I knew I was missing these photos from the blog.  Last fall I was so sick I only posted about half my family portrait sessions. But there is no way for me to go back to see which ones because when I do post, I post every day or almost every day.

So I am glad I found these, because he was such a happy little guy at this session. I got about 200 photos of him just laughing and smiling-he was in that great of a mood. Here are a just a few of my favorite photos.

Today was a good day overall. I am feeling really healthy and good today, though my doctors are still messing with my meds so who knows? I saw my beautiful friend’s baby Indira today and SO wanted to take photos of her, but realized I left my camera in Boulder. If I could have a session every night, I would be a happy photographer. If my office manager could come back from vacation (only two more days!) then I could actually shoot every day and not go crazy. During the holiday, I actually do end up shooting seven days a week some weeks. Sometimes 10 or 12 a week, it is that crazy in Boulder. So, I just have to be totally healthy by then, and hire a live in maid and nanny and I will be all set.

Hmmmm, what good news to share today? I guess my best news is when I have something to talk about that gives me fire in my belly, and I didn’t have that today. So I would say the happiest part of my day was cooing and loving my best friend’s 8 week old baby. Yeah, babies are good news.

xoxo stacey

Just a super quick post tonight. Yes, I am going to bed at 9pm. I had a great and busy day. I wore myself out. I made a new friend, showed our house to a few people (we are renting out our gorgeous, light filled, 4 bed/4bath, north-central Boulder home which is like a treehouse if anyone is interested), talked with a bunch of my clients, answered emails, played with my two little ones, and then this. All in all, a good day.

I am feeling better, seeing a lot of doctors, and shooting a bit (being a photographer is what makes me happiest, well-my children make me happiest of course and then being a photographer, but that really does go without saying).

I have been photographing this family since Matthew was a baby. For some reason I did not post his two year photos, but I remember doing them, so here are his 10 Months photographs and then 2 more here and here from this session. I will have to dig up those 2 year photos and post them tomorrow. Anyways, I love this family, and love seeing Matt grow up.  I can’t wait to see what he is like at four. He was pretty serious at this session, but we still got some giggles out of him.

That’s all for tonight.

xoxo stacey

First off, this is the BEST family. I love them. They are so good to me and always think of me first. And they are so in love. Each one of them with everyone else. I have posted several photos from this session already, but really, it was such a fun session and the photos are so beautiful because there is just so much love, joy, and happiness here. And the children are pretty cute, too. And mom and dad are also gorgeous:) I am so happy they came to Boulder to do photos with me and I hope you guys come back again next year! Maybe with a new baby…? That’s just a hint, I just want to see you have another one:)

So I am feeling MUCH better. Healthy and good and way too thin but that is not the worst problem to have. I tell myself I look like a gorgeous model and that makes me feel better about it.  It is nice in a way, because my illness makes me not want to eat. At all. I have no appetite. It just isn’t there and when I eat I have to make myself, which is not often. So I do a lot of protein smoothies and Green Machines. And the only food I actually like eating right now is oatmeal and yogurt, and that is good for my tummy, so I have that going for me. Seriously, am I a Zen master at always looking at the positive of everything or what? I heard a quote recently by Wayne Dyer:

“Loving people live in a loving world.

Hostile people live in a hostile world.

Same world.”

That’s my motto for the moment.  Choosing the world that I live in. It is a great feeling.

Ok, so I have done a few shoots with this family and it is always fun to break it down with links so you guys can see the photos from all their previous family sessions (and one commercial photography shoot).

1 year of Elodie

Commercial Photography shoot (Holly was totally pregnant for these and you can’t even tell! I gained 55lbs with Amelia)

Maternity Photos (I love these, some of my very favorite pregnancy photos in my portfolio)

Incredibly stunning Elodie (this is from this past family photo shoot-I love the wind blowing back her hair like we staged it with a fan, yet we did not. I am totally serious. No fan.)

Gabriel and Daddy loving each other and having fun (also from this last family session-just a series of the same exact photo yet each photo tells its own unique story about the two of them)

I thought there were more blog posts but it is too late to look for them. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to bed now, at 10:30pm, what do you think of that?

Ok, lots of fun photography family shoots coming up! But the thing I am MOST excited about is a birth I am photographing at the end of the month. Birth photography is such a passion of mine, and I really wish more people valued it. I give a super duper discount for photographing births just because I love it so much. I am also a doula, which I think helps me capture the raw emotion of it all, you know? You should see my birth photos of Amelia by photographer Kim Rodgers, they are stunning.

Maybe more tomorrow, we shall see.

xoxo stacey

Oh, I am so loving the break in the Boulder heat wave. It is making me feel so much better and happy and alive and just good, you know?  I am so ready for some photography sessions.

Life is good now. The heat got to me more than I knew. I am spending the weekend with my babies and catching up on old work and creating new work and looking forward to some photography sessions coming up. I love how each one brings something totally new and unique and special to that family. It is on the top ten list of things I love as a photographer. I will write that list someday. Not today, but someday.

So meet Lily. She is a beautiful 5 year old little girl whose parents love her to death (can you tell?). She is so happy, vivacious, full of energy, fun, excitement-everything a five year old should be. Go mom and dad. You did something right.

No matter how many times I scold myself for letting my kids watch a movie rather than baking cookies with them, I know that I am doing something right because they are these happy, wonderful little beings that bring joy to whomever they are with. Like Lily, that have that aliveness-that quality of childhood that I see lost in so many children today because they are not getting the time or presence they need from their parents.

Someone told me the other day that she tells everyone that my children are like little angels-with their blond hair and beautiful faces and the kindness that comes from an authentic place-not a place that desires to please someone. I can’t disagree. Could YOU as a parent? I know, I talk my kids up. But I have to. That is my job as their parent. I need to think they are the most wonderful, incredible little people in the whole wide world. And I DO think that. I know every parent does, but for me it is true:) (for those of you that don’t know me, I am just kidding, but not really).

Ok. get off the computer and go enjoy this Boulder weather!

xoxo stacey

ps these photos were taken at Chautauqua in southwest Boulder-It is THE spot to take photos. On any given Saturday morning you will see about 15 photographers out there doing their thing. I ONLY do weekdays there, that’s for sure.

pps, I DID say I woud post more of her photo session and look! I have:)

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

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.