Oh, how I love sleeping babies!! They're just as cute, cuddly and sweet smelling as the awake variety, but much less demanding.

This handsome little sleeping angel is, Chandler.

He was just 16 days old when this photos was taken. I went over to do the shoot and he was wide awake and ready to party! He wouldn't sleep a wink! We tried everything - feeding, rocking, warming up the room, etc. But he wanted to hang out and see what all the commotion was about. Well, as luck would have it, just as everything was packed up and I was putting the camera away...Zzzzzzz, he fell asleep. I quickly grabbed my camera and took one last photo of a [FINALLY!] sleeping baby Chandler!

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I can't adequately express how much I value and honor the people who trusted me and paid me to photograph them or their families back when I knew nothing. Way, way, WAY back...in February. Yup! I haven't even been doing this professionally for a year, but I already see so much growth in my work. And that's a good thing, but sometimes I look back at photos from paid-for-shoots and I shudder. I shudder and I do the equivalent of drunk-dialing. I emo-email.

"Dear Meaghan, thank you for entrusting me to photograph your child when I knew little more than a toddler would know about how to operate a camera. When I look back at the photos I took of Aidan last year, I want to sell my camera and cry into my pillow all night long. I hate them. So, I beg of you, please let me redeem myself. Let me photograph him again. Of course, there will be NO CHARGE. Let's meet at the beach unless you think it will be too rip-tidey and dangerous for the little man."

and Meaghan, dear sweet Meaghan responds, "Dear Jamie, PLEASE LIKE SOME OF THEM! Also, worry not my friend. I'm a nurse; I know CPR. Plus, if there is a hot lifeguard on-duty, one of us might HAVE to get swept up in the current. See you soon."

God, I adore her. And I adore this boy. I mean, seriously. Tell me this isn't one of the best looking children on this planet:



He is just so cute but more importantly, he's full of personality! He's fun, laid back, smart and he has a great sense of humor already. He's a lot like his Mama, who he believes has hung the moon and painted the stars.

I had such a good time on the beach with this little guy and his Mama and his G.G.

"Will he make eye contact?" I asked, worrying that a 17 year old Autistic child might be my toughest challenge (photographically speaking) yet!

"Of course!" She replied. "My Johnny will be fine. It's Tommy, the ever-embarassed 14 year-old, I'm worried about!"

I'm glad to report that, in the end, neither was a problem! Both boys were happy, willing participants and I had a great time at the park with two of them and their mother on that beautiful Fall evening!

Johnny-left / Tommy-right

I could tell when it was time to wrap things up as Johnny was anything but subtle.

"Bye, Jamie! Bye, Jamie! Bye, Jamie!" Luckily, I'm not easily offended. Plus, I knew he had been promised a soda from the Mobile Mart on the corner if he behaved during the shoot so really, he was trading me in for a soda and who could blame him?

This family was a blast to photograph! They were beautiful [which always makes my job much easier!], they were fun and they were so laid back.

Little A was a typical toddler and he kept us all on our toes the entire afternoon. Especially since we were by large, deep bodies of water at each of our locations. Whew! I'm sure I lost a few pounds chasing after this little spit-fire!



As I go through their photos to edit them, I'm more and more in love with each image. They were just so good at showing genuine emotion to the camera. You can feel the love they have for each other and for little A, and it's just so beautiful!



I'm only posting a handful, but probably still more than I should because I can't stop. I just love these images.

I know I live in Florida and I know the beach is...beachy, but if I get one more request for photos on the beach, I might let the rip tides take me under.

Why do SO MANY people want photos of themselves on the beach? Seriously - I'm asking you a serious question. What is so AWESOME about it? The sand? The water? The hairy men in Speedos that I end up spending countless hours editing out of your family photos?



I guess I kind of feel like it's a bit cliche. Ya know? Like you can't think of anything more exