I am still here! I am not in the hospital, just resting, enjoying the break in the awful Boulder heat wave. Who remembers it being THIS hot in Boulder in June? I DO realize it is July now, but still, even Boulder’s July weather has never been this bad. And who gets hit the hardest? The youngest, the oldest, and those that are sick, sigh.

Anyways, feeling TONS better now that the weather is sooo nice and that stomach bug I had went away and I have a million beautiful photos to sort through and edit and present to my photography clients. I just love it when they see their photos for the first time and sometimes they call me crying because they love them so much. That is on the top ten list of why I love my job.

There are a TON of gorgeous photos from this maternity/family portrait session, and I WILL post more photos (I always promise that, don’t I?). But really, there is this amazing set of photos with the little girl and her big dog in the mountains.I can’t wait to post those.

But I wanted to put up these photos now because they really exemplify what it is like to have a second baby. You get a moment of peace and then you have a little creature crawling all over you.

Don’t get me wrong, it is perfect-wonderful-magical-amazing to have two children, but that moment of peace you see there in the first photo-that really is all it is-a moment. The love from them makes up for it all, though.

Okay, go out and enjoy the 80 degree Boulder weather this weekend-I heard it is supposed to get down to the 60′s even on Monday in Boulder. I can’t wait! More soon, I won’t let so much time pass between photo posts this time.

xoxo stacey

Just one photo for tonight (or this morning? It IS 3am after all), because it is too late and I really should get to bed. Bad news: my husband has to leave at 5:30am to go to work today. Good news? Our wonderful, beautiful, perfect new nanny is coming in early to help, so I can sleep.

With my oldevilwoman’s witch disease (crohn’s-autoimmune), sleep has to be the #1 priority for my health-and you all know how I overdo it with getting excited about work and neglecting my health.. So, I do NOT feel bad paying someone fun and young and loving to take my kids to school tomorrow. I WILL be home with them and done with work at 2:30pm, so I am not neglecting them or anything for the sake of working late and sleeping in every once in awhile.

I AM this incredible tornado of creative energy lately. In fact, there is so much happening that I can’t keep up with it and need to hire out even more help. I am so, so ecited to share with you all the projects I am working on. For now, you’ll have to be satisfied with one very beautiful maternity photo of one extremely gorgeous pregnant mama. Can you believe she is 35 weeks? This is Chataqua, btw, in southwest Boulder, I will post the Flatiron photos from this shoots soon, I promise!!!

xoxo stacey

nite’

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

Everyone is pregnant in Boulder. At least, everyone I know. I have been taking maternity pictures every day now. I can’t wait to be surrounded by all these beautiful little newborn babies! I will be in heaven. I am going to be doing the birth photography too, for a few of these beautiful women I have been posting about so keep an eye out for those blog posts. I really am going to try to blog every day again now.  I promise! I am really, truly back this time!

So yes, I was VERY sick. With my old woman witch disease (crohn’s disease-an autoimmune disorder) and have been out of the loop for 4-6 months. Time has passed so quickly. But I am here, getting healthy, nurturing myself, and ready to go! I am so excited about so many things and have a ton to share with you all.

Let me give you the background on this photo. I was talking with my good friend Kim earlier in the day yesterday-and even though she is a maternity photographer herself (check out the link, she is an amazing photographer for those of you in Englewood, Co), she STILL had not had any photos taken yet of this, her fourth pregnancy (and she is only 28 yrs old, can you believe it!?). I was the last of five children, and there are about 6 pictures of me total. Total. About 6 from the time I was a baby until I graduated high school. There are definitely no photos of my mother pregnant with me. So I INSISTED that Kim capture her belly for this little one. It always made me feel a little sad that they did not bother to take pictures of me growing up. And then ironically I became a child photographer, hmmm…

I told her to pack up the family and head down to Boulder all the way from Engleton and I would do some photos of her that evening. I had to take Elijah to a birthday party in Superior and then we would all meet to do an impromptu photo shoot at my house at 5:30pm. Well, at 5pm the storm clouds started rolling in, so I called her from the party and told her to just meet me there and we would try to get a couple photos in before the torrential downfall. So, it was freezing, windy, raining-AND all the kids were locked up in the car with Kim’s husband.

We ran out to the side of the road somewhere off Rock Creek Drive in Superior, and spent like 5 minutes getting some photos. At least she has a few now! I have another disk of even better images from this 5 minute shoot-but I ruined it-it cracked somehow. Does anyone know how to fix a cracked memory card? I will have to take it in somewhere to get the photos taken off of it. Maybe Mike’s Camera? Anyways, there are more photos from this 5 minute maternity shoot to come. Probably the quickest photo shoot I have ever done.

You are beautiful, Kim, and a dear friend. I can not wait to meet this new little life you and Chris have created.

xoxo stacey

…see the blog post below. We had a few glitches and had to change the workshop to the last weekend of April-so if you are a photographer and are interested in learning everything you need to know about baby and child and maternity lifestyle product photography it will now be Saturday, April 28th and Sunday, April 29th. There are TWO spots left so please contact me ASAP to sign up. It is going to be sooo much fun and we have the BEST baby gear lined up to photograph.

