IN THE ARMS OF LOVE: BABY AUSTIN

IN THE ARMS OF LOVE:

THAT'S WHERE YOU'LL FIND BABY AUSTIN

BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY!

DOESN'T HE LOOK LIKE A BOY BABY DOLL?
I always think that babies with lots of hair look like little baby dolls. You know how dolls always have more hair than most "real" babies ever have.
He has the cutest eyes and you have to love that hair!
Baby Austin was seven weeks old. A little old for the typical newborn session so it was little more of a challenge to capture images like this. But with a little patience with got some beautiful images of this Beautiful Baby Boy.

He loved his pacifer and his mommy loves him.
We did finally get some images w/o pacie.

I think he will definitely be "daddy's little man".


one of my favorites...
another one of my favs...
Baby Austin was my first session since our trip to Memphis. I am trying so hard to catch up on posting some newer sessions and also want to add few older sessions that I have ran across, but now the newer ones. It is getting late, but I hope to post one more session tonight.
~~jami~~

BABY MENA (just over 2 years ago)

This is Baby Mena (photographed 11/2005)

In reference to the post made just before this one titled, LILA AND HER FAMILY. This is her older sister that I photographed in November 2005. I think she is about 6 weeks old here...not a real "new" newborn, but newer than Baby Lila. Do see the resemblances that I saw?

I thought I would include a few from Mena's session. I had to go to my permanent files to find these. So far I have only deleted a few sessions from my hard drives and I guess this happened to be one of them (It was probably an accident.). After I get a new website, I intend to delete most all files after a few months from the session date. I really need my hard drive space, but at this time I hate to do it because I like keeping the files that the client ordered because they have already been cropped and retouched. So on the case of these images, these are from the Edited CD file not the retouched files. I did do some minimum cropping and such to use them now, but not the normal retouching for a portrait print.

Mena and her mommy...

another one... when there were just three...
Mena is younger than Lila, but I think they favor each a lot...

The above image of Mena is the one that stood out in my mind because I had some business cards made with that particular image. I recently ran across some of them in my jacket. So it was it was fresh on my mind.

I must include a sleeping image of Mena too.

This is Lila and Mena's cousin, Landry.

again...(what a handsome toddler)

This session was a surprize for the grandmother of these children (aka the mom of these two moms). As you can see not the easiest group to photograph, but what grandmother wouldn't love it...with both her children and all four of her grandchildren. I love any image with my babies in it!
So this was just a little from Mena's session. Kids grow up so quickly as these images from just over two years ago really show. ~~jami~~

LILA AND HER FAMILY

Baby Lila and her admiring parents.... One of my favorite poses of babies of any age, alseep...always so angelic

a pastel close-up of sweet baby Lila

This was my first time to meet baby Lila. I have known her mommy for a long time. She was one of my first family portraits after moving here. Her family has changed a lot over the years. When I met her the first time, she had a different husband and her son was the baby. I don't have any of those images handy since that was in the days of film. All my negs are filed away, but I do still have them. Then a few years later, she was recovering from the emotional roller coaster of a divorce. She wanted a portrait of herself and two children. She wanted a portrait that said, "we're okay". It really touched me and even inspired me and you know---I really understood. I have never been through a divorce, but I knot the ups and downs of a marriage (even after 22 years--your gonna have them). So I felt priviledged to the photographer to capture this milestone in her adult life...the milestone that says that I can stand on my own--that I am fine as long as I have my children.

A little more time passed and Lila's mom called again. She had a new life, a new husband and a brand new baby, Mena. She wanted some newborn portraits and her children photographed. I will try to go through my files and post a few of Baby Mena. Before Christmas I get another phone call, a new baby and of course, we need new portraits but we didn't schedule them until the next phone call. "LIFE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHILE WE ARE BUSY MAKING OTHER PLANS". I am sure this is espically true when you have four children. Thus it took some mental planning on her part. Lila was the suprize baby that often families get unexpectantly, but the best things in life often are not planned.

So Baby Lila was a little past newborn, but still quite adorable and very much resembling her older sister (as I remembered her...we'll see how true it is when I find those other images).

I hope Lila's mommy doesn't mind me sharing this with my viewers because it sort of puts what I do in people's lives into perspective. It makes me realize the impact of what I do and what an awesome opportunity that God has provided in my life as well as the lives of the people that I photograph. I do feel it is a priviledge and an honor to do what I love and to have people love what I do.

Lila and her daddy... I think he is "just a little proud of his baby girl". What do you think?

I think Lila got her mommy's beautiful blue eyes.

A BEAUTIFUL PASTEL TONE IMAGE OF A BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL

Lila's older sister, Mena (two years old and not to happy about having her photograph made today)....

This is Rawleigh, Lila's big brother...

Lila's oldest big sister, Claire...

Okay...this isn't the best...not even close, but a typical version of what we were working with when it came to photographing any group portraits with Mena. Just remember she is two and just wasn't having any fun at this "photo-thing". And before long that un-happiness was contagious---notice Baby Lila's face too.
Daddy and his girls...
NO ONE CRYING AND EVERYONE IS IN THE IMAGE! YEAH!
These kind of sessions do get quite stressful, but rest assured. It is much more stressful to the parents than it is too me. We all have tendency to have more patience with everyone else's children and see it for what it really is: "just a bad day for a two year old" or whatever the case may be at the time. Not an award winning family portrait, but a priceless heirloom that this family will treasure forever. Portraits are one of the few things that a family purchases for the themselves that will increase in value and the longer you have it the more it will increase.

