As you may recall from last week, I was with my good friends Derrick and MarKathy on Friday for the birth of their second child, Diana.  I dropped in Friday for a very quick session, and although it was short, we had a good time and this sweet little girl was very good for me!

She was pretty wide awake when I arrived~

But I was able to get her to sleep for a few…

Max had to get in on the action a little and take a quick peek at what we were doing…

Then we popped outside for a quick experiment, as I felt like spring was on it’s way and loved the color combination from this shot…

Finally, Diana woke up a little again when I stripped her down for the final shots.  She didn’t seem to mind too much, though. 

She did a great job of being modest and covering up just the right parts for me too!  What a smart little girl already!  I love this family and am so proud to share these special moments in our lives together!  Congratulations D, Kath & Max!

“Huh?” you say. I have recently participated in a world-wide art project, for lack of a better term, and today my 3 images were blogged on the official site, The Traveling Shovel. The link takes you to the very first post so that you can follow the shovel from it’s beginning through to being with me in Memphis. Here are 2 shots of me with the esteemed shovel (taken by Jake Morrow) from when we were in BB’s.

In addition, I was in need of a new headshot and have been pretty busy so I set up this shot and had Olivia, my 8-year old take the shot for me. She did such a great job! I am really proud of her!

Caleb, Melissa and Harlow make up a delightful young family. Melissa is one of the co-owners of Mothersville, a cool store for moms & moms-to-be in the Cooper Young District. We had considered doing a downtown shoot with an urban look, but in the end, we decided that lifestyle session in their mid-town home would be best suited for their family style. Unfortunately, they all woke up a little sick that morning, so poor little Harlow gave out on us towards the end of the session. She is such a sweet little baby, as you will see, that she gave me a lot to work with!

Here are a few from their session~

Such proud parents, you can see it on their faces that they are looking at their adorable baby girl!

And we can’t leave out Murphy! What a face!

Yesterday, our dear friends, Derrick and MarKathy, welcomed Diana Elise into this world on a beautiful Spring day.  She was 9lbs 1 oz and 20.5 inches long.  Kathy was in labor for 2 days before having to deliver by c-section, and had invited me to be there with the family for the day.  Unfortunately I wasn’t able to photograph the birth, for obvious reasons, but did shoot for most of the day, including Diana’s first portraits.  She is beautiful and already just so sweet.  There are many more images than I usually post, but I thought I would tell more of the story of their day.  Also, you will notice that I prefer less processing on these images, as I feel it is better suited for this type of event. 
Congratulations to D, Kathy & big brother, Max!  We love you guys!

The quiet before the storm~

Action started to pick up throughout the day…

Kathy trying to catch a few z’s before the big moment.  After 24 hours of labor already, she was pretty beat, but absolutely adorable. 

A proud papa introducing his son to his new little sister~

The precious little girl at just over an hour old~

Look at all this hair!

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love baby feet! 

Diana got to warm up under the heater before her first bath in the nursery~

Here comes the bath~

We’ve got to give props to the nurses at Germantown Methodist- they are phenomenal at what they do!  You will not find a better, more caring staff of hospital nurses!  They were completely full and yet Kathy never had to wait for anything and was so well taken care of!  Thank you so much for how you cared for my dear friend and her family!

Nice and warm and cuddling with Auntie Heather~

Welcome, precious little girl!  We all love you!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4yDE1OusDc&hl=en]

Last night I had the pleasure of spending a few hours photographing one of the sweetest couples. Oh yeah, they happen to be gorgeous too! Meet Jane and David. They are engaged and wanted to have their shoot with both day and evening shots, so we went out in the late afternoon to start, took a small break and let them change and then headed out for their evening session. We had a great time and they gave me so much to work with it was hard to choose.

So, here is a bit of a variety to show you what we did…

At the end of the night, we popped into a swanky spot downtown on Main St. called Circa, By John Bragg (he’s the chef and owner) for a few drinks. John was kind enough to allow us to take a few shots while we were in there and here is my favorite…

If you have the chance, stop in for a hot date. It is a beautiful restaurant with a phenomenal menu. I plan to take Rob there this summer once his track season and school are over. It is really something incredible!

Thank you, Jane and David for being so open to try and anything. Finally, I want to give a shout out to Jake Morrow of Studio J Photography, who came to help with the evening part of the shoot. I couldn’t have lit them by myself, that’s for sure! Thanks, Jake!

After having to re-schedule two times because of the weather last week, Kathy and I were finally able to get out in some beautiful weather yesterday and have a fantastic session together!  She is such a sweet heart, and as my daughter says, a beautiful young mom to be!  We had to scale some ideas down a bit, as her doctor has now put her on a more restful schedule, but I think she rocked it!

Here are a few favorites~

Thank you, Kathy for being such a good sport!  You absolutely rocked those rain boots!

This is Sophie’s first snow, so I thought I’d share a little with everybody.