Rainy Day Fun!

I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but aside from trying to start my own photography business and running a household of 4, I also run a daycare out of my home each weekday.  Yes.  I answered your question before you even asked it…I am very busy!  I have always wanted to be a hands on mom and take part in my babes daily lives.  In order to be home with them everyday, I decided to open my home to a few other children as well.  At a few points, I had 5 kids under the age of 4 at my house on a daily basis!  Right now, I have my Gracie who is 5 1/2, Ana is 2 1/2, Natalie is 2 and our little “Bub” is just 2.  There are definitely some fights, but all in all, they love each other and love to have fun together.

~Dana

Twins!!!

Twins!!!.

Twins!!!

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting a very happy and loving couple who are expecting twin girls in the not so distant future!  My classmate, Ben, works with this mama and introduced us via email to set up a shoot and I am so very grateful he did!  I could tell how much in love these two are within the first 5 minutes of meeting them.  These two baby girls are going to be so blessed to have them as their parents!  I am also so thankful to them for bearing with me on my first time ever using a lighting setup instead of natural light…it was definitely a challenge for me;-)  That’s what this journey is all about though.  Enjoy!

~Dana

Jasauntae James, a.k.a. JJ

This was a really fun session for me.  JJ’s dad is my cousin whom I hadn’t seen in 12 years because he’d moved away from our hometown in Iowa when we were juniors in high school.  Fast forward all that time and we are now living about an hour away from each other in California.  I had never met his wife or her son, but contacted her about doing some maternity pictures for them before she had the baby.  We were supposed to do pictures on March 9th, but JJ had other plans and decided he was ready to join the world on February 16th!  So on  March 2nd, I made the trip to see my cousin and meet his beautiful family!  So. Much. Fun.

 

 

~Dana

Seamus, Months 5 and 6

As you know, my first “official” maternity, birth and newborn shoots were done for my friend, Cristin and her little guy, Seamus, back in July and August.  She asked me if we could do monthly pictures of Seamus the whole first year so she could make something with them after he turns 1, and of course I said “Absoutely!”.  I will soon be doing his 7 month session and I can’t believe how fast the time is flying by!  I wanted to share a few of the pictures I did for his 5 and 6 month sessions with you.  Enjoy this handsome little man!

~Dana

 

Me

I’ve been thinking lately that I need to be in front of the camera more.  Not because I particularly love it, but because I want my kids to have pictures they can look back on and see me as well as everybody else.  Here goes…

~Dana

 

Jayceon

A while back, I shared the maternity pictures I did for my friend, Amber.  I am really playing catch up at this point because she had her sweet boy, Jayceon, right before Thanksgiving and I am just now sharing the pictures.  I was able to snuggle him and practice my skills on my 2nd newborn session ever the first weekend in December.  Our first meeting was a little rushed because I had to get back to my kids (I have an in-home daycare full time), so while I got to do a lot of snuggling, there were no pictures taken that day.  So we set up a 2nd session, and it went remarkably well!  Jayceon, a.k.a. JJ, was a little angel and slept the whole time I was there taking pictures.  I was pretty proud of myself for capturing these adorable memories for Amber to cherish!

~Dana

Just Us Twelve Times

Last week I shared that I am going to do a photography challenge called “Just Us Twelve  Times” with my babes.  I managed to get 6-8 good shots in my session with Gracie!  I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to purchase a remote for my camera, because taking pictures with a 2 year old on a 10 second timer proved to be a much harder feat.  Besides a sun streak across my head that I have not yet learned how to edit out, I think it turned out pretty decent!

~Dana