Finally Back

    I confess - I was a really bad photographer and I neglected my blog for two and a half months... Yes, I have been doing photo shoots since my last post. In fact, since December 13th (the date of my last post) I have done five family/children photo sessions, two events/parties, one business photo session, and one birth. Definitely busy. But I was also reminded that first, before I am an aspiring photographer, I am a high school student. So the last few months have seen me trying to catch up/keep up with my work as a student. Thus, blogging was put on a back burner for a little while. I'm back now, and rather than show you every photo shoot I did, I am going to share just a few favorites from the past two months.

The beautiful, peaceful home birth that I attended this December

Some of my favorites from the various Christmas family photo shoots that I did this December...

And now into January - another family photo shoot...

And a birthday party with a nine-year old and twin one-year olds, and cupcakes. Dangerous combination, and oh-so much fun :)

     The last update I have for you is that there is now a business page on Facebook for Kaela Ann Photography. If you are a Facebook person, check it out! Believe it or not, it does get updated a bit more frequently than my blog! I will be back soon with more posts - I have yet to share the photo shoot that I did last week, with a tea party and two baby girls :) I promise, it will be less than two and a half months before I post it!

Keeping Up

     In all honesty, photography is definitely one of the harder jobs that I could have picked to do for a part-time high school job. I could have picked something that had regular, consistent hours, instead of a photoshoot here and a photoshoot there. I could have picked something that didn't require my mom to run me all over the city and my brothers to get dragged along constantly. I could have picked something that didn't involve correspondence and email/text answering at irregular times throughout the day. I could have picked something a lot easier, maybe work at McDonalds or something.
     The reality is, I didn't. And even though this photoshoot life is crazy sometimes (ok, it's crazy all of the time), I feel so totally beyond blessed that I am able to do something that I love as my highschool job. My work is something that I enjoy, from connecting with people to taking pictures to spending hours on editing. I am thankful to my family because they put up with it in all of it's insanity. I am thankful to my mom because I could not do it without her. I am thankful for my parents that they homeschooled me, so that I have the opportunity to be flexible with my schedule and to pursue things that interest me (yes, my mom counts all of this photo time as school credit). And I am thankful to my  Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, because ultimately all of this comes from Him. In all of it's craziness, photography is infinitely better than McDonalds.
     That's a little bit of background for you about my photo life as it currently stands. Now, to catch you up on the photos... :) I recently did a shoot with two families, a few all-together group shots, and a few of each family individually. When I got into the car, I immediately hit the review button on my camera and began flipping back through the pictures. When I got to the group photos of everyone together, I was so, so excited. Each and every person's face in the picture was clear and sharp. I counted the shoot as a success at that point :) That was just the first of many family/holiday photo shoots, and I will continue to post some over the next few weeks.

Short and Sweet

     When I go to a photo shoot, I take a LOT of photos. My brothers often ask me about it; "Kaela, why do you have to take, like, at least three pictures of everything?" Actually, when I first started taking photo classes, that is exactly what my photo teacher told me - to take three of everything. You get one angle that you like, and you snap three photos, because the expressions of the subject might change, or the camera might get bumped (resulting in blurry photos), or you might adjust your zoom on the camera and back up a bit, or shift your lighting, etc. Then, you try another position for the subjects, or another angle, and you do it all over again. As you might imagine, the numbers build up quickly.
     Last month (wow, I am having the sudden realization that November is now technically "last month") I think I hit my all time lowest number of photos during a photo shoot - only 101 photos. Typically, I might take between 300-400 photos on a normal shoot, even though it only lasts about an hour or so. Newborn shoots take a bit longer, but only because they require a lot more posing and prop set-up. This particular shoot we were on a time crunch, so it was shorter than usual, and I didn't take nearly as many photos.
     That being said, the photos that we did get were so, so sweet. I loved working with this beautiful baby girl :) Thus, the moral of the story is that although taking a lot of photos is a great way to learn and experiment, you do not have to take a million to turn out with a few sweet ones. As long as you work efficiently with the time you have.

Growing Family

     Sometimes photos can be used to document a family, as their kids grow. And then, sometimes, they can be used to document a family as they grow in number. This fall, I met with a family to document both. In addition to doing photos for their little girl's birthday, we shot/designed some photos for their exciting news - the news of the additions that their family is expecting in spring 2013. Yes, additions is plural :) If you are still confused, see if the photos help...

I think you've got the idea - twins on the way!!!

We also did some birthday photos for this little girl's 3rd birthday...

And if she looks familiar, that is because she was in one of my posts from this spring. 

My little "Klove" friend :) 

By the way, the fact that the shoes are blue does not hold any significance. 

The babies' genders are yet to be determined. Just in case you wondered :)

Family Photos

     Two days after my senior pics photoshoot, I did a shoot at Seneca Park, over by the zoo. I had not been there since this spring, and I was pleasantly surprised at the gorgeous array of colors that we found there. Lighting, colors, and everything around us were absolutely beautiful.
     I am about to do another flash back for you now. Let's see if anyone recognizes this guy and his sister. If you are a new follower of this blog, they may not look familiar to you. I did his newborn photos back in March, and he has had lots of time to grow since then...  :)

Before...

...and After

Kids always grow so fast - and that is part of why I love photos. They capture moments of time, and then you can hold on to those moments forever :)