Just a quick, short post to let you all know I am still here:) Since I DID say the other day that if I stop blogging for too long it means bad things. But good things are happening all around me. I am going to sleep early tonight! I will get lots of sleep. I will get healthy, I get to photograph a beautiful newborn tomorrow! How do I know she is beautiful? We’ll, bc they ALL are- to me at least. And take a look at her mama in her maternity photos, how could she not be?

STILL very, very excited to be moving into my new/old home/treehouse. I can not wait to be settled and just flop down on MY bed and just say “ahhhhhhhhh” in a dreamy way as my kids are jumping on me and creating chaos all around me. I feel like once I move in there, the world can spin all it wants, but I can stand strong in one place and really take a moment to look around and see things, you know?

High hopes, I know. but most of my hopes turn into dreams and most of my dreams turn into giving-it-a-shot, and some, not all, but enough of my giving-it-a-shots really do happen. So hope, dream, give it a shot, it happens. A simple enough formula to live by, right?

xoxo stacey

Today is just another day. Yesterday I was so sick and I think the heat is making it so much worse. Since when do we have summers like this in Boulder? I know that August is usually hot, but June-no. Boulder is better than that. Show us how laid back you are. How mellow and lovely to live in you are. We love you but we don’t have air conditioning so you can not do this to us in June.

Ah-but when I move back in to my treehouse I will have air-they are just window units since we have radiant heat in the floors for the winter (which means no forced air ducts push out the central air). But that will be MUCH better than the two fans and the dripping, cold, wet wash cloth on my forehead right now.

This is Gabriel, Elodie’s (from yesterday), little brother. I have been photographing this family from the start, and then they moved away, tried other photographers, and were never happy, so they made sure to book a session with me when they were in town this summer for just a few days.I love them-they are always so good and kind and wonderful to me and I am honored that they want ME as their photographer.

When I post more of their session (and I will because it was so perfect and fun!), I will link to all the sessions back to when Elodie was just turning 1 and learning to walk. I have said it before-one of the greatest gifts of this job is seeing the little ones grow up-to see what their personality is as a newborn and then just knowing how they will be as a 6 month old, 1 year old, 2 year old, etc… After photographing so many babies, I now just know what their temperament will be from the moment I meet them. Yeah, I am awesome. I have a super hero power. So, if you are interested in what your baby will be like in a few years, book a newborn portrait session with me. I will tell you. It is included in the session fee. Future reading. That is how good I am.

Anyways, I am working on getting healthy today, not promising anything to anyone bc that truly does get me into trouble and stresses me out. Instead, I cleaned my office to make my mind clear (it really does work), and I am just going to do one. thing. at. a. time. (I have that quote next to my computer. I might put it on the subway art I mentioned I was learning how to create yesterday. It would be perfect, and I need to remember it so many times throughout the day. One thing at a time. SO simple!

I just wanted to post these four photos together because they really show the joy and love and connection between this sweet baby and his father. These are the moments that I love to capture, and I usually get a little series like this so that it can tell a story.

That’s all for now. Might go to the hospital tonight. If I do, I will let you know, unless I am really sick, in which case I will just stop blogging and you will know.  And, if someone wants to come visit I would welcome you.

xoxo stacey

If you follow my blog, and actually read it from time to time-then you guessed right-I have been in the hospital, again. You know this because I go from posting photos almost everyday or every other day to totally disappearing from the blog altogether. I am doing ok now. Ok. Things are fine. Crohn’s is an autoimmune disorder, right? So they way they treat it is by suppressing my immune system. So, I don’t just get bronchitis like everyone else, take a dose of antibiotics and it is gone- I get bronchitis for three months, do three long doses of antibiotics, my left lung collapses, and then I eventually get *mostly* well from it. I wish they would just find a cure for this already!

This time, it was this stomach flu that has been coming and going in our household. The boys take it like champs, get over it in 12 hours, but Amelia and I have had it off and on.  But this time, combined with the heat wave a week ago, I just could not do it at home. I went over to hang out with Kellie, my old office manager, and had to leave right away-I KNEW something was wrong, but thought it was just the crohn’s and the heat.

