Sprouts by Heather

I never intended to be gone so long from the blog, but it seems I’ve been “just about a week away” from finishing my new branding and site since early in the year. I began holding posts for the launch of the new site and here we are months in to the new year and still I’m “just about a week away”. So hold tight;  lots of new sights coming soon!!

Beginning a new year has always been really fun for me. I am the type of person who loves to set goals and try to obsessively over-organize my path to achieve them. So while some may not enjoy New Year’s resolutions, I am an odd one that actually really enjoys the process involved. As a part of the goal-setting process, I like to look back at the goals I have accomplished  just prior and to look forward to see how I can use those as building blocks as I revaluate and set new goals.

One of my biggest goals for my business in 2011 was to capture more of the unique relational aspect of individual families through my photography. After doing a lot of studying and self-reflection at the beginning of last year, I really started to pin point the aspects of my family that I, as a mother and creative, want to be preserved through photography. I set out to be deliberate about translating that self-reflection over into my work. So what follows, is a collection of some of my favorite images that I captured over the past year, with a few thoughts about why these images are so important to me.

Let me start off by saying, I love a good portrait. I believe these are important pieces of preserving our family’s memories, and I love shooting them with a little personality thrown in.

Portraits are important because they preserve what we look like at a specific time. These are the only pictures in this post that are of our son Mason, and I love them. I love all of the images I have of him where he is completely unaware of the camera, but I also appreciate this pair of images from last January. Its fun to look back and see how much he’s changed and how this green jacket would be short sleeves on him now. I certainly don’t regret the monthly portraits I took of him to go along with the countless number of lifestyle or emotional imagery I captured of him throughout the year.

And there are certain occasions, like being a brand spanking new baby(!!) that really cry out for a nice portrait.

So don’t get me wrong, I do love portraits. They mean a lot to me, but over the past year (and really maybe I should extend that all the way back to our son’s birth in April 2010) I have really fallen in love with imagery that captures emotions and relationships. Intimate moments when a parent and child are completely lost in each other, even to the point of temporarily being unaware that I am there.

Not only do I love photographing these moments, but I love BEING in these moments. People watching has taken on an all new meaning for me this year. I have always been a sensitive and sentimental person, but add the birth of our son into the mix, and the amount of sentimental mush that exists in my brain would make most people nauseous. I love, no, LOVE being in these moments with parents as I can read their love for their children in their expressions, body language, and shared gestures. These moments are so poetic to me, and I am often awestruck when these moments unfold.

The excitement a family shares together as they welcome a new baby into the family….

Or the happiness of little boys playing with their daddies outdoors. Can’t you just imagine this scene unfolding in their front yards when daddy returns home from work each evening.

The family relationships that I get to be around are so inspiring to me as I notice how she looks at him with admiration, even at such a young age.

Or knowing how little boys are especially loving to their mothers, and the gentle touch of his sweet little hand sends love oozing over every crevice of this mommy heart. This is how we see them….the moments we share with them….

The tricks we perform on a regular basis when its almost nap time….

The way she stands when she’s up to something….

A brilliant memorization of distinct tickle spots for each child, and remembering how they would squeeze out a “stop it” through their giggles, but stick by just close enough so you would bring them back into your arms and tickle them once more.

The exhilaration you feel as a parent when playing with your child and the world and its responsibilities fade to the background as you soak in the moment.

Remembering the moments that they considered each other their best friend.

Their laughter….

oh….The sweet sweet sound of their laughter …. coupled with mannerisms that are unique to each child, like the way she shyly breaks her gaze when a deep giggle erupts.

These are the types of things I want to remember about Mason and children yet to join our family. Yes, I hope to have a collection of images that remind me what they look like at each age, but even more so I could not possibly have enough images that capture who they really are. Each one a unique blessing. Changing so rapidly, relating to us so differently, shaping us so instinctively.

We share so many wonderful moments with our children. It was my goal to focus on preserving more of those moments throughout 2011, and my plan is to continue to explore and push this even further throughout the coming year. As I take a break from shooting this month, I have been spending a lot of time creating a plan to capture more of these types of images for my clients. I am so excited and energized for sessions to start back up in a few weeks, and I am so thankful for the clients represented in these images (and many others like them from the year) who welcomed me into these beautiful moments.

xoxo,

Heather

I didn’t realize how long I had let things go quiet around here on the blog. The holiday season is always busy on both fronts, business and personal, and I usually take a little break from the blog to save a little bit of time. We had a wonderful Christmas with family, and Mason (at 20 months old) was a real treat this year. In the coming days, I will be sharing a few images of some brand new babies that I photographed over the holidays, and maybe a few images from our Christmas at home as well. Each year, as families welcome me again into their  homes to capture their children, so many make me feel like I am a part of the family. It is such a sweet feeling that I treasure in this job. So as we bid farewell to a great 2011, and welcome this new year beaming bright with possibilities, I just wanted to take a minute to thank my clients from past years for becoming a part of the Sprouts family. I can’t wait to see the exciting things that this new year will bring for each of your families. And I am looking forward to all of the families and sweet kiddos that I will meet for the first time this year. Happy new year!

