Wednesday, October 12, 2016
 Okay, I have lots of stuff to say in today’s post. This little guy is Jake. He turned one in July. His mama Jenna is a wonderful friend of mine. {Jenna has a very good blog you can check out here.} Jenna and her husband Trebor have two cutie boys named Bobby and Jake. I am a huuuuge fan of how Jenna did both Bobby and Jake’s one year old birthday parties. This is her magical formula: keep it pretty low key {at her home, with easy but yummy food, and simple but cute decor}; enlist help from family and friends; hire a photographer {that’s me!} to do a combo of covering the party plus doing a few one year old portraits and family pix, too; and have a pastor friend come dedicate your child in front of those who are there to celebrate with you. It’s so great, y’all! I mean, as in tears-when-I-am-photographing-it great. I love how Jenna keeps it all very relaxed, but manages to make it all such a meaningful time with her loved ones! #MomGoals, for real.
And here’s where I have to veer off into a side note {paragraph} about blogging my photo sessions. See, over the years, I photographed Jenna and Trebor’s engagement and wedding, Jenna with her girlfriends {still some of my most re-pinned images to date!}, some maternity photos when Jenna was pregnant with Bobby, and Bobby’s one year old party/baby dedication. And of all those shoots, I’ve only blogged a small handful of images. As you can tell if you follow my blog, I’ve been trying to do much better at getting my sessions on the blog lately, and this is part of the reason why. I wish I could link here to every session I’ve done for Jenna, and I can’t. Bummer. I think I’m gonna do a whole blog post soon on this and other reasons why I am really stepping up my game for sharing my photo shoots on my blog. Okay, blogging tangent over.
Now let’s get to pictures of this cute one year old! :) Jake’s eyes are so stunning!  A few pix with mom and dad.And then we tried to get some of their little family of four…with mixed results. Haha! Here’s one of the many things I love about Jenna: she shared this photo, this one, with Jake crying and Bobby hiding his face, on her social media. Because she loved it as much as I did. And I knew she would! Some people wouldn’t. But she gets it. This is real life. This is funny. This is fun! This is two boys, who are one year old and two years old. Let’s capture this, share it, remember it. Love it.Jenna wrote a lovely post about her one and two year old boys here. It’s good stuff.Meanwhile, inside, Jenna’s sister and brother were helping set everything up for the party.Our friend Scott Williams was there to do the baby dedication part of the evening. Scott also performed Jenna & Trebor’s wedding ceremony. He’s a very gifted speaker and great friend of mine and of Jenna and Trebor’s.And here’s Friday, the family pup.Jakers waiting for his cake.That blue frosting made for some awesome pix. :)And the kiddie pool was perfect for easy clean up.Jenna~
You hosted the perfect evening once again. Thank you so much for including me so many times over the years for shoots that have all been an absolute pleasure to do! You’re an incredible mother, wife, and friend. It’s been awesome watching your life change over the years. God is truly so good. Love you!
~abi~
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Tuesday, October 11, 2016
I said in yesterday’s post that this seemed to be my year for photographing cute one year olds, but I have to say it’s also been a year for adorable newborns. I’ve shared Easton and Charlotte’s newborn portraits already, and I’ve got one more to share after today’s post. They’re all so sweet!
This teeny tiny beauty is Evelyn. She made her debut in this world back in July, and I loved capturing her newborn sweetness. I’ve known Evelyn’s parents since high school {her dad since elementary school!}. It’s so great seeing how God has blessed them with such an awesome family. Their kids are seriously precious!
When we started the session, Evelyn wasn’t quite ready to be sleepy and pose for us, so I suggested we head outside for some family photos before we tried to do more of just her alone. It was a really warm day, and the heat, combined with being held by her parents and siblings, put her right to sleep for her pictures inside after this. I adore these family poses we got in their backyard.I love seeing Leah with a daughter. And I enjoyed chatting with her about motherhood during the session. One thing she said that I thought was so cool and stuck with me, was that they didn’t decide on Evelyn’s name until after she was born and they’d spent some time with her. She said they allowed themselves to get to know her and choose a name they felt was perfect, since they had been indecisive about a name before Evelyn was born. I love that. And I love the name Evelyn!Oh man. Melt my heart!Ah! These kids are so cute!!Sweet brother-sister moments.I just have to pause here to insert a huge compliment to Jorge, Leah, and their boys JJ and Jack. The boys were so good while we did Evelyn’s photos! I was very impressed.Now for some photos of Miss Evelyn on her own.People often ask me about props for newborn sessions, and over the years I’ve come to the point where I really enjoy using items the family already has. People always have such cute things for their baby and the nursery. Often, we will do the newborn session in the nursery, but since we were losing light by the time we got to Evelyn’s portraits, we simply pulled stuff from her nursery out to an area of their home where it was brighter. It worked out perfectly.This soft blanket Leah had looked gorgeous for photos. I love the bright colors.Leah & Jorge~
Your family is beautiful, and it is so obvious that you two are wonderful parents! I greatly enjoyed getting to see you guys and spend a bit of time with you all for this session. It’s awesome and so encouraging to see how God has worked in your lives. Thank you for allowing me to take these photos for you.
~abi~
I swear, this has been my year for photographing adorable one year olds {like this cutie I blogged recently and several more to come on the blog soon!} This precious one year old is named Clementine. She was an absolute joy to photograph!
Clementine’s parents are missionaries to Indonesia. My amazing friend Stacey referred them to me when they were looking for a photographer to capture some images of Clementine and the three of them together while they were here in the States on furlough. I am so thankful I had a chance to meet this sweet family and document this time in their lives. It was a hot, sticky day in July when we met for this shoot, but they were all troopers and we had a great time together. {Also, shout out to their friend Sydnie — she was a big help during the session, and we instantly bonded over thrift store recommendations. :)}Clementine not only has an incredibly cute and cool name, she clearly has the personality to match.These photos are so summery and I love it; but now that it’s almost mid-October, I am hoping to get all my summer posts up on the blog this week or next, so things can reflect the current season around here soon. ;)It’s always a goal of mine to grab a few pix of the parents alone during any family session.These next ones just kill me! Clementine had just started pulling herself up into a standing position on her own and walking, and she was so proud of her new skills!Of course, when she decided to resort to crawling, mom’s hand was nearby to guide her. :)Every little diva deserves an outfit change for photo shoots.Sarah did this headband move at least eight hundred and fifty times during our session. ;)Sarah & David~
Thank you so much for trusting me to photograph you guys and your sweet girl! I loved meeting you. I hope our paths will cross again sometime.
~abi~
p.s. A fun photography side note: these photos were taken in the same little area where Katherine’s bridal portraits were shot. Just an example of how many different backgrounds you can find in one tiny spot. As a photographer, I love finding unique shots even in areas I’ve photographed over and over before.
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This stunning bride is my dear friend Katherine. She married her love, Boz, on Saturday night, and I had the extreme pleasure of just being a guest at their perfect wedding! I really loved it. For the vast majority of weddings I’ve been at, I was either in the wedding or working as the photographer. So it was very nice to get to just relax and be there to celebrate Katherine and Boz and their commitment to each other. They got married at Tony’s Tree Plantation, which was a really beautiful location I had never been to here in OKC. Seriously, if you are looking for a gorgeous outdoor setting for an intimate wedding, check out this place! I am really looking forward to seeing the photos her wedding photographer captured, because I am sure they will be amazing!
And since her wedding has now taken place, I can finally share some favorite photos from her bridal session we did last month. {You can also check out Katherine and Boz’s engagement photos here.}
I absolutely adored Katherine’s long-sleeved, lace wedding gown. And I am a sucker for a long veil. We had fun playing with her lace-trimmed veil during our session.
Love the timelessness of this next black and white image!A little framing from some tree branches never hurt anyone.This last image makes me really happy. The light, the veil, the dress, the beautiful bride – love it all!Katherine~
You’re married! Ahhh!! Congrats! Your wedding was so perfect. Thank you for letting me enjoy it as a guest. And thank you for having me do these photos of you. I loved capturing your bridal look on camera!
Love you so much, and I’m so happy for you and Boz!
~abi~
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Tuesday, September 27, 2016
This is my dear friend Steph and her beautiful family. A couple of months ago, in mid-July, they took a family vacation to Myrtle Beach. Steph and Mike flew me out to take some family photos while they were there soaking up the sun. Steph’s favorite color is purple, so she coordinated their outfits perfectly for our sunrise photo session on the beach. I have to give huge props to the whole group for cooperating so nicely after we got up super early in the morning. We started at the break of dawn, and I love the photos we got! Here are some of my favorites.Steph and Mike are celebrating 26 years of marriage! So we had to do some extra photos of just the two of them.On a photography side note, I will say shooting a sunrise session at the beach was more challenging than I expected. For one thing, the wind kicked up pretty good during our session. Since I’m from Oklahoma, I deal with wind during sessions constantly, so I’m used to that. But the shifting light was more of a challenge for me. Not so much while shooting, as I’m constantly adjusting my settings anyway. But during the editing, there was a lot more color shifting than I am used to. It makes sense, because the sun was just coming up and the light was several different colors while we were shooting, and on top of that, clouds were constantly covering the sun and then blowing away. So it was a learning experience for me. Which is awesome to say, since I’ve been doing this since 2001. I love that I still can have learning experiences in photography. After all, it’s not like I ever get to sunrise beach shoots here in Oklahoma! :) In the end, I had to let go of having all the skin tones match in each photo, and instead go with the different colors that were reflecting from the water and the beach throughout the morning. And you know what? I love it! It’s true to life and it makes me happy.Sami and Adam will be celebrating their 1 year anniversary this October. {See their engagement photos here and beautiful fall wedding here.}We saw various sea creatures during and after our shoot. This little guy was especially feisty.Steph and Mike are such a great example of committed love. I’m happy to know couples who live out the meaning of true love and are there for each other through it all, the good and and the bad, the fun times and the hard times.At the end of the session, Mike and Steph walked down the shore a little. Of course I followed with my camera. These weren’t posed or directed at all, and they’re some of my favorite captures from the day.Steph~
You have been a wonderful example to me in so many ways over the years. I am so thankful God brought our paths together during photography school! You are such a wonderful wife to Mike and mother to your children. And you’re a great friend. Thank you so much for bringing me out to capture these photos. Love you!
~abi~
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by Abi Ruth
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