Halfway home I KNEW I had to go to the hospital. Could I make it home to get my computer? I hate spending days in the hospital with no computer. And boo hoo, poor me, I have been in the hospital so much this year that no one really comes to visit me anymore. The first few times I had friends there all day long just sitting with me and keeping me company. But now, it is just this normal thing for me so I don’t even bother calling people. I think a lot of it is me-I am just so sick and tired of being sick and tired that I just don’t call people to let them know. I feel like I have bothered people enough.

Anyways, I turned to go to the hospital, but knew I would want my computer to keep up on emails and be able to call people in my phone book, so I went home. HUGE mistake. I literally passed out when I got home, then when I woke up I called 9-1-1 and dragged myself to the front door to open it and passed out again. I can tell a dramatic story, right? Just on the short ride from the house to the hospital my body sucked up an entire bag of IV fluids.

So, I spent the week in the hospital, and when I got out immediately had SO many people wanting their photos. And you know how I am, I try to do it, then I can’t, and then I just make it worse. It is better to just say it might be awhile then to think I can do it and not be able to.

That is where I am at. I am feeling *ok* but not super well. Going to try to get through what is easiest to get through today.

The happiest news, and I will be talking about this incessantly until I move, is that I am moving into my old beautiful treehouse in a few weeks! I have to furnish everything from scratch-the big things like tables and desks and sofas, but also the little things like dishes and salt shakers and brooms.

I have been stalking Boulder Craigslist and have gotten some great things free or cheap, and have been refinishing them. It is fun. I love creative hobbies, and refinishing furniture is really creative and fun and rewarding. Plus, I am doing so much of it with the help of my little ones (please excuse the imperfections on the pieces when they are done-they just make them better), so I am making the happiest memories. Every time I sit down at my kitchen table I will remember how hard Elijah and I worked to sand it down and paint it.

One thing that I always do, is that if you LOVE my photography and want a photo session with me but can’t afford it, I will figure out how to do a trade with you. I want to make it work because, while yes, I need this income to pay my mortgage and get by, I also want people who value my art to have that artwork of their children up in their home. So, I did a trade for a beautiful piece of artwork for my home a few weeks ago for a mini session. And the whole day was just one happy thing after another. So now, whenever I look at that piece, I think of that great day, and it makes that art that much better. That is why I say please, please don’t stress out getting ready for your session (bc it is stressful, especially if you have young kids). Just go with the flow, have a glass (or two or three) of wine, and let your kids be who they are at the portrait session. I have my ways of capturing the magic of who you all are, but only if you let me. If you are all uptight about the kids looking and acting a certain way, then it is harder for me to capture a photo like the one below (this family was totally chill, I will post more of them soon). I usually still can, but usually have to make mom and dad walk away for a little bit while I play with the kids and let them get dirty.

My point is (I am SO tangential), is that I always tell my families to make a nice memory of the day. To take a walk down Pearl in Boulder or get ice cream and go to the park or pack a picnic dinner and hang out at Chautauqua. Bc I want you to walk by that beautiful photo I took of your child, and everyday have this sweet feeling in your heart bc you remember what a wonderful time that was.

So I am not too attached to things, instead, I make sure I pack them full of good memories and energy and that is why I love what I have-not bc it is fancy and everyone will know it is from this or that store, but because there was some kind of love put in to whatever it is.

My current project is subway art. You take a piece of old, weathered wood and paint it to look all vintagey and then stencil a quote on it. I am making one right now for my foyer, RIGHT when you walk in. It reads “Please excuse the mess, my children are making memories“. And I am going to do a photo shoot with Amelia and Elijah where we get a bunch of finger paint and just go at it and get dirty and have fun rolling around in paint with the sun setting in the background. And I am going to blow up and frame 5-6 of the best photos from that session along with the quote and THAT is what you will see first thing when you walk in. It is perfect. Bc I AM that person that apologizes EVERY time you walk in to my house about the mess, whether I just totally cleaned it or it has not been cleaned for days. I figure that will be a fun way to preempt that whole conversation, which is so rote and just drags me down.

Ok, I disproportionally wrote more compared to the amount of photos I am posting (1), so I will stop now and try to blog more tomorrow:) If I am well. I am not over promising, though.

xoxo stacey

It is not often I get to shoot photographers. Well, actually, I do get to shoot other photographers and their families about 10 times a year, and I know I have said this before: it is both extremely fun (and flattering), but also really nerve wracking. Though I AM loosening up a bit.

