Dear Brayden,

2 years ago today, after a very long and painful labor, we met at exactly 3:30pm for the first time.  4 days past due and you had no intentions of coming out so the doctor had to force you out.  When the doctor held you up over the curtain for the first time and your Daddy and I saw you we both cried, but later admitted to each other that we thought you were an albino baby.  Your hair was as white as your skin and you had bright blue eyes.  Regardless, we loved you because you were ours.

2 years ago today you were a stranger.  I could only dream of what your voice would sound like when you said, “Mama”.  I could only imagine what you would look like when you took your first steps.  I could never comprehend how proud I would be every time you learn a new word, when you blew out the candles of your 2nd birthday cake, when you said, “Love Mama” for the first time, and all your other little accomplishments.  I would have never guessed how much joy and happiness you could bring to me.

2 years ago today I wasn’t sure I could do it.  I still have days that I’m not sure I can do it.  But, I hope you know how much I try to be the best mom possible.  I love making you laugh so hard that your face turns red.  I love tickling you so hard that you giggle and say, “No, Mama!  No!”.  I love that I’m the only one who can understand your “Branglish”.  I love that I get just as excited as you (okay, maybe more excited) when we get stuck at a train crossing.  I love getting to discover new things with you.

2 years ago today I knew I loved you, but I could have never imagined how much more I could love you today.  Brayden, I love you so much and am so proud of the boy you are.  I can’t wait to see how much you change and grow over the next year.  But, please don’t grow up too fast.  These past two years have flown by.  I’d just like you to stay my baby for a little bit longer.

Love,

Mama

I was going to try to take credit for this outfit, but I can’t.  I would never pick out something this cool.  The outfit was a birthday present the very stylish Trista Lerit.  Trista has been buying Brayden designer duds since before he was even born.  Thanks Trista!

And a big special thanks to my hubby who helped me take these pictures during the Super Bowl  He’s so awesome!

And with Brayden’s birthday it also means that’s it’s the 1 year anniversary of Mom*tog!  192 posts, 2372 comments, over 350,000 hits, and countless new friends.  It’s been a great year!  Thanks for the support.  Thanks for reading.  Thanks for the fun!  I can’t wait to see what the next year has in store!

And as a Happy Birthday / Happy Anniversary gift the UNposing Guide is 25% off until Sunday at midnight!  Enter in the code “Anniversary” at checkout.

That’s how much money WE raised!  $3068.50 donated through the American Red Cross and will go directly to Haiti.  That’s 33 UNposing Guides in 32 hours (7 purchased with a 10% off code if you’re checking my math).

Thank you for caring.  Thank you for making a difference.  It’s amazing what we can do when we come together to help those in need.   Happy Friday!

I hate earthquakes.  I’ve lived in Southern California my whole entire life and I’ve been through all of the big ones, but I still can’t get use to them.  When Brayden was a just a few months old we had a pretty big quake that was centered just a few miles from us.  I wouldn’t stay in the house by myself for days.  I would leave when Chuck left in the morning and not come back until he did.  My fear is totally unhealthy, but it’s more than a fear.  It’s a phobia.  My fear of earthquakes consumes me.  Just hope and pray you’re never with me during one.

I can’t help but think of what all the people in Haiti are going through right now.  They are already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and on top of that, they are not a country who has prepared for an earthquake.  Earthquakes just don’t happen on that side of the world very often.  I can’t help but think how easily that could be us in Southern California.  And it will be us sooner or later.  We will need everyone’s help when the next really big one hits us.  I want to help the people in Haiti.  Until Thursday, January 14 at midnight I will be donating 100% of the profits of the UNposing Guide to the Red Cross International Response Fund, which will go directly to the people of Haiti.  Already have an UNposing Guide or would like to donate less?  I encourage you to donate what you can, whether it be $5 or $500 to the Red Cross or any other organization who is helping the people of Haiti.  Let’s see how much money we can raise for the earthquake victims!

This has been a labor of love that’s for sure.  But, I am so unbelivably happy with the finished product!

The Unposing Guide was inspired when people and photographers started asking me how I get such natural looking family shots.  I’ll be the first to admit it.  Posing is not my strong point.  So, from the beginning of my business instead of trying to get my clients to look like models by posing them I focused on capturing each client being themselves.  I wanted to find what was unique and fun about each family.  I realized that on each shoot I was using the same techniques to get families to have fun and loosen up.  And that’s where the Unposes were born.

What is an Unpose?  It’s a means to get to the reactions and interactions I want from my clients.  It’s a way to break the habit of saying “Cheese!”.  And a way to break the ice.  Every time I used an Unpose I got different results because each family is unique and different.  I love capturing families being themselves at that stage in their lives.  I don’t want to pose them and make them something they’re not.  Sometimes it’s the Unpose I want to photograph and other times it’s the reaction from the Unpose I want.  Both are great for capturing relaxed and natural family sessions!

