I always look forward to photographing this beautiful family each year because they are always so sweet, lovable and natural in front of the camera! I ask them to goof around and love on each other and I always get the best expressions, especially from the kids! 

We met up in a location we've used before for their family photos - a local park with a gorgeous fall backdrop! Fall came a little late this year, so the trees were just started to change color but the sunset was absolutely stunning that evening. We had the most gorgeous sunset light coming through the trees and across the field of tall grass. We started with a few family photos to help the kids ease into the session and warm up to the camera. Because we scheduled our session during the week, I had to bring my daughter with me for the first half of the session. But she was a good helper, playing peek-a-boo with the kids and helping get those smiles and funny expressions! After everyone was warmed up and ready, I posed the three siblings together to re-create an image we took two years ago of the two older kids sitting together on my wooden bucket. But now that baby sister has arrived, we were sure to include her in this super adorable image! 

I also made sure to also capture some individual images of each child at different points during the session. Kids change so much, so quickly and how they interact with their parents and siblings can also change from year to year. So I always try to photograph them separately and within the family pose so parents can look back at this time in their young child's life. Finally, mom, dad and I snuck off to the side to grab a few images of the two of them alone together. This is another shot that I think can get often overlooked during a family portrait session. I believe it's important to photograph the parents together, not just for themselves, but also for their children. For their children to see them together, in love and snuggling with each other. And how fun for everyone to look back on later in life! I am so in love with the Recker family's photo session this year and I cannot wait to photograph them in the future!!

What another amazing year of fall minis and fun families!! Since moving to Pittsburgh almost 10 years ago, I have never regretted my time in the fall leaves. Beautiful fall foliage is never something I saw in Texas so I fully appreciate this gorgeous season each year! This is why I always love offering fall mini sessions each year! This year was an interesting year for foliage. Usually, the leaves change color at peak around the third week in October, so I always schedule my mini sessions for mid to late October. But we had a late year so my first two days of mini sessions had a lot more green leaves than I anticipated, but we still had some orange and red changes. Even thought we didn't have the typical fall foliage, we had some gorgeous sunsets and amazing family portraits! Another reason I love doing fall minis is that this is a time I get to catch up with families each year who book these sessions. Over half of my sessions were repeat clients from previous years and it was so great to catch up and see how much their children and family have grown! 

This year I offered three different dates and locations for fall minis: Schenley Park, Adams Township Community Park and Succop Nature Park. All three locations offer a beautiful backdrop, but very different styles. In Schenley Park we had a gorgeous stone path, iron fencing and the outdoor garden of Phipps Conservatory. Adams Township park offers tall, full trees and an area with an open field and tall grass. This park is quickly becoming one of my favorite locations to photograph families year round! And finally, Succop Nature Park. This is another great location for year round sessions, but they are in the middle of some renovations, so we were limited in the space we could use for backdrops. But nonetheless, it's a great park that offers a variety of backdrop spots including tall trees, trails with tall grass and a couple of different ponds. 

This was another great year of fall minis and I am looking forward to photographing these awesome families again in the future!! 

I've been so lucky to get to know this family over the past few years. Dad, Charlie, works with my husband and their older son, Parker, is the same age as our daughter, so our families became friends through playdates and special events over the years. I was so excited when mom, Angela, asked me to photograph their family and baby Winston's first birthday photos! 

The morning of their session, it was dark, cold and rainy but we powered though! The boys did so well in spite of the chilly, wet weather. We started with some family photos and got some of the best smiles from sweet Parker!! He was so cute with his baby brother and I just loved watching him hug and love all over his baby brother! Mom had two outfits for Winston, one for family photos and one for his first birthday photos. So, I made sure to get some individual images of him in each of his outfits, especially his super adorable ONE tshirt, bowtie and suspenders! He was just so super cute and was so excited to try walking around, holding on to his mama's fingers. He was definitely a mover! 

The big challenge about being a natural light photographer is the ability to be flexible. Especially when planning an outdoor photo session, I feel like I am sometimes a weather meteorologist, keeping track of the forecast, watching the radar and tracking storms. But am always grateful of my families who are flexible and willing to push through to capture a session before or after a storm comes through. And this was definitely the case with baby Winston's birthday session!

What I really love about newborn sessions, is that I get to utilize both posed and lifestyle photography styles within a session. Lifestyle photography is a perfect way to showcase connection and the personal relationships within a family. Bringing a baby into the world is such a life changing event, I especially love utilizing lifestyle photography as a way to capture this new relationship and amazing addition to their family! When mom contacted me, she was originally interested in a lifestyle session, but later decided she also wanted to take some posed newborn photos with blankets and props. She really liked the idea of also having photos traditional posed photos of Blaire, using ivory, cream, blush pink and mint color accents. So, once baby Blaire arrived, we settled on the final details for her session and planned set ups for the posed photos.

