In Williams, we stayed at the Hampton Inn which was very nice and clean. The staff was also very friendly and welcoming. The breakfast was the typical Hampton Inn style breakfast with waffle bar, yogurt and fruit bar, unlimited coffee, and choice of juices with a different egg and protein choice each morning.
We decided to take the Grand Canyon Railway to the Grand Canyon National Park which was a great decision. If you do, make sure you get to the station by 9 am so that you can watch the very entertaining Wild West Show! The cowboys put on a skit where they also show off their lasso skills.
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After being entertained by the cowboy performers, we boarded the Grand Railway Train en route to the Grand Canyon National Park for the 2 hour 15 minute trip. I upgraded to the First Class train car which included plush seating and air conditioning. They offered some light beverages and snacks. There were some musicians who came by to entertain us and a man who explained the train route and the vegetation along the way.
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One of the musicians took a liking to William who was a good sport and "played" the fiddle with the man's help. A musician is born!
When we arrived at the Grand Canyon National Park, we boarded the Grand Tour bus and headed to the cafeteria for a buffet style lunch. It was a good choice since we were all getting hungry. The lunch was pretty good. I am very happy that we decided on the bus tour since it took us to all of the best scenic locations without us having to trek everywhere on foot. The bus driver told everyone on the bus to close their eyes and only to open them when told to do so. When we finally were told to open our eyes, this is what we saw! We were all amazed by the massive size of the Grand Canyon!
Luckily, I remembered to bring my camera tripod and camera flash, so I was able to take some nice family photographs.
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I also took some individual photographs of my family. I am truly blessed!
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After witnessing the amazing naturally wonder of the Grand Canyon, we headed back to Williams on the train. We were quite tired from the long day, and it was nice to be in the First Class car with the comfortable seating and air conditioning.
The next day the plan was to head to the Petrified Forest National Park. While on I-40 on the way to the park, we saw road signs for the Meteor Crater and Barringer Space Museum so we decided to stop by. Even though the general entry costs were higher than I anticipated ($39 per adult), I am glad we stopped. It was very interesting and informational. I highly recommend the guided tour as the tour guide was very knowledgeable and answered all of my questions very well. The crater is nearly a mile wide and 570 feet deep! Visitors are not allowed to travel down into the bottom of the crater and are only allowed along a select periphery of the top of the crater.
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After spending some time at the Meteor Crater Museum, we headed to the Petrified Forest National Park. It was much hotter here so we did not spend much time hiking along the trails. Nonetheless, the landscapes were amazing to view and it was amazing to see how wooden trees were transformed into gem like rocks!
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I love taking photographs of flowers, and I luckily was able to capture some cactus blooms.
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Seeing two attractions in one day tired everyone out especially since the drive was about two hours each way.
On the third day of our family vacation, we went to Bearizona which is one part drive through zoo and one part walk through zoo. It is extremely close to downtown Williams (less than a 10 minute drive). It was fun especially to see some animals that we have not seen in the wild such as bears, bison, and elk. For the drive through part, it was sometimes difficult to see the animals since they were sleeping far from the roadway.
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While in the walk through zoo, they had some animal handlers show off some of the more tame animals such as a porcupine and beautifully colored birds. It was also fun to witness two bear cubs playing tag like little children!
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After visiting Bearizona, we drove to the red rocks of Sedona. This is about an 80 minute drive. Unfortunately, we thought that we would be able to drive through the park like at the Petrified National Park, but you can only hike on foot through the park. When we arrived in Sedona, the temperature was in the mid-90s, so we wisely decided to stay in the air conditioned SUV. Nonetheless, we were able to observe the beauty of Cathedral Rock from afar. We got out of the car in order to get some better vantage points for taking photographs. Be careful when hiking! A huge red ant found its way inside my shoe and stung me very badly. Even after I initially crushed it, it was still moving and ready for more!
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I think the entire family had a great Arizona family vacation! I would definitely recommend it especially if your children are a little older and are able to appreciate the beauty that God has blessed us with! I think our best decision was staying in Williams, Arizona instead of other cities if only for the more temperate weather.
]]>After some discussion about where to take their photographs, we decided on the Lakeland Activity Center which is in the Bridgeland master planned community in Cypress, Texas. They have some very nice scenery there with a lake, flowers, bridge, and a covered playground for the kids. Even though it was extremely windy that day, I think we were able to capture some beautiful photographs of this wonderful family.
We started off with the group family shot on the bridge. I really like this photograph because it shows the close connection between all of the family members.
Jason had a tender moment with Cali. In the distant future, this is one of those photographs that he will stare at fondly once Cali is a grown woman with a family of her own. As a father, I know that she will always be his "little girl."
After getting some great photographs of the family, the kids wanted to play at the awesome playground. As you can see, they had a great time!
To finish the session, Jason and Niki wanted some photographs of just the two of them together as a couple.
It was a great experience not only to take the Kreuiter family's photographs, but also to catch up with a great friend that I hadn't seen in many years!
If you would like to capture some great memories and let me create some artwork for your home, please contact me!
Click here to go to my contact page.
Do not forget to leave a comment below!
With an annual tradition, it is so much fun to see the development of the children. William and Audrey, who are now 6 years old, really like to take their 4.5 year old cousin Amelia under their wing and help her out. Unfortunately, their other cousins weren't available to partake in the fun.
Many little fingers make light work!
William showing off a big blueberry that he just picked.
William and Audrey adore Amelia, and I know that the feelings are mutual. It is great to be able to capture this love with my camera.
Amelia did a wonderful job this year picking the blueberries. It is wonderful to see this little girl grow up!
Wow! Look at that full bucket of blueberries!
William did a great job carrying his bucket of blueberries and having everyone put their blueberries into his bucket. Way to go, William!
After only 30 minutes, we had filled two small buckets with these delicious blueberries.