The Unposing Guide is geared towards you Pro Mom*togs, both beginner and advanced, although Non-Pro Mom*togs can definitely learn a few tricks from it as well (don’t worry, my next project is just for you Mom*togs!).  Besides containing 21 Unposes and pictures it also has helpful tips and tricks to get your clients to have fun.  I’m really hoping this will help photographers take their family shoots to the next level!

The Unposing Guide is an instantly downloadable document.  It’s sized at 4×6 so you can either print it out on your home printer or at your favorite lab.  Simply punch a hole in the corner and secure a metal ring or ribbon to the corner so you can keep it on you for reference.  The names of the unposes are catchy making them easy to remember so when you’re out shooting there’s no more struggling with “What do I have my clients do next?”.

I have two big special people that I need to thank.  The Unposing Guide would have not been possible without Jamie from So Divine Designs.  She designed the whole thing and put up with endless changes.  Thank you, Jamie!  Also, I would like to thank Kristi who implemeted all of the new changes to the blog.  She added the side bar over to the right so there’s now better places advertising space as well as a bunch of other cool features.  She worked long and hard on it and I think it looks awesome!

I hope everyone who purchases the Guide loves it and it helps open up a whole new world of shooting for you!  Remember, the most important part is to have fun.  If you’re having fun than your clients will have fun!  Happy Shooting!!!

Thanks for the love this week, ladies! I totally appreciate it!

Stones of Rememberance

Diandra Ann Photography

AW Photography

Yesterday I had a shoot with Baby Oliver (who is just the cutest, by the way). I’ve read on a few photographers blogs that they use a macro lens for their baby shoots so I thought I would give it a try. I love my macro. I have the Canon 100mm 2.8.  It’s great for details at weddings, but I had honestly not thought to use it on babies. I loved it though! I didn’t get as close as I would have liked because Oliver was an active little dude, but I still love the results. Here are two taken with my macro. You can see the rest from his shoot on the DrewB blog!

I’m a little behind on blogging this week.  Wedding season  has officially begun!  Yikes!  It’s going to be a crazy few weeks!

A HUGE cyber hug to those who blogged about Mom*tog this week!  You all rock!

The Horn Family

Sparks Rocknblog

Danica Nelson Photography

D & D Photography and Design

Life’s Perfect Pictures

On Tuesday my friend and coworker from my MTV days, Joy, came down to visit.  I haven’t seen her since our last show together way back in the Spring of 2004 and even though it’s been 5 years it just seems like yesterday.  The show we worked on was a road show, which means that we traveled all over the country (and out of the country) and when you’re with someone on the road (and spending many, many sleepless nights together) you get to know them really fast.  You know all of their quirks, their likes and dislikes, and they become your family.  I swear Joy knows me better than a  lot of my oldest friends!  The show we worked on was pretty high stress and very high drama so we went through a lot together!

Well, a little less than 4 years goes by and I heard through the grapevine that Joy had a baby boy two days before Brayden was born!  How cool is that?  Joy and her hubby, Steve, work on all the raddest shows now (Top Chef!) and are big time in the industry.  But, with little Hudson here now, Joy is working on getting into photography so she can stay home with him.  She came down for a play date and a little photography lesson and we had so much fun catching up.  It was just like old times except with two toddlers and no transvestites or strippers (yeah, that’s the kind of show we worked on!).  

We tried to get our little guys to do a photo shoot together, but this is what happens when two 14 month old boys get together.  They tear apart your set!

And I will give a gold star to whoever can guess what show we worked on.  Think Spring Breakish show that ran for two season on MTV in 2003 and 2004…

I think I missed a bunch of you awesome people spreading the Mom*tog love this week.  I’m  having a hard time keeping track of my stats.  Mom*tog is blowing up with well over 1500 readers a day!  Woohoo!  And I owe it all to you wonderful bloggers who are sharing the Mom*tog love.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Kentucky Mama

Well Blended Family

The Mentillo Family

A Day To Remember

Joy’s Hope

Before I tell you which image was taken with what camera, can you guess?  I used my 20D, 30D, 5D, and 5D Mark II.  All images were taken with very similar light (it was a partly cloudy day so it was changing a bit) with the same settings ISO 200, 2.2, 1/80 and no post processing.  These are straight out of camera!  To be fair this was taken with my 50 1.2, which is an amazing lens.  I didn’t get very creative with these shots.  I just wanted to shot something that would sit still, wouldn’t cry, and that I didn’t have to clean the green boogers out of it’s nose before I shot it.  

I will reveal the results later today.  I can tell you that the 5D Mark II sure felt nice!  I can’t wait to play with it more!  I need to program all of my settings into it and make it mine.  I also need to put a pretty camera strap cover on it.  But, I had no energy today so maybe tomorrow.  I’ve been up since 2:30.  I maybe went back to sleep from 6:30 – 7:30, but man oh man, I’m exhausted.  Early to bed for me tonight!