It is actually good that we had to change dates because the Boulder weather is not looking so great this weekend. AND I lost my voice.

And because no photographer’s blog post is complete without a photo, here is one of my stunningly gorgeous, 33 week pregnant friend, Monique, again. How much more beautiful can the human form be?

Here she is at week 32 of her pregnancy. With clothes on.

xoxo stacey

ps-keep checking back here-I am going to post soon about needing models for the photography workshop at the end of the month. So if you are in the Boulder, Co, area and you want your baby, child, or belly to model check in soon-I will *try* to post the info tomorrow.

I know three months ago I said I was back to work, but after being in and out of the hospital since, I am just letting it come on easy and get back in to the swing of things. First of all, all old shoots and photos floating out there will all come together this week. I have everything set up and am ready to get going. So, if you have been worried, I will email or call you this week!

I am taking on only 1-2 shoots a week right now, so if you do want something soon please contact me at boulderbabyphotography@gmail.com to discuss. I always leave room open for newborn portrait sessions, too, so those can always be last minute.

Anyways, for my health. Who knows? Every time I get better I get sick again, and then there are all these side conditions that come with it. For example, I had to leave a newborn shoot after taking three photos a few months ago because I did not feel well. I felt awful, like I should have just stuck it out. Well, I ended up in the ER that night and my lung had collapsed, so I am learning it is better to trust myself.

Anyways, I did not pick up a camera for four months-and then my best friend had her baby shower last night so I HAD to bring it and take some photographs. It was like riding a bike-and so good for me as it reminded me of how much I love the simple art of photography.

I am going to try to blog every day for now on-we just bought a house in south Boulder and I am trying to sell our house in central Boulder so I am busy with that, but otherwise I am going to just dive back in to photography.

Welcome to the world Greta! My wonderful neighbor, who had the cutest pregnant belly ever, gave birth to a beautiful newborn girl on Friday. Congratulations guys! I can’t wait to meet her and take her newborn photos!

On a personal note, since I know those of you who read my blog have been worried-all is well here. I am home from the hospital and was given an intense drug on Thursday called Humera. You have probably seen the lovely commercials for it on tv-it is advertised for rheumatoid arthritis but works wonders for crohn’s disease too. It could put me into and possibly keep me in remission for the rest of my life. Who knows? If not, I will go to that expensive energy healer in Detroit. Or maybe somewhere in India….

Lots and lots of and lots of shoots lately! So much to post. But just wanted to get this one little photo up because I am so happy for them!
xoxo stacey

Maternity sessions are always whimsical and fun.  As a photographer and mother, pregnancy photos are dear to my heart. Jenny and Andy were an awesome couple, too. I could have stayed there all night and talked with them about babies, birth, pregnancy, and everything else. Just so laid back, so in love, happy, excited for their new baby girl. It was a perfect night out, and Jenny is just so calm and beautiful-I just love every single photo from her shoot and wish I had a way to post them all. Instead…I am going to post A LOT of them:) My favorites are with the dog, Tahoe. I just love the way she is looking at Jenny and how much a part of the family she is.

So, our closing on the new house has been postponed so many times now. It is so frustrating! It was supposed to be last week, then yesterday, then today…now everyone is going out of town. I just need to have that settled feeling of having closed, you know? So maybe in the next few days. It just seems like we are missing one document after another. I know that getting a mortgage now is a lot more difficult than it was a few years ago when we bought our first house, but this seems unreasonable. I will keep you updated though, and post photos once we move in!

Took photos of the cutest little 2 year old boy this morning, will post some soon!

xoxo stacey

Well, baby is probably already here, as this is a shoot from over a month ago. I am still plugging away and getting a ton of photos up on the blog! It does not help that Amelia now has a stomach bug-poor baby. I was up all night with her. You know those nights-where you are just rocking them, rubbing their backs, and doing what you can to get a little water into them. And the laundry! It was never ending before, but now, forget it, we are going to be behind on laundry for a week. She seems so much better right now, though. I am thinking this was just a 12 hour bug. Thinking? Maybe the right word is hoping.

We had a great weekend though. We went to the air show in Longmont, we watch Goonies in the Park with the kids (north Boulder has outdoor movies every weekend), we bbqed, as always, played outside, and Adam got his tattoo finished (finally after two years!). It was a great weekend and the weather was perfect.

Anyways, loved these gorgeous maternity photos and wanted to be sure to post a few. Here are a couple of photos I posted right after the session. Love all of Lily’s personality!

Just a couple maternity photos of this beautiful pregnant mama I took when I went out to San Francisco last month. Yes, I am super, super behind on blogging! No time at all. We just got back from West Virginia and I am trying to keep up with all the emails and all the sessions I did before I left. We had a really fabulous time on a trip and I can not wait to share photos. They will probably go up on the blog in about two months, though, at this rate. Just wanted to pop in and say I am still here, and working on getting back to everyone and get all the sessions from the last few weeks ready to proof. They were basically all newborns.

xoxo stacey