This is my photographer-mommy-friend in Boulder and her family is the. cutest. ever. And I am so happy they had another baby because she, too, is the sweetest little thing! I did their family photos last year at Wonderland Lake in north Boulder, and they were a gorgeous family then, but now that they have baby M they are complete (or are you going to have more???!).  I love it when my friends have babies because I NEED to have babies around me at all times if I do not have one of my own. If I have one of my own, then forget it, I can only handle that one at a time. I am thinking mostly about my last baby, who was a bit, ahem, colicky, and somewhat challenging, but we made it! We lived through it to the other side and now she is the most outrageous, adorable, little firecracker there is.

So for this family shoot we went to Chataqua, which I have been photographing a lot at lately because it has just been so beautiful with the flowers, the flatirons, that dreamy wonderland-ness of it when the sun is setting. I think it was a great fit for this family, too. The only problem when you start to add more babies to a family is that it IS a little harder to get that family photo where everyone is smiling, eyes open, and looking at the camera at the same time. I personally don’t care too much about that, but I know it is always nice to have at least ONE photo like that.

I am thinking of some family photos we had when I was little that I would come across every now and then and really study. We were library family of the year three years in a row (i know, we rocked), and so they took a family portrait for the newspaper. My parents always bought a few copies and clipped them and that is what I would be looking at. And this photographer MUST have been good at getting people to sit posed, composed, and looking at the camera, because in each year’s photo we were stiff and all 7 of us (yes, I had a huge family) were looking at the camera. We were not happy or anything. It did not show who were really were. It was a good rendition of what we looked like at that moment of time, but it didn’t really tell a story about our love of reading books or anything.

My point is, when you book a session with me I chat with you on the phone to really find out who you guys are-as a family and as individuals. I want THAT to come out in the photo. There are many, many, many photographers out there that can take a good photo of what your family looks like right now, but only a few that can show the connection, love, and uniqueness of who you guys are. I would like to think that I am one of those photographers.

xoxo stacey

Just another great product that I had the honor of photographing. I love, love doing product photography! Well, usually only when it is a baby, child, family, or maternity product, or just something really cool. It is all about lifestyle and connection. And about mama’s. I love supporting other mothers whether it be through being a friend, mentor, or working with them as their photographer.

The owner’s son is the model here. He does not have kids. I am not sure how many babies he has actually held, but I think I did a good job in getting them to connect. The mom in the photos in a natural. She has four boys of her own (and one on the way!), so she was able to really love on Drew, who is my photography intern’s son.

But-”daddy” did have a really big tattoo all up and down his arm. I had to send them to my amazing, fantastic editor, Heather, over at Dark Room Diva, to work on getting the tattoo removed. If only it were that simple in real life (I don’t have one, but I had a boyfriend once that had a horrendous one and had to have it removed and it was no fun).

Anyways, these teethers are amazing! Just so, so perfect for little hands and little mouths. The silicone (no worries about latex allergies) part is nice but the metal part is so soothing. Check them out at Toofeze.com. Plus they are local, and you gotta shop local, right?

I really do just love everything about product photography, and do workshops where I teach other photographers about how to do lifestyle product photography specifically for babies, children,and maternity products. I just have to figure out how to do that full time, and I will be set. I am happy, too, with all the free products I receive as a result of the photography. It means I need to have another baby to really put to good use the things I receive. So, as of now, it is looking like it might be awhile before I have another baby, but I am still young, right? 32 is youngish, especially since I have already had two easy peasy pregnancies and births. My sister had her last baby when she was 40, so I have some time.

That’s all for now. I will probably post more later:)

xoxo stacey

Yes, I am. I am going to post one photo because I am going to bed. NOT at a decent hour but that is ok because I got loads of work done today and I feel good about that and now I will sleep well. Well, after I get a post up on my photography blog.

I am getting excited about moving into our new/old house now. I realized that it is coming up so, so soon, and I have so many plans to make in into a wonderland for the kids. These plans do involve a jungle gym net from the living room ceiling and a fireman’s pole that goes from Elijah’s closet on the third floor to the living room on the second floor. Yeah, it is going to be cool. And a zip line.

