Our good friends asked me to take some pictures for their family Christmas card, so that is what we did this weekend (followed by a moonlit walk for nice dinner out, a few cold beers, and watching Elf 3 times in 24 hours. Yes, we really like Elf! A perfect evening!). We had a great time running around in the yard and the kids didn’t want to go inside when we were done, even though it was quite chilly! This crew is always a blast!
After receiving my new camera for Christmas last week (SQUEE!!) my husband told me that he’d like to take a walk around town to try to take some pictures with my old camera and learn to use a DSLR. I was excited for him to show interest in something I’m obviously obsessed with, and was also so anxious to give my new camera a go! We went downtown (yes, Lancaster has a downtown), Central Market, and a tiny old cemetery, taking pictures of anything that looked interesting along the way. We ended up at our favorite coffee shop that we never get to since we moved (love you, Square One!) to see what we captured. It was fun to explain everything to Brad, and I remember how overwhelming it seemed at first! It was actually a bit of a challenge for me, as I’m used to seeing scenery as a background and objects as “props”, but Brad prefers images of interesting objects and scenes over faces. It really made me look at things differently! Here are a few shots I captured and a few from Brad, very different from my typical shots of grinning toddlers! (Don’t worry toddlers, I still love you best!)
And a few of Brad’s shots:
I was so happy to be able to do family pictures for an old friend and her baby I hadn’t met yet! I guess I shouldn’t call her a baby, especially based on her extensive vocabulary! What a smart girl! Her mom told me she was shy, but she did a great job and made it easy for me!!
My first official newborn photo shoot produced some adorable images! The family was so sweet and kind – I know I asked a lot of them and they were troopers! Mom had a lot of creative ideas that I was happy to attempt as well. I loved this shoot so much – Josephine is a very lucky girl!
This shoot was so much fun – happy and cooperative subjects are a dream come true! Since I work with preschoolers all day, I am more comfortable with a 4 year-old than nearly any other age. Emily was so funny and outgoing, and loved the fact that we had the same name. And Shane was perfect with lovely long lashes. His parents thought he was going to cry after having a grumpy day, but he made liars out of them (much to my delight!). They are just so cute.
These 14 month old twins were busy, busy, busy! We had a whole crew of wranglers, which was very helpful 🙂 They were just the sweetest things, really loving the beautiful park their mom chose for our session. Mom said they slept for two hours after they got home! Are these not the sweetest faces?
For a 3 month old, little Ellie was SO alert and smiley! What a little treasure! 
I decided to try my hand at a little photographer’s exercise called “Fix It Friday” from the “I Heart Faces” photographers’ community. You are given an image to edit and post your before and after images. I have been checking out others’ edits for a while now, and decided to just go ahead and try it! I am excited to check out others’ edits on this adorable girl and see what some very, very talented people have done! I am still learning, and know that sometimes I “overedit”, but it is such a subjective craft. I am enjoying the journey!
I edited out the glare on the glasses, warmed it up using the PW’s “colorized” action, messed around with the brightness, contrast and saturation, cleaned up a few spots on the chin with the healing brush, burned a few highlights on the forehead and hair, sharpened the image, viola!
Smiles are easy to come by in this family! I couldn’t ask for more cooperative or photogenic subjects!
emilyweaverphotography 