Their home was beautifully decorated for the fall season, with perfect fall themed decor and accents to compliment this fall baby's newborn session. We started with family photos in their living room before moving up to the nursery. Dad worked really hard on creating a shiplap wall in the nursery. A beautiful accent wall for such a gorgeous baby nursery! They included delicate, floral designs in the nursery for a perfect room that Blaire can spend her childhood!

For her posed newborn photos, we selected delicate and feminine details to include in the set ups. Blaire preferred to be wrapped or covered, so I used wraps to accent the backdrop blanket and headband choices Mom made for the sets. We started with a mint fur blanket, then moved on to a purple wrap with floral headband and finished with a white lace backdrop, pink wrap and delicate pink floral tieback headband. 

I feel very lucky to be able to capture newborn photos for families because babies change so much, so quickly that even just weeks or months later, these sweet babes look totally different! When I follow up with parents and they look back on their newborn photos, they always comment on how little their little one was at the time of their newborn session or just how much they've changed since that time. And this is why it's so important to schedule a newborn session because they are only this tiny for such a short period of time! 

This was such a fun session!! I have been lucky enough to photograph this sweet girl and her family since Emmy's newborn session and I have absolutely loved watching her grow into this adorable and spunky little toddler! When mom, Danielle, contacted me about photographing Emmy's 2nd birthday session, she knew she wanted to find a location that was fun and different. She decided she wanted to do the birthday photos at the Scheneley Plaza carousel and then we decided on the old wall of Forbes Field as a backdrop for their family photos. This was such a fun location and we even walked around Oakland for other fun backgrounds to capture Emmy's fun, playful personality. 

We started off on the carousel and this would be her first time riding on a carousel so she was a little apprehensive at first. But after her first ride, she was hooked!! She absolutely loved choosing the animals and the joy on her face was infectious! We made sure to get some family photos, photos of Emmy with each of her parents and then some by herself. She truly loved riding on the carousel and cried for the monkey as we were leaving. But she quickly recovered as we walked across the street to the wall of the former Pittsburgh Pirates' stadium, Forbes Field. At this point, we included their sweet greyhound dogs for some family photos. I absolutely love including family pets in family photos. They are such an important part of the family and it's something that the family can look back on later in life and remember how much the pet meant to them.

From here, we continued walking along and found the perfect dance spot for Emmy to boogey. She had so much fun running up and down the steps, dancing and twirling around with her parents and it was the perfect opportunity capture some of her personality and facial expressions. That's the best part of a photo session with any toddler!! I had so much fun taking birthday photos of sweet Emery and I cannot wait to see her again for future photo sessions!!

I am so excited to share my photography experience with this amazing couple and their sweet new baby girl! When mom, Sydney, contacted me about the Belly to Baby maternity and newborn photography package, I was super excited! She knew she wanted a sunset maternity session in an open field with tall grass and I knew the exact, perfect location for their session. We ended up with an amazingly beautiful sunset evening! Sydney and Colin wore the light, neutral clothing which accentuated the natural location and Sydney's dress completely showed off her growing baby bump and flowed through the tall grass as she walked. They were both so loving and natural in front of the camera, it was easy to capture sweet, intimate moments between them. I absolutely love photographing maternity photos for a couple expecting their first child, as we focus on them as a couple during a very special moment in their relationship - before welcoming the newest member into their family!

Once their sweet baby daughter arrived, we scheduled their in home newborn session for when baby Avery was 12 days old. When I arrived, she had just been fed and was sleepy and ready for their family photos. I wrapped her in a peachy-pink wrap that coordinated with her parent's clothing but also the peach color accent tones in her nursery decorations. We utilized areas of their home with the best pockets of natural light to photograph their family photos, including the nursery, their bedroom and living room. Sydney and I were planning the set-ups for Avery's posed newborn photos, Sydney decided she wanted to use light colors including cream, gray and light pink with fun textures including lace and fur. These colors were the perfect accent to their home decor which is light and airy with neutral and gray colors. I always recommend choosing colors for their newborn session that will coordinate with their personal family style and home decor, because families will print and hang their photos and they should accent their home style! 

I am so pleased with how the photos turned out for this sweet family and I hope they will be photos that the family will cherish for years to come!

I love photographing this family - they are so sweet and fun and I always have a really great time with them!! I first met them last year for baby sister's newborn session. They all had me cracking up and this year's family session was no different! Mom contacted me about a summer sunset session for their family, but also wanted to focus on some 5th birthday photos for big sister Annabelle. We settled on Beechwood Farms for our location because it offers a gorgeous backdrop for summer sunset photos. The sunlight shines through the trees and lights up the grassy trails so beautifully! Plus there are lots of beautiful flowers and wild grasses that really add to the natural backdrop!

