Franklin, Brentwood, and Nashville TN newborn, child, and family photographer

Granddaddy’s old camera {personal post} | Franklin TN family photographer

March 19, 2014

Granddaddy passed away almost 2 years ago. My parents have been cleaning out some of his things, and they came across an old Kodak film camera and gave it to me to have (along with his two Polaroid cameras). I don’t know anything about when he bought the Kodak or actually used it, but I was informed that it is a WWII era model. Granddaddy was a WWII vet and served in the Navy. My memories of him taking photos are with the Polaroids. I’ll have to post a photo of the older one tomorrow because it is a cool, retro-looking model. It makes me a bit nostalgic and brings back memories of visiting him and Grandma in Kentucky as a small child.

I’ve been trying to open the Kodak for a few days without success, so I finally posted a photo of it on a photography forum and asked for help. A kind photographer made some suggestions, and lo and behold, I got it to open! (The last two photos below were actually taken several hours later because that was when I finally figured it out.) I was instantly hit with a musty smell, which was perfectly fitting since it hasn’t been opened in decades. Now that I’ve gotten it open, I can’t figure out how to close it, though… haha.

My new macro lens showed up today (if you follow me on Facebook, you heard about me ordering it the other day), so I tried it out for the first time to take some of the following photos. Ooh dreaminess. Looking forward to incorporating it into my little baby sessions. You’ll probably see my testing it out on other things before then, though. Most people who get a new macro lens spend lots of time taking pictures of flowers and bugs. There’s not much going on in the flower department around here yet (though I did spy some daffodils making progress), and I’m not sure I really want to seek out bugs, so I may have to find something else to practice on. 🙂
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Big brother-to-be| Franklin family photographer

March 14, 2014

This family has some exciting news, so we got together to take some images for them to share. A mini session is a great option for this kind of thing! There are so many fun ways to do pregnancy/gender/etc reveals these days (you could spend hours browsing Pinterest and probably not see all of them). When I was expecting Andrew in 2012 and was ready to make our family’s announcement, I had Matthew hold a chalkboard sign. Tucker’s mom had a super cute shirt made for this occasion. The perk of that is that he will be able to wear it all summer! Here are a few photos from our session:

ECP during the winter

March 11, 2014

You may have been wondering what I’m up to these days. I haven’t posted much to Facebook recently. That is all for good reason! This time of year is notoriously slow for portrait photographers, but that’s a good thing because it gives me a chance to do some things like:

Designing new business cards (hope to wrap those up soon) and gift certificates
Doing my taxes (well, helping my husband do my taxes)
Updating client forms
Separating my portfolio online (hope to have that up in the next week or so– I’ll share when I do!)
Buying Christmas card templates (a new product from ECP this fall/winter!)
Enjoying family time 🙂

Just because you don’t see a preview doesn’t mean that I’m not shooting. Clients are ALWAYS given the option of whether or not their images are posted online (blog or Facebook). Parents deserve the right to control what is put out in the world about their children. Sometimes I can’t post a preview right away because the family might have a big announcement to make. Really, it’s all good. I’m just happy to be taking pictures.

Here’s a precious moment between my Andrew and his buddy Emmaline at their big brothers’ first baseball practice :

Contest prize update

March 10, 2014

You guys remember that I held a Client Favorites contest in January and offered prizes. That contest was SO much fun and had really fabulous participation, so I’ll definitely plan on doing it again (late December or early Jan. 2015) to see who are the favorites for this year!

First prize for the 2013 Client Favorites contest was a free mini session (that family is on my books for next month!) The second and third prizes were framed prints. Well, I thought about it some more and decided to offer canvases as another option to those two families.

Second place: Framed 8×10 print OR 11×14 canvas

Third place: Framed 5×7 print OR 8×10 canvas

They both jumped at the canvas idea! I upgrade the canvas sizes for both (instead of doing the print size I had originally mentioned) because the bigger the canvas, the better it looks. Here is a peek at what they looked like:

Boys in a field

February 5, 2014

I’ve been looking for this for a long time. This kind of field. This perfect light. This quiet time with my boys. This is what I needed.

Last Saturday (Feb. 1), it was a glorious 60 degrees. That was quite welcome after several days with single digit temps recently. I didn’t have any shoots scheduled (I don’t shoot on weekends when my husband has Guard drill), so the little boys and I were running errands and hanging out. Last minute, I decided to take my camera with us on the chance of testing out this field between our errands (exciting stops at the library, recycling, and grocery). I did not take the time to plan the boys’ outfits. Note to self: always take the time to plan the clothes if I intend to attempt a shoot. This won’t be my last time visiting this spot, so I’ll just remember for next time.

I will start offering this location for mini or full sessions immediately, so keep it in mind if you have been wanting this kind of backdrop!