quadruple the fun with triplets plus one

I love this family.  They are fun to be around, entertaining (to say the least!) and just plain nice folks.  The kids behave so well its amazing.  I suppose with triplets plus one only a year apart, a mother HAS to be good!  Here's just a couple little previews from their more recent session.

SM Little Creations ~ Baby Hats & Photo Props

There really are not too many things cuter than a nearly naked baby wearing a super cute hat for pictures.  I have hit the jackpot & found an up and coming babywear designer and have a TON of new hats for my sessions.  Awesome part is they are super affordable and really good quality.  SM Little Creations is based out of Casselton, ND and will custom make pretty much any thing you want.

There are hats, diaper covers, baby wraps, cocoons, onesies and t-shirts to match too!  You can get them in almost any color. Of course, I'm also super excited because I got to take a ton of pictures for her website :)  Here are some samples of hat she has instock and designs she can customize.  She's also got a bunch on her Etsy Site of these cool little nests and of course birdie hats to go with them!

Tea party Time

Click here to view this photo book larger

For those looking for deals, Shutterfly has a deal right now that if you "share" a book (like mine above) on your blog you get a $10 off code!  Want to learn how to make books like these?  I demo the Shutterfly application in my digital scrapbooking class and teach you how to make your OWN layouts for these books as well.  Or, I can also completely do the design for you using your own pictures!

Baby Bjorn ~ Fargo Newborn Photography

I'm seriously in love with a LOT of the images from this session.  Here's just a quick preview of a few that I played with first :)

FirstChoice Clinic ~ Community Photographer

As I'm sure you may have noticed, I like to do volunteer work in our community.  I also do a lot of donations to things like silent auctions and fundraisers, help out at various events, and of course donate my services.  For the last four years I've been the Area Coordinator and Infant Remembrance Photographer for Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (http://www.nilmdts.org/)  A couple years ago I was even selected as our area's only photographer to go to specialized education to be a certified trainer for that organization. 

And, as if its not totally obvious, I really working with healthy babies!  And to support healthy choices and healthy babies, I've been blessed enough to work with FirstChoice Clinic in Fargo for their annual Christmas card and other promotional pictures.  Because its now well past Christmas, I'd like to share with you a few pictures from this past year's session.

delightful duo ~ fargo outdoor portraiture

I had SO much fun with this mother & daughter duo today.  The weather was FANTASTIC and we had a great time.  I have to admit, I am having a hard time thinning out the proofs and it was even harder to get just a couple previews, they are all really cute!  Very photogenic ladies I tell you.  Enjoy!

Photoshop Quick Tip ~ Prairie Yarns

If you've ever met me in person and talked with me for any amount of time, you'd discover that I have an obsession with fiber arts.  I'm talking knitting, crochet, spinning, and all other (wool) fiber goodness.  I'm also what many might call a "yarn snob" in that I only use good quality stuff. 

Well, in Fargo we are fortunate to have a couple nice yarn shops.  One that I tend to visit most often is Prairie Yarns.  When the owner asked me to take a few pictures of the new shop (they moved into a new site last fall) and of course I jumped at the opportunity to support another local business.  She wanted a panoramic image and I didn't have enough space to just get it all in one shot; this required me to take several shots then compile them into one. 

Here's the result-

To do this using Photoshop here are the steps:
1.) Shoot several overlapping images and get 'em on your computer (its best that they are all the same camera settings, so use manual settings on your SLR to ensure your color/shutter/aperture, etc. is consistent)
2.) In Photoshop, click on File -->  Automate --> Photomerge
3.) A dialog box will show up and that's where you'll pick which images are going to be combined
4.) Wait patiently as Photoshop processes the files.  If you only 3-4 it shouldn't take too long, but its does take some processing time.
5.)  Once its done, THEN do your image adjustments for contrast, brightness, etc. so that the same setting is used for the whole image

Voila, thats it!  Really, its that easy!

landen! ~ audubon newborn photography

So, these pictures were taken the day before his due date, when he was three months old!  Yeppers, this little man was born pretty early, but is entirely perfect :)  Didn't score too many sleepy pictures, but it was really fun to have him in for his "newborn" session.