We started with some family pictures and also captured some individual photos of baby Amelia, who was sitting by herself. After walking the trails, checking out the pond and all of the paths around Beechwood Farms, we finished up photos of the family as well as some special photos of Annabelle with her parents. One specific request was to take photos of Annabelle with her daddy having a tea party. This is something special that they do together at home and they wanted to include that in her 5th birthday session. I always love personalizing sessions to what makes each family special and unique. And to capture an activity that is special to this time in her life makes these photos that much more fun! Mom also brought a very special 'princess' dress for Annabelle to wear in her birthday photos. The dress was so adorable and photographed well as she twirled and spun around along the trails. I really love how her sassy personality came out as she posed with her hand on her hip or offered up a cheesy grin. 

I'm super excited to capture big brother Samual's birthday photos and Amelia's first birthday photos later this fall - I know I'll have a blast with this family and can't wait to see how much they have grown over the summer!

The day of baby Elodie's newborn session was quite an event! Pittsburgh was getting torrential amounts of rain where roads and areas were flooded so it was an interesting trek to get to the family's home for their newborn session. It was also quite dark outside and, as a natural light photographer, it was a little tricky finding the best light to shoot their family photos and Elodie's posed newborn photos. But we made it work and focused on little pockets of light throughout the house to set up. I ended up setting up against a window in their kitchen in the corner of the back of the house. It was a creative location! 

We started with the family photos in their newly remodeled living room, which was luckily light and airy on this dreary, dark day. Mom had a super cute little outfit picked out for Elodie to wear for their family photos that coordinated perfectly with Mom and Dad's outfits! We also included the family cat, who was very curious about this new little creature in the house. I love capturing lifestyle images of families with their new babies. It's the best way to focus on their relationship with each other and with this new little person that they brought into the world!

We then moved on to the nursery to capture some snuggly images together in Elodie's floral and unicorn themed nursery. They did such a wonderful job decorating her nursery with a mix of vintage and classic pieces, it'll be a perfect little room for Elodie to grow into! After finishing up the family photos in her nursery, we then started on choosing set ups for Elodie's posed photos. Mom wanted to stick with feminine colors and accents, including lace and flowers. We started with a pink fur blanket and a lace and floral headband then moved onto purple, a cotton lace backdrop and purple floral headband. We utilized lots of delicate touches for a perfectly girly session!

There has been such a baby boom this year and tons of amazing newborn sessions! What an exciting year!! When Mom and I were planning their family and newborn session for baby Lyra, I was really excited because of the theme and colors in her nursery. The room and design sounded amazing and I was not disappointed when I arrived at their home! A beautiful blue color on the walls with pink and white accents, butterflies and flowers...what a stunning and perfect design for a sweet little girl! And the family could not have been sweeter. Big brother Luke was really fun and active, but as soon as it was his turn to hold his baby sister, he was so gentle and kind - it totally made this mama's heart swell! Luke loved looking at his baby sister in her crib and when he held her in the rocking chair, he sang to her and drove his little car around her legs and arms while he told her a story. So stinkin' adorable!!

In planning the colors for Lyra's posed photos, we chose colors that would match the style in her room as well as their home. Soft pinks, cream and various shades of blue made a perfect combination for this family's style! This is always something I suggest to parents when planning out the colors and props we choose for their session because when client's print their photos and hang them on the walls, you want the images to match your family's home decor and personal style. Lyra slept really well so we were able to move through several posed set-ups. This gave us plenty of opportunity to capture different looks and poses. We finished up the session with some photos of mom and dad each with Lyra. And mom requested a shot of dad holding Lyra's feet as this is similar to an image from Luke's newborn session. I absolutely love photographing new babies in their daddy's hands...there's something really special about how tiny and fragile a young life is in their dad's strong hands. So I really love how this image came out as we can see each little wrinkle in Lyra's feet, held in her daddy's hands. What a great image to cherish forever!!

A few years ago I met the Ciloglu family for a summer session in the park. When I heard from mom about booking a session for their son's first birthday session, I was so excited to meet the newest member of their family!! We settled on shooting their session at Mellon Park Walled Garden, which an absolutely beautiful location, especially for sunset sessions. The family was fun and enjoyed playing around with each other, which gave me the perfect opportunity to capture those real, lovely moments between each of them! Plus, baby Kaya gave me the BIGGEST smiles! He was cracking us up with his expressions!

When it was time for cake, little Kaya was a little hesitant at first. He was definitely more interested in playing with the balloons. But big sister, Melda, was super excited about trying out the cake! She jumped right in and helped Kaya, which as soon as he tasted it, he went for it! While he had more fun playing with the cake and squishing it between his fingers instead of eating it, he did get a few bites. This made for awesome photos of his cake smash! Here are some of my favorite shots of the Ciloglu family's summer sunset session and Kaya's 1st birthday photos!