Baby T Cake Smash

I've waited four months to share this blog... FOUR MONTHS TOO LONG!!!

My last Cake Smash of the year was with one of the sweetest & most well behaved children that I've ever worked with! I spent months talking with this little ladies mother not knowing that Elizabeth was someone I had known for AGES! (The last name was different and threw me off, don't judge) so it was extra exciting seeing this family after months of talking & years of not seeing one another! Thankfully this chilly weather stayed away for a few weeks & the beginning of December stayed in the 60s for weeks! After blowing up about a hundred (ten) balloons (& somehow not passing out) I met with these beautiful Mama's & this beautiful little lady who arrived in her adorable jammies! None of the photos I had seen of her prior to our session did this adorable little girl justice!!!  Supposedly Baby T never smiled for her daycare photos but was nothing but smiles from the moment she arrived at out session! I tried multiple times to make farting noises with a balloon but couldn't do it to save my life but thankfully it wasn't necessary! Check out this little girl rockin her tutu & giant bow!

Again, most well behaved child! When it was time to walk away from the balloons she dropped everything and went over to her mama's for a quick change & was instantly ready to play again! This sweet girl was so easy to amuse and wanted nothing more than to just play with all the tall grass and her mama's (didn't want anything to do with her parents phone!)

I loved the unique theme Elizabeth picked for Baby T's cake smash and all the vivid colors that came as a result! Baby T loves Balloons (if you couldn't tell) but not as much as she loved her cake!  

One member of my 'cleanup crew' somehow snuck out of the back part of the house and started the process before we could even finish washing Baby T in the sink!

The D Family

I had the privilege to see the D family before Papa Tam was deployed & have finally caught up on all my other blogs so I'm able to FINALLY share these images! I've loved watching this adorable little family grow and was so happy to have them as my first session of the new year! Nashville weather has given us some incredibly cold days but thankfully the sun came out just long enough this day to make an outside session possible! (Baby A let us know when she was getting cold and brought us her sweater to put back on her, it was so cute!) Adrienne and Tam somehow always manage to produce some of the goofiest but cutest couple photos & Baby A has grown into such a little fireball too, I don't know how her mommy and daddy keep up with her! We spent most the session chasing her around and didn't jump in the water.

I'm always so impressed with how sharp this family dresses! They're always incredibly coordinated and ! Now, if only I could get Blake to willingly dress as snazzy as Papa Tam I'd be a happy lady!

Baby C's 1/2 Year

Some time ago I received an email from the beautiful Mama Courtney, asking about a family session for when her little dude hit his 6 month marker. I have not so secretly always wanted a baby boy (FIRST, I'd love a little girl after) so whenever I have a session with a little dude I get overly excited. We exchanged emails & texts for some time & when I was sure she wasn't a serial killer we set a date & started making plans for Baby C's 6 month session!

I've said this before but typically before a client actually books a session with me I'll find one of their online accounts & browse through their baby photos. Whenever I see an extra adorable baby on FB or IG I always imagine what type of stylized session I would do with them & what type of colors they'd look good in... it'd be a lot more creepy if I wasn't a photographer right? I didn't get this luxury with baby C & his family right away. I couldn't find Mama C anywhere online & it wasn't until much closer to our session that I actually asked for a photo of C. She sent me two of the most adorable photos of C I have ever seen taken on a cell phone & I fell in love with him right away! I still didn't know what Courtney or Rob looked like but that wasn't important at the time. The day of our session finally came &  I was invited to C & R's home to start our shoot. I was pleasantly surprised to not only see that they had a fat cat (& an okay dog I guess), but that R was so handsome & C was so beautiful!  The two were so incredibly kind & hospitable & though they had basically never had their photos taken (other than both their senior photos) the warmed up to the camera incredibly quickly!