I didn’t really plan this, but I love that the two days leading up to Thanksgiving I am sharing newborn babies of really great friends. These sweet families have the greatest blessing of all to be thankful for, and I am so very thankful to have these friends in my life. When we moved to Birmingham just over a year ago, I connected with several local photographers who have become some of my closest friends. We have play dates, we go to lunch or the spa, we help each other out when needed; we share about our businesses, our families, and our faith. These friendships are so special and  I am so very thankful for them.

Grethel is one of those sweet photographer friends, she and her husband just added baby #4 to their ever-loving and joyful family. They are so much fun to be around. I loved spending part of the afternoon meeting little Miss Vivian, and capturing some images with Grethel in them. As photographers and moms, we don’t end up in very many pictures but it is something that is very important to all of us, so it was a lot of fun to capture these moments of Grethel with her children. Vivian wasn’t super duper into the idea of a photo shoot this particular day but we still got some really sweet shots.

I always love seeing how a mother and a newborn baby fit together like puzzle pieces.

My mommy heart swells up when seeing the precious intimate moments with a newborn. The early weeks are hard work but I remember it being such a magical time.

The big kids got home from school and absolutely couldn’t wait to love on Vivian. We could only keep them at bay for a few short moments before they had to jump in and give out the  kisses  they had saved up all day while they were away from her.

I think they were just as excited to be close to mommy too. They are such a close-knit, loving family. It is amazing to be around this kind of love.

Baby D is still a little reserved when it comes to holding baby Vivian, but it was so sweet to see him loving on mommy.

We went to play in Vivian’s room and you will be glad to know that she has some little monster’s living under her bed that watch over her at night….

I’ll end with a sweet shot of the girls. I could tell from the very first images of Allison meeting Vivian in the hospital that she was super excited to be adding another girl to the family. She is smitten with her little sister.

p.s. You should definitely go check out Vivian’s Birth Story by another sweet photographer friend Amanda Pair. It is amazing!

Last week, Mason and I went to visit one of my very sweet friends who just added TWO precious babies to the family. Mason and Caroline are such great playmates, so we went for a visit to let the big sister have some fun playtime…..and try to wear her out for a long nap for mommy.  Hopefully it worked! And of course, I couldn’t lay eyes on sweet newborns without taking a few pictures as well. This all went pretty quick considering there were double the babies to photograph. Such a sweet family, I am so thankful for my precious friend Lauren….and the fact that the boys are here and healthy. Meet the twins…..

….Joshua….

….Connor….

The boys are 6 weeks old now. They are identical twins but Joshua was a little bit smaller than Connor at birth so that helped me tell them apart just a little bit….but barely.

The boys enjoy sleeping on mommy and daddy.

As an aside, people often ask me if Mason goes with me to photo shoots which always makes me laugh. It would be so impossible to get anything done with a little toddler running around, so the answer is of course “no”. This was a different sort of an occasion since he was going over to play with Caroline. Thankfully Mason was pretty good, he really loved the babies and we had to find him his own to take care of so he would stop trying to give the boys their pacifiers and bottles when they were sleeping.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I loved meeting up with this precious family on Friday to photograph them in the beautiful fall leaves. Two sweet boys, great wardrobe choices, and the fall setting made for a great time together. It didn’t take me long to realize that this was my kind of family. They are new to Birmingham and are looking for a house, so after about 30 minutes together, I started recruiting them to live in our neighborhood. I hope that wasn’t moving too fast for a first date.

Check out how cute they are!!

My favorite images are always the ones where parents + child are playing and laughing together. Real emotion and real smiles. I think preservation of these types of moments are such a great gift to give our children. Imagine one day as they look back and see how much you love and enjoy being with them. So much joy!

I just love how this gorgeous warm light is wrapping around them in the next two images. So magical. And this is such a sweet moment between mommy and baby.

And more sweet moments, but this time between daddy and baby. Look at that sweet grin on baby Colt’s face on the right, even his eyes are smiling. I love it!

Thank you guys for choosing me to document your sweet family. Let me know when you want a guided tour of our neighborhood.