Catch Your World

End of the year :)

We are closing until January 3, effective today.  We hope that each of you enjoys your family during this holiday season and makes many  memories to cherish!

Sometime close to the end of the year, I'll be posting a year-end slideshow, showcasing images from the whole year.  This is always fun for me to make and share :).  I"ll post that on the blog as well as send out an email.

For those who entered our drawing for a complimentary session and print that was held at the Junior League Tinsel & Treasures gift mart in early December, we will be doing that drawing as soon as we reopen in January.  Everyone who entered will receive a special offer, as well as our lucky winner with the free session!

Thanks to each of you who have made this year so memorable!  I am very grateful for each of you that chose me to document the incredibly special moments in your familys' history, and I'm looking forward to watching your children grow in 2007!

This Weeks Babies :)

We had three beautiful new babies in the studio this week :).  Meet Nicolas --

Faith -- we are calling this first picture "SuperFaith"  :P

And Alana!

 

Thank you all for bringing these gorgeous newborns in!  I look forward to watching them grow!

For my super patient bride :)

This year we added weddings on a limited basis and I have to admit, I really enjoy them!  I never thought I'd say that, but they can be really fun :)  Disclaimer: they're fun when a certain set of criteria are met...fun couple, relaxed bride, nice natural light to work with for most of the wedding, and a photojournalistic approach is appreciated by the couple.

Randy and Katie's wedding was all those things and more.  It was a beach wedding in November on Longboat Key, and we were blessed with a gorgeous sunset.  The bride and groom were having a blast and the whole wedding just had a *great* feel.  The details were INCREDIBLE, every thing was well thought out and beauifully done.

Since the wedding took place right in the middle of busy season and during the actual week of my holiday order deadline with orders pouring in constantly and with lab deadlines, I didn't get to dive right into these images like I usually do.  I can't thank them enough for their patience!  Their wedding storybook is going to be drop dead gorgeous and I am looking forward to designing it!

So, here's a peek.....

November sessions

I want to thank everyone for their patience who had a session in early November and is still waiting to see their images!  I'm exhausted, but catching up.  Each year I handle the holiday rush better, but each year it's still mind boggling.  I have more people calling than I could photograph even if we added ten hours to each day (which is a wonderful problem to have!, but we simply can't accomodate everyone which is hard), I haven't even *thought* about Christmas shopping, we have a three day Junior League booth this weekend to prepare for, dozens of holiday orders arriving daily this week, there are still a bundle of newborns and other sessions scheduled for December before I can relax, and my kids are awfully tired of Mommy working a bunch of 16 hour days in a row.  Oh, and I also shot three weddings in the past month! But, we're getting there!

In the meantime, here are a few sneak peeks for people who are waiting to see their full galleries!  Thanks again for your understanding :).

She double-dog dared me....

....to put this on my blog.  The MOM of this baby, that is.  So Melissa, if you think this image should be shared on my blog then by all means I will share it!  I think it's *hysterical* !  And now, I double-dog dare Melissa to actually use this on her holiday cards like she says she's going to......

Believe it or not, I've had a number of babies flip me the bird over the years.  Their little fingers just seem to do that sometimes.  I also have pee shots and various other outtakes. Maybe I'll make a slideshow.....anyone want to see it if I do?  :)

Sanibel in September

So, I'm a little behind on handling some of my personal images.  No big surprise there, it's busy season :).  I have 6 months worth of personal pictures that have not gotten the attention they deserve, and they'll have to wait another month until my holiday break! 

I wanted to share a few from my convention in September though.   Some people have asked what happens at a photography convention....well it depends on the convention, but this one was all about lighting.  Natural and artificial.  So we played with both and tried to stretch what we can do.  It was a very talented group and very inspiring!

Here are a few of my images from that week.  The first two are, obviously, natural light.  I've been a little obsessed with backlighting and flare lately, and these two show the flare I've been striving for.  Flare is tough to work with, because you've got to use that bright sun and yet expose the rest of the image properly.   The first one is Lori's wine glass.  The second one is Lori :).  I had to work with the light to get the beams right into the wineglass in the first image, and then go for that beautiful flare circle right around Lori's face on the second image.

The last image was taken with a very cool kind of studio lighting called a ring light.  See that catchlight in Holly's eyes?  It's circular, because I shot this image right through the middle of a huge light-filled ring.  If you pay attention to fashion magazines and makeup ads, you'll see this lighting pretty often.  Look at your portraits, and you'll see a much softer light on the face with a rectangular catchlight.  The rectangular catchlight comes from the large light I use in the studio, which is designed to light a person as if they were sitting near a large window.  And that's my photography lesson for today :).  Any questions send me an email!

*WOW*.....

...just wow. 

This was a fabulous session with a wonderful little family that is about to get a little bigger.  But this is something I've never had happen in my studio before!  Thanks to Lori for showing just how amazing pregnancy can be,  and for holding these splits for a good two minutes while I frantically switched my lighting around to get what I wanted!

*Boo!*

Happy Halloween everyone!  Please send me some pictures of your kids as they go about their ghoulish candy collecting tonight!  If you're down on Dearborn Street in Englewood, keep an eye out for these two punks of mine.....well actually there will be THREE punks, but I'm not sharing my punk picture on here! 

Crazy Season

Another crazy couple weeks around here :).  I took a trip to NY last week (both business and pleasure) which I'll post a few images from soon, then a quick 3 days at home that contained these four sessions.  Then off to Atlanta for 3 days, then to Orlando this weekend to shoot a wedding. 

Somehow I still have my head above water :).  Here's a few sneak peeks from the sessions earlier this week.

If you want to photograph Jackie you have to be *fast!*

But I did catch her :)

...and her big brother Sam!

It's Girl #3 for Mike and Nicole! Baby Faith will be here in the next month :). I'm so excited to meet her! Her big sisters had fun decorating moms belly.

Miss Syndey returned to the studio for her 4 month session and showed off her spiky new hairdo......

And Jackson proved to be one of the fastest crawling 8 month olds I have ever dealt with, giving his parents and me a workout and showing off some great expressions!

Recently, again

Well we are DEEP into busy season here at Catch A Star.  September through the end of the year is always pure madness.  On top of that, I had a weeklong convention in late September and am now off to New York this week.  In spite of that, we're on schedule and very happy about that :).

I haven't had a chance to update recently with my convention and then shooting like mad for holiday sessions, so here's a quick rundown of the kids from the last three weeks!  This is not including holiday sessions, just our regular sessions.  Are you ready for all these cuties???

Billy

Blake

Dallis

Ella

Jen

Laurel

Lily

Marina

Mason

Michael

Nathaniel

Tori

Annalynne

*Whew* are you as tired as I am ?? :)  What a gorgeous bunch of kids! Some of the parents of these kids have seen the full sessions already, and for some this is a sneak peek and the whole sessions will be on the way soon! 

Mistie will be at the studio this week in my absence, so if you need anything just give her a call and we'll try to take care of it asap :).