Hicks Family – Huntington, Indiana

My brother and his family have just moved from Massachusetts to Huntington, Indiana. He is a new professor at the university in town and the timing was just right for me to visit just days after their arrival and days before the school year starts. The last time Jonathan and I saw each other was in May 2008 when I drove with him across the country to help him move all their stuff from California to Massachusetts. Adrienne was very pregnant with Camille at the time and sitting in the car for days on end at that time was not going to happen. So here we are in August, three years later. Camille is turning three in a few days and we all have really enjoyed the week together :) Her little curls are my absolute favorite!

Ethan is a wild boy. Loves to be loud and all over the place. Typical boy. Below is the reaction I received when I told him his parents were not coming home and I would be taking their place. They went out to shop for some birthday stuff for Camille and we had some good bonding time with the camera.

Camille is really difficult to make look at the camera. She unfortunately got over me pointing it at her rather quickly. I only got the shot below because I told her to watch for the camera to blink at her :) It worked! Then Ethan also wanted to see the camera blink at him.

 

I LOVE both the shots below. Awesome :)

I love grumpy kid pics too...

Looks like he's up to something, definitely my brother's boy.

Ethan's got that look again... JUST like my brother! Sneaky sneaky ;)

Cute little country girl!

Travis & Sarah - Beach Portrait

Congratulations Sarah and Travis! Newly married and newly pregnant! Two very exciting adventures and I was lucky enough to photograph them during this special time in their lives :) Sarah is a fellow Crossfitter and we enjoy getting tortured together at the gym :) She looked quite lovely in her dress and we enjoyed our photo shoot at the beach near the mid-bay bridge. Sarah is in the Airforce and Travis used to be in the Airforce. Yay for military people! We share the common bond of a love/hate relationship with the government within the military, and we understand the roller-coaster lifestyle that we all lead. Sarah and Travis, I had a wonderful time photographing you guys and I wish you the best with all the big changes you have coming!

Japan - A Few of My Favorite Things

When the dog bites, when the bee stings, I simply just think of my favorite things and I don't feeeel soooo baaaaaad! Once upon a time I had the opportunity to photograph a very talented musical family. John wanted studio shots of him with his instruments, but we did the family shots outside because Nadine was allergic to dogs and Shugo is in fact, a dog. Their little girl Justine was SO cute with her curls and her little violin. I LOVE the violin. Not sure why, but I do, and if I ever had the patience for it I would learn to play it. I don't think my patience could last that many years though, so it will be quite unlikely.



As we were taking pictures I had them playing different songs. It was seriously one of my favorite shoots! As we were walking back toward my house/studio a neighbor excitedly came out of her home... "My Favorite Things Kudasai! Play. Kudasai. Hi. My Favorite Things. My Favorite Things." John response? Ughhhh... Honey? How does that go? The Japanese woman, my neighbor, whom I have never met, nor even waved to (or bowed since that is their custom), nor did I even knew she spoke a single word of English, bursts out humming the tune. He tried to play it, and she quite forcefully corrected him. iie. iie. La La LA la. La La LA la... We were in the middle of our shoot, and also the middle of the street, trying to move on and continue. He was very polite though and he later informed me that what happened was a completely normal occurrence. He made that woman's day. I bet she never thought she would get a personal performance from a US Navy Band member right in her own yard. Of course she probably also never thought an American musician wouldn't know that song by heart.



Japan is still hurting. The mess caused by the earthquake will not be taken care of anytime soon. The lives that have been forever changed... Japan is still in desperate need of our prayers and support. I realize this post is a day late (and probably a dollar short too), but I saw this on a fellow photog's blog and wanted to post it up too. It was the reason for my not posting on Friday. If you want to help Japan and are not sure where to start, here is an option. The picture below looks pretty terribly on here, but there was a bloggers "Day of Silence" Friday started by For Japan With Love. Check it out and help our Japanese friends!

Big Family

I had the opportunity to photograph a lovely large family today! I myself am from a big family (I'm the youngest of seven) so I love large family gatherings and since I have been in Japan for the past two years I have really missed out on such things. Laurie Hood is the founder of Alaqua Animal Refuge and she hired me to come to their holiday family gathering to photograph them all together and all the individual families as well. It was glorious. Made me miss the large family gatherings back home. Laurie and her husband Taylor are wonderful people. Very kind and genuine. It was an absolute pleasure to photograph their extended family. Since there were so many pictures taken I am just going to post my favorite images, so here goes nothin' :)

The boy above was hilarious. This was the conversation... So what do you want for Christmas? Ummm, he says with a huge smile, This is gonna sound a little weird, but I really want a massage chair. I burst out laughing and said I thought that was the best idea ever and I wanted one too :) I love that he prefaced it with "This is gonna sound weird..." He made me smile. Below is the craziness you get when you attempt to photograph a pile of cousins (also reminded me of my family. Love it!).