I think this photo tells it all! What a great time!
What are some of your family traditions? Share your traditions by leaving a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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Last year, Amy learned about the special promotion that SeaWorld San Antonio has for children who are 5 years old and younger and residents of Texas. These children are able to get a FREE season pass to SeaWorld and Aquatica (the water park inside of SeaWorld). Talk about a lot of money saved! Since the Twins did not turn 6 years old until later in June, we made sure to visit SeaWorld prior to their birthday to take advantage of the free season passes. We applied for the free passes online, printed the forms, and brought them to the SeaWorld San Antonio ticket window to get the actual passes.
For Amy and me, I found a really good website to purchase our passes for a discounted rate: Texas Travel Industry Association. In addition to SeaWorld San Antonio Fun Cards for only $42.95 per person, they also offer many other amusement park tickets for discounted rates (e.g. Wet 'N Wild Splashtown Houston, Space Center Houston, Fiesta Texas San Antonio to name a few). They deliver the SeaWorld San Antonio passes through email. We printed these out and brought them to the ticket window at SeaWorld. If you decide to use TTIA to purchase your SeaWorld tickets, make sure to do it at least a day or two in advance to ensure you get the passes in time for your visit.
Last year, we found a great hotel that is nearby the SeaWorld San Antonio park that also offers free shuttle service to SeaWorld: Holiday Inn San Antonio NW - Seaworld Area. This free shuttle service is the main reason for deciding on this hotel. The hotel has a restaurant connected to the hotel. We had the breakfast buffet at this restaurant the first morning during our stay. I enjoyed the breakfast, but Amy, William, and Audrey did not like the breakfast very much at all. For this breakfast, each child is able to eat at the buffet for free for each adult breakfast purchased. Even with this discount, the breakfast was about $31. This hotel also has a heated indoor pool which is very small; this pool is more of a lap pool. The Twins loved this pool, but it gets crowded quickly. The hotel also has a larger unheated outdoor pool that was too chilly to comfortably swim in during our stay.
Our initial plan was to travel to San Antonio on Thursday afternoon while the public schools were still in session so that we could enjoy SeaWorld and Aquatica without all of the large crowds. Unfortunately, we didn't check out the SeaWorld calendar to ensure that Aquatica was open on Friday. On this Friday, it was not open! Therefore, we spent Friday only enjoying the SeaWorld park.
On Friday, we woke up early so that we could make it to SeaWorld before it opened at 10 am and get our tickets. We arrived at the park about 9:30 am, quickly got our season passes without having to wait in line, and then waited about 20 minutes in line for the park to open its doors.
SeaWorld Activities
After the Twins had their photo taken with Shamu, we went to the aviary to look at some of the beautiful and exotic birds. We did not see this exhibit last year. I should note that all of these photographs were taken with the iPhone 6 with a LifeProof waterproof case. Unfortunately, this LifeProof case creates some light flare that you will see later especially with artificial lighting such as during the Shamu water show.
As you can see, the birds here are absolutely beautiful. I bought some little containers of food that the Twins fed to the birds; the food seller only accepts cash, no credit cards accepted. If you leave the container on the ground or on a log, the birds will not hesitate to eat directly from the container. This is a great way to get some very nice photographs.
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A toucan eating the food that Audrey fed it. |
A peacock going to eat the food that William left for it. |
Another activity the Twins really enjoyed was the feeding of the sea lions. It was $5 to get a little container of fish and squid to feed the sea lions; credit cards are accepted here. The sea lions would flap their flippers on the side of the enclosure to get you to throw them some food. Sometimes, they would pick the food out of the air before it even hit the water!
Amusement Park Rides
The Twins love amusement park rides. They remembered the Shamu Express roller coaster from last year and really wanted to ride this immediately. They must have rode this ride at least four times on Friday and maybe six times on Saturday. They couldn't get enough of this ride!
The Twins then rode some of the other kiddie rides. While they were riding these, I went off to explore the park with the SeaWorld San Antonio iPhone app. There is a feature in the app that you can checkin to several different checkpoints in order to collect badges. There are a total of 20 different badges to collect. By collecting a prerequisite number of badges, you qualify for a prize. Unfortunately, the app doesn't tell you what the prize is until you get enough badges and the prize is pretty chintzy: a very small container of bubbles! It is not worth draining your battery in order to check to see if you are near a checkpoint to collect a badge for this small prize. Also, some of the badges couldn't be collected because they were located behind an area under construction. The app is good at displaying your current location and the location of the different rides, shows, and restaurants. It also shows you the wait times for the rides which can be very helpful when planning which ride to experience next.
I am not a giant rollercoaster fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I decided to ride the Steel Eel and the Great White roller coasters out of curiosity. I first rode the Steel Eel and had a wait of about 45 minutes. When I initially wanted to ride the Steel Eel, I was unable to ride it because they were doing some work on it. I rode in the car directly behind the front car. This roller coaster starts off with a huge 15 story drop followed by several camelbacks so that you feel weightless several times. I had the sensation as if I was about to fly out of the car! I must admit, I am NOT a fan of being weightless. This ride only has a lapbar to hold you in. I am not a huge fan of this ride and felt a little beat up when I left the car.
The other roller coaster is the Great White which is a floorless inverted roller coaster. With this ride, there are shoulder bars that keep you secured. Also, this ride is almost constant motion and lots of loops and rolls. I really enjoyed this ride and I would ride it again. It also helped that there was not a line for the Great White when we went on Saturday morning when the park opened.
Another ride that Audrey and I liked is the Journey to Atlantis. William is not a big fan of this ride since it made him feel a little sick. With this ride, you board a "raft" and head way up on a track into the sky. You can see the entire park from the highest point of the ride. You then plunge down into the water and get pretty wet! Audrey and I wanted to ride it again, but unfortunately, the ride was having lots of mechanical issues so the wait was too long.
