wow...

This kid is amazing, he's destined to be a little rock star. :)

insomnia

I'm beginning to think I may have insomnia. Well, I have a specific kind of insomnia, I can sleep, but I just can't sleep IN anymore and this is driving me mad. I used to be able to sleep until noon without even waking up once, now once 8:00 rolls around I'm wide awake trying to will myself back to sleep. I didn't get to bed last night until almost 5 am (that's why some of you may have gotten 4am e-mails from be about your gallery and what not) and this morning at around 8:30 I'm lying there, feeling like total crap...awake. I did force myself back to sleep but not for nearly long enough. I know what the solution is....go to bed earlier....but I'm a night owl. :) I even like to jog late at night, I was jogging until like 1am last night....oh man I hope my mom doesn't read this. She'll flip. She always says "the fruit loops are out there trying to get you!" I tell her I am one of the fruit loops....but she doesn't find that amusing.


I'm in a black and white mood so here are some black and photo's, isn't he just adorable :) I have a ton of sessions I haven't blogged yet, I've spread myself a little thin lately. I need to get on the ball!

Angel Face

She has just the most angelic little face doesn't she? She reminds me of the gerber baby with her perfect little pouty lips, button nose and big beautiful eyes. Mom and dad were so awesome at the session, dad was jumping up and down and running around behind me to help entertain her, because kiddo's at this age aren't really too interested in cameras :) But with a face like that, it's impossible not to get great shots.

Summer Schedule

I am doing a lot of traveling this summer and I've had quite a few people ask about when I will be making trips to particular areas to shoot so here is the list of the places I will be between now and early August:
Austin, TX
Harrison, AR
Beijing, China (for real... China...can't wait!)
Texarkana, TX
Phoenix/Pinetop, AZ
Tampa, FL
Atlanta, GA
San Diego, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Las Vegas, NV
Eugene/Portland, OR

whew! Ok seeing it all written out like that is a little overwhelming! Some of the trips are for business and some for pleasure but for me business is pleasure so even if it's a "vacation" I'm happy to shoot while I'm there. If you live in any of those areas and are interested in a session check my calendar on my website for the dates I will be there and then shoot me an e-mail and we'll see if we can set something up!

I know what you're thinking...

I pinky swear that I have not been hiring child models, I really am this lucky and these really are my clients. I don't quite know how I manage to photograph so many adorable stylish awesome kiddo's but I think in circumstances like this it's best not to ask questions... The mom of these two cuties is dear friends with the mom of the handsome boy whose photo's I posted yesterday. I think these two ladies must bond over their love of amazing kids clothes and the fact that they both have some serious bragging rights about how dang beautiful their kids are. If I had kiddo's this cute I would just be running around all the time yelling "my kids are cuter than yours!" I would be obnoxious... He is seriously 10 going on 20. When I was 10 I was a mess, I definitely wasn't this cool.

I was scrawny with braces...

I just don't remember girls being this stunning when I was a senior... I feel like we all sort of looked like... well semi awkward high school students. But this beautiful girl just blew me away. I haven't seen her in over 10 years. I used to work at a skating rink, that was my first job (oh yeah, I've got mad skatin skillz, for real). Well this beautiful girl used to come up to the skating rink when she was just an adorable little thing that barely came up to my waist, and now look at her.... oh geez I feel old. :)

handsome boy

I kept calling this little sweetie "handsome" through the whole session... "come here handsome" "look at me handsome" "that's not your real smile handsome" :) But look at these photo's, what else could I possibly call him that would describe him more?? (Ok maybe adorable too but c'mon, he's so dang handsome!) I really think he belongs in a crewcuts catalog... and speaking of crewcuts (LOVE their stuff by the way) mom had some fantastic clothes from there. Boys can be hard to dress sometimes but she had a trunk full of the CUTEST clothes. I was just giddy when I saw all the adorable stuff she brought. And isn't that tire swing the coolest? I can't take credit, mom found it... and you can definitely bet that I will be shooting there again. :) This one makes my heart happy :)

Out of Office

I will be out of the office this weekend. I'm headed to Texarkana to shoot and also celebrate two of my nieces birthday's. We are also celebrating my BFF's birthday as well this weekend so I am planning for lots of cake and lots of dancing. :) I'm finishing up my Georgia sessions and I'll share some when I get back and also share some sneak peeks from Texarkana. Have a great weekend everyone!

1 year old!!

This handsome little guy turned 1 and I was so thrilled to be there to document such a milestone. And of course I was so excited to get to see him again, and his parents who are complete sweethearts. You may remember him from here. He has grown so much since then I almost couldn't believe it! But he's still got that same sweet face, beautiful brown eyes, and of course his sweet grin. :) When I was watermarking these I wasn't sure if I wanted to put "babies" or not... because he's kind of a big guy now! But I figured... they aren't babies for long so maybe he can be a baby for just a little bit longer. :)

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter! I went to church today, had a great lunch at Pappadeaux (yum) and then headed straight back to the computer to edit away! Editing is a HUGE part of what I do. I know that I've talked to some of you about what goes on but I don't really want to bore everyone with the "not so flashy" part of my job. But I do spend a LOT of time editing a session and getting it ready for the web. One thing I've tried to do lately is make myself step away for a few hours, or sometimes a day or two, and then go back and work on a session some more. After a while I get this sort of "tunnel vision" and I think it can really inhibit my creativity while editing, because it is definitely a creative process to see all the possibilities of what you could to a photo and decide which direction to go. I'm going to share a before and after below.

I actually did pretty light editing on these photo's because I had pretty good control of the lighting situations, and the model. Once you throw in sketchy light and a little one that just wants to run away from me... well that's when I sometimes have to work a miracle or two in photoshop. :) I will dig through my archives sometime this week and try to pull a few more "dramatic" edits to share.

BTW, how handsome is this little guy?? He was hamming it up for me, and I love his model poses with his arms crossed and his hands in his pockets. I actually said "ok, give me your model look" and he worked it out! He's definitely going to make the ladies swoon when he grows up. :)

Time...

....it seems to be getting the better of me lately. I am not sure where it's going, I think I've got plenty of it and then before I know it time took off and left me in the dust. One of the first things that gets neglected unfortunately when I run out of time is my blog, so I'm here to once again make amends. :) (Because I know posts about out of town trips with no pictures just don't count.) Here are a couple of a honey I shot while I was in Georgia. You may remember him from here, he has grown so much! He's sooo strong too, he could hold his head up like that for ages and he's barely 3 months old. I'm going to try to play a little blog catch up this next week so check back!

Publish Post

Texarkana Dates Announced!

I made it back from Georgia, and even though the rain literally put a damper on some of the sessions while I was there it was still a really nice time. Now I'm looking forward to the trips coming up! I will be in Texarkana April 17-19th and have two slots open. I am offering a special for that weekend only, just shoot me an e-mail at avery@photographybyavery.com and I'll give you the 411 on the special. I'll share some pics from Georgia asap! I hope everyone is having a fantastic week!