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!

Photographers all around are in their busiest season of year, the fall is like our tax season. Deadlines to meet, lots of long nights,  and here recently lots of reschedules because of this tricky weather! My calendar is full for the rest of the year, but I will be opening up my 2012 calendar for scheduling soon. Just a reminder that the deadline to place Christmas cards is November 25th and the deadline for all print orders is December 10th if you need to be receive them by Christmas  . If you had a session earlier in the year, and are wanting to place orders for Christmas gifts, email me soon to have your online gallery relaunched so you can get your order in before the deadline. I just ordered some prints for my family for Christmas and was reminded how great of a gift it is to give.

It has been such a great year, with our first full year being back in Alabama. Our sweet Mason boy has transformed from baby to toddler, and we are looking forward to all the festivities and sweet days together as a family that the upcoming holiday season brings. I love the excitement of decorating for Christmas and checking the mail each day when Christmas cards start pouring in from family and friends. It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

…..and because every post is better with pictures, here are a few of the beautiful Lindsey whom I did a session for a while back for a birthday gift for her husband. She is gorgeous!

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!)

Some petite shares from mini-sessions in Charlotte a few weeks ago. These clients have long seen their galleries and chosen their favorites, here are a few of mine…..

Siena

Lillian & Phoebe

Emily, Meghan, & Jackson