On Friday, William and I wanted to ride the Rio Loco which is a water rapid ride in a circular raft. Unfortunately, they closed the ride after we were waiting for about 20 minutes because of mechanical problems. Therefore, on Saturday morning, this was the first ride that the family headed to experience. I must say that the Twins absolutely LOVED this ride. I think we rode it six times straight; it helped that there was not any line for this ride. I think we would still be riding the Rio Loco if I hadn't put a limit on it. Also, we all got drenched because of the waterfall. I mean totally soaked. This video below shows the excitement that the Twins have for this ride.
SeaWorld Shows
The first show the Keck family saw was the famous Shamu show with the famous killer whale. This is William's favorite show at SeaWorld. Of course, if you decide to sit up closer to the water, you are almost assured to get wet by one of the killer whales or by the trainers. Both Audrey and I got wet when the trainer threw water into the stands. It was VERY cold! William wanted to see the Shamu show again on Saturday afternoon, but because of a terrible thunderstorm, they cancelled the show.
We also saw the awesome Azul show which I would describe as Cirque du Soleil meets water. We saw this show Friday and Saturday. On Friday, there were not that many spectators and the show did not have the pre-show with a very funny comedian who is also part of the actual water Azul show. If you don't want to get wet, make sure you are nowhere near him! Some of the spectators got drenched and we got a little wet.
During Friday's show, one of the beluga whales named Oliver did not cooperate which halted the show temporarily. He is one of the younger beluga whales and did not want to leave the area where the performers had to jump into the water. We thought the trainers and the SeaWorld staff handled it really well. One of the trainers came out and spoke about how beluga whales live in the wild. It was very informative.
On Saturday's show, they also had to temporarily halt the show, but this time, it was because of the thunderstorm that was rolling into San Antonio. After about a ten minute delay, they were able to complete the Azul show.
The acrobatics are extraordinary and this was Audrey and my favorite show.
SeaWorld Food
There are several places to eat at SeaWorld, but it is very expensive and it can be quite a wait. Of course, this was not a surprise since this is par for the course at any amusement park. On Friday, we ate at the Harbor Market. Amy and I had the fish and chips while Audrey and William ate chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese. The total bill was about $60 for this meal. On Saturday, Amy agreed to wait in line for pizza and chips at Azul Treats while we watched the Azul show. This meal was also $60. None of the food was very good on either day. One tip is that when the park was not busy on Saturday morning, I was able to get ice and tap water for free.
Conclusion
The thunderstorm rolled into SeaWorld around 2 pm on Saturday which I think effectively closed down the park. Luckily, the Holiday Inn shuttle was able to meet us at the front of the park and take us safely back to the hotel.
For the Keck family, you have to see the Azul show. It is spectacular. Of course, the Shamu show is also great and you should make time to see it, too. For the rides, the kids loved the Shamu Express roller coaster and the Rio Loco the most. I also enjoyed the Rio Loco, the Journey to Atlantis, and the Great White.
Have you ever been to SeaWorld and do you have any tips for a great time there? If so, please leave your story in the comments!
Thank you!
Amy's cousin Laurie and her friend Cara met us with their children. Laurie has two sons, Brown who is 6 years old and Ben who is 3 years old; Cara's daughter Julia is 3 years old.
When we got out of the car to look around, there were patches of wildflowers and bluebonnets that were very good, but there were certainly not as many as last year's crop.
At first, Audrey was in a very bad mood and did not want her photograph taken. Luckily, she was able to warm up to the camera and take some wonderful photographs.
Audrey had a great time lying in the Texas wildflowers.
Brown looks great in the wildflowers, too!
Even though Audrey and William sometimes disagree and have their little fights, they remain best friends. I love how they love each other.
Audrey found these beautiful yellow wildflowers and decided to make a bouquet with them.
Ben was full of excitement and curiosity. He was also my little helper; he helped to hold my reflector for me.
William was laughing at Amy as she made some funny faces and sounds behind me. I love to hear William's infectious laughter!
I love how the backlighting of the sun makes Audrey's hair glow. She lights up like an angel in this photograph.
We found a small patch of Texas bluebonnets to take some photographs of Audrey.
I love taking photographs of relatives together who do not get to see each other very often. I believe that these photographs are what they will remember each other by when they are older.
I made a video which highlights many more photographs. Please take a look!
Which of the photographs are your favorites? Please let me know in the comments section below. Also, feel free to share these photographs on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Please contact me if you would like to reserve a spot for a photo shoot with me. I would love to work with you to serve your individual artistic needs!
Thank you!
I started the day off by driving to the horse stables with Annie so that I could scout the location of the photo session. I really loved what I saw! The area had some great areas: a nice pond, beautiful fences, an old rusted starting gate, and beautiful trees with their fall leaves in the background. I knew this would be a great situation.
Annie first wanted some photographs with her competition horse Romeo.
Of course, she didn't want to leave out her other horse Howdy. I really like this portrait because of all the great elements in the photograph: a beautiful smiling girl, a strong horse, a body of water, great foreground elements, and the colorful trees in the background.
Annie then bravely changed clothes into a beautiful blue dress. I say that Annie was brave because my lighting assistant and wife Amy and I had jackets on to keep us warm in the cold, windy weather. Way to go, Annie!
Here Annie is showing off her side saddle skills.
I've got to thank Annie's riding instruction Stephanie and her son for all of the help that they provided with the horses during this successful photography experience. Thank you!
After finishing the photographs with Annie and the horses, I was able to take some photographs of Annie by herself.
Thank you again, Annie, for letting me have this chance to photograph your Senior Session!
Here is a video that I produced that I showed Annie the next day when she selected her favorite photographs. She really liked the video and I hope you will, too.
Which of the photographs of Annie are your favorites? Please let me know in the comments section below. Also, feel free to share these photographs on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Please contact me if you would like to reserve a spot for a photo shoot with me.