So, I am going to announce it on the blog in a really nonchalant way because I don’t want to make a big deal about it but I am going to be moving into this house with the kids by myself. I am lucky I bought the house last time Adam and I split up. We have been renting it out since we got back together but it just didn’t work. We tried, we had beautiful, sweet Amelia, but now I am a single mom again. I am sad that the kids won’t have the traditional family but I think the amazing life we are creating for them is going to make up for that.

When I was little, I prayed every night that my parents WOULD get divorced. And they never did. They just fought all the time and were miserable and mad and I don’t want my kids to live like that. There are so many wonderful things Every. single. day. And we are going to live them. It is as simple as that.

xoxo stacey

ps, how freaking cute is this photo of Lily? She was the sweetest little thing…

I have always wanted to “Day in the Life” photo sessions. This is where I come to your home, and photograph you on and off all day-the children waking up in the morning, brushing their teeth, making pancakes as a family, getting dressed, doing some sort of family activity that would be normal for you guys, like going to the library or going grocery shopping, or making a craft- then making dinner, getting jammies on, reading books in bed, then photos of them sweet and asleep.

But, you have to know how to do photojournalistic photography well. And this, I do NOT know as well as I know how to be a portrait photographer. Yes, I can get a beautiful portrait of your little one standing in a field with the gorgeous Boulder foothills behind her, but I have not yet mastered photographing inside and doing it in a really artful, creative, fun way, you know?

Those “day in a life” sessions are so, so special. I KNOW people choose me as their photographer because I capture the connection a family has together, and I capture a child or baby’s true personality (all the quirky expressions and such). So, it would be AMAZING if I could come to your home, and photograph you doing what you always do.Capturing the every-day way you connect and the laughter over spilled blueberries.

One thing I know for sure is that I need a few new lenses. I am not just saying that. In my photography circles, it is a joke when someone blames some kind of failure on the type of lenses they have, but really, I think that is a good starting point. My good friend is also a nikon user so I am going to see if I can borrow her good zoom lens (pretty please kim?) for a few days and practice.

If YOU want a day in the life session, I will price it like a family photo session and discount it by 50%. This is outrageous, bc I am not going to spend an hour or two with you and your family, but an entire day. And you will get A LOT more photos.  So, the first person to email me at boulderbabyphotography.com gets this extra special deal. I am so excited! It will be so cool to just hang out with a family all day, photographing them just being them. And capturing the connection and true interactions they have when just being themselves, versus how they are when they know this moment is going to be turned into a portrait. Don’t get me wrong-I DO get the kinds of portraits where families are connecting and, for that brief moment where i have my intern hit me on the head with my flip flop, I do capture true happiness and joy and laughter. But a day in the life is extra special.

If you are a photographer reading my blog right now and do these kinds of sessions, please contact me, I would love to do one of my own family! I know that I can capture them doing what they do, but I am honestly such an important part of their lives, so I need to be in the photos.

It would be the most beautiful album, something I would want to do every year.

So, I am  moving into my new/old house August 1st. I am going to deck it OUT and make it a wonderland for kids. If you have not seen my pinterest page yet, take a look (I love sharing it with others, it is so much fun).

When the house is all ready and beautiful and cluttered and messy as it is in real life, I will have a photographer come to MY house and do a day in the life session.

For now, here are just a few photos I took the other day of my kids, starting in the car (at a stoplight!) after picking up Amelia from preschool, to right before bed where they are playing in the sand at the park in their jammies. My intention was not to do a day in the life type thing, I was taking photos like I always do of them, but they are fitting photos for today’s blog post.

On an even happier note I did the most beautiful session with a really cute 5 year old today. Sunday I get to photograph some old clients who moved out of town and scheduled me in for the few days they would be visiting Boulder. I can’t wait.

xoxo stacey

ps.  Check out the photo of Elijah in the tree. See Simba up there with them? He has grown into this humongous cat somehow in less than a year of life. Check him out here in a photo shoot that I brought him along with as a “prop” bc he was such a darn cute kitten.

Elijah. One of my favorite little boys to photograph. He is REALLY hard to get to smile, so these photos are even more special. Mama figured it out-make a dinosaur dance on my head and he would laugh. That is all it took. Pretty simple.

Not going to write much today. Not feeling all that well. There is a tornado warning in effect for Boulder, so my maternity shoot was rescheduled for Monday. It is just how it is with outdoor family photography-I sometimes reschedule a family 6 times just because of weather or the baby getting sick or whatever. Sometimes it is a good thing-now I can just snuggle in bed with my babies and enjoy the thunderstorms.

