My beautiful niece is a free spirit. She runs a lot and is a ball of energy. Ever since she moved out of that “potted plant” phase of infancy, she has been my greatest photographic challenge. She’s ultimately WHY I embrace the craziness of childhood in my photography and try to avoid “say cheese.” In a lot of ways, I have essentially captured her in her natural state.

We rushed up to the park to capture these last Saturday about 20 minutes before the bottom fell out of the sky. It started out nice and sunny, and ended with a very dreary tone, but I nailed it!

Wow I’ve had a busy couple of weeks with many kids turning one. Even my own Baby Anne will be turning one in a few weeks. Little T is only three weeks younger than Anne, and it’s so cute to see how much she’s changed since I last saw her in October. Children really do grow like weeds! She was terribly delicate with the cake until mom decided to give her a helping hand, taking the “smash” term quite literally. Little T had been picking the sprinkles off instead of diving in. It’s always amusing to see how each child reacts to the cake. Some are upset with getting dirty, while others are pure dare devils and dive in with attitude!

On a side note, I will be putting together an announcement about my cake smash mini sessions. These past few months have gotten me thinking about offering something that is quick and easy on families to get this cute first year milestone captured without feeling trapped by a strict budget. This should be coming to the blog shortly!

I love the cake smashes, and I am so thankful that I have a few lined up already this year! 2012 is turning out to be a fun one indeed! Miss M was very excited about all of my equipment, certainly, but she really got into the cake and made quite the mess. I think this is actually the first time a baby has thrown cake around and cackled with glee!

Happy Birthday M!!!

Babies are so expressive and they grow so quickly! Oftentimes, it can be assumed that you cannot get decent portraits of a baby at that awkward phase where she starts to roll around, but not quite sit up yet. I’d argue that you can get some very endearing moments captured at this time! Unlike much of my indoor work, this is done with all natural light. Not all of my clients have wide open windows, so much of my indoor work is with studio lighting.