Pretty Little Lady

When I edit newborn sessions now, I always put together a 3x3 collage of some of my favorite images. Whether or not the parents choose to purchase it, I love seeing the juxtaposition of precious baby parts and expressions. As it turns out, most parents tend to agree. ;)

I got to photograph two sweet little newborns this past week -- a girl and a boy. This little lady was so sweet, and she really seemed so delicately feminine to me. Since I was in a collage-y mood, I decided to post her preview this way. I may change up the images as I make my way through the session... who knows.



On a side note, little Miss A is the fourth child born into her fun family. I was quite impressed with her mom for (a) even getting newborn photos done (my third child has hardly a photo up in our house, despite my current occupation), and (b) looking fabulous, with nails done and a great haircut. Hmmm... maybe I need a fourth.

Unforunately, my husband told me recently that the only way we'd have a fourth is if we adopted a 15-year-old with excellent babysitting skills and no college ambition.

I guess I need to come up with another way to look fabulous and have my act together.

Three Going On... Nine?

At Christmas, The Girly Girl received a very cool knitted scarf and hat from Godmother Jo. Well, it was also from Godfather Dave, though I am pretty sure Jo was the driving force there. ;)

Foxy absolutely LOVES her new accessories, and she's worn them for at least part of every day since. She loves them so much that she even -- gasp -- offered to pose for pictures. On TWO SEPARATE DAYS.

The first pic here was snapped outside one afternoon. The other was snapped while I was setting up for my recent twins session. I hadn't finished, and the lighting wasn't yet ready, but I knew that if I stopped to fiddle with things, I'd be left staring at an empty beanbag. I mean, the photo goodwill only lasts so long.



When I emailed a copy of that second photo to my husband, his response was, "Is she nine now?"

I know.

The Playoffs

This fall, something great happened in our house.

Noah got into football.

See, his parents are big football fans. We watch. We cheer. We jump up and down and do silly dances when our team scores. I've been known to drop an expletive here and there when they don't.

So every year when the NFL season starts, we encourage our kids to watch with us. Mostly it's so we don't feel guilty for virtually ignoring them on Sunday afternoons. But we also hope that by watching with their parents, they even start to think it's fun.

This year, it actually worked.

Noah fell in love with Stanford football and Toby Gearhart -- the man robbed of this year's Heisman Trophy -- after attending a game with his dad and brother. And he became equally enthusiastic about the NFL.

He had a football-heavy Christmas, and one of his gifts from my parents was a set of mini helmets representing all the NFL teams. He and his dad had them arranged on his dresser according to division for awhile. Once the playoffs started, the helmets made their way into the family room and were set up to represent the playoff picture.

All the teams in the foreground are now out and "watching from home."





For this next shot, I apologize to any Patriots fans out there (but only those who might read my blog). Noah gleefully plucked them out of the bracket after their loss yesterday.



Looking forward to next weekend and OUR big game.

A Gift in the Mail

A few weeks ago, I posted a link to a fellow photographer's blog and awesome craft tutorials.

Her week of crafts also included a contest open to anyone who commented throughout the week. I left my comments, crossed my fingers, and... won!

I actually won second place, but since the person who won first never stepped up to claim her prize (crazy lady), it became mine. Or, I should say, my childrens'.

The prize was an incredible hand-made felt mailbox with little felt envelopes, felt stamps, and mini-postcards. It is seriously darling. When the big brown shipping box arrived today, my kids tore right into it and got down to business.



I realize now that none of these shots show the adorable mailbox itself, but hopefully shots of my adorable kids are enough. ;) And you can check Emily's blog if you want to see beautiful photos of the box.

Yumminess Times Two (At Three Months)

I mean, seriously??? Can you imagine how much fun it is to hang with these little dudes?



I've been lucky enough to photograph these guys three times now (well, four, if you count that we did their newborn session in two parts). And I get to snap their photos every month until they turn one.

I really, really love this job.















For those who don't already know, their little blue and green seats are called Bumbo seats. These came on the scene right before my daughter was born, and man, we used that thing A LOT. It's a great alternative to a high chair, among other things -- especially since you can toss it in the car and take it absolutely anywhere.

They also make sessions with babies this age much, much easier. ;)

*Edited to add*
I realized after posting those three-month pics that I never did post any of the boys together when they were newborns. I'd kept those under wraps until their printed announcement went out, but that ship has long since sailed. SO...

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

Yesterday, I spent a little time organizing my personal photos from the last couple of months. The holiday season was such a busy one around here that things had gotten a bit out of hand. *cough* understatement *cough*

Anyway, I came across a bunch that made me smile, and these were among them. I took them one Saturday afternoon in early December. My boys had just wrapped up their first basketball game of the year and had brought their buddy home with them to romp in the yard.