Will post more tomorrow!

xoxo stacey

ps. of course it turned out to be a GORGEOUS night in Boulder and I rescheduled my shoot. Grr…..

I am not quite sure what could be cuter than a photo of a baby on a sofa in the middle of a field except twin babies on a sofa in the middle of a field. This was actually part of the product photography workshop we did, just some extra photos we took during the Belle Baby session because these ones were just adorable.

Well, I am making a little progress on “The List.” I feel so discouraged because there is so much to do and so little time to actually do it. I often just sit and ponder about where my day has gone. It just goes.

My happiest moments are still with my little ones, though. I get discouraged but all I have to do is think of them and I MAKE myself have a positive attitude about it all. I just have to. For them. No matter how hard it gets, they are these amazing, beautiful creatures that I get to be around, and I am so fortunate and absurdly lucky to have them that I owe it to them and to the world to keep on going and do it with a smile on my face. It is truly all about how you look at things. I know that is easy to say. I know that, bc it is NOT easy to do right now, and I AM doing it and just have to state it out loud, bc talking about it makes me have to do it.

Anyways, four shoots coming up in the next few days so lots of new photos to post and of course, more things to put on “The List,” but at least they are things I love.

xoxo stacey

ps. 3 months is really the hardest age to photograph a baby-they are at that stage where they don’t quite smile much and can’t sit up on their own or lift their heads very well, so I was amazed that I got a photo of the twins both smiling at the same time. Pure wonder.

These are the kinds of photos I love. Not technically perfect but just fun and laid back (literally). And real. And how kids really are. You know? I would so rather have photos like these up in my home and would also rather look at these when I am 95 rather than a photos where I KNOW I am yelling at my kids and making angry faces and putting out a bunch of negative energy just so that they sit still and smile for the photographer (yeah, I am all about energy for real-I AM a boulder girl after all:).

Noah was kind of being a brat that night. I can say that bc these are my friend, Kim’s children, and your allowed to say things like that about your friends kids. In public…(maybe not???)

Well, I did not think he was being a brat, I thought he was just being a 6 year old boy-goofing off and having fun and being silly and not doing what he is told to do. 6 year old boys just don’t usually smile on cue for photographers (as a side note I hate words that are the same as letters but don’t include that letter in the actual word, like cue should be spelled que, wouldn’t you think? Or eye should just be iee and you should be u and be should just be b).

Anyways, that is why I have special tricks up my sleeve especially for these boys. They include making farting sounds, talking about farting, poop, boogers, burping, pretend burping (actually I can burp for real on que but don’t tell everyone). Basically I do whatever it takes. I am serious. I just have to do it if you want that photo of your 6 year old boy laughing his butt off and having a good time. And you do. Because you hired me as your photographer and are reading this blog bc you agree with me. Totally and completely.

A while ago, when Elijah was exactly 6 years old, in fact, I had to train him to stop saying the word “poop” bc he was literally saying it every two minutes. I did this by making him cover his mouth for one minute. Within just ONE hour he had stopped saying it. He asked me sweetly, though, if he could spell it if he needed to, and to THIS very day, he NEVER says the word “poop”, but has integrated the letters p-o-o-p into his vocabulary so much it has actually become a word itself to him.  When we are actually talking about going to the bathroom, he forgoes the use of the word “poop” and just spells it quickly. It is a natural part of his everyday vocabulary. And when I say every day, I mean every two minutes, bc even though he is not six any more, 7 year old boys are not much different.

Ok, that is enough talk about poop. If you are a new client and reading this and are appalled and don’t want to hire me now I totally understand. I mostly photograph babies, though, so I rarely am making farting and burping sounds during a session. I promise. Though if it made a 6 month old baby laugh I would totally do it.

xoxo stacey

ps. Yes, that is really all I am writing tonight bc I am working on “The List.” Which, by the way, I constantly keep losing. That is so like me.

pps. notice how Kim dressed her children? They don’t totally match but she threaded together a few colors in a subtle way. I love that-as a photographer the whole black shirt and jeans or khakis and a white shirt is kind of a nightmare. I love my families to SHOW off their personalities, whether it is by letting their kids be silly and roll around on each other and stick out their tongues, or by dressing them for a photo shoot in clothes that have style.