I'm loving Newborns!

So I'm totally loving the newborn photography stuff right now and was so excited to book this shoot with a 2 week old little girl. So precious. The days leading up to the shoot I kept hoping we'd get at least a couple shots of her with her eyes open but wasn't counting on it since 90% of a newborns life is spent sleeping. Turns out what I should've been worrying about was not getting any sweet sleeping ones. For the first hour of the shoot she was wide awake and all about what was going on so we got some great ones of her big beautiful eyes.

I love this one. This bowl is a real stunner and I've been so excited to use it but baby Tacey still steals the shot.

She eventually went to sleep and we got some really precious ones.

...turns out she's very modest. : )

Beautiful Baby & Magnificent Mommy.

Friends with Beautiful Children

Have I mentioned my friends always seem to have the most beautiful children? I'm so lucky. I was so excited to hear from Natalie and even more thrilled when she was calling wanting to do pictures of her kids in their Easter outfits. We quickly picked a date and it couldn't come fast enough. As always the kids were their wonderful, happy and loving selves and were a true joy to shoot and just to be around...plus I can't get enough of Porter calling me his "pretty friend".

We got together again the next week when mom and dad could jump in too and I'm SO glad we did. I'm really proud of these next pictures...I know we were outside when I took these and they knew I was there taking them but anyone who knows this family knows this is exactly what you'd see peeking in their window on any given evening...this is just who they are and it's so beautiful. I love these pictures.

Washington School of Photography Workshops

I love living so close to the Washington School of Photography. They are constantly offering new workshops with fun topics like how to design your own sets & backdrops, one light portraiture, Old Hollywood Photography, even Animal Portraiture! Here's a couple favorites from a great workshop I did last weekend working with children. How beautiful is this little girl? Are her eyes not stunning?

I love her expressions in these last two. So cute.

I'm an Auntie!!

Last week I officially became an Auntie.

It's a funny thing what a difference which side of the skin a baby is on can make. In some ways she's been around for the past nine months. We've seen her grow in watching my sister's belly grow and thanks to the amazing technology involved with sonogram pictures but last week she was born. She's on our side of my sisters belly now and our world has turned upside down with joy. She is so sweet and beautiful and just perfect. I am so thrilled, not just with her existence but with what a great model she's turned out to be. What a relief. I had myself all worked up about what a strain it would be to our relationship if she didn't like having her picture taken. : ) Turns out all my worries were for nothing because she's everything I dreamed she'd be. Calm, sleepy, cooperative, patient, and gorgeous...all that plus personality!

I'm so grateful too to my sister who let me turn her family room into a make shift studio for the weekend. Here are some of our favorites.

Welcome to the world Lil Miss Saylie Adell.

This was a great little hat I found on Etsy. I'm in love now with both the hat and the nickname it's given her, Saylie Bear.

Another Utah Highlight

Another highlight was being able to see one of my best friends that I haven’t seen in over two years. I got to catch up with her oldest son who has grown up way too fast and also I got to meet the newbie. So beautiful. Though this was a personal trip packed with skiing, fine dining, and the Sundance Film festival, we did squeeze in a quickie photo shoot before zooming off to the airport. I couldn’t resist…look at these boys!!

Our goal was to capture the wise old soul eyes of her youngest. He’s got some stunning crystal blue eyes with green and brown specs and a dark rim…we are very satisfied.

The Seattle & Salt Lake City Trips!

This was an exciting trip for several reasons…not the least of which was that my cousin was getting married. It was as beautiful as I knew it would be. Olivia has such a creative eye and a crafty hand to match it. Well she actually has two eyes and two hands too but you know what I mean. She spotted bouquets made of pinecones in a magazine somewhere and took the idea to a new level all on her own. Another awesome thing was the boutonnières. They were made of berries. Really pretty silvery blue gray berries. Gorgeous. Our Grandmother and Aunts came down and helped us set up the floral assembly line and we had a blast.

The wedding went off without a hitch. Here are a couple of my favorite shots.

Then it was off to Salt Lake City. This was another great trip. Here are some fun shots from the shoot in Sugarhouse. Jen was the perfect model and made my job so easy. We found some great backdrops on a golf course that was closed due to the snow.

I especially love this one. It's very Cd coveresque. I keep telling her to let me know when her album comes out since we've pretty much got the CD booklet ready.

Upcoming Travel: Seattle & Salt Lake City

Just wanted to announce some upcoming travel dates. I'll be in Seattle from January 21st to the 25th then the Salt Lake city area from the 25th to the 31st.

If you live in these areas and are interested in scheduling an appointment send me an email at cerina@cerinajphotography.com. Or visit the booking calendar on my website.

Hawaii Shoot with Erihana!

Okay, I've been looking forward to this day since the first time I saw Hanale's daughter on Facebook. She is the cutest little girl ever! Each time they came over and I got to know her better just made me want to take her photo more and more. Getting some time with her quickly became one of my major "to do" items while here.

The day I arrived in Hawaii I began making mental notes of all the beautiful places I could take her for the shoot. Hanale and Erica were great to let me pick her up one afternoon after school and I was thrilled to take her to almost all of them! We started in Waikiki, then went up to a park in Manoa, next to Maunawili Falls, then this great fence I'd been obsessing over for months, next we hit up the Quarry, Lanikai Beach and Kailua Beach.

We finished with some lollipops and a cookie pit stop since Erihana was SOOOOOOOOO GOOD! She really was the perfect model. Reminding me several times she knew what she was doing since she'd been "practicing her poses." What a doll! So 3 hours and 4 wardrobe changes later we were done and with some amazing shots in hand.