I just wanted to get something up tonight-I just got back from photographing a birth-being a birth photographer is really the best job in the world. I actually charge way less than I would a normal session for photographing births simply because I LOVE to do them. I became a birth doula at age 21 just for that reason and now that my first passion is photography and my second passion is babies (well, my first passion is MY babies, and then other people’s babies and then photography).

Anyways, beautiful baby Sammy was born tonight at 8:17pm, the birth photos are amazing and I can not wait to post them! One for tonight-I will post the color photos from baby A’s session tomorrow-I am on my laptop so the black and white is all I have right now-and no watermark or anything.  Just happy to get a photo up, any photo, just for tonight. Especially a newborn one. I love this baby, she is close to my heart. Love those eyes! Isn’t she gorgeous? True, she is over 6 months old now, I have a million photos to post from before I took my medical leave, so I WILL be able to post photos every day now. Off to bed now!

xoxo stacey

ps, check back tomorrow and let me know if you like my black and white photography better or my color better. I *really* want to know. Do I have the talent for black and white photography? I like to think that people are attracted to the colors in my photos, but just had a client who told me she preferred black and white photography, so I did all the photos in both color and b&w, and so now I am wondering. So leave a freaking comment already! I got over 500 unique visitors to my blog the other day, so I KNOW you are reading this. So tomorrow, i expect some comments.

The best, easiest, most-likely-to-please mother’s day gift you could ever imagine giving your wife who gave unbearably painful birth to your child(ren) and who dedicates her life to making a beautiful family life for you and them is now being handed to you. Handed right over to you in a really simple and easy way.

You guys may not follow my blog, but if you are reading this post-then it means your wife probably does. And SHE knows that my husband forgets every event-bc I write about it EVERY time it happens. My husband does NOT follow my blog, and I guess that is a good thing.

So, do the most simple, most meaningful thing for your wife this mother’s day and give her the thing she wants most-beautiful, real, breathtaking photos of your little ones. What is the one thing you would make sure to take in a fire after grabbing the kids and the pets? Photos. That is really the only thing that is priceless to a mother.

And I have to tell you a few things, bc I have been doing this a long time and I KNOW how much dads just love getting dressed up in their stiffest Sunday clothes and painfully smiling on cue to the camera while they pinch their kids from behind to do the same.

That is NOT me. We pick a beautiful outdoor location, like Chautauqua or Wonderland Lake, and we walk around, and just have fun talking, running, throwing babies up in the air (and catching them too), playing one-two-three swing, blowing bubbles. NOT smiling at the camera but instead laying a blanket in the field and reading your little one a book, or giving him fits of giggles with raspberries on his belly or tickles in place of the mechanical, frozen family portraits.

In fact, I hate the word portrait. I only use it sometimes because I want people looking for family portraits to find my site on google. Otherwise, I would NOT call my photos portraits EVER. They are more like real, spontaneous capturings of who your child is in this moment of time. But nobody ever googles ”spontaneous-capturings-of-who-my-child-is-in-this-moment-of-time-photographer,” so instead I fake-use the word “portrait” every now and then and people can find me.

When I send your wife the info on how to prepare, I will say things like “DON’T wear your sunday best. I love jeans and a good t shirt. Dress real. You want to remember who you guys were back when, right? Not who you wanted everyone to think you were.

I love the photos of my mother snuggling me as a baby in her cute 70′s bootie shorts and hippie tank top. Not the one where she is wearing a dress suit with shoulder pads (what WAS that fad all about anyways?) with a black backdrop behind us, and yes, she is pinching me to smile at the camera. Which one do you think is framed in my home?

Bottom line: a family photography session with me is painless, and could actually (gasp) be fun and enjoyable. And if you STILL doubt me, then just suck it up and do it for your wife. Because she is a great mother. And it is mother’s day.

So, I have two options:

Option 1: A mini photography session. I will either email you a gift card to print out yourself, and you can place it in a card of your choosing, OR you can pick up (in south Boulder) a beautifully wrapped gift card. This spring’s mini sessions ($195) include a 20-30 minute session with me, 10-15 beautifully edited images in an online gallery, 1 mounted 11×14, and 2 mounted 5×7 prints. No additional purchases required.

Option 2: A full custom session which I am offering at 20% off for Mother’s day, I will tailor a very special 1 to 2 hour custom photo shoot for you and your family. The $200 session fee which is actually $160 at 20% off gets you 35-45 beautifully edited images in an online gallery, and an in-home proofing session with my amazing sales manager Reg, who looks like Angelina Jolie (yeah, I am REALLY pulling the out sales tactics for the daddies here now). She shows you samples of prints, canvases, albums, etc… and helps you order from her ipad. Bc dads love Ipads. It’s true. There is a $400 minimum purchase requirement IF you love the photos, which you will, because I actually do create really beautiful photos of you and your children.

Again, you have the option of having a printed gift card for the full session or picking up a beautifully wrapped gift card. I am not trying to overuse the word “beautifully” here, it is just happening, bc it is late (2am), and I am late in posting my mother’s day mini sessions.

So, email me at boulderbabyphotography@gmail.com or call me at 720-310-0336 or 720-345-4674 and I will get the gift card to you asap so you can a) stop worrying about what to get for your wife for mother’s day. Bc she made it super easy for you (as I do for MY husband) by forwarding you this email or b) so you can take back whatever lame kitchen item you got her and get her something she will love forever. Can you believe for christmas one year my husband got me a dart board and an electric blanket? He did. It is true. Sad, but true. A dart board. A dart board. And I was pregnant with his second child, which makes it even worse.

I DO limit my mini sessions to 25, and they DO get filled up pretty quickly. This is actually NOT a sales tactic, but is really true, so if you want the mini versus the full be sure to email or call me today. The full sessions are limitless, and can be used any time.

The fine print:

*Mini sessions must be booked and held before July 1st, 2012.

*All mini sessions are held at Wonderland Lake in North Boulder. Bc it is gorgeous there and it is easy for me to get perfect, beautiful photos there in a short period of time. Or Martin Park, bc it is also beautiful and you can see the flatirons from there, and it is south Boulder versus north Boulder and the drive makes a difference for some babies.

*If you are doing maternity or newborn photos, these must be done in my home studio if it is a mini session. If it is a full session, I come to YOUR home so it is a bit easier on mom. If you live in south Boulder I will make an exception and do a mini maternity or newborn session at your home.

*All session fees are non refundable and must be paid in full to reserve your date.

*extra prints and digital negatives can be purchased separately.

*mini sessions have limited availability (25 is my limit)Anything more than that just makes my family and I crazy. In fact, 25 is really kind of on the verge of crazy.

xoxo stacey

If you are wondering….the workshop I led this weekend was FABULOUS! It went much better than I expected. I am still a bit sick, so that was a challenge,  so there were a few things I forgot to bring and a few things I will change, but overall I feel like the participants walked away with a TON of info to digest and the product companies are going to walk away with THE most amazing photos.

Let me tell you about a photography workshop. Basically, it is you and 6-12 other really amazing or amazing but-just-starting-out photographers that get together for a week or a weekend and focus on ONE topic. This topic happened to be baby and child and maternity lifestyle photography. Which is a very specific niche of family photography that I LOVE to do. Just LOVE. Not only do I get to capture the beautiful, quirky expression that your child makes right now that you may one day forget, but I get to use that expression to sell products that I believe in. Do I believe in wearing your baby? Yes, I think it is one of the most important things you can do for your baby (if you can, otherwise, some good laying down, belly-to-belly-time works, too).

So, I only work with products I believe in, because I want that company’s customer base to see in my photography just what I see-warmth, love, nurturing, bonding, fun, etc… I mean, I photograph all sorts of baby products, from pants and dresses to teethers and strollers. I probably wouldn’t do an ad campaign that aims at showing how a bucket seat (aka, the infant carseat) is convenient (insert cheesy man’s voice here) “not only for the car, but wherever you go!”). That would just make me sad. We have to pick up our babies and hold them tightly, right?

