop in one day to inquire. I got no answers. Then another month or so passes and I am with my bestie, Maribeth, who agrees we should give it another try. The quest for the answer brought me to Faye's office at REM (Revitalizing the Energy in Maine). REM is an all volunteer organization serving as an umbrella for community action. It turns out that the sign has been up for practically years and no one has ever bothered to take it down. We had a good laugh and as I looked around the office I saw banners hanging all over the wall. The ones that stood out the most to me were Good Will Hinckley, Hospice and Hope's Place. I have worked or volunteered at these places at some point in my life and here they all were among dozens of other banners. One questions led to another and Faye blew my mind!

She is the granter of dreams! I still can't believe fate led me to the exact office at the exact point in my life that I needed it. I told Faye my dream and she fell in love with it! She immediately set up a meeting with me to further discuss my dream in detail. She fell in love with it even more! She made tons of calls and set up another meeting for me to present my dream to the board of directors of REM. I spent weeks doing in depth research in order to write a detailed business plan (something I wouldn't wish on anyone hahaha) and began building the foundation of my dream. I created a mission statement, website, logo, branding, and strategy for getting the word out to the community about my dream and wanting people to join together to make it a reality.

Am I driving you nuts yet? Hahaha "dream" blah-blah-blah..."dream" blah-blah-blah I promise I'm getting to the point :) I've always loved telling a good story!

So during the weeks of trying to organize everything for the board meeting I also began reaching out to other local businesses that I felt could help my cause the most. The one that has stood out the most is Hospice. My life seems to have made a 360 degree turn back to where I feel my life truly began 13 years ago. Sue Roy at Hospice also fell in love with the idea before I even finished my sentence! It felt great to have my first partner and I am currently in the process of recruiting more! It certainly gave me the confidence to present my business plan and my dream before the REM committee this morning at 8am (and I hadn't even had a cup of coffee yet)! As I presented my plan, myself along with a few others were teary eyed. They welcomed my dream with open arms! In fact, I can expect a final decision and permission to push forward within the next week or two!

Ok...ok...so I think after reading this long blabbery story that you deserve to at least know the name of my dream...

The Hope Captured Foundation is a non-profit organization I founded to offer complimentary portraiture to Maine families experiencing a child or young parent with a life threatening or terminal illness. This will be a chance for the family to get their mind off things by giving them a one of a kind portrait experience that they normally wouldn't be able to afford or even consider while going through life's medical and financial struggles. They would be provided with pictures that will be treasured forever and hopefully play an important role in the healing process. I will also be reaching out to Maine families who lost all of their belongings in a house fire...especially precious family photos. I want to be the one to offer complimentary portrait sessions to these families to help start their family album all over again with the beautiful pictures they deserve. In turn, giving them hope that they can start anew and that with every end there is a beginning. I just want to spread hope and healing through breath taking portraiture.

Now, I'm sure you all have a lot of questions and I will try to quickly release more updates as they come, but in the mean time have a little patience! It will be a couple weeks before the website is up and running and able to accept donations. I will be also maintaining a Facebook page and blog dedicated to Hope Capture's cause. I will be working hard on getting the word out about this new organization and starting a couple fundraising projects. When funds allow me to do so, I will also be looking for volunteers to cover the roles of office assistants, photographer assistants and professional photographers. I know Maine can pull together to support such a worthy cause! And a debt of gratitude for REM for believing in my dream and helping to make it a reality! It means so much that they would be so willing to help start, fund and help me learn to successfully run my foundation!

I am hoping for huge community involvement  not only because it will mean the world to me, but it will mean the world to the families you will be helping. God forbid, that could be my family...or your family...and we all deserve the have our last moments together beautifully captured and documented. We all deserve to have a family album even if we have to start from scratch after years of building it up just to have it burned away. 

PLEASE consider commenting below with anything from advice, feedback, and spiritual response...or to just show your all around support!

Kate & Cory ~ Married

As many of you know, I do weddings sparingly. I limit them to 1 per month and to small ceremonies. I do this because it takes weeks to edit 100-300 images and it takes away time from my family as well as my main passion which is photographing children and families. Of course I still offer to them...because I LOVE to photograph weddings! As a one-woman-show it can be stressful, but when I do cover them, I work extra hard to make sure I do my best and capture the day as my bride and groom envisioned it.

Recently, I had the pleasure of being a part of Kate & Cory's big day. It was simply beautiful! A quaint restaurant in the country on 10-11-12, attended by a small group of friends and family. There were rustic details and soft music. It was casual and beautiful. They made me feel like family! I just wanted to take a moment a share some of my favorite photos.

I want to start off by saying that I do my best to cater to the bride and groom per their requests. One of them was that Kate was not interested in images of her getting ready. Though when I went upstairs to check on her readiness, I saw her younger sister, Hannah, by a window lacing up her dress. The lighting and moment was too perfect to pass up and they ended up being some of my favorite images from that day! Sometimes you just have to make that split second decision and hope you don't offend anyone :)

Even Mom helps with the lacing

I also loved the little details! Lots of fall colors, pumpkins and rustic/handmade items scattered throughout.

Kate, Hannah and Cory made the gorgeous pumpkin tower!

Even the ceremony was short and sweet, but beautiful. Everything about the wedding expressed Kate & Cory's relationship. Quiet, reserved, traditional and special.

I just love how she peeks down over the balcony
to see if it's almost time for her arrival.

After the ceremony it was a gathering time for friends and family to mingle. I even managed to snap a few sweet moments of Cory.

I adore how he's playing with his new wedding band while he enjoys a beer!

I'm a sucker for a man who places his hand on the lower back!

 The reception was like a family reunion (as I'm sure in one way it was). Everyone walked around chatting and laughing and congratulating. Lots of hugs, kisses and handshakes. I even got to chat with Mr.Lawrence...my 3rd grade teacher! I also got to talk to Kate's younger brother, Daniel, who was friends with my late brother. It sure felt like a reunion to me!

I love different perspectives in ordinary situations.

What a fun couple!

Yes, I do...allow others to take pictures!

I left before the family dinner was served, but I managed to capture the elegant, romantic feel that the atmosphere held.

So which images are my favorite...not just from this wedding, but from every wedding? The portraits with the bride and groom of course! I love them the most because no matter how much they insist it doesn't change anything...it does! They look at each other differently and smile more and touch often. Their love seems to shine brighter and their emotions are all over the place. It's my favorite to capture these moments!

This image was taken before the ceremony took place,
hence they aren't wearing rings yet . I just think it's so cute
how nervous they seem to be before the vows : )

I love this image because in actuality I told Cory to smell her hair knowing
neither could resist laughing inside and voila...genuine smiles all around!

It's not always easy getting a quiet, reserved couple to kiss in front of a camera,
but when that moment happens, I'm always ready!

This is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE image from the whole wedding!
A genuine pose and perfect smiles!
Plus, you can see the river and vineyard behind them.

I love how prestigious Cory looks and how playful Kate looks! Perfection! 

I greatly look forward to capturing 2013's weddings as well! And since Maine has voted to allow for ALL Maine families to experience the joy of holy matrimony, I will also be covering same sex marriages as soon as the bill is passed! It will be such an honor and privilege to be able to work with everyone <3