Photo Session | The Beauty Around Us

Kelsi and Party

Late last month I conducted a family photo session of a young friend and her family. At the end of that photo session Chiana’s oldest daughter expressed interest in having her photograph taken with her horse, Party. I promised Kelsi that I would take those pictures for her, after my husband and I returned home from vacation in New Hampshire.

I conducted a photo session of Kelsi and Party early yesterday evening.

Kelsi and Party

Kelsi had one change of clothes, during the photo session.

Kelsi and Party

Kelsi’s sister and brother wanted their pictures taken with Party as well.

Kelsi, Ana and Party

Riley and Party

This photo session was a great idea, Kelsi. Thanks for suggesting it!

Ava and Macy

This past Sunday afternoon I photographed two adorable girls. Ava and Macy are 6-year-old identical twins. Ava and Macy’s mother and I met on a Facebook garage sale site. Anissa’s garage sale items are of interest to me, as I have twin granddaughters who are 4 years younger than Ava and Macy.

Ava and Macy’s photo session took place at my house, both indoors and outside. I took the indoor pictures in front of a green screen backdrop. It was the first time that I used the green screen backdrop (or any backdrop for that matter) during a photo session. I replaced the green backdrop with a variety of digital backdrops, using Adobe Photoshop as an editing tool. I was very pleased with the results, as was Anissa!

My Stepdaughter and Her Family

Yesterday I took photographs of my stepdaughter and her family at a park in our hometown.

Family Photo Session at Betts Park

I am so very happy that our granddaughters live close by so that we are able to see them in person, as they grow up!

A Walk in the Park

I conducted a family photo session at Crescent Park in my hometown of Warren PA late yesterday morning and into the early afternoon. The photo session lasted about 1 ¼ hours.

The photo session was easy going, little more than a walk in the park.

The main subjects for yesterday’s photo session were my friend Mandy and her son Addison, along with Mandy’s cousin and her cousin’s daughter. Accompanying Mandy and her cousin were Shawn (Mandy’s boyfriend), Mandy’s mother and Mandy’s aunt.

After our walk in the park, we went to the playground where I took even more pictures.

As you probably noticed in the photographs that I shared, sweater weather has returned!

Beartown Rocks with Amber and Johnny

Amber and John at Beartown Rocks

This past Saturday Bob and I visited Beartown Rocks at Clear Creek State Park, near Sigel PA, with Amber and Johnny. We didn’t meet only for a walk through the woods. Amber and Johnny asked me to be their photographer for an engagement photo session.

Amber and Johnny are long-time friends with my brother and his family. Bob and I see Amber and Johnny sometimes when we spend the day at Jim and Judy’s camp and often at family weddings, birthdays and other family-type celebrations. John proposed to Amber in May this year on top of the Beartown Rocks Overlook. What an excellent choice of location for their engagement photo session!

I had John recreate the proposal.

Amber’s beautiful engagement ring

The happily engaged couple
and the lovely view from the Beartown Rocks Overlook.

Thank you for choosing me as your photographer for your engagement photo session, Amber and Johnny, and congratulations once again to you both!

A Mommy and Me Photo Session

On the morning of July 25th I met our friend, Mandy, and her 17-month-old son at Pioneer Arboretum for a mommy and me photo session. The arboretum is located at the northern end of the Warren-North Warren Bike/Hike Trail in Warren PA.

I had a lot of fun photographing Mandy and her young son.

Granddaughters’ Christmas Photo Shoot

“With the click of a shutter I am able to freeze a moment in time, preserve a family’s history & ensure future generations will come to know their ancestors.” ~ Beth Forester

Ms. Forester’s quotation aptly characterizes my “Days to Remember” photo journal blog. As written in the introduction, it is my desire to capture a moment in time and place, preserving it, so that I might share a particular slice of time with others through my photographs and words. This quotation also characterizes my zeal to photograph our family members and friends, whenever we get together. I am a prolific photographer, both in taking and in printing pictures. I feel that a hard copy picture is more valuable than one uploaded online. Who knows where the pictures that have been uploaded online will be 5, 10 or more years from now. If some catastrophe happened to my hard copy pictures, I would want it to be possible to obtain printed copies once again. This is why I feel it is important to store digital copies of images on storage devices, such as DVDs and external hard drives.

I photograph our twin granddaughters A LOT! Since their birth in May 2012, it is a rare month that I have not taken at least one picture of the girls. My granddaughters’ progeny WILL know their ancestors!

This past Sunday afternoon Bob and I went to Stacey’s mother and stepfather’s home to take pictures of Harper and June in front of their Christmas tree. Both girls had not had their naps and were tired; however, the girls did cooperate most of the time during the photo session. The photographs that follow are some of my favorite ones from that photo session.