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For those of you itching to see more pictures of our baby girl and our adventures in parenthood, I bring you my new feature: Family Friday! I am going to be devoting a post each and every Friday to our growing family. Brie has turned our world upside down in an awesomely good way. I could just watch her for hours and it amazes me how soundly she sleeps the day away. My Calmer and I often wonder what sweet dreams she is having.

I also want to mention that today is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day. We are taking some time today to remember our first baby Bella Rose. She is truly our guardian angel who brought us many blessings throughout the past year. A new photography business, new home, and now our perfectly healthy and happy second baby Brielle Rose. If you or someone you know is also remembering an angel baby today head on over to the I Am The Face movement. They are doing amazing things to educate and promote this day and let those suffering know that they are not alone.

A few weeks ago we invited the very talented photographer Kelly Nelson into our home to capture some special moments of My Calmer, Brie and I as a new and growing family.  Being a photographer myself it’s of utmost importance to me to preserve these memories that we’ll never get back. Brie’s smallness.  Parental instinct. The love and adoration we have for her and each other. With all the sleepless nights and the whirlwind that parenthood brings I wanted something special to remember this time in our lives. It’s often hard to stop and enjoy these fleeting moments and Kelly was the photographer we chose capture them for us. Her casual. documentary style of storytelling was exactly what we were going for in preserving the memory of this time.

Kelly, like myself offers a custom photography business. Custom photography allows you to pick a photographer who fits your style and your needs. It’s about building a relationship with a photographer, connecting with their style, and allowing their vision to create works of art that preserve the important moments in your life.  I absolutely adore being a custom photographer. I love meeting new people, building relationships, shooting photographs, and retouching them to make timeless art pieces that tell the story of a moment in time.

So why go custom? Custom photography is expensive. Why not just go to the portrait studio in the local mall?  It’s so much cheaper and faster. Custom photography is all about the EXPERIENCE. The overall package.  It’s not the portrait studio mentality of next in line, everyone smile at the camera, one size fits all.  Think about Starbucks vs. McDonalds or Nordstrom vs. Walmart.

Your custom photography experience starts from the time you begin scouring the internet to find the photographer who speaks to you and your style. Some custom photographers work in studios while others only shoot on location in parks or cities. Some have a flair for drama while others are quite casual. Some focus mainly on posed portraits while others focus on telling a story in their images.  Once you’ve chosen your photographer the rest of the process unfolds from there. From planning a wardrobe, to taking the photos, to retouching and editing, to gallery review, and finally product selection and ordering.  Custom photographers usually share a gallery culled to only the best images from your session and offer an extensive array of products to choose from (prints, enlargements, storyboards, albums, canvas, etc…).

Custom photography is expensive. But there is a reason.  The experience your photographer is creating for you takes time. Much more time than your visit to the mall’s portrait studio. There is time spent planning with you. Time shooting you and your beautiful family. Time culling, editing, and retouching your images. And time helping you get the most out your images through product consultation and ordering from the most reputable high quality vendors out there.

Isn’t the custom experience what you’d want when preserving your most important family memories?  I’d love to be the photographer to help you create beautiful family memories.  I know I will certainly be treasuring these images for a lifetime thanks to Kelly.

A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living for.

~Anonymous~

With the weather finally getting cooler and fall in full swing I thought it was time for another What to Wear guide for your enjoyment.  These combos are the perfect mix of color, pattern and texture for those fall family photos.

And, if you are looking for updated family photos for your holiday cards and gifts, I still have a few spots left for my HOLIDAY MINIS this upcoming Saturday, October 30th in beautiful Waterford, VA. 9am, 9:30am, and 4:30pm are still available! Shoot me an email at beyoungphotography@gmail.com if you’re interested and want all the details.

For Halloween this year Brielle has already begun looking up to her furry siblings. I hope you’re Halloween weekend is filled with lots of treats and no tricks!

This weekend I had my Holiday Minis in historic Waterford, VA and they were a blast! However, this session totally rocked my socks off! Long time friend Alexis and her boyfriend Thomas eloped last weekend and wanted to commemorate this new chapter in their lives with a mini session in their wedding attire.  I’ve never done wedding or bridal photos before, so this was certainly a special treat and what a beautiful bride and beautiful family they are! Alexis, her son Alex, and new husband Thomas got plenty of attention during our mini session too, with lots of passers-by stopping to give their congratulations.