So, this weekend, I had the best time. I got to teach 8 other photographers how to do a type of photography that I am so passionate about. I have already gotten so much feedback but am also going to send out a detailed questionnaire so that I can perfect this workshop and take it to other cities-focusing on bringing together local, mom owned companies with photographers in their area (I also believe in keeping it local). Babyhawk IS in California, not Colorado, and so are a lot of my product clients, but for the workshop purposes I hope to be the one to network together local companies with local photographers. Just a little added bonus of the workshop IF you decide to do one-you will be connected with clients and thus be able to start up this new part of your business that focuses on baby products right away.

Photographers: if you are interested in this workshop (I think I am going to be able to keep the cost low) and want me to bring it to your city, PLEASE email me at boulderbabyphotography@gmail.com or leave a comment in this post’s comment section. I am thinking Utah next. Why? Because it is so close and because there are SO, so many fabulous photographers there.

So, to continue, the workshop is divided into teaching and shooting, and of course I teach as I shoot.  I organized 7 baby, child, or maternity product companies, many of them local to Boulder or the Denver area, and we would spend about 2 hours shooting, then 2 hours teaching. It was a fast, packed weekend, but was SO much fun and (at least the participants are telling me this) the photographers left with feeling confident shooting products and knowing how to get lifestyle product photography bookings.

We got really phenomenal images for the companies that participated. Here are just a few from one of the Baby Hawk shoots I did. I wish I could post them all but that would be WAY too many photos. I AM going to try and post every day so there are a ton of images coming on to the blog, so you *may* see more of Baby Hawk when we did their second shoot at the Boulder Farmer’s market. These particular photos were taken at Chautauqua in southwest Boulder.

Can you tell I am happy? I am.

xoxo stacey

This is one of my sweetest families. If you have had an in-home proofing session with us then you have seen the beautiful album from when Mom was pregnant with Scott and Riley had just turned three years old. Then, 6 months ago I had the honor of doing baby “socks” newborn photos. I LOVED those newborn photos, I hope dad is over the fact that we put babylegs on his baby boy in his birthday suit.

Anyways, update on health. I felt awful yesterday-almost just went into the ER. But took mega doses of steriods and felt better this morning! Life is good! Get me on some new experimental drug and let’s go. I am ready to be healthy.

Can’t wait to photograph 21 month old Lincoln tonight! It is a beautiful day in Boulder and perfect for photos. Here are his newborn photos if you are curious, wasn’t he the sweetest? Look at that face! Those eyes! His expresssion! Can’t wait to see him again after all this time.

xoxo stacey

This sweet little newborn is Penny, sister to Charlie whom I posted photos of the other day. this whole family is so sweet! They live in Golden on this beautiful ridge and have a ton of gorgeous land. I am envious, for sure, though I am happy to be in Boulder. Anyways, isn’t she so perfect? Makes me want to have another baby sooo bad.

Good news all around here-my intern, got to adopt her baby girl!!!! Some of you have met her a on photo shoots so I am sure you will be happy to hear that. I just am overjoyed.

Adam and I really want to adopt a baby or child with special needs. He doesn’t want me to have another (I am a hormonal, whiny b@#$% when I am pregnant). But, I did my master’s specializing in early attachment-especially with foster and adopted children. And Adam is a behavior analyst, so works with autism and developmental disabilities on a daily basis. So maybe we will adopt a little boy with downs or fetal alcohol syndrome. We just have to wait to move into our new, bigger house, and wait for Amelia to be a little less of a firecracker. But it is a big dream of mine and I can’t wait.

