We held our last round of the Austin 2009 Xpressions Sessions today and all I can say is, "Wow!" I cannot even begin to tell you how beautiful all of these families were, how wonderfully charming the kiddos were, how kind and patient the parents were, and how absolutely outstanding my baby sis/assistant was. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who made these Xpressions sessions FANTASTIC!  As always, the images shown have only received basic edits to enhance contrast/color, but no full retouching.  I’ll show you an example of the difference at the end of the post.  Also, before I forget, if you’re pregnant in the Austin area and want maternity portraits and are due in February, March, or April of 2010, you can get a FREE mini maternity session (kind of like these Xpressions Sessions) in January. And, I *still* have a few spaces open for the Xpressions photo sessions in Washington, DC and Richmond, VA in December.  Meanwhile, to continue these awesome sneaks:

And to illustrate the difference between the digital negatives (the files that are sent on CD with the Xpressions sessions) vs. the files that are fully retouched (prints ordered through me or those that are available as part of a Premium Session):

Oh, I cannot wait to go through all of these images! Today was a great day all around. Thank you all again!  I’m so honored to get to do this for you.

1. Isn’t she stunning? Just naturally beautiful.

2. I’ve never done a session in the rain before, let alone the pouring rain, but somehow, it just worked.  Well, $70 worth of umbrellas, shooting under the H-E-B awning, and stumbling upon a rockin’ old barn helped us out a little.

3. Also from our Xpressions sessions (but again, these images here have been retouched).

Call me crazy, but I imagine she’ll be able to get away with a lot with just one look from those big brown eyes. (Also from the recent Xpressions sessions, but these images have been retouched).

I’m going to *try* to just narrow it down to a few favs for the blog. But I’m not promising anything. Aren’t they a BEAUTIFUL family? And such a joy to work with them.  The kids had great personalities and everyone was game for whatever I threw at them. Truly couldn’t have asked for a better session!

Okay. This is just too difficult. I can’t help myself. Here’s their session in full: 

I sat down to edit this morning’s amazing session and found that I couldn’t stop. It’s finished. It was wonderful. Wish I could blog more, but I owe my kids a date.

…at pretty much all of their images tonight. (Totally dig "Supermom" up there!)

There’s just something extra special about getting the honor of photographing friends…dear friends. Laura’s eldest was (is?) my eldest’s first love since they met in preschool a couple of years ago. Through that relationship, our own friendship grew into an easy understanding, a love of all things artistic, and sharing in the joys (and challenges) of motherhood. 

When my business was just getting off the ground, I found myself very overwhelmed with it all and struggling to enjoy being a mom. I would watch how Laura embraced motherhood with such poise…like it was her extreme honor to be granted such a job (hence, exhibits A & B above – grace under pressure). I used to tease her and call her Supermom and really, it’s true. I don’t think she knows this (well, now she does) but she is my living example of the kind of mom I try to be with my kids: involved, creative, nurturing, and willing to do whatever it takes to encourage her children to thrive. She’s been such a source of support (ie. letting us leave a Brett Dennen concert in the middle of his set because I was hurling in the lovely bar bathrooms thanks to morning sickness) and understanding (ie. following my escape that night, she didn’t laugh once as I sped us to Wendy’s where I proceeded to order and devour two cheeseburgers before she had even gotten 1/2 way through her own). She’s a great listener.  She has a knack for keeping things calm. Her family just glows with love and peace and it was my extreme pleasure to get to spend a few hours trying to capture that on camera.

And just like the troubles I had when trying to narrow down the images from their session, I’m finding it difficult not to blog them all right now. So, here ya go–the whole enchilada: 

I’ve been itching for a while now to try something a bit more edgy, different, more hip for babies and kids. Tonight I had a willing model ;-) and we gave it a go. LOTS of possibilities here for a *very* different and unique kind of children’s portraiture.

…are when I can be just as much of a kid as the kid. Miss A…you’ve got great sassitude and it was wonderful to play with you tonight!

P.S. I have *one* opening left for the October 4th Xpressions sessions!!

P.P.S. You guys left more than 150 comments on the blog yesterday!  Wow!  I know I had pledged $0.50/comment, but let’s go ahead and bump it up to $1/per.  Thanks so much for helping me support Texas CASA yesterday and of course, for all of the well wishes.

Today, we went here:

In an effort to:

like…

and…

or…

…and…

This made me proud:

These made me giggle:

And this made me cry:

It was a much needed dose of sanity and love before the holiday season takes hold.