~~jami~~

ADORABLE ADDISON (two months old)

THIS BABY ADDISON AND HER PROUD PARENTS...

Addison wearing her mommy's bonnet. I love heirloom items like this and I love them for portraits even more.
What a happy baby girl!

Since Addison's mommy was a little overwhelmed giving birth to a baby 3 days before Christmas, she didn't get any birth annoucements done. Since she was 2 months old, we decided to do the next best thing...an Easter Card.

IF YOU CAN READ THE TEXT, THIS IS WHAT IS SAYS: May spring's brightest blossoms fill your days with delight. Happy Spring. HAPPY EASTER I thought the text was quite appropriate with our little blossom in the flower pot.
These next two images are closer versions of the images used on the card as well.

Isn't Addsion the cutest little thing? Makes you just wanna pinch those chubby cheeks.

That's it for now. I have several sets of images to post in the next day or so from my last sessions. But that's it for now. I need to find out where Natalie is hiding and cook supper. ~~jami~~

THE MAN BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHER

GINNER OF THE YEAR of the Southern Cotton Ginner's Association.

The above image is one of the photos that I took back in January for the article featuring Randy as Ginner of the Year for the Delta Farm Press. I wanted to do a link to it so you could see them, but I don't see the full article yet on their website. It appeared as a featured article in the magazine promoting the gin show. The magazine is usually a newspaper style magazine, but once a year for the gin show it is a regular glossy, standard magazine style. I think this is one they used, but now I am not sure. I took a variety of images for them to choose from: some in the gin, some in front of it, with a module truck, in the gin office with Buddy, even some in the cotton field at the tour business and even some of those with Natalie. Randy didn't think would use one with Natalie, but I wasn't surprized. Who could resist that adorable face? They used some of the images on projection screen. That's probably why I am including several of the images of him because of the images on the screen behind him.

Congratulations from Mr. Tim Price Executive Vice President of Southern Cotton Ginner's Association. Notice the images behind him. That's one in the gin with him leaning on the gin stand.

The next two you can see how nervous Randy was. I must admit I was nervous for him. He had an acceptance speech to give and he hadn't even practiced on his wife or family or at all as far as I knew. Well, much to our amazement, Randy gave one of the best acceptance speeches. I think it was the best, but I probably never paid that close attention to the others in the past. So in all fairness, I will call it one of the best. Needless to say, I had tears of pride streaming down my face. Of course, I had to include this one with Randy holding Natalie (in the cotton field at Frogmore Plantation) in the background especially since I can't link you to the article right now. Maybe they will get it up on their website and I will be able to do that later and yes, she is "cheezing it" and this is one of the images theychose to use for the magazine. She is wearing her denim overalls. It just makes it all the cuter that they are her LSU overalls!
The family behind the photographer. Well this is everyone except B. She had a ball tournament and coudn't come on this trip. We missed her, but we understood. The people who provide my husband with the opportunity to grow as a ginner, the Tanners.
The formal photos: the photographer with the ginners (actually they have other titles too like President of the Association and executive vice-president). I am not sure how I ended up in this one!

The ginners of Tanner & Co~ Randy with Lynette & Buddy Tanner...

The Ginner and his family: Our family was there to support him. We were very proud! Natalie and I must have been the most proud---we semed to have the biggest smiles. What is it about guys and those smiles w/o teeth? I have observed this for a quite a while and I have noticed that most boys start smiling like that around the age of two.

Couldn't let this post be finished without a few of our baby!

These two were shot before our last formal. Well, it was a semi-formal luncheon where Randy's gin and several others received safety awards. I will add a few more of her from this on Natalie's World. She is wearing a cute smocked jumper set that she received as Christmas gift from her Aunt Maria and Uncle Danny for Christmas. I love dressing Natalie cute from head-to-toe and this provided an opportunity for Natalie to wear some of her winter clothes. Often, I prefer to stay in with her during the winter (after the holidays when it is cold and yucky outside) thus she doesn't get to wear her pretty clothes often enough.

Of course, she is cheesing it up, but I am just glad that she is cooperating and actually looking at the camera. LOL We had a great trip to Memphis. We were planning on taking Natalie this year anyway...before the whole family decided to come to support their dad, "ginner of the year". We felt like she would enjoy everything. We all had a good time visiting as a family. Natalie was so well behaved at all the events and special dinners. I was so proud of her for that. You never know what dinner will be like with 2 1/2 year old. Cari enjoyed shopping. Cameron enjoyed visiting with his dad and I know he beamed with pride while haning out with his dad. Randy enjoyed all congratulations and compliments on his speech. Of course, as a mom I always enjoy spending time with my family away from home when others are cooking and cleaning.

Natalie also enjoyed meeting the Peabody ducks, seeing the gin show and her big highlight seeing "Go, Diego, Go" Live and the carriage ride back to the hotel after the show. I will try to post more of her activities to her blog soon.

But that's it for now. I must get back to work. I have a session in a little while and then lots editing, ordering and tax stuff to do. So it's back to work for me. LOL ~~jami

P.S. FOR A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE ON OUR TRIP TO MEMPHIS VIEW NATALIE'S WORLD: http://www.lalalanataliesworld.blogspot.com/