The other good news is I am feeling A LOT better today. It might help that I am now on 60mg of liquid (yuck) predizone (steriods). But I have hardly been able to move the last week, and today I am feeling a little better. Bad news-the drug that they want to put me on is $4200/month. A month. Yes. And our insurance sucks. Whatever, I guess I will have to raise all my photography prices to $4200 a session to cover it. I am just kidding, of course:) We’ll manage it.

Lots and LOTS of shoots coming up, I will try to update the blog daily now that I am doing better.

xoxo stacey

These sweet newborn boulder twins are all I can post for tonight, Mom is flying in tonight bc I need the help. More tomorrow.

xoxo stacey

This sweet newborn is over a month now! Whew, just need to catch up on these blog posts. We did Ava’s newborn portraits at about 3 weeks, but she was still sleepy and squishy and great. So tiny, too! She really does make me want to have another little baby. Amelia will be two next week! I have no baby left! She is potty trained and weened and can talk in full sentences and count to 14-almost. I have no baby. I remember how it was when Elijah was this age-whenever I did a newborn shoot I got this crazy baby fever. It has not hit me *quite* yet but I anticipate sometime in the next year I won’t be able to stand not having a baby anymore and convince Adam to go for it. First, though, we just need to get this house closed on! The whole mortgage thing is so frustrating, and it just keeps being drawn out.

All else is going well. I am feeling better. Elijah started first grade-he is such a big boy now! We are making plans for the fall. Life is good.

xoxo stacey

For some reason I do a lot of newborn shoots in Fort Collins. Not any other kind of shoot, just newborn, which is strange, but that is fine since I love the drive and it is always worth it to photograph a newborn. Selah (beautiful name, right?!) was so sleepy and calm and her parents were so young and in love.  Those are the best kind of shoots. It reminded me of Adam and I when we first had Elijah. I was so young then (25). Those first few months were so magical and everything in the house was so calm and present. Probably the best few months of my life to date. With Amelia, it was a little different. She was colicky and did not sleep well, and I was in my busy season for photography, and we had a four year old,  so things were not calm at all.

We are staying busy trying to get everything together to close on our new house on Wednesday. There is just so much paperwork involved, and it is time consuming. But, then we get our new house! I am excited, even though we have to rent it back to the sellers until they find a new home. Just crossing my fingers that we are in there by Thanksgiving, or even Halloween would be great. At the very least Christmas. It is a good time to buy a house though, so I am glad we are getting it out of the way now. More soon. I *thought* I was going to get caught up on blogging all the shoots I have not gotten around to posting in the last few months, and now I am super busy again, so lots more photos to come!

xoxo stacey

Love little newborn toes! Always such a sweet picture. Patrick was a very mellow, happy baby, and a pleasure to photograph. I loved their dog too. I have decided this is the kind of dog I want-they are just so pretty and have so little fur.  After this photo shoot I search around for Weimaraner breeders for a couple of days, and found a few breeders with litters, but I got a “hell no!” from adam, so now we are dogless and I am sad. See, Freckles passed away last year, and all we have now is an 18 year old cat, who is awesome, but I grew up with three dogs and three cats at any given time, and love having my home filled with animals. But, I got the big hell no, just like I did with baby #3, so for now, I am just going to wait it out and try adam again on both fronts in a year. We shall see.

I am super busy shooting again. This weekend alone I have four photo shoots, which is a lot when I am trying to find time to squeeze in with my family. But, I love it! I did a gorgeous maternity session Friday night, then a wild two and a half year old last night, and then two families tonight. Off to the movies for now!

xoxo stacey

Rainy Boulder day. I am working on a super secret project at the moment. Well, it is not totally a secret, but I want to wait until I am *almost* done with it to make an announcement. I have heard it is important to contain the energy about something you are excited about so that it holds it’s power. Yes, I live in Boulder. Yes, I went to Naropa. Yes, I believe in harnessing the power of excitement. This is about one year of ideas and brainstorming in the making, and I am glad I got a rainy day to work on it!

One photo of beautiful baby Patrick for now, more to come!

xoxo stacey