Aria is grown up… Turned 1! Changed a lot in this year… She is a happy, healthy, active, inquisitive and beautiful little lady now. She makes mommy and daddy proud every day 🙂
I feel honored to be a part of this family’s life and watch them all grow! <3
This was a wonderful photo session! Warm autumn day, beautiful light, and pretty little girl with gorgeous blue eyes. Brittany is growing up… It was so nice to see this family again and enjoy one of the last warm autumn days. Enjoy!
“… After my babies were born I almost rethought doing our newborn pictures. Our first day home we found ourselves rushing to Children’s Hospital because one of our new twins had turned blue in the crib. At that point all I could think of was how best to care for my babies. I almost backed out of our session until Marina told me that she completely understood, but reminded me that this time will go by so fast and that we will not be able to do newborn portraits the way I had envisioned them if we waited. I rethought my decision and brought my two babies on Oxygen to her warm cozy studio with lots of family to help. We had an amazing and memorable time capturing the preciousness of our new baby girls.
My family still talks about that day and wishes to come to a future session. Those shots are now priceless to us. Needless to say, I could hardly wait for our next session to capture how much they did change. Their cute personalities and demeanor. I was confident, Marina could do it, and as always she surpassed any expectation that I had.
I chose Marina as our photographer after spending many many hours online looking other maternity and newborn photographers. Marina’s style which wasn’t trendy but classic and tasteful suited our needs and desires perfectly.
Marina never stops helping. She wants to help you plan to the last detail. She doesn’t wait for you to show up at the studio and try to make the best of what you show up with. She wants to plan with you to create the art that you are looking for in your family. The first time I filled out her questionnaire I did not understand why all of the details were necessary, but after our first session I got it. Most recently we emailed and texted back and forth about looks and clothing options for our intended shots. I couldn’t of done it without her because I am far from a stylist in my real life. We were looking for a classic look. We wanted out family shot to not speak to a decade through style. We wanted the same thing for our girls although we did have fun with some trendy things we happened to have in the closet. 😉
… Our babies laugh, smile and respond to us. They are able to crawl and interact with each other, it’s awesome to watch. This session reflected on how far we have come as a family from our newborn days. Our girls are amazing and fun and Marina captured that for us.
Marina exceeded all of my expectations for our family and our twin girls shots. Her planning and preparedness show in her work, and it certainly showed in our session. Marina makes it very difficult to limit the number of images you will want to save forever 🙂
Thank you Marina for your amazing work! It’s not easy, I know because I see how hard you work with just us, and I know you commit to every family the same way. We can’t wait to display our new photos! Thanks again!” – that is what their mommy wanted me to share with you all! I appreciate those kind words more than anything!
I loved photographing these twins ! Beautiful, happy, glowing with energy with bright blue eyes – both girl have their own unique personality! Mommy shared:
“Our babies love food! We love yogurt drops for snacks and anything Mommy packs in a pouch we love. We read books everyday. Our girls love flipping pages, pointing at objects and winding down while listening.”
Bella, the Labrador was so patient and a great listener, followed directions and calmly observed all of the hustle going on around her.
Their mama is so loving, patient and organized … I loved the interaction between mommy and daddy. I always admire their relationship and the way they are so patient and caring with each other and the girls. Enjoy!
Baby Hudson turned 1! It was so great to witness him grow and change this first year. I always feel so grateful to be a part of my client’s lives and watch babies turn into toddlers, then preschoolers, then enter the kindergarten age. Hudson’s mom shared with me:
“We decided on the 1 year package in general because I know how much babies change in the first year. The first year is so jam-packed with LIFE that I wanted to know that no matter what, we had already put a plan in place to document the important milestones (birth, sitting, walking). A good friend of mine purchased the 1 year package for her first daughter. When we saw those pictures, we fell in love!”
And I, of course, adore this family and their love for each other, their patience and ability to plan and achieve great results. It was always so worry free with Hudson’s family. I always knew what they wanted because they were so open to communicate it to me! Hudson’s mom said:
“I think what’s been most helpful is that I will send you the outline of my “plan” and then you give suggestions/tips on what will work the best.”
… I love to listen to people’s stories… Who they are and what do they enjoy…
“It was nice to have this session outdoors. We love to go on walks as a family and go to parks, Hudson LOVES to swing!!! Though he’s been a little slower at some of the milestones, we have really learned that it doesn’t matter and that he’s just his own person and will do everything at his own pace. That realization has brought a lot of peace to our household. What I am probably most proud of is that he really takes his time to observe his surroundings and take everything in before reacting. He’s already so observant and intuitive and I just love that it already shows us so much of his personality.
His favorite time of day is when Daddy comes home. The smile that comes across his face brings such light to my heart every time I see it. He also loves using Mama as a personal jungle gym (isn’t that supposed to be Daddy’s job?). 🙂
About getting ready for this session Hudson’s mom mentioned:
“This session was so much easier to prepare for since it was outside. No backdrops to pick out, so all we had to do was focus on the outfits, which I LOVE to do because of my background in retail. Well, I really wanted to focus to be on Hudson, so we tried to keep it as simple as possible. I love using the chairs because the focus is all on him, but still adds a little punch and interest to the photo. The balloons were a nice way to celebrate his birthday without doing a cake smash and dealing with all of the mess!