After we left their home we went to a gorgeous location that the couple had suggested, which has now turned out to be one of my favorite places to go walk in the morning! I've lived in Nashville all my life but had never been to Radnor Lake, which was RIGHT down the road from where my mother lives! I seriously probably burned more calories pulling a wagon full of pumpkins two miles (yes I'm exaggerating)  down a windy trail, but I think Papa Rob had it worse pushing Baby C in his stroller. These two were so patient & kind while I tried to determine tree from tree, trying to recall which way took us to our location. It was worth the short walk though & even though the trails were semi busy everyone around us was kind enough to stay out of our way!

Though C was only 1/2 a year he had more personality than most adults I've met! He is wise beyond his years & is so incredibly photogenic. This family was nothing but smiles but it's hard to be anything else when you've got a happy/handsome little pumpkin like this with you!

Working with these 3 was such a wonderful experience & Baby C was so well behaved he seriously gave me Baby Fever, which I haven't had in ages! I couldn't have asked for the shoot to go any better & I couldn't have asked for better models! Thanks again to the P family & I hope to see you guys again at some point! Happy 1/2 year Baby C & thanks for being such a great sport throughout our session!

Baby R Newborn Session

From Belly to Baby, Baby R is finally here!

After what seemed like forever R finally made his big debut & his still incredibly beautiful Mama & Papa came to visit the home studio! Baby R was by far one of the biggest babies I've ever seen & had so much hair that his mom & dad kept having to comb it over during our session! As expected, he was so incredibly handsome & had some of the biggest lips I've ever seen! Though he was less than a week old (I believe) when he came it seemed like Tess & Noah never missed a beat. His tummy was upset the day of the session so he was a bit fussy but T & N would simply pass him between one another, feed him, burp him, coddle him, whatever it took! It came so naturally to them, it was almost like they were seasoned parents & I was incredibly impressed!

These two were more than happy to do the majority of their session outside & outside babies have to be some of my favorite babies!!! We did a small session in the studio one day & had to continue to a second day, simply because we were on a time limit with Noah's work. Second visit took hardly any time & we were finished just a bit over an hour when we actually got started! Baby R was happy to be held by his parents & was constantly eating in between shots! Noah had his bottle shoved in his pocket the majority of the session & would pop it for ten seconds than put it right back up.

When we did Tess & Noah's gender reveal we briefly spoke about doing newborn photos. I had asked them what type of theme they were planning on doing for his nursery & what type of things they liked, in which Tess immediately answered Elephants! (Like the wonderful boyfriend Noah was, he just agreed with her.) Sure enough a week or so later I ordered this amazing set! I wasn't even sure at this point if they would bring R to me just because I was simply in love with the idea & just like them, I loved the jungle theme for little boys!

This was the first time I was ever actually able to get this pose to work! I had a lot of help from Tess though & this has probably turned into one of my favorite image to date!!!

When we did the first segment at my home studio I probably spenta good 30 minutes wrapping & unwrapping R. He was SO strong & so resilient, but when he would settle down long enough for me to snap a few shots he did wonderful!

Hopefully in a years time I'll be writing a blog covering R's cake smash, & I'll be talking about how crazy it is that he's already a year old & how it seems like we just did his newborn photos...  time flies but I always love being able to see families at their earliest milestones & that they trust me with documenting such important events! Baby R was well worth the wait & I can't wait to see his lovely family again!

G's Second Birthday

Happy Second Birthday G!

About a week ago I was visited by the amazing J & W family & had the privilege to once again work with them! G & her family have now visited me on 3 separate occasions & each time has been more enjoyable than the last. G is ALWAYS on her best behavior & always makes me job of narrowing down photos incredibly hard. I don't know much about her mother Aravon or her father Chris outside of what I've learned about them during our sessions BUT looking about at photos I saw a lot of similarities in mannerisms as well as certain expressions & it was incredibly obvious that she gets her amazingly sweet & bubbly personality from her parents. The fun these 3 had during our shoot was completely genuine & these 3 were truly happy just being in one another's company.  