Thank you!
As you can see from the many smiling faces in the photographs, we all had a great time. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Port Aransas which was great. The customer service there was outstanding and very friendly. The twins love staying at hotels and they absolutely loved the hotel pool.
Last year when we visited Corpus Christi, we went to the Padre Island National Park and Malaquite Beach which we prefer over the Corpus Christi beach. We made sure we visited this park again this year, and it is only $10 for a seven day entry pass.
The twins love being buried in the sand.
Another nice benefit of the Padre Island National Park is that they have a learning center. Amy found a ghost shrimp by digging in the sand. The twins learned about the circle of life by feeding the shrimp whom they affectionately called "Ghostie" to the fish in the aquarium.
We also had fun around town.
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Of course, as a photographer, I had to get some beautiful photographs of my family on the beach. What do you think? Was I successful?
There was a family who had taken over one day to complete a "drip" sand castle. We had to take a picture in front of this monument!
Of course, I had to get some photographs of the twins with the best mom and wife!
Thanks to a camera remote, even I was able to step out from behind the camera and join my awesome family!
After being on their best behavior for the family portraits, the twins let loose and let their crazy fun side out of the bottle.
Yes, summer is over and school is starting up for the twins. But I think we will continue this tradition next year!
How did you spend your summer? Did you visit the beach or an amusement park? Share your summer fun by leaving a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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With the Twins and Amelia being a year older (5 years old and 3.5 years old, respectively), I think that this year was also a good bonding experience for not only the cousins who are pretty well superglued together, but also with their Nonnie Loretta.
It is so nice to know that the cousins William, Audrey, and Amelia get along so well.
I know that William liked picking blueberries with his Mom.
Audrey worked VERY hard picking the blueberries. She even got on her tippy toes in order to pick the biggest blueberries that she could find.
William was very careful and thorough at picking only the sweetest blueberries (of course, they would never taste the blueberries before putting them into their buckets!).
Even little Amelia was very thorough with picking the blueberries.
But most of all, it was a lot of fun!
I hope it is a time that the cousins can remember sharing together as a family!
What are some of your family traditions? Share your traditions by leaving a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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Before I arrived at the Geneux's house to meet Georgia, I saw some iPhone photos of Georgia, and I thought Georgia was going to be a big baby. Well, I was very surprised when I saw this tiny, precious, and beautiful baby girl. She was only 3 days old.
Unfortunately, I did not have as much time as I had hoped to develop all of my artistic ideas. Between the feedings and tinkles, I only had about 30 minutes to capture this beautiful baby.
It wasn't very long after I took this last photograph that little Baby Georgia had an eruption that signaled the end to this infant portrait session.
Even though I only had about 30 minutes of uninterrupted time to capture these beautiful images of Baby Georgia, I was at the Geneux's house for almost 90 minutes. During the period where Baby Georgia was busy doing her thing, I was able to capture some wonderful photographs of her sisters, Emmy and Evelyn, who are 3 years old.
I am very happy that I was able to photograph Emmy with Baby Georgia in her Daddy's arms. I am sure they will love this photograph when they are much older while remembering this wonderful addition to this very blessed family.
Which of the photographs of Baby Georgia do you like the most?
If you are pregnant and would love to capture this very fleeting moment with your newborn, please contact me. The best time to photograph a newborn is within the first week after it is born while the baby is still able to sleep very still uninterrupted.
Remember, leave a comment below!
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Texas Bluebonnet |
Indian Paintbrush |
Indian Blanket |
Lanceleaf Coreopsis |
Before heading out on our family trek, Amy had dressed Audrey in a nice blue dress and William in a monogrammed shirt and plaid shorts. As we were driving northwest on Texas Highway 290, Amy and I spotted a field covered in bluebonnets with many families enjoying the wondrous backdrop. As we pulled up, we paid our $10 and quickly unpacked. I tried to get some quick photographs while the clouds were covering and diffusing the 2 pm bright overhead sun. Unfortunately, the Twins' demeanor quickly waned and the thistles that were very prevalent throughout the field didn't help matters. Tears formed and it didn't look like I was going to be very successful in capturing many beautiful family portraits and good memories. Thankfully, Amy had packed some snacks that helped to boost the twins' mood.
After taking the Keck family portraits, we headed up to College Station to enjoy an awesome Philadelphia Cheese Steak sandwich at Hullabaloo Diner. The food and service were really good and I think the highlight of the meal was the "Cheddar Cheese Fries" that were topped with cheese and bacon. Ummm, bacon! You should have seen Audrey's upset face when the waitress thought we had finished with the cheese fries and took the basket. Didn't she see there was still cheese that Audrey was wiping up with the fries from her corndog meal?
As we headed home on Highway 6, Amy and I spotted a large hill on the side of the road covered by a multitude of colors: blues, oranges, and yellows. I quickly cut over three lanes of traffic to park on the side of the road. We carefully unpacked and I put on my 180mm f/3.5L lens on my Canon 5D Mark II dSLR camera. Sure, it is a macro lens but it also makes a very nice portrait lens.
Can you tell from the children portraits that the twins were in a much better mood after they had enjoyed a late lunch?
Which photograph is your favorite?
Have you taken your family portraits with the Texas wildflowers yet? The multitude of wildflowers will be gone in a couple of weeks. If you want some professional artwork of your family that you can hang on your wall, please contact me and we can setup a fun family session.
Remember, leave a comment below!
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The first stop was at the TDECU Fun on the Farm exhibit. Here, the twins learned about the importance of planting crops such as tomatoes and corn, milking cows, and saving money after buying groceries. When Audrey saw the cow milking exhibit, she went straight up to the "cow" and said, "I know how to milk a cow!" To my surprise, she started milking the cow right away by pulling on its udders.