I think that someone said something about actually sweeping up the leaves, but as I remember, it was waaaaaay more about playing.









Now, to look ahead.

I have some shots of A-DOR-A-BLE three-month-old twins that I took just this morning. I am going post those on the blog in the next couple of days. If you want a baby fix, then be sure to get your buns back here.

AND...

I'm going to be posting some news soon about a special offer I'm cooking up. I'm excited; I think it will be really fun. So if you think you might possibly potentially perhaps be interested in having your kiddos photographed one of these days, you should DEFINITELY come back and check out that post.

Adios for now!

Mega-Post: Snapshots from Our Christmas

The tree is still up, but the last signs of Christmas day are gradually disappearing from our household.

We're gearing up for 2010 and I'm fired up to look ahead, but for just a minute, I thought I'd look back to the Clausen Family Christmas 2009. It's hard to believe that it was less than a week ago...

We spent Christmas Eve in two parts. The first was a VERY festive celebration at the local Methodist Church. It's not our usual Church, but the combination of reflection, live-action holiday stories, joyous caroling and participatory Nativity scene (we added two sheep and a shepherd to the mix) was perfect for our young family. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that my camera would've been welcome, so I have no pictures of that. :(

Then it was on to my parents' house for a yummy Christmas Eve dinner and some early gifts. My brother and SIL got right into things with the kids:





After that, we came home and E got to writing the annual letter to Santa. It's always important to make sure they ask Santa not to ho-ho-ho in the house, as that would scare the girly girl.

They put three heads into it to make sure it was just right:





In the morning, there was joy throughout the house. E was surprised to find a new bike on the deck outside:



Mr. N was stoked with all of his football loot:





I believe that this was part of an end-zone celebration:



And Foxy was just happy with anything, including a water bottle:







My husband showed mad love for the gift he got from his boys (even if it was purchased with ulterior motives):





And when the rest of the family showed up/came back after showers, we had food, libations and more merriment.









The kids took a break for some Mario Kart:



My SIL showed that she was a very good sport:



And my brother demonstrated that Chargers love doesn't disappear just because there are candles on the dinner table:



In short, it was fun and festive, and we were grateful for it all. I hope you enjoyed your own holiday as well.

See you in 2010!

And Finally...

I am finding it hard to believe that Christmas is just four days away. I am sitting here, staring at the display of gourds on my table (now starting to go moldy) that I've been meaning to toss for the last couple of weeks. I mean, really -- it seems so wrong that by the time the Thanksgiving decor makes its way to the bin it'll be time to dismantle the Christmas tree, too.

But I'm going to look beyond all of that and focus on the fact that I have a beautiful, healthy family and that we're going to be with each other and with even more family this holiday. No overcrowded airports or cancelled flights, no frigid weather or family members called away to work or serve, no sickness or sadness beyond what's affecting the world at large.

We are lucky.

And so, as I hustle to get the last galleries posted, I am going to wind down the work for 2009. I may pop on to post a few photos of our recent gingerbread madness, but my focus will be, as it should be, on my family.

And on that note -- and because a post is nothing without photos -- here is the quintessential holiday shot of my kids, as well as a more pleasant shot and a holiday wish.

Fun with Holiday Lights

Under normal circumstances, I spend a decent amount of time online, researching better ways to take and edit photos. Reading up on what I consider to be best practices. I check forums, read blogs, try out tutorials... you name it. I am always looking for ways to improve what I do.

During the last couple of months, I've been pretty limited in my time online. I was fortunate to be booked through the fall months, and with three young kids nipping at my heels during my time "off," there just weren't many spare minutes to be had.

One thing I did come across was a cute set of photos done by another photographer and replicated by a few others on a discussion board. Given that I rarely see something that I don't want to try, I hopped online and found myself the cheap set of multi-colored lights I needed to create my own version.

And so, I give you my take on the "lights as backdrop" shots:





I left everything set up to try it out on my daughter as well, but the darn girl is just sooooooo grubby by the time she gets home from school... I never really felt up to the work it would entail to get her photo-ready.

And on the subject of playing with lights, I'd been wanting to capture a different sort of tree image this year, so I tried a few different things. This one was by far my favorite.



Now I'm by no means an expert on this type of photography, but if you have a dSLR and you're interested in trying it yourself, just throw your camera on AV, open up your aperture (put the AV number as low as it will go; mine was at 2.8), and -- this is the important part -- put your lens on manual focus (not auto focus). Then play with that focus ring until what you see is what you're going for. Voila!

Numero Tres

And finally, I present to you: The Cake Smash.

Seriously, this was so.much.fun. And I think my little subject enjoyed herself, too.



Next up, some fun Christmasy stuff. I just need a nap and a shower first. This week has kicked my backside...