This little girl had the best smile.



Gotta love it when kids just do their own thing and it is super cute.



This darling little thing was teaching me all about seashells.



This was my favorite family (I know I probably shouldn't say that, but seriously, look at how giggly they all are!).



2nd place here. I think it's the younger children. They just make pictures extra cute.



And last but not least the grandparents with the chitlens :) My favorite images are always the ones when everyone is looking a different direction. It's just more realistic to how things really happen right?



Just so you all know, I am leaving town for two weeks off to visit family for the holidays. It'll be our own version of Four Christmas' only a lot less drama (hopefully) and it'll be three Christmas' instead :) So, on that note, if you email me just don't expect a reply right away cause I will not be checking regularly. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Alaqua Open House

Saturday I was out at the Alaqua Open House. It was a very nice event and I hope they raked in a lot of good donations. Alaqua has so many animals and it cost them so much to operate each day ($1,000/day) any support is always greatly appreciated. There was lots going on and I had my own booth set up (a photo booth) where we did mini 10 minute sessions and also held a raffle for a photo shoot. It was great to be out there and meeting people while also helping Alaqua. We had some awesome people get pictures done and had a blast doing it :)

Below was my first up. She volunteers her time with the cats regularly. She comes out with her dad and they clean the cat house and give all the kitties some love :) I loved talking with her dad and he loves his daughter so much it was very sweet to hear him talk about her.



The little boy below was next. He was SO cute! Love his blue eyes. He was full of silliness and lots of fun to work with. Definitely a little daredevil. I asked him what his favorite thing to do was and he said, "Race dirt bikes and do back flips!" He will be a wild boy for sure!



Next up was a pup :) He was actually reunited with his brother right in front of my booth. So sweet!



More boys next. Typical brothers who refuse to get too close ;) They were lots of fun though and I somehow was able to make them laugh and get some good smiles!



Last round was a sweet young family. They caught me right as I was packing out. There was just enough light left to capture their sweetness :) Gotta love the chubby cheeks! That was my day at Alaqua! Definitely excited about the people I met and getting new clients! I will be settled here with my business in no time :) Thank you everyone who came to the Open House and visited my booth!

The Scharenbergs

Many weeks ago while I was visiting family I photographed my big sis and her family.



I was lucky enough to actually be there when my most recent nephew, Sasha Oliver, was born. He was quite the tank barely beating out his big brother at 11.8 lbs (his big bro was 11.5). Lucky Christy huh!?! It'd been a long two years away from these rascals in Japan, and it was fun to get to photograph them :) Their a great wild bunch!

The Smith Family

This is the Smith family and my cousins family. Being gone for so long in Japan one of my goals was to do some nice family portraits of everyone in my family. All the different families that is. My cousin Cindra was the first.



It was really fun to photograph them. I have spent very little time with Cindra's kids so it was really nice to be able to capture this time in their life. They are such cute boys!



And look at these freaking awesome blue eyes!



Cindra and Michael are unique. That is my nice way of saying they are totally weird ;) Growing up with Cindra though, I am used to it. I know what she likes and they picked this location because they LOVE rocks, nature, cool sticks etc. I do to and that is not why I think they are weird (just to clarify). I liked the shot below though cause I thought it fit them well with their love for nature.



Uriah loves leaves and stuff too :)



This one is my favorite. I would like to title it "What really happens at a family shoot" Ha!



Awesome.



And to end with one stunning image of Michael and Cindra. SO glad we were able to do this!

Janelle

This little sleeper is Janelle. Fantastic, content, little sleeping baby :) Despite all our efforts to wake her she slept through pretty much the whole shoot. Sleeping babies are pretty darn cute though so it was cool with me :) This is Angela and Jeremiah's first baby and they are just beaming with excitement! Such a cute wonderful family. I am very happy to have had the opportunity to photograph them and capture this special time in their lives.

I mean, really, how stinkin' sweet is that?