G spent the majority of her session showing her parents off to me & was milking them for everything they had! She's an incredibly smart two year old & was very aware of what was going on & knew that we were all doing everything to keep her happy & was using that to her advantage. She spent the majority of her session getting swapped between mother & father, climbing up them and than the rest of her session trying to get them to swing her in between them.

Despite being cold & tired she was always on the move & spent the final portion of their family session chasing after all of us. I would get them set up somewhere than run about twenty feet back to get a shot, only to turn around & see G hot on my heels!

Now, if you've by chance bumped into me in the last few weeks I've told you this hilarious story, but for those of you who haven't had the privilege... At G's first Cake Smash I had everything set up & ready to go as soon as they walked in the door. The cake was in plain view so as soon as they came through the back door G's eyes were glued on the cake. Mama A even took her to the other side of the room, changed her, moved her around ten thousand times, & she NEVER took her eyes off the cake, so as soon as they let her go it was over. The Cake was destroyed in no time & she was the first baby to ever really dig into her cake without her parents help. Needless to say I learned from the past & waited till they were inside and changed to set up. When the 3 of them came in the cake was still in the kitchen & I didn't bring it out until A & C had settled in & got G changed into her final outfit. By the time I came back in the room (cake in hand) G was sitting on the couch, nestled between her parents, playing on her mama's phone. The second she looked up & saw what I had she dropped the phone, (I'm SO surprised she didn't break it), scooted off the couch & started making her way towards me, the most determined look on her face... She was mesmerized by the cake & had completely forgotten about everything going on around her. Her parents had to hold her back while I got my test shots in, & though she was being incredibly patient you could tell she was getting annoyed.

I managed to get two good shots of the set before letting G get ahold of her cake. She automatically stuck her face in it & for the next five minutes I was taking photos non stop... she never really made it past the icing, which most babies don't, & instead spent most her time eating the big fondant bow on top of her cake (which matched her bow perfectly!) & trying to pick up her cake & walk off with it. I could have been done within two minutes because of how expressive G was & how everything she did was just beyond cute but I couldn't stop taking photos of her & the chaos (cakeos).

G is such an expressive little girl & it was SO hard to narrow down what photos to show for her preview (trust me, there's A LOT more behind this). She is the epitome of sass & wasn't afraid to tell us how it is. I caught her on several occasions looking at me & her parents like we were stupid, because we kept telling her 'do this, do that, look here'... G made it very clear she was only here to eat cake.

I imagine her saying in this photo something like 'Why are you guys even here?' or 'Stop telling me what to do, I'm eating the darn cake!!!'... or maybe even 'shut up, it's my cheat day'

As we were wrapping up she made sure to let us all know that the cake was going home with them. They were going to have pizza for dinner AND cake (G added)

I've loved watching G grow from a beautiful giant one year old to a beautiful & incredibly smart two year old! I briefly discussed in my last blog how much you felt our age when you see your friends children hit milestones & I swear it didn't seem that long ago Aravon & I were planning their first session! We even exchanged a few text messages the other day talking about how we were comparing photos & how we couldn't believe it had been a year already!

Happy Birthday once again G! I hope you, your beautiful mama & sweet papa have an amazing day & a very safe but spooky Halloween!

Behind the scenes

Even though G looks completely majestic walking through the tall grass, truth be told she hated it (BUT THAT'S WHAT BEING A GOOD MODEL IS ALL ABOUT). We stuck her in a patch thinking she'd walk right out but instead she stood there with her arms outstretched waiting for one of us to come get her. This first image is of her begging me to save her

G wondering why her parent's were running away from her & not swinging her in between them instead (note the outstretched arms)

G wondering why her mother was touching her

Baby L Cake Smash

One of the things we all star to notice when we get older as how quick the years go by (I guess that's a cruel trick that gets played on us once we're out of school, cause GOD KNOWS THE SCHOOL YEAR DRAGGED ON). We all thought our parents were joking but it's something we can't deny! It's already almost Halloween & Thanksgiving & Christmas will be here before you know it! One of the biggest indicators of how quickly time goes is when you're celebrating babies milestones... I don't have children myself (yet) but it blows my mind when one of my friends say they're about to be celebrating their child's first birthday when it seems like we JUST did their newborn photos!!!