Today’s question from a Mom*tog comes from Christie:

I am a Momtog who lives on pins and needles each and every day for your next post and I have a photography question that is causing me unending confusion and frustration.  It is about focus.  Well actually focus coupled with aperture.  My main (well really only) photography subject is my 11 month old son.  He is in constant motion and I mean constant!  I am shooting with a  Canon Rebel XTi and a Canon 24-70mm lens.  I am almost always in AV mode with the aperture set at 2.8 as we don’t get very good light in our house and I am usually shooting indoors.  I typically use the 9 point focus system to focus on his eyes (or I use the old focus and recompose trick.)  My problem is that my son is constantly moving and I am going crazy changing the focus to keep up with him.  I lose 90% of my pictures because he has already moved on by the time I focus on his eyes for the shot.  And with the shallow depth of field I am usiing, I have to be so spot on with the focus.  I constantly am losing the most beautiful pictures and it makes me so sad.  How do you focus when you are taking action photos of your son?  Do you use auto focus?  I notice that you typically use a very small aperture, but your photos are so beautifully in focus.  For instance, the swing photo (which just made me smile by the way!)  I tried to take a similar picture of my son in the swing while he was swinging back and forth and I couldn’t ever get the focus on his eyes.  Half of my pictures turned out with the trees in focus, but not him!  I know this is another question to add to your pile, but I just had to ask it.   I thought if anybody would understand how badly I want to nail photos of these priceless and fleeting moments with my son, it would be you!  

Hi Christie!

Thanks so much for your question!  I totally know what you mean about your little guy being in constant motion.  They don’t sit still at that age and I can’t imagine that they are going to be sitting still in the next couple of years!  

For your indoor shots you may want to invest in a lens with a wider aperture.  The Canon 50 1.8 and 1.4 are both affordable lenses.  You all know that the Canon 50 1.2 is what I use about 90% of the time for the pictures you see on this blog.  It’s expensive, but worth every penny!  It’s important to keep the shutter speed above 80 or 100 to prevent motion blur and with a lens that will allow you to stop down a few more stops you can keep your shutter speed higher.  Also, try shooting manual and bumping up your ISO to avoid having to lower your shutter speed.

I would also suggest to not zoom in.  The more you zoom the higher your aperture will go.  When you zoom in you can’t shoot at 2.8.  It will bump you up to 4.0.  Remember, the wider your aperture the more light comes in.  Instead of zooming in with your lens, zoom in with your feet.  Just move closer so you can still shoot wide open at 2.8.

I also have to say that while you see my best work on my blogs I get A LOT of out of focus and bad images.  I just shoot a lot!!!  For instance, I posted this swing image that you mentioned:

But, I also got this

this

and this

All out of focus and horrible pictures!  So, remember when you have little ones who only sit for a split second and are constantly on the move you have to shoot A LOT to get one good image.  Don’t get discouraged.  Just keep shooting!

Thanks so much to these rad people for blogging about Mom*tog this week! Remember, if you blogged about Mom*tog this past week and you’re not listed here please email your blog so I can include you next week!

Sally Brewer Photography

Skippeeahn

Tracy Dodson Photography

So, do you guys ever dress the same as your kid or dress your spouse and your kid the same? I have to admit. I dress Brayden and Chuck in the same outfits any chance I get. Maybe because they look SO much alike anyway. Maybe because I just think it’s the cutest thing in the world. I don’t know. Call me lame, but I do it. But, I don’t dress them in dorky clothes. Oh, no. It has to be stylin’. I love Quiksilver stores because they care infant sizes and mens sizes. They usually don’t have a lot of the same clothes, but I pretty much buy whatever they have whenever I go in! Yesterday I found a matching hat and bathing suit, which is perfect because we’re going to Hawaii in May. My guys are going to look so cute in these walking down the beach!

And I grabbed a couple of pictures of Brayden in his big boy hat! Big thanks to our awesome Nanny, Laura, for helping to get these big smiles!

And I just think he looks dorky in this one! Love his expression!

Thank you to ALL the people who have been blogging about Mom*tog!  Seriously, it makes me so happy to know that so many people find this blog so helpful!

Southern Comfort

The Beautiful Mess – There are great tips of the week for your photographers out there!

Simply Chic

Bryan, Natalie, and Maya

Meg Ruth Photography Blog

Domestic Life

So, I am a proud mama this week!  Brayden finally learned how to hold his own bottle and drink out of a sippy cup!  Yeah!  We’ve been working on it for a few weeks, but he finally just got it.  Now he tries to turn everything into a cup.  His rubber ducky, his police car, a toy hammer.  It’s seriously the cutest thing and I’m just so darn proud of him!  And the coolest thing is he’s proud of himself too!

ISO 400, f 2.2, 1/400

ISO 400, f 2.2, 1/500

Ignore the snotty nose in this one.  Settings same as above.

ISO 400, f 2.2, 1/350