Despite the fact that this crazy, rainy spring threw a wrench in planning for a session, we ended up with a beautiful, sunny evening for Little Miss Cathern's session. I am so blessed to have clients who share their families with me, allowing me to photograph their children as they grow. I have had the privilege of working with Cathern's mom at my other job for years now, and she is an awesome gal. I just know from knowing her parents that Cathern is going to grow up into an awesome gal, too. I have been so honored to photograph her as an itty bitty baby, her one year photos, and now her two year photos. She is adorable and a born leader....she definitely led the way for her session, as most two year olds do, which is why their sessions are often more candid than posed! Two is one of my favorite ages because they're starting to form likes and dislikes and favorite things and doing the funniest things. Cathern is a great two year old and was a sweetheart to work with once again.

I've known this family for a long, long time, and I have had the pleasure of photographing their boys since they were little, one since he was a newborn. What a joy to meet their newest little one, a sweet girl named Maeven, a name which I love because I always loved the name Maeve. What a precious, perfect little angel! Don't I have a great gig that I get to spend time cuddling precious babies??

Confession: I'm a huge chicken when it comes to street photography.

I am hugely drawn to this genre, and I think after my kids are grown and I've lost my muses to adulthood, I will turn to something like street photography or farm photography or something which captures the spirit of places and people. My goal is to do a #100strangers project, which I learned about through Mike Wade of Rural Life Photography who does it so well, or photograph the faces of the homeless people in our city.

But right now I'm chicken and I don't know all of the rules (Do you always need a photo consent form in public areas? Do you ask first or after you take the photo?), so I pretend that I'm taking photos of my family and sneakily snag a photo of the rest of the scene and people in it. 

We live in a fairly rural area near a smallish city, but we're not far from Chicago, so I love capturing the city life when we're there. There are so many facets of humanity and ideas in a big city, and it's easy to forget that when we're cozied up and a little bit isolated  on our five acres. Don't get me wrong, I love the country and wish there were even fewer people in our area instead of the exploding population we're experiencing locally, but it's refreshing to see the city for a few days, take it all in, and remember that it's a big world out there.