I guess it was a year ago we did Baby L's newborn photos & about a month ago we planned his cake smash! His handsome Papa & beautiful Mama woke up early & got pretty for our morning session & walked a good half mile to get to our location!

Despite being exhausted, of course, & despite the fact that L's sweet father Josh had a hurt back just days before our session they still somehow managed to throw L up and down, spin him around, walk forever to get to our location with such ease & still look great while doing it! While his parents woke up model ready Baby L was so interested in everything going on around us it was hard to get him to sit still, so most of the session someone had to have their hands on him! He still managed to look so handsome for all his photos though. You can tell this little dude has his photos taken all the time!

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Baby L's parents have always been up for anything & have been pretty much willing to let me do anything with him, so I was over the moon when they allowed me to document his chunkiness with some amazing nude river photos. Baby L didn't seem to mind at all & spent most of his time in the water splashing or trying to eat what I can imagine were some incredibly tasty river rocks.  

After being oh so cruelly denied his river rocks L was more than ready for his cake! The location we chose was one of the fields his mother used to play softball at when she was younger & with high hopes maybe one day, when the time comes, he'll be playing baseball at one of these fields! He sure seemed interested enough!

20 & 15 in the first INN, crazy right?

Where as L never really got past the icing (that's the best part anyways) he was still probably one of the messiest babies I've ever had, without the help of his parents, & was so sweet even during the clean up process! It's always so sad seeing my newborns again for their one year but I'm always so honored that I get the opportunity to watch them grow & that their parents choose to come back to me again & again!

The M family has always been so wonderful to me & they're always so incredibly so great to work with! I was looking forward to this moment for a year & now that the time has come & gone I really don't know what I'm going to do! Thankfully I'll still be able to see this family from time to time but it's been a real treat watching them grow as a couple over the years & now to see their little family complete!

Happy Birthday Baby L!

I want to give a huge thank you to the awesome vendor who custom made L's onsie & got it to me so quickly!!!

Onsie by the awesome SimplySublimeBaby - https://www.etsy.com/shop/SimplySublimeBaby

Behind the scenes

Baby O's Cake Smash

Now here’s a little guy that’s always smiling!

Baby O visited for his first birthday! For those of you who don’t remember, Baby O visited the CMP studio for his newborn photos last fall! At the time he was the best baby that I had ever had the pleasure of shooting in terms of sleeping & staying posed. He was just as easy to work with this time & had all of us chasing him around the park for his session with his Mama & Papa. You can tell when a child has had a ton of photos taken of them! Baby O loved the camera, & couldn’t stop looking at it, & the camera (photographer) loved him!   

When it came time to do his cake smash we tried to keep to the theme we had during his newborn photos & even used the same location! He might not have been able to fit in the best of my trucks anymore but he sure was up for playing with them. I’ve become such a fan of outdoor cake smash sessions, even though there's a few downfalls, one of which is that there’s so many distracting things around (especially when you have a huge row of toys behind you!). Baby O wasn’t too sure of his cake but he sure did enjoy the rocks he was sitting on.  

Eventually he destroyed his cake by standing in it and dragging his knees through it... But hey, whatever it takes! I love watching babies grow & it was such apleasure seeing this little guy again, no matter how old it makes me feel!

So once again, Happy (Late) Birthday Baby O!

Baby A's First Birthday!

It’s with a heavy heart I must share Baby A & her families one year session! Ever sense we did her six month session I’ve waiting for this day to come & now that it has I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself! Almost right after Papa J booked Baby A’s first session Mama M & I started sharing our enthusiasm about her first birthday session! Cake Smashes have got to be my favorite thing to do. If I could only do one thing the rest of my photography career it would definitely be cake smashes!