After having fun with the learning exhibit, we went to the carnival rides. To Amy's and my surprise, Audrey wanted to go on the Super Slide. Since she was too short to ride by herself, I got to ride it with her. I must admit that I had a good time going down the slide with my beautiful daughter. Please don't ask why I had my right hand up in the air like a wild bronco rider; I don't have an answer!
As you can see from Audrey's huge smile, she had a great time riding down the slide!
The next ride the twins wanted to ride was the camel rides. They had seen camel rides on the cartoon Caillou so they HAD to ride the camels.
Audrey really enjoyed the ride, but William didn't like that he was in the back of the camel holding onto the camel's hump. He informed us that he would like to ride up in front next time.
The twins love to "drive" Amy's and my cars. So, it wasn't a surprise when they rushed over to the race cars to ride.
We then went to the animal exhibit where a man was talking about and showing different animals such as a porcupine, tortoise, kangeroo, armadillo, and anteater. Not only did Audrey and William learn something, but so did I. I didn't realize that a possum was the most endangered animal in North America.
After looking at these animals, William and Audrey wanted to see some of the exhibition animals.
They got to see a young calf drinking milk from its mother.
They also thought that the long horns on this longhorn bull were pretty neat!
After viewing cows, goats, pigs, and even the queen bee, they wanted to ride some more carnival rides.
William loved riding this 4 wheeler! What a smile!
Again, Amy drafted me into riding the spinning dinosaur that the twins wanted to ride. Unfortunately, William wasn't the biggest fan. While the dinosaur was spinning, I asked William if he was having a good time. He had a frown on his face and he shook his head with a definitive, "No!" On the other hand, when I asked Audrey the same question while we were revolving, she yelled, "YES, SPIN MORE!" They might be twins, but they are often complete opposites.
As we got off of the spinning dinosaur, it was late, and we had to head home to the Twin's disappointment. Our VERY last ride was the Metro light rail to our car; the Twins love the "train."
We will definitely be coming again next year.
Remember, leave a comment below!
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The Geneux, Ericson, and Keck families arrived at the parade about 45 minutes early. Amy has some friends who reserved a spot on the neutral ground and invited us to this spot. Thank you so much Diane!
Here are Amelia, William, and Audrey (left to right) getting psyched up for the parade. They had been talking about this parade all week!
The beautiful Amelia posing for the camera with the sunlight showing off her golden locks
My beautiful daughter Audrey smiling for the camera
My handsome son William getting very excited about the beginning of the parade
William looking down the street to see the beginning of the parade
Audrey on Uncle Jeff's shoulders to get a good view of the parade
The parade started off with the procession of police cars and fire trucks with their horns blaring. The kids really liked this part even though it was a little loud for William.
Amelia, William, and Audrey showing off their matching Fleur de Lis shirts.
The official start of the Krewe of Gemini parade!
A picture is worth a thousand words, and I think these three photographs show just how excited Audrey was to see the parade!
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The 25th Anniversary King Gemini |
The 25th Anniversary Queen Gemini |
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The Ericsons enjoying the parade while Amelia is shouting for the people on the floats to throw her some beads!
Amy graduated from Captain Shreve High School so she was very excited to see her high school's marching band in the parade.
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All of the floats were great, and the people on the floats were very generous with the stuffed animals, beads, and toys.
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William made out like a bandit with the amount of beads that were thrown his way. We had to remove about 4 necks worth of beads because they were getting too heavy for his neck!
The caution tape was great in making sure the kids did not go into the street where the floats were traveling.
The cousins had a great time at this parade together. It didn't hurt that LOTS of stuffed animals, blow up toys, frisbees, and beads were thrown their way!
At the end of the parade, Amelia was pretty pooped out. She had such a great time!
On the other hand, William was still ready for the parade to keep on going. He waved goodbye as the last parade float drove by.
I know the Keck family can't wait until next year to go to the Gemini parade! It was so much fun.
Remember, leave a comment below!
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Here are some of the photographs from this modeling session.
So, what are you thoughts? Which are your favorites?
Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
If you would like to know how I made these photographs, keep reading below.
This photograph shows the lighting setup. As you can see, it is a makeshift studio with lots of toddler toys in the vicinity!
- Flash #1: Single Canon 580EX Speedlite in the 43" Apollo Orb by Westcott with diffuser; this speedlite was manually controlled at 1/4 power and zoomed out to 24mm. I also used a 8 AA battery pack to help with the flash recycling. I experimented with the flash power until the background (i.e. the Apollo Orb diffuser) was totally blown out and the light from the Apollo Orb nicely wrapped around the subject's face.
- Flash #2: Single Canon 600EX-RT Speedlite in the Cheetah Beauty Dish with the diffuser; this speedlite was manually controlled at 1/2 power + 1/3 and zoomed out to 24mm. Again, I also used a 8 AA battery pack to help with the flash recycling. I experimented with the flash power until I achieved minimal facial shadows and an angelic, glowing look on the subject's face.
- Both Flash #1 and Flash #2 were controlled by the on camera Canon 580EX II Speedlite (the on camera speedlite is used only as a controller and it did not fire). Flash #1 was controlled by the Radiopopper PX radio transmitter/receiver system while Flash #2 was optically triggered by the on camera 580EX II Speedlite.
- Light stand with a 42" silver reflector to bounce light back up and fill out the shadows under the neck
- Tripod: Vanguard Alta Pro 26AB100
- Light stand: Cheetah Boom with a 15 pound sandbag as a counterweight to prevent the beauty dish from toppling over
- Apple box for the kids to stand on in front of the Westcott Apollo Orb
I used the following camera and lens for this photoshoot:
- Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
- Lenses: 24 - 105mm f/4.0L
Remember, leave a comment below!
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We started our adventure at the Matt Family Orchard in Tomball, Texas. The twins, Amy, and I started by picking some wonderfully sweet satsuma oranges. They were some of the sweetest oranges we had ever had! I would truly recommend visiting the Matt Family Orchard just to taste these satsuma oranges. After picking the oranges, the twins had fun going down the slide, playing in the playhouse, and swinging in the tire swing.
