Holly and Rachel's Movie Debut

Here's the video of Holly and Rachel's photo shoot for Daddy Trevor who has 3 more months in Iraq before his homecoming.

I love this.

OpLove: Holly and Rachel

As I mentioned in my previous post,  we endured a hot day at the park to take these OpLove photos as a surprise for Daddy Trevor, an Air Force pilot who will be coming home at the end of November.  Rachel was on a mission to explore every inch of Independence Park, and I think she nearly succeeded!

Holly wanted some photos of Rachel from behind so her Daddy could see how long her hair has gotten.  Well that certainly wasn't a problem.  In fact, most of my pictures looked like this:

But we managed to slow her down for a few close ups too.

This could be my favorite. 

It's a bird, it's a plane!

Halfway through the shoot we went past the waterfall and boy was it calling Rachel's name.  She got a little wet.  Well, soaked actually.  Mommy hadn't planned on that but I think Rachel was quite refreshed.

Next on the agenda...swings!  Notice the wet hair.  :-)

Taking a popcorn break.

The idea was that Rachel would help hold the sign but she preferred to supervise from afar with her kettle corn.

Close up of Holly and her pretty green eyes.

Daddy took Rachel to Build-a-Bear before he was deployed and they made this Tiger for her.  When you squeeze him, there's a recording of Daddy's voice.  She loves her Tiger!  (and her popcorn.)

 Thank you Holly and Rachel for this fun-filled afternoon.  I'll finish processing your photos as soon as I can and get your albums put together.  What a wonderful surprise this will be for Trevor.  Your family is making a such a sacrifice for our country and I am honored to be able to show my support in this way.

Rachel: Sneak Preview

Hey you with the camera!

 

Today I met Rachel (age almost 2) and her mom Holly for an OpLove shoot.  Rachel's Daddy is in the Air Force and has been deployed in Iraq for the past 3 months.  With three more months to go, Holly thought it would be a perfect time to surprise Daddy with some photos of his beautiful little girl.

 

Gorgeous eyelashes.

 

I can't wait to blog more about our exciting (and hot!) afternoon at Independence Park and share some additional photos of this little firecracker and her pretty Mom; but right now it's almost bedtime for me.  More to come soon!

Bon Voyage

I finished processing the images from Milo's family shoot yesterday.  I am so pleased with the way they turned out!  This is such a fun, vibrant trio and it really shone through in their photographs. 

Photo shoots are hard work!

I love the stone entryway in this beautiful Myers Park neighborhood.  Made for some cool, vintage-y photos.

Milo rallied like a pro for a little playground time.  

(Yes that is an IKEA bag in the background there next to Stefan.  How appropriate!)

Is this a handsome boy or what?

The proud parents.

Thanks Abbey, Stefan, and Milo for allowing me to shoot your goodbye to Charlotte.  Best of luck as you move on to your new life in Sweden.  Stay in touch!

Guess who turned 1?

 

Last month, our sweet Sarah Beth turned 1 year old.  We were in the mountains to celebrate and went to the Cradle of Forestry in Pisgah Forest near Brevard, NC to take her birthday portraits.  This is a very cool place - great for families.  It is the site of the First Forestry school in the U.S.  Some of the old buildings are still there, nestled in the beautiful Pisgah Forest.  I'd highly recommend visiting if you are ever in the area.  It was also a wonderful location to take pictures.  I can't help but share some of my favorites from that day.  She had just woken up after a long car ride through the Blue Ridge so we didn't get a lot of smiles, but she is still pretty cute, if I say so myself.

The original one-room schoolhouse.  Very cool!

Here's the Birthday Girl sitting on the steps of one of the cabins.

Her Grandma picked out this precious dress, of course.

I've waited a whole year for her to have enough hair for a bow!

She tried to eat the petals soon after this shot.

Those eyelashes came from her Daddy.  Lucky girl!

There were two horses grazing in a small pasture nearby.  They looked so beautiful, I had to snap off a few shots of them too.  It may or may not have been their birthday.  They looked content either way.

Happy Birthday Sarah Beth!  We love you!

I Heart Faces: Random Acts of Kindness Week

My favorite photography website and source of inspiration, I Heart Faces, runs weekly photo challenges, and this week the theme is Random Acts of Kindness, in honor of a wonderful charity called Inspiration Through Art (Littlest Heroes Project).  This charity centers around Professional Photographers taking photos for families of children who are ill.    

They asked for photographers to link in stories of Random Acts of Kindness that they have performed with their photography talents.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to promote Operation: Love Reunited and hopefully inspire other photographers to volunteer.

Operation: Love Reunited is an organization that matches volunteer photographers with military families who have a family member deploying or already deployed.  Photographers agree to donate a photo session and send a 4x6 album to the deployed soldier free of charge.

I am about to ship the albums from my first OpLove session today: one to the family and one to a brave soldier in Afghanistan.  This family was so sweet and grateful.  It was heartbreaking to think of this young father saying goodbye to his 4 month old son for a year, but I am honored that I was able to show my support and give them something tangible to hold on to during their separation.  I already posted some of the pics here, and below are a few more of my favorites:

Click the button below to be inspired by more Random Acts of Kindness:

And visit www.oplove.org to learn how you can volunteer for this wonderful organization.

Disclaimer:  The photos and other content of this publication do not imply any endorsement or recommendation by the Department of Defense.

Milo and Family

Tonight I met Abbey, Stefan, and Milo at a neighborhood park in Dilworth over by the Duke Mansion.  It was a little hot and buggy but we managed to have fun anyhow.  Milo and his family are moving to Sweden soon, so this shoot was a sort of farewell to Charlotte.  Milo played at this park when he was little and his Mom thought it would be nice to have memories of this special place captured in photographs.

I have a ton of photographs to go through but wanted to post at least a few before my bedtime. Abbey and Stefan are very cool people and Milo is a great kid.  Thanks for letting me spend time with you three today!