Being YOU...

Being a photographer is not all exotic vacations (I have yet to be on an exotic vacation), beautiful details, and days lounging about. It is a lot of hard work. I think the hardest thing for me, is finding a place where I am happy at.  It's very easy to fall into a cycle of self doubt. No matter how good you are, you are usually your toughest critic. No matter how many people love your work, or how many people book you, you will continuously find flaws in what you do. One of the hardest things is seeing others work, and wondering why you are not on their level yet.

But through my years as a photographer I have read a lot of articles and books pertaining to photography, and probably the most important thing I have learned is to be yourself.  Sounds simple, doesn't it?  Sure there are trends and ideas that we all love. I for one love photos with a vintage feel and detail shots. But the goal is to not fall into the trap of shooting things that are only the current trend.  Stay true to yourself, shoot what you want to shoot.  Basically be creative and be adventurous.  Your work does not have to look like everyone elses work.  Do something just a bit different that makes your work standout. Don't be afraid to step outside the box and be bold.

Now of course it is easy to say this, but it is a lot harder to do. With this being my 4th year of actively photographing weddings, I still struggle.  I look at others work for inspiration, and then find myself saying why my work isn't as good as theirs. Then of course my husband has to come in and be the voice of reason (which I love him so much for!).  Am I rich? No. Do I take exotic vacations? Heck no! Do I have a super awesome state of the art studio? No.  Do I have a talent at photographing people in pure emotion and love? Yes, yes I do. And that is what I always have to remember.  I have to remember the clients that book me, the ones that trust me with their wedding day, or capturing their pregnancy,the first few hours of birth, or the precious moments of childhood. 

So thank you to my husband for always being the voice of reason, my clients for trusting me and letting me be me (they know what I mean!). 

Random fact: Unless I am in costume (I love to sew), I am actually VERY camera shy! Pin It

{Newborn Portrait-Little Miss Aubrey} Delaware Newborn and Portrait Photographer

If you know me, you know how much I adore babies. Even before I had my daughter, I was baby crazy.  Everything from their tiny little eye lashes to their adorable little toes, I just can't get enough of it.  Being a mother now, I appreciate even more taking time to just dote on my little one.  Time truly does go by fast!  You would think that they would stay tiny forever, but it goes by in the blink of an eye. And that's why it is so important to capture those memories while you can. And that is why I totally love what I do, and completely put my heart and soul into it.

Little Miss Aubrey was just 8 days new when we did her session. She was the first newborn that I have photographed that stayed awake pretty much throughout the whole session! For such a little one, she definitely kept her eyes on me.  Of course, she didn't fall into a deep sleep until after the session was over and she was dressed again. But nonetheless, she is just too cute for words!

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Featured In: Vie D'Amour

Recently Heather and Mike's fabulous wedding was featured in Vie D'Amour.  Again, I cannot express how much I loved this couple and their wedding.  Even at 9 months pregnant, hot, tired, and thirsty beyond belief, I stuck it through and photographed their wedding. They are truly an amazing couple. So much fun and down to earth.

Please head on over and take a look!
http://www.vie-damour.com/2012/02/newark-delaware-wedding-marisa-taylor.html Pin It

Keeping Calm...

Although I can pull off the calm look very well, there are times when I am flipping out on the inside. I tend to become really invested into the couples and families I shoot. If things start to go wrong, I think I am more concerned about it than they are. But hey, it's not good having a crying photographer! So I always try to keep calm, help calm others, and get things back on schedule. Being a photographer is not just about taking pictures. I end up being a stylist, a coordinator, a seamstress, and a life coach at most weddings! So in honor of keeping calm, I have this little gem for you...

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Coming soon!

There's a saying, and hopefully I am saying it right, "Jack of all trades, master of none".  Now, I have seen quite a few people use this in photography. And they basically say there is no way you can specialize in weddings, portraits, boudoir, landscape, pets, architecture, etc.  I would like to argue that point. I am not saying that you can't master or specialize in those all, but in the end, you are still doing photography. Sure, each type requires different skills and such, but the great thing is that you can use those skills across the board.  Being a wedding photographer keeps you quick on your toes and has you prepared for those amazing moments.  Being a portrait photographer requires the same skills, but you are in a more controlled setting.  Being a boudoir photographer requires the same as the two of above, but focuses more on beauty and how to make people look their best. You see what I am getting at?  The skills you use in one field of photography, can definitely be used in another.

When I first started, my goal was to only shoot weddings. Now admittedly, I started with a few family/baby sessions and then quickly branched out into weddings, but I still love photographing families and babies.  And from there, I love photographing women to make them feel beautiful.  It's all tied in!

Which is why I am so stoked to announce the (re)release of my boudoir brand: Be Boudoir! The site is pretty much done, except it does not have images from gorgeous women! But I have two days of back to back sessions, so I plan on releasing it sometime this week.  In the meantime, here is my fabulous logo..designed by me!!!

And of course, with the new website/brand, there needs to be a new Facebook page! So take a minute, head on over to: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Be-Boudoir/189680954469417?skip_nax_wizard=true, become a fan, and share! I have some great things coming up in the spring!!!