The one prop that mostly stands out for me is probably the tie that we used in the pictures. Hudson’s father wore that tie on our wedding day. I thought it would be really special to put Hudson in it and then when and if we ever have a girl, possibly do a picture of her in my wedding gown. 🙂
When I asked Hudson’s mom about how does she like the result of this 1 year long venture she said:
“It’s so funny. No matter what the situation during the session, you always amaze us with fantastic photographs. After Hudson’s rough 2nd session, I was so determined that we’d have a smooth 3rd session. What do you know, we forget all of his outfits… 🙁 (The Dad had to save the day and drive to get the outfits).You are definitely talented in getting greats shots quickly and despite not the best circumstances, thank you!”
I am so happy and grateful to hear sincere praise from the families I get to work with! It means so much to me being loved and appreciated for staying consistent with the positive results my clients enjoy!
Alexis is an inquisitive baby and is always happy! She is so beautiful and the outfits only add to the beauty. I had a great time working with Alexis and chatting with her parents. 🙂
P.S. I am being late sharing this post, but still trying to catch up…
Anna is all grown up! This was the last session in the collection of Anna’s portraits from “Baby’s 1st Year”. It has been a while since I should have shared this, but as you all know – summer and fall is the busiest time for us, photographers. Trying to catch up now…
This session was a bit different… Just as got my very first shot of a family portrait, I noticed the face of the big brother started to change…slowly he started to lift up his head and his chin started to drop, eyebrows lifted. He started crying, pointing to the sky…
Guess what? We lost the balloons he was promised, right at the very beginning of the session… He did not smile entire session… He was heartbroken. Such a sad face. Not until the mom pulled out the cake. That made everything much better 🙂
Anna is a very happy baby, as always! I had fun and she did too! 🙂
I loved photographing this gorgeous mother… Beautiful, stylish, smart and organized (you got to be with this many kids, or you are not going to get anywhere) Amber inspires me! She is an amazing human being, great mother and a wife and I am simply in love with her family! It was such a pleasure to be photographing her that day and including her children to this “Mother & Children” photo session. It was a challenge and I always love that!
There are no better words to describe what mothers say share about their children and portrait sessions as their own words…
…”Children are so fascinating and they grow up, change, and experience so much in the first year. We wanted to capture as many of Hudson’s milestones as possible. We chose the first year package because though we intend to take a million photos ourselves of Hudson’s first years, it’s always inspiring to see a different point of view and there’s just something dynamic about a professional photo, it’s crispness, it’s color, it’s artistry.
As a family we love to go on walks, play at the park, snuggle together, and read.
Hudson is still working on crawling, but he sits like a champ, army crawls, and like to do “squats” in the laundry basket to practice pulling up. He also recently learned and loves to clap his hands together whenever we say “Yay!”, he waves hi and goodbye, and he LOVES to feed himself finger foods.
Hudson’s most recent favorites are cottage cheese, cantaloupe, avocados.
He loves any book by Sandra Boynton, and swinging.
You can tell he loves music because he loves Pandora children’s radio, playing the piano (both real and toy), and drumming on pots and pans. His favorite songs are “You Are My Sunshine” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”.
During the preparation process I specifically picked out Hudson’s outfits for the session. I would just watch for fun outfits or accessories that I thought would be good colors for him, or dynamic for the shoot. I love a pop of color and a trendy, but comfortable feel for photos.
The most personal choices for the session were our props. The wooden train was Hudson dad’s when he was a wee one and his favorite Grandpa made it especially for him. We love that you can see daddy’s name carved into the bottom of the train in some of the pictures as Hudson is playing with it.
The wooden airplane was also mine as a kid and was given to me by my Dad (he is a retired Air Force and commercial pilot).”
I always enjoy working with this family on their stylized portrait sessions. Hudson’s mom is always organized, loves to look for props and style the session to her own taste! I love being a part of creating personalized photos for this family!
Congratulations to Minna’s family! She just turned 1 year old and looks so grown up 🙂 I know Minna’s mum felt the urgency to have these portraits done as she shared with me (in her amazingly captivating Australian accent): “… My babies are growing up way too fast! They are this little for such a small window and I wanted to capture that moment in time so I could never forget.”
I was suggested to this family by another photographer in Boulder (who does not photograph children or babies any longer and specializes in Maternity portraits – De Landa Licata) that this family really liked and trusted that she will send them to the right person – me! 🙂
I feel very honored to be trusted with Minna’s portraits as (in her mum’s words) “…she just had gained her independence by walking and watching her explore this whole new world upright is amazing!” I am very happy that I got to take part in capturing this new experience for Minna’s family! I am looking forward to watching these children grow every year!
