This super adorable little S was not too into the session at first, but by the end of the day, I had a new friend as we held hands walking out of the park.

The tongue out kills me!

It was so nice to meet you both!

And don’t forget 25 comments for a gift!

You might recognize Lauren and Blake from last fall when I did a couple session with them.  At the time they talked about how they want to get married on a certain day that is special to them, but they weren’t engaged yet.  In the time since, they talked about having me photograph their wedding but still no engagement.  Then I got a call for another wedding on their date and I gave them the heads up so they booked me for their wedding.  And still no engagement   This was all still last fall…

Not long after, Blake contacted me and told me his plans to surprise Lauren with a proposal and have me photograph it all!  We went back and forth about how to lure her to the spot he chose without tipping her off…of course now it’s spring and their wedding date is inching closer and closer so Lauren has been expecting it soon.

Last week, I emailed Lauren to ask her if she could model for me while I train my new intern…we met last night at the Botanical Gardens and as we started walking to the right spot Lauren showed me her hand and told me still no ring!  Then she started chatting about how she really thinks it will happen in the next week or two and I had to really fight to keep a straight face!  We got the the right spot and had Lauren start posing for us and I said the code words for Blake to come out from the other side of the hedges.   Check out the first shot…Lauren was posing and didn’t notice Blake until he was right next to her:

She still didn’t know what was going on, and it made me smile to look at the whole sequence last night and see that he had the box in his hand as he walked up to her, but she had her eyes on his face the whole time.   Then he got down on one knee:

We were all crying…my hands were shaking…it was so beautiful!!

And WOW did he do a great job on the ring!!   Check her out blinding everyone on the news this morning here.

Jessica and I left them and I turned to get one last shot…Blake was still wiping her tears.  Lauren and Blake, you are such an amazing couple together, your love for each other is overwhelming!  I can not wait for your wedding!

I had a lot of images I loved…but didn’t want to over load the blog so go to my facebook page to see the rest!

Don’t forget to have your friends and family comment on your session blog posts…my first family to do this had their 25 comments within an hour and will have a surprise coming with their order!

Lauren, so nice to meet you!  Good luck with graduation and school!

A new favorite:

More soon!!  Also, if any clients from this year want to use a picture from their session for Holiday cards you can now find my new designs on the client proofing site.  At the top of this page, click on “Jennifer’s Web Sites”  then choose Proofs.  There you will find 2008 and 2009’s collections.  You can use cards from either set.  All cards are 5×7 printed on card stock on both sides.  Some designs have back designs, others I will work with you to come up with a custome design.  Minor modifications can be made to most cards.

The first round of mini sessions is this weekend and emails went out.  I will get emails out for next weekend soon!

Mom told me that little M is very active and I thought yep, like most 3 year olds…but don’t let this first image fool you:

That’s funny!

No, most of the session looked like this from my end:

Mom and dad caught her a few times:

And how gorgeous is mom?  Love this last one:

But, after all that running and shooting, I got some great smiles, and a lot of images that are truely M – active and adorable!

A few more things… a few mini session times are still available, but the date is quickly approaching!  Let me know soon if you are interested!  They are going to be SOOO cute!

And, don’t make fun of me too much, I told you how hot it was that day and how much running I had to do after a 2 year old right before the interview part…but here is the link to the video of the NBC Channel 24 Darn Good Question, how to take better pictures of your kids segment.

Q was soooo adorable!

And I just loved his personality, we had so much fun!

He was VERY active, so the session consisted of lots of us chasing after Q and lots of fun running shots:

Toward the end he broke out a little air guitar, how cute is that?

Here’s a link to the story. Luckily there’s no video yet…we didn’t do the interview part until after I spent a good 30-40 minutes running around in the middle of the hottest, most humid day we’ve had yet this year!  Not a pretty site!  But Norm did a great job putting together my unorganized thoughts and tips and it was fun to learn that he is a photography professional himself with some great race car shots!

My calendar for July/August/September is getting full and I still need to schedule my senior spokes models’ second sessions…if you are interested in sessions in those months, let me know sooner rather than later…

Due to popular demand and some kick-”bum” ideas I have, I am going to have a very limited number of mini sessions at the end of July and early August.  Think fun, colorful, classic, nostalgic themes…  I have a few more details I hope to have ironed out tomorrow and will be sending out the info.   It’ll go to members of my facebook page and then my newsletter first.  Then I’ll blog it next week if I have any spots left.   Make sure you’re on my page or newsletter lists if you are interested:  FACEBOOK or NEWSLETTER

One more thing…the Toledo Botanical Gardens have changed their policy for photographers.  I know my families love the gardens and so do I…so I am happy to support them!  I’m excited to be one of the few photographers in the area allowed to hold sessions there, and I am looking forward to having less crowds to work around!

This was my second family from Sunday.  They  are so fun… the boys are all at that age, loving to show off, run, jump, climb, we had fun at the Botanical gardens.  And their big sister is so helpful and patient, and sweet!  And she goes to the “good” high school in town   (just kidding but it is my high school)

It was so nice to finally meet you all!

I love getting some of just mom and dad, and I love this family shot:

Just a little collage of each of the kids (my new collage software darkened the boys eyes when I resized them… K, I cropped her first and look at the difference!  Oh well, the prints will look good)

And boys!  I love that they decided to hug on their own:

I had a massive amount of emails come in yesterday and I don’t think I got to any.  I will catch up on emails tomorrow!

I just love this shot, resting inbetween dance moves, with that adorable curl hanging down over her eye:

Then off again, this time mom caught her, look at that hair!  LOVE it!  My stick straight hair has envy:

The little princess is peaking out of her castle:

This cold is kicking my rear…I have a ton of emails I need to get back to, but my head is so foggy I can’t think straight.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.  Watch for my second Sunday session too!