After paying for our treasured fruit, we made our way to Mary Jo Peckham Park in Katy, Texas. This is a huge park with swings, slides, monkey bars, putt putt golf course, and fishing. The twins really had a great time!
I think the great time that the Keck family had is best illustrated in this brief movie. Enjoy!
So what are you doing to remember your kids' exuberance and innocence? Don't you think it is time to contact me and have me design wonderful, professional portraits for your home, Christmas gifts, and Christmas cards?
Click here to go to my contact page.
Before you leave after watching the movie, scroll down and please leave your best wishes for the future Mr. and Mrs. Ericson in the comments section below! Share the love!
So dim the lights and enjoy the movie below. Lights. Camera. ACTION!
Click the movie below to watch.
Make sure to book your next engagement or portrait experience with me! Portraits make a great Christmas gift! Click here and contact me before I am booked up!
I like to take photographs here since they have A LOT of very nice, beautiful pumpkins. They make great scenery for photographs. I also like to see what kind of creations the twins will make with their free pumpkins.
When the twins decorate their free pumpkin, they concentrate very hard and are very deliberate on everything they color or paste on the pumpkin.
The little pumpkins were a little too heavy for Audrey, so Amy had to help support the pumpkin so Audrey could show off her final pumpkin creation!
William had been eating his Wheaties, so he didn't need Amy's help. (He was straining a little bit which explains the pursed lips and frown.)
The twins love pumpkins and Audrey even helped to pick out the Keck family's pumpkin from this large pumpkin patch.
So, what are you thoughts? Do you have any fall traditions?
Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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The lighting scheme is pretty simple. I used the following equipment for the lighting:
- Flash: Single Canon 580EX Speedlite that is controlled by the on camera Canon 580EX II Speedlite (the on camera speedlite is used only as a controller and it did not fire); Radiopopper PX radio transmitter/receiver system
- Flash Modifier: 43" Apollo Orb by Westcott with diffuser
- Lightstand: Cheetah Boom with a 15 pound sandbag as a counterweight to prevent the 43" Apollo Orb from toppling over
I used the following camera and lenses for this photoshoot:
- Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
- Lenses: 70 - 200mm f/2.8L, 180mm f/3.5L Macro, 24-105mm f/4.0L
Here is a photograph showing the setup. As you can see, it is pretty simple: the boom arm is parallel to the floor and is elevated about 7 feet. The Apollo Orb is positioned directly above the bathtub.
I found some Gerbera Daisies from Central Market on Westheimer in Houston. They seem to always have the best selection of flowers, and you know that they will be fresh and very vibrant in color.
I filled the bathtub with water about 4 to 6 inches high. I then had my daughter Audrey lie down in the tub. I wet her hair well and made sure it would flow in the water. I then placed the Gerbera daisies in her hair.
The main problem that I encountered with just placing the Gerbera daisies in the water near Audrey's hair is that they did not stay in or near her hair for very long. They would quickly float away out of the frame of the camera. Clipping the flowers to her hair did not work well because the clips began to pull at her hair and hurt her. This was not a good situation! If I had ten other hands so that I could keep the flowers near her hair while pressing the camera shutter, I would be set! But alas, I was born with only two.
So, I used my engineering troubleshooting prowess to solve this problem. I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased a 12 inch diameter styrofoam ring. This styrofoam ring would not only float in the water, but it would allow me to easily punch holes in the ring with a Phillips head screwdriver and slide the Gerbera daisy stems through the punched holes. I then would only have to keep track of one floating object instead of the 15 flowers floating independently in the water. When punching the holes out of the stryofoam, make sure you do it over a bag or trashcan. Otherwise, you will have lots of loose stryofoam all over the house and your significant other (in my case, my wife Amy) will certainly not appreciate it!
A week had passed since my last attempt, and I readied myself with my three subjects: Amelia, Audrey, and William.
First up was my almost three year old (turns three in November) niece and god daughter Amelia. Unfortunately, she did not feel too comfortable lying down in a bathtub full of water. She was a good sport, and she did not cry, but she just was not ready to lie down for a good long time in water with flowers around her head.
Next up was my four year old twin daughter Audrey. She is a ham, and she was a great model with the floating flowers last week. I think you would have to agree that she did an exceptional job.
My last model was my twin son William. I know what you are thinking, "A boy with flowers?! Come on, Jim!" Well, William loves to do just about everything that his younger sister (by 4 minutes) and his little cousin do.
If you plan to copy this photoshoot or take some of these ideas and run with it, here are a couple of pointers:
- Arrange the flowers so that the stryofoam ring is hidden by the flowers when taking the photograph from above. This will save you a lot of time in post processing (i.e. Photoshop) in removing the styrofoam.
- Cut out a portion of the styrofoam ring so that it will not rub against your model's neck. The styrofoam is rough and will irritate the skin when it is moving in the water. A happy model will look much better in the photographs.
- Have a wash cloth or small towel ready to wipe water off of your model's face or eyes. Inevitably, water will get on the model's face. My models really did not like getting water in their eyes! Again, by removing water on the face, it will save you a bunch of time in post processing (unless that is the look you are going for).
- When placing the flowers in the styrofoam, leave a little bit of the stem past the bottom of the styrofoam. The extra stem will let you push the flower out of the styrofoam more easily if you decide to rearrange the flowers. On the other hand, do not leave so much of the stem that you will need to remove it in post processing.
So, what are you thoughts? Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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As part of making this album, I needed a self-portrait for the preface of the album. Of course, since I am 99.9% of the time behind the camera, I do not have many photographs of myself. Therefore, I had to make a self-portrait for the album.
