Sprouts by Heather

I think you might recognize this little guy, my sweet Mason boy, and he is with my sister’s little girl Ella, and my cousin’s girl Caitie. This side of my family is just C-Raze-E about pictures, there are more DSLRs when we get together as a family than in most camera stores. We have tried every time we are together (which is pretty often) to get a picture we love of the three of them together and it just wasn’t happening. With a 3 year old, 2 year old, and 18 month old….I suppose you can guess why this task was almost impossible. So a few weeks ago we decided to create a picture-perfect set for them to play in together and I stepped back and captured the fun. These 3 are super-active and they have so much fun together. They keep us laughing for sure. Yesterday we surprised our grandmother with a big storyboard of these images of her great-grandchildren, so now I can share them here. Hope you love these sweet ones as much as we do!

Today we have another sweet and very special little friend of mine from Charlotte. I have been photographing Eliana since she was just a few weeks old, and here she is as a little 3 year old beauty. I get so sentimental about the children that I have seen grow over several years, I feel like I become a part of the family. I think if I were, I would definitely be nicknamed Silly Aunt Heather. I adore this age and all the giggles I get when I sing my silly songs. I think this adorable little one will have you grinning after a short scroll down the page, as you can tell, we had a very active morning.

Love Love LOVE.

I can still hear her sweet giggles….

I have been photographing this sweet family in Charlotte now for a few years and just love spending time with them. Even after moving to Birmingham last year, I still love to hear little tidbits of their lives from their mom on Facebook and I always look forward to photographing them when I travel back to Charlotte. Little boys have a special place in my heart and I love the challenge of making the experience fun for them and working hard to get some special images for their families. It has been so special to see Chase go from baby to toddler and Charlie from toddler to little boy. Each time I am with these boys, I fall more in love with this sweet pair and their  little BIG personalities!

Picture a Cure on Fox News

This morning if you watched Good Morning Alabama on Fox News, you may have seen a special interview with fellow photographer Ashley Warren and her friend Letitia Kennedy talking about Picture a Cure. 12 Birmingham area photographers have teamed up to do a fundraiser for an organization called Stop SMA. SMA (spinal muscular atrophy) is a deadly neurological disease that affects children. The medical field is hard at work trying to find a cure for this awful disease and Stop SMA is there to help raise money to fund the research. When I think about other diseases where much progress has been made in treatment over the last decade or two, I see much hope in these doctors fighting to find a cure for these children and their families. It is possible (!!!!!) and teaming up with an organization like Stop SMA can help bring these families HOPE! As photographers, we are donating our time to each provide mini-sessions to the public (with digital files!) and 100% of the proceeds go to Stop SMA. It gets even better because Stop SMA is also a 100% volunteer organization, so they will then turn around and give 100% of that money to fund research to find a cure. If you want to get your family involved in making a difference in the lives of these families, go to the Picture a Cure website to sign up for a mini-session. All sessions are 20 minutes long on September 11th at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. You will receive 15 edited images on a disc with full printing rights, perfect for Christmas gifts for family and for Christmas cards. (This is actually a really great deal with all of these photographers since the digital files are included.) Not to mention, the opportunity to truly make a huge difference in the life of another family! I hope you’ll join us. Go the website to choose your photographer and sign up for a session. (Pick me! Pick me!)

These adorable little boys drove a long way to see me! Well, their parents drove them a long way to see me. I was a little nervous about the weather since we’ve been having so many evening showers this summer, I didn’t want their three and a half hour drive (each way) to be a bust. So I was really excited when we ended up with clear skies (but very high temps) and beautiful evening light. Julie, their mom, was on staff at the church we attended in college and I went on a mission trip to Africa with her and Robert in 2002, way before any of us had our precious boys.

I could not believe how big Hudson is, but I was not surprised that he is an absolute sweetheart. I knew he would be. Little Bentley was on the move, much like my nephews in my last post. I love to get these little guys laughing though when I chase them. I don’t give up very easily!

I love this family shot because it embodies a bit of the action involved with having a toddler boy in your family. Sometimes getting their feet off the ground is just about the only way to get them to stay in one spot.

I loved capturing them all just playing and laughing together, and loving on each other. These are the types of images that I think are truly priceless as your young children grow into teenagers. I love seeing families having fun together!

We took a few weeks off and went to the Bahamas for a few weeks to visit Jeremy’s family. This was Mason’s first trip there, so he met a lot of family members for the first time. It was wonderfully refreshing, but now I am back to work and booking sessions for the fall. I will share pictures from the Bahamas soon, but for now, here is a darling little pair that I photographed right before we left for vacation. Palmer and Davis are beautiful children with such sweet temperaments. It was a joy to spend the morning with them!