It’s always so amazing how much babies as well as their parents grow in such a short amount of time! Jarett & Matoka seem like they’ve grown so much closer together as a couple but were still the overly affectionate parents I remember from our prior session! Baby A had a smile that could warm even the coldest heart… but something changed in six months! She’s now so menacing it’s ridiculous! 

Just kidding… she’s as sweet as ever & was amazing at keeping herself busy! J & M make such a cute couple that I couldn’t help spend a little extra time with them taking some adorable couple photos. There was so much going on around us & despite this & all the distractions Baby A was the perfect little model & pretty much let her parents do whatever they needed to do.

When it came time to do her CS we started to loose her. Baby A’s curiosity grew too strong & she was more interested in the flowers behind her! (I still can’t help but show off her adorable ensemble!) I love customizing outfits almost as much as I love making sets! I made the little Mossy Crowns months before & I’m always looking for an excuse to use them (which is how we ended up with a bit more of a rustic woodland set, sorry Matoka!)

This was my first outdoor Cake Smash so of course I was a little nervous on how it would turn out! It’s a lot easier having an indoor set simply because you only have a small amount of space to fill when you’re outdoors there are so many other factors to take into consideration! After lots of trips to Michaels & lots of burns from the hot glue gun later, I’ve got to say though this is probably my favorite cake smash to date & I’m so happy I got this experience with this wonderful little lady! I had a general idea of where I wanted to get setup after out family session & while I waited for my little brother to bring the cake from home I scouted the area. I found a beautiful tree with some low hanging vines & it looked just perfect! I was about to go back to my car & move everything a little further down (so I wouldn’t have to make ten trips) but than I saw something that instantly changed me mind. Wrapped around one of the low hanging vines was a HUGE snake that was making it’s way into an opening of the tree. The tree I was about to set a baby in front of. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. Thankfully there was a beautiful location much closer to us!

Though Baby A was a little angel the majority of our shoot the last 30 minutes of Baby A was growing pretty tired of our shenanigans & was about ready for her nap. We couldn’t let this delicious cake go to waste though! Thankfully we had a mommy, daddy, & photographer with enough enthusiasm to go around!  Baby A wasn’t about to dig into her cake either, she was content with a chunk of icing on the side of the cake so we had to help her a little bit & get her hands dirty! (Photos Below) It was a great excuse for all of us hungry adults to grab a chunk of cake or glob of icing while Baby A regained her composure.

 I spend so much time directing clients & trying to get them comfortable with the whole process when we first start that my shoots normally run a couple of hours! At the point it just comes natural for Jarett & Matoka but I still can’t help spending all my morning with them! I look for any excuse to extend our time together a little more than necessary! You can ask any of my clients, most of our sessions are spent exchanging funny jokes that the little ones thankfully don’t understand or telling stories of something ridiculously stupid that happened to us ‘not to long ago’. I don’t run a lot anymore but my mouth sure does! (If only that burned calories) .

There’s never a down time, especially with this couple & I love it. I’ve absolutely loved getting to know this family over the last six months & I’m so incredibly thankful that they’ve tolerated my shenanigans throughout the time!  Hopefully there will be lots more oatmeal cream pies & root beer floats in the near future!

                                            Behind the Scenes!

People always ask me how to keep a baby happy through the session & how I get them to stay on their best behavior the whole time! I think people assume that because I always post pictures of such happy babies that I have some magical power over the little ones (which I try & convince myself that I do sometimes) & that all the happy giggling photos you see throughout our session is what it is in real life! One thing I love about working with babies is that they’re unpredictable & take no direction! Babies never do what you truly want them to so sometimes it takes lots of fart noises & lots of patience!

Thankfully I always have a mommy or daddy that’s willing to help!