Have a wonderful Saturday!!! Pin It

Happy Hump Day!

Happy Hump Day! It's Wednesday, and we are almost through with the week.  Well for me, I consider Wednesday to be the end of my week, because my husband works Sunday-Wednesday, and has Thursday-Saturday off.  So our schedules are a little bit weird.

I hope everyone had a fabulous Valentines Day! Whether you shared it with your honey, your kids, your friends, I hope it was still great.  My husband had to work all day, but when he came home I had dinner (which was DELICIOUS by the way!) and an awesome cake waiting for him.

Ok, the cake wasn't awesome per say. Alright, so this is what happened.

My husband loves cake. At the last minute I realized we had a ton of cake mix in the cabinet but no frosting.  I then realized we had a ton of powdered sugar, so I was going to make homemade butter cream frosting. And then make a heart out of sprinkles to top the cake. It was going to look and taste delicious! In the process of getting the stuff together to make the frosting, I realized I did not have vanilla extract. I panicked! But then a lightbulb went off in my head, and I put Bailey's Caramel in it, and O-M-G. It was delicious. I will not go into the details of how much frosting I ate before I even frosted the cake.

I then took the cake out of the fridge, frosted the bottom layer, placed the top layer on, and then had to go deal with the baby. I go back into the kitchen to finish frosting and...the top layer of the cake slid off! In an effort to have the awesomeness of that cake ready before he got home, I did not let it cool enough, and putting icing on a warm cake is not good.

Needless to say, there was icing pretty much everywhere. But..the cake was DELICIOUS!!!

And no, I do not have any pictures of it... Pin It

Happy Love Day!

Happy Tuesday! Or as it is better known for today, Happy Valentines Day! It's the day all about love. Now while I love Valentines Day, more so for the reason that I can get a ton of yummy chocolates for more than half off tomorrow, I also believe that it shouldn't take one day out of the year to make you tell the people in your lives that you love them. Tell them every single day.  Do something spontaneous! And do it all year round!  Love is not reserved to one day.

But since today is the biggest outpouring of love, I am going to share with you a few of the things I love:

1)My husband-an absolutely wonderful man.  I truly believe that there is no one out there that is more of a perfect match than he is.

2)My wonderful daughter Charlotte, who continues to wow me everyday, and shows me that love is limitless.

3)Cheese. I love it. Enough said.

4)Renaissance Fairs-I literally live for the three months of the years that the renaissance fair is open.

5)Sewing.  I started sewing roughly 6-7 years ago. With no prior skill whatsoever. Now, I whip out full on renaissance gowns and other awesome clothes.

6)1956 Chevy Bel Air. My dream car.  If I ever won the powerball, trust me, it is the first thing I am going to get.

7)My family. No matter how crazy things get, we always have each other.

8)My friends. Some of the most awesomesauce people on the planet. They are pretty epic.

9)Photography-duh! It gives me an outlet to focus on something other than my crazy health problems. And people love what I do!

10)Puppies. I love puppies!

And that's it!  Have a great day everyone! Pin It

My sweet darling

I can't help it, my daughter is the sweetest thing ever.  Being a mother has showed me that love is truly limitless. I cannot believe how much love I have for her, and for my husband for helping in bringing her into this world.  It's like a constant overfilling and pouring out of love, it's just absolutely amazing!  Everything that she does is just wonderful. Ok, well except the spit up, and being peed and pooped on, and having food spit back on me. But even with all of that, she is still an amazing little girl.

What's even more amazing is that at just under 6 months, she now recognizes the camera and tries to get away. Or she will humor me with just a few brief moments of interaction, then she is gone into her own little world. And nothing I do can get her attention again.  But she is the daughter of a photographer after all. I just find it so funny how much personality babies have!

Here are a few shots of my little one. I was going to wait until Valentines Day to post these, but hey! I can't wait!











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{Baby Portrait-Little Miss Chloe} Delaware Newborn & Baby Photography

It has been a while since I have photographed an adorable little baby other than my own.  And frankly at 5 and a half months, my daughter is pretty tired of seeing me setting up the backdrops and breaking out the camera.  She tries to escape by any means possible.  Even if her only ability is rolling, she will do it.

But luckily, she was spared for one day when I had little Chloe in to photograph her.  She is just so cute and tiny and little.  Two months old and cooing, and gosh, I remember those days!  The cutest thing was laying her in the fur, apparently she liked it, as she kept making this adorable baby faces to me!  But enough chit chat, here are some of her beautiful pictures.

 









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The Little Things

You've seen me go on and on about how important photographs are for you and your family.  I'm really trying not to be a big sap, but I just can't express just how important they are.  My daughter is just over 5 months, no longer is she that tiny, quiet little being we brought home from the hospital.  Now she is vocal, climbing over things, crawling (backwards mind you, but whatever gets the job over), rolling over, grabbing for things, and screaming and squealing in excitement.  She has obviously outgrown all of her newborn clothes, and it breaks my heart to pack them up and get her bigger clothes out.

The moral of the story is appreciate the little things.  I was told during my whole pregnancy that they grow up so fast. And by God, do they!



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