I had the privilege ( ok I begged ) of taking photos of Rich and Allaina’s twins. WOW- it was a lot of work. I studied other photographers to see what they were doing with poses. I looked at tips for keeping the babies warm. I kept a heating pad on low and those little girls slept most of the time. They were born 8 weeks premature. They spent 3 weeks in the hospital. They had been home just a week when these photos were taken. Everyone was adjusting to have not one but TWO newborns in the house. After spending several hours with them- I have no idea how they do it. I was exhausted by the time we were done. 

Two sets of tiny feet

A sweet sleepy smile

Sisterly love

The sweetest hug. They had to be touching each other.

Ethan!  Mike and Amanda went to a housewarming in Michigan and Ethan stayed with us. We had a great time with him and he kept us entertained as well.  We took a long bike ride that Ethan was sure he could handle. About halfway through we stopped for a brief rest for “someone”. Towards the end of the ride that same someone told Rick the following: “Rick -  Gretchen’s legs are tired and she wants to stop!.” Very funny!

Remember this beautiful mama? The twins have arrived and Sarah is a big sister! Her sisters, Allison and Megan were born about 5 weeks ago. I went out to visit her family last weekend and take some photos. She loves her sisters but they sure are taking up her Mommy and Daddy time. I wanted to make sure she had her own little photo shoot while I was there. She is quite the little poser and knows exactly how she would like her picture to be taken. We took turns requesting how the photo should be taken! Here a few from the session. Oh and I haven’t mentioned it lately but I LOVE LIGHTROOM!  I think I need to look for a new blog layout. I would like to be able to post bigger photos. Any suggestions out there?

Did I mention the twins were identical? By the end of day none of us knew who was who!

Quick note here for my fellow Lightroom addicts- Adobe is running several free seminars during April and May. You can find out more by following this link! I just watched the first one, which is going to be repeated in May, and it was very good and informative. The eseminar didn’t last more than hour and it was filled with good tips about importing and good practices. The next one I am scheduled for is about Lightroom and Photoshop. Take a look my friends, you won’t be disappointed. I PROMISE!

Ok-I didn’t really get lost in the way that most people get lost. I spent this morning looking for tips and tricks using Adobe Lightroom. I LOVE the internet! You can google just about anything and get, at the very least, 10 pages of answers to a simple search. I did a search for “Lightroom Tutorials”  and look at all the pages that came up. How crazy is that?  So as I am sitting here at my kitchen counter and waiting for our next SNOWSTORM, in April no less, I got lost looking at all the amazing sites that offer great tips and tricks for Lightroom. I know that many of the Me Ra Workshop ladies have seen the Lightroom way and are using it on a daily basis. Ladies-this post is for you! Check out these sites for great tips and tutorials.

Lightroom Killer Tips - One of the best in my opinion

The Lightroom Lab - yep - got lost in here

Lightroom Secrets - here too!

The Lightroom Queen - No this isn’t me- but it could be. I feel like the Lightroom Queen at times

The Lightroom Lab - spent quite a bit of time in here

Lightroom Forums - A great place for information and help with Lighroom issues.

Image-Space - Tips and a free e-book download

We are waiting for a storm today that is supposed to bring us 3-4 inches of snow. Here is a photo from LAST Sunday’s snow storm. Have I mentioned that I am really ready for winter to go away? Have I mentioned that I miss living in San Diego from December through April.

PS- I am not loving the upgrade of Wordpress to 2.7. I am having issues with the sizing of my photos. I may have to look for a new layout so I don’t have to compress the sizes. Any suggestions out there??

Oh my-Don’t you just love this photo? Rich is an amazing husband and dad. He loves his girls-no doubt about it. I love the emotion that is coming from the two of them in this photo.

This past weekend I had an opportunity to photograph this beautiful Mama. I have known Allaina for almost 9 years. I met her when she was dating one of my instructors. They were married and along came their beautiful daughter, Sara. Allaina is pregnant again and this time she is expecting twins. We were all shocked to hear the news and her husband Rich found out while he was working with me. His eyes had a state of shock look for the rest of that day. They are an incredible family and the twins are going to an amazing addition. It was a blast photographing them because Allaina was up for anything. We laughed a lot and her husband just tuned us out at one point. Due to Allaina’s situation and because she is having twins, she has been on bedrest for the last three weeks. Their friends are all counting with them, as the weeks tick by, for the safe arrival of the twins. She is 29 weeks along and hopefully has a few more weeks to go. Thanks Allaina, Rich and Sara for a great afternoon! Without further ado..Here is one hot mama!

For the Sepia toned photographs I used preset that I developed. It seems to work really well on a lot of the photos I take. If you are interested in the preset, feel free to email and I will send it to you. In case I haven’t said it lately- I LOVE LIGHTROOM!

Yesterday was one of those days. You know, it was a cold rainy day in February. You know, the raw, cold, gloomy, rainy, lightning and thunder type of day. It poured. I suppose I could be happy that it wasn’t snow. We had that on Saturday. That was the white out kind of snow. Ugh. I am combining my Lightroom catalogs and trying to be more organized and I came across this photo and even though it was taken after a summer rain, the leaves are a gorgeous green and full of life. I am looking forward to the day I can look out my kitchen window and see these leaves again. Did I mention that I was watching the rain from my dentist’s chair? Did I mention that I have to have a tooth pulled and replace it with an implant, along with a new found cavity. Note to self-do not put off going to the dentist for that long again.