Thanks you three for having me do such a special shoot. You radiated with happiness, humor, and love and I had a great time capturing your new beginning together. I hope you enjoy your preview, I absolutely love your images and had quite a tough time choosing my favorites!

I love how Be Young Photography has allowed me to reconnect with so many old friends. I love catching up on old times and having the opportunity to create new memories. When Lisa contacted me to do Holiday Minis of her family of 4 I was elated! Lisa and I met 7 years ago when she volunteered to be the room mother for the Kindergarten class I was teaching at the time. And, this was not just any class, it was my first year of teaching out of college so I was full of ambitions, anticipation, and nerves for what the year might bring. Fortunately, I could not have asked for a better room mother that year. She was full of ideas, help and support for a wide-eyed first year teacher  Not only was it great to see Lisa again this past weekend, but seeing her younger son Chris go from the playful Kindergartner in my class to a polite 7th grader was totally surreal! Time sure does fly.

Lisa, it was so great working you and your family again and capturing your holiday images. I had such a hard time choosing my favorites that most your images appear in this post! I hope you enjoy them, the rest are on the way soon.

Today you are 12 weeks old and just the size of a plum but already you have stolen our hearts.  Your mom and dad have been through a lot this year and we have been wishing and hoping for a long time for you to be strong and healthy.  You also have lots of other family and friends wanting and praying for the same things and you’ll have quite the loving fan base once you arrive.  You’ve caused your mom to be quite tired these past 3 months but she’s just starting to get some energy (and her appetite!) back.

Today your dad, The Calmer, had to really live up to his job.  We took you to the Dr. today for your first checkup. You had your mom tied in knots of nervousness all day long. She thought about your sister alot and how this Dr. was the first to tell us how sick your sister Bella really was and that she was not going to make it into this world.  In the waiting room your dad held your mom’s hand and told her that everything was going to be ok today.

And he was right.

At 12 weeks you have a strong heartbeat of 155 bpm, you’re measuring on target, and according to the doctor you look completely healthy in your first trimester.  Your mom almost broke down in tears on the exam table and your dad was simply beaming.  We aren’t out of the woods yet, but hearing the words strong and healthy made us both breathe a huge sigh of relief. We are so overjoyed to have you enter our world at such an exciting time. You’ll get to come home to our brand new home. And your mom can’t wait to post newborn pictures of you on her photography business website. Keeping growing strong and healthy. We can’t wait to meet you in September.

This week was an exciting mail week!  My new coffee table image box sample arrived and I am so excited to start offering these to clients when they purchase one my digital collections. Each box is custom designed from your session and holds up to 100 5×7 prints.  With a digital collection purchase, BeYoung Photography clients will receive one of these lovely boxes and inside will be each edited image from your session.

I love the simple yet elegant design touches of the black canvas interior and ribbon for easy handling of your prints.  These are a fabulous and personalized way to store and share your images with family and friends for years to come.

One of the coolest thing about this job is getting to watch my client’s children grow and capture those milestones that are so important for familes.  Some of you remember this cute little guy Harper and his mom and dad, Lis and Chris.  I got to take photos of him back in December at 6 months. He was just learning to hold himself up and sit up on his own but he was full of smiles and love for his mom and dad.  My visit this time was pretty amazing. It was fun to see this little guy growing bigger and stronger, but still with a great smile and a desire cheese it up for the camera in an instant.

For our session we spent time strolling Lis and Chris’ neighborhood. It was a GORGEOUS afternoon and it really felt more like the beginnings of spring than summer! Just down the street from Lis and Chris’ house is a little playground. Harper is just starting to learn how much fun the playground really is! At first he wasn’t so sure about going down the slide with mom. But with dad’s help he was all about exploring. I love the sequence below of him attempting to crawl down the slide instead of letting gravity do its job.

For the last part of my visit we simply spent some time enjoying the warm air and letting Baby H. do his thing. He is on the move! Crawling now, but I am sure he will be walking and completely mobile in no time. Watch out mom and dad!

Thanks Lis and Chris for inviting me back to capture these milestones for your family. I hope you enjoy your preview.  I had such a fun time with you guys and can’t wait to see this guy really moving around during my 1 year visit not to long from now!