I just realized that it is Christmas night and with all of our family hub-bub last night, I forgot to post the winner of the Giving is Awesome photo session.  There were many very deserving families, but this one really stood out to me.  The winner is…

Catherine and Paul Franks

Congratulations to them and to Ali Benson, who nominated them.  I will be contacting all of you when I return from our family vacation in California!!!!!

I am loving the job of photographing newborn twins this year!  This is my 4th set and I think I am getting better with every session.  They are so precious when they are this tiny and come in pairs!  These two little sisters seemed so tiny when I walked in, but they had already grown so much since being born a few weeks earlier.  They did a great job posing and we got some beautiful portraits.

So let me introduce you to Abigail and Julia…

And my husband’s comment when I showed him these next 2, “How funny that they both did the Macarena.”  Take a look and tell me what you think…

I also thought it was funny that they lay similarly when it was their turn for this shot~

Aren’t they just beautiful?  And you know how much I love baby feet!  They are such sweet little blessings and I know their family is just in love with these two little girls!

Only 9 more days to nominate someone you know that deserves a free session + a disc of their images ($1225 value) for the Giving is Awesome event! Don’t forget, if your nominee wins, you win too! You’ll receive a session and a complimentary 8×10!

Reminder of the details:
The rules:

* You cannot nominate yourself, and the person nominated must sincerely be incapable of purchasing my services. (Being unable to make mortgage payments for a two-million-dollar-vacation-home in Paris does not qualify as sincere financial need.)

* The nominee must reside in Tennessee, Mississippi or Arkansas within 40 miles of my Germantown home. Tell me who you know, what they’re experiencing, and why they deserve my artwork. Please include a way to contact both your nominee and yourself as well.

* You must e-mail me the full story : lisa@kiralisa.com.

The winner will be announced on Christmas Eve — get nominating! I can’t wait to read all of your entries!

Open your heart to someone this holiday season — and thanks for giving me the opportunity to open mine.

With love,

Lisa

Now go out and

I recently came across this cool little product and thought I would share it with you.  Is this something you’d like to carry around to show off your session photos? I ordered one and love the quality. It’s 2.5×3 inches, so it would fit perfectly in a pocket in your purse.

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think.

I have had some of the most adorable newborns lately and Emily was no exception.  She is just precious and you want to eat her up!  She gave her mom a bit of a hard time when we were trying to help her fall asleep, but once she was asleep, she let us move her all around and take some beautiful portraits.  I’m so loving newborns these days. 

****WARNING****  After seeing this baby, you will want to have another one!  Here she is!

And you know I love photographing the pets in the house.  Here’s Addie-

Some of you may recognize a few of the family members in this session.  Two years ago, I photographed Gavin as the MDA Junior Ambassador and then followed that with a family session with his entire family.  Their family is undoubtedly one of my favorite clients.  So, when Gavin’s mom, Mindy, called me with the request to photograph all of the cousins for a Christmas card set up as the Nativity scene, I couldn’t turn her down.  No, it’s not what I normally do, but I love this family and would do just about anything that Mindy asks. 

One of the kids was sick and feeling pretty yucky, one was shy and the rest were just having a good old time!  Trying to wrangle all of them was something to see, as all of the parents were there helping me along!  I’m pretty sure there’s video out there somewhere with the outtakes and the behind the scenes action!

So, here was the one of the Nativity shots:

The precious angel…

keeping watch over baby…

and comforting her brother, who was feeling pretty rough that day, poor little guy…

After we got the Nativity shots done, Mindy wanted some casual candids of all of the kids.  We found a fun spot and had to also take one shot with all of the parents and the wrangling.

The Taylor family came into town to visit with family for Thanksgiving, and thankfully for me, we have a mutual friend who referred them to me for this great session!  We met at Beth’s brother’s house in Collierville and walked around the fantastic property to find lots of great little spots.  I really enjoyed my time getting to know them, their fantastic kids and their exchange student from Germany.

Here are a few fun shots!

A little while back I met Jacob & his mom & dad at their house to capture his perfectly adorable face in print.  ;-)  I was not feeling so hot that day, but this sweet 7 month old made me feel better pretty quick.

So, you wanna see?  Well, you’ve twisted my arm then.  Here are a few of my favorites…

And my favorite image from the whole afternoon?  This one!

I photographed Jay with his mom & dad, Joe & Vickie, at home last year for his first birthday.  This year we wanted to do something different.  So, since Jay loves to run around outside, we decided to shoot at My Big Backyard in the Memphis Botanic Garden.  Jay was struggling to adjust to the time change and was off of his game.  He fell a few times and ended up with a slight fat lip.  So, we opted to re-shoot and decided to stay close to home.  It turned out to be perfect!  He gave us all a great work out keeping up with him as we walked the trails behind his house in Harbor Town!

So fun!  Here are a few faves!

I think this shot definitely shows just how much his parents adore him!  I love it. 

Julianne and I go way back.  Back 10 years to be exact.  10 years ago when she was a counselor in our first adoption.  So, now I had the opportunity to photograph her super cute family and I just love them to death.  She and Chad are obviously (you’ll see in their pictures together) still completely in love with each other, and all 3 girls just totally crack me up!  They each have such different personalities and are so much fun.

We went out to Schilling Farms and the weather and lighting was perfect for their session.  I wish we could have that kind of warm weather and soft, beautiful light all year round!

(Note to other photographers: Schilling Farms is private property and is not open access.  Please do not trespass to shoot there.)

Now on to the uber fabulous images!!!!

My favorite B/W from their session

Thank you Chad, Julianne, Emily, Caroline and Abby for all of your beautiful awesomeness!  :-)  I love you guys!