Merry Christmas from the Durhams

It almost doesn’t happen…every year. You know the old saying “Cobblers kids never have shoes”? Well, photographer’s kids never have photos…or at least not ones edited and printed. Unless I do it early in the year at the beach or on another trip, our Christmas card shoot happens late…like the 1st or 2nd week of December late. It’s a race to the finish. And, after 13 years of my kids being test subjects, they don’t exactly get too excited about it. So, don’t think it’s any easier for me than it is for you to get good expressions. Photographing my own is so much harder! But, Brad gives them a pep talk every year and off we go!

I’ve always loved Christmas cards, so it’s important to me to get them done no matter the struggle with schedules and cooperative spirits. I love seeing photos of friends’  families we don’t get to see as often as we would like and how their kids have grown a little more each year. I also love seeing the creativity and reading the sentiments. A Christmas ornament with the year and a photo is also an annual tradition since my kids were born. I love seeing how my kids have changed from year to year as I hang each year’s ornament on our tree.

The creek was one of my very favorite places to shoot this year, and as you’ll see on other blog posts, my clients loved it too. I had so many requests for it! I love it there because the light is filtered, reflective and dreamy. It’s so much fun to watch kids come alive once they step into the water. They think the portrait session is over and now they can relax, play and have fun. And, that’s exactly what I want them to do. Their personalities come out and it’s when I get my favorite shots of kids just being themselves…Boys skipping rocks and girls splashing.

From my very first shoot there I knew it was where I wanted some of my own kids. It just so happened that they were the last to put their boots into the creek this year. My only regret is that we got our new puppy after the shoot and my cards had already been designed. Oh well…there’s always next year for our pup. She’ll just be a lot bigger! At least she made it on the ornament.

Hope to get a few of these up on my walls soon! A little pep talk by big sis to get this thing started…

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Thanks to my friend Kelly who grabbed my camera and got an impromptu shot of our family while we were with them one weekend at their hunting camp. Funny that we all had on similar colors that morning after we rolled out of bed at the cabin, so it just worked. Thankful to have one from that fun family weekend!

Oh! And for this year’s photo ornament, I ordered a cube ornament from Shutterfly. So impressed with the photo quality on them and love that you can put images on all sides and the bottom. Check it out!