Finally - MY Family Photography Session

I have never had a real family photo session of my very own - never. It's kinda like the shoemaker's kids go shoeless thing.... My image above my fire place is 3 years old. I have 4 children now instead of the 3 shown in that image. It was time. We shot these images this month - the month of January...so it is okay to do family pictures other than the month of November.

The beautiful and wonderfully talented Amy Lebbon came up from Phoenix and made my dreams come true.

A few thoughts from the "other side of the camera".

1. I knew what I wanted my pictures to look like. I knew I wanted interaction and fun times with my husband and children...and I was not afraid to smile & laugh to get those images - even if it felt a little dorky doing it, or required some rear-end pinching on my part.
2. I knew exactly where the pictures would be hung and was about 95% sure on the layout of the gallery of images - this made it easy when we were messing around 'cause I knew how they were going to be displayed (don't worry, I'll show you the final wall when I'm finished), and I knew I wanted random images mixed in with some "set" shots.
3. I knew the colors of clothing months in advance :) (okay - I knew I wanted to wear a dress & heels and matt was going to wear his "swinger" suit - I like to dress up despite my tendency to lean towards anything made of velour or sweats.) BUT I didn't have the exact outfits laid out until the day before when I went and raided a friends closet (thank you friend :). My motto with clothing - the crazier the better - no matchy matchy please. I think the randomness photographs better - plus its stuff we actually wear.

4. I had scouted out the location and it proved to be as awesome as I knew it would be. Now I can already here my mother asking why I chose to shoot near an abandoned grafiti-ridden train car :) OR next to the NAPA auto parts store...all I can say is...I love it (don't worry mom - you can still tell me it looks like the middle of a dump - I won't be sad). I like it 'cause it was a little funky....a little different.

6. I took a LOT of deep breaths and only lost my temper a few times - basically whenever a child (one in particular) ran away OR another child would make ridiculous faces (the un-photoshoppable kind).

7. I love that these pictures reflect ALL my kids personalities - Laina, the poser, McLaren, the rascal, Indy, the nugget, & Ella, the teeny little caboose.

Thank you again Amy, YOU ROCK! (some PS was done by Amy and some by moi ;)