While I was in the process of taking this self-portrait with the help of Amy, my four year old daughter Audrey jumped in front of the camera. I was pleasantly surprised with the exuberance and the many comic faces that she displayed. I know that I love to make faces to make the twins laugh, and I can only hope that she might have "stolen" some of my looks!
Here are some of these photographs that I love. She can sometimes be such a hoot!
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After all of these crazy photos, Audrey can still be a calm, beautiful girl. 
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So, what are you thoughts? Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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Audrey was very attentive when fishing and she did not want any of my help. She wanted to do it herself.
The first person to "catch" a fish was Audrey. As you can see, she was very excited, as was the fish as it wiggled around on the fishing line.
William soon followed with "catching" a fish. Coincidentally, the fish looked exactly the same as Audrey's catch and was the same size, too.
The last one to catch the trout was Amelia. Eerily, the trout looked identical to the two previously caught. We might need to call in the X-Files!
Amelia really liked the fish and she was the only one brave enough to touch it. Way to go, Amelia!
After catching trout, William drove Audrey and Amelia in his newly purchased Can-Am Spyder. What a ladies' man!
I would like to thank Jesse Lawton of Lawton's Trout Farm. He was really good with the kids and made sure that they had a great time.
So, what are you thoughts? Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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We started the day congregating at Amy's Aunt Joan's wonderful pool.
One of the main reasons we made the long trip up to Shreveport from Houston for Independence Day was so that William and Audrey could spend time with their cousins. William and Audrey really had a great time playing with them.
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Ella, one of the twin's cousins, is only four years old and already a very good swimmer. She was also very fearless when going head first down the whale pool slide.
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SPLASH!!! |
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Luckily, Aunt Joan stocked the pool full of fish so that the kids could go fishing. As these photographs show, Grant Adams caught a John David fish, a very frequent fish in these parts. I think Grant Adams released him back into the pool.
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Everyone took part in cooking food and bringing their delicious creations to the party. I know that I over ate! (I was not the only one!) But it was SO good! Jill and Jan performed an outstanding job helping to fix all of the wonderful food and setting up the food for everyone to eat.
Mallory tossing John David into the pool |
Mallory next tossed Grant Adams into the pool |
But John David got the last laugh as he tossed Mallory, fully clothed, into the pool |
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But of course, the highlight of the entire day for the kids was the pool. Annie, Addison, and their friends helped to make sure the water was safe for all of the little ones.
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Luckily, everyone had a lot of fun and the only casualty was this poor shark! |
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The Keck family would like to thank Aunt Joan for including us in this party. I know the twins really enjoyed themselves as they talked about it all weekend.
After the pool party, the Keck family went to downtown Shreveport to watch the fireworks at the top of the parking garage.
Some tips on taking photographs of fireworks is to do the following:
- Have a tripod,
- Set the lens on manual focus and on infinite
- Set the aperture to about an f/16
- Set the shutter speed to greater than 3 seconds (I shot these photos from 6 to 30 seconds)
- Set the ISO very low (100-200) so that there is minimal grain in the photos
- Use a remote shutter release trigger or the camera's shutter timer to eliminate any shake in the photos that pushing the camera's shutter button would create
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So, what are you thoughts? Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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The first chore was to pick up an empty bucket in order to place the blueberries.
William, Audrey, and Amelia quickly went into action and began to fill the bucket up. They had lots of fun as seen by William's HUGE smile.
William, Audrey, and Amelia were a good team that helped each other to fill the bucket with blueberries.
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After picking the blueberries, we went back to the store and picked up free frozen blueberry juice pops to cool off. They all really enjoyed it and liked to see their blue tongues.
Luckily the kids were well behaved so we did not come home with a puppy!
After finishing off our blueberry popsicles, the owner of Shuqualak Farms showed us her chickens that were also on the farm.
I think Amelia liked the chickens the most, and she really did not want to leave. She kept looking back at the little chicks.
So, what are you thoughts? Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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Ever since "Go Texan Day" this year in Houston, Texas, I've been wanting to take some photographs of my twins in their cowboy getup that their Nonnie had bought them. I might be a biased father, but I think they look awfully cute in these costumes. My idea was pretty simple: have them dress up in their cowboy/cowgirl costumes and pose them outside next to their bouncing horse toy that their Uncle Emile had bought them two Christmases ago.
Here is a picture of the setup:
Here is the list of equipment that was used:
- Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
- Lens: 70 - 200mm f/2.8L
- Lens Filter: Heliopan Circular Polarizer (SH-PMC)
- Flash: Canon 580 EXII with Radiopopper PX radio transmitter/receiver system
- Flash Modifier: Cheetah Beauty Dish
- Lightstand: Cheetah Boom with a 15 pound sandbag as a counterweight to prevent the heavy beauty dish from toppling over
- Tripod: Vanguard Alta Pro 26AB100
Audrey was the first of the twins to hop onto the horse and be my model. She did a great job, wouldn't you agree?
Next up was William. William is the wilder one of the twins and this photo really shows off his personality.
Unfortunately, we had already had a VERY busy day, and this photoshoot did not start until around 7 pm. And without dinner. I was not a smart "Daddy" and the photoshoot did not last as long as I had wanted mainly because the cowboy and cowgirl became tired and restless "natives"!
This photo really shows how difficult and tiring it is to be a model!
I know I really want to revisit this photo session when my models are in a better mood.
So, what are you thoughts? Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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Hopefully, you have viewed my previous blog post of the surprise marriage proposal that I captured on March 30, 2013 of Jeff Ericson proposing to Amanda Geneux.
On May 4, I had the honor of going out with Amanda and Jeff to capture their engagement photos. I think they turned out really well. What I mean by this is that you can really feel the strong bond that is forming between these two and the love that is already there.
Jeff is an avid baseball fan who played for Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana. Therefore, we started our photography tour at the Centenary College baseball field.
Jeff and Amanda were great sports, and they both took great direction while modeling for me. Since we are talking about baseball, I wanted to get a little grungy feel, so I added some textures to these photos. Both Jeff and Amanda were great sports in the "Conan the Barbarian" pose.
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Jeff Ericson is CONAN THE BASEBALL PLAYER
I think you can tell from the images below that there is a true connection between these two!
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After spending some time in the dugout, we ventured onto the Centenary College campus to take some traditional engagement photographs.
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While walking through the Centenary College campus, I spotted a lamp post that looked like it had a lot of potential. After a lot of Photoshop work, I developed the following artful image:
After taking several photographs outside around the Centenary College campus, Amanda wanted to take some photographs inside of Andres Hall.
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I had a lot of fun during this photoshoot with Jeff and Amanda. I know that Jeff's found a great girl and Amanda's found a good man.
So, what are you thoughts? Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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Last month, my family traveled from Houston, Texas to visit Amy's cousin, Laurie Brown Besselman, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Amy wanted to visit Laurie and help her out. In addition to her parents living with Laurie, she has a 4.5 year old son, Brown, and a 14 month old son, Ben, to take care of. Trust me, I would not want to trade places with her!
While visiting Laurie, it just intensified my belief of the importance of family portraits in the house. Laurie has an entire table in her living room that is nothing but photographs of her parents, children, and her growing up. She also has several walls with framed photos of her beautiful children. It is an illustrated history of her family. What an awesome history it is!
While I was there, I was able to capture a beautiful photograph of 14 month old Ben with his grandfather, Judge Bill Brown. After looking at this photo, the following thought came to mind. These photos may be the most concrete memories that Ben will have of his grandfather. How lucky I am to share these with Laurie and her son! I am not trying to say that Bill is ready to kick the bucket, but unfortunately, age catches up with all of us.
When capturing family portraits, it is not the older generation that will look at these photographs and relive stories and memories but the younger generation that will cherish them. Have you put together a professionally illustrated history of your family?
After the kids ran outside for the Easter egg hunt, Laurie kindly asked me to take some photos of all five cousins on the couch in the dining room. I know the phrase is cliché, but it truly was like herding cats when every toddler is under the age of 5: Brown-4.5 years, William and Audrey-3.5 years, Amelia-2 years, Ben-14 months. Ordinarily, I would have used a tripod to take the photos and then try to splice and puzzle them together in Adobe Photoshop. But since I did not have a tripod, I had to use the "Align Layers" feature in Photoshop to make the magic work. I also would have used some flash modifiers instead of on-camera-flash, but since this was an impromptu shoot, I had to bounce the flash off of the ceiling.
These are the five photos that I had to start out with. As you can see, each photo had their pluses, but they are not good photos individually.
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I used this photo to grab William. Unfortunately, the other "cats" weren't being as cooperative.
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I liked this photograph to capture Audrey since I really liked her smile in this one. I liked Amelia's smile, too, but unfortunately, Ben was covering some of her face. |
I used this photograph to capture Brown. I liked Amelia's smile, but her pointing finger was covering one of her eyes. Unfortunately, Audrey's pose was not the most ladylike. |
I used this photo to capture Amelia. I think I took this photo right before Ben wanted to touch her. I don't think Amelia was too happy when he wanted to do this! |
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I used this photo for some of Ben. As you can see, I think Amelia was thinking that Ben was "invading" her space! |
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This is the final composite image after several hours of Photoshop work! I think it came out really well. Hopefully, I will be able to take a similar photo of all of the cousins (next time including Emmy and Evelyn) when they are older throughout the years! I am sure these photos will bring back lots of memories and stories for the cousins.
So, what are you thoughts? Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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Last month, my wife Amy called me up to see if we could drive up to Shreveport on Easter weekend. She had received a call from Jeff, her sister Amanda's boyfriend. He said that he was going to propose to Amanda that weekend, and he wanted me there to take photos of this once in a lifetime event. Of course, I said YES! I was very honored to have been chosen for this wonderful responsibility.
In order to keep this a surprise, we told Amanda that we were coming into town to take family portraits of her parents, her brother Emile's family, her daughter Amelia, Jeff, her, and my family. Lynn and Loretta Geneux, Amy's parents, are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary this year, and she wanted to have a family portrait as a gift.
The initial plan was to go to Norton's in Shreveport to take the photos. The weather forecast predicted a 40% chance of showers on Saturday and a 70% chance of thunderstorms on Easter Sunday. Unfortunately, the weather on Saturday did not cooperate with rain and thunderstorms, and we didn't want to take our chances for waiting until Sunday with the weatherman predicting the worse. Therefore, we had to quickly change the plan to take the portraits at Emile's house.
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So after taking the BIG group family portrait which consisted of 7 adults and 5 grandchildren with two who are 3.5 years old and three who are 2.5 years old, the BIGGER event was about to happen. The Surprise Engagement!
I asked for Jeff, Amanda, and their beautiful daughter Amelia (who is my goddaughter) to come up so that I could take their portrait.
After taking some portraits of their beautiful family, I had Amanda sit down with Amelia while Jeff got down on one knee. Unfortunately, the ruse was so convincing that Amanda remained a true model and continued to smile right into my camera. The beautiful diamond engagement ring hadn't blinded her yet.
Needless to say, Amanda was quite surprised when she finally comprehended what was going on. Before Jeff could slip the beautiful diamond engagement ring onto Amanda's finger, Amelia had to inspect the ring and ensure that it was worthy of her mother.
Luckily for everyone involved, Amanda exclaimed a definitive, "YES!" and sealed her answer with a kiss.
Unfortunately, my son William had his heart broken. He's had a crush on his Aunt Amanda for some time.
I think Amanda had better keep that ring in a safe place when she isn't wearing it. Amelia seems to like it A LOT!
So, what are you thoughts? Please leave a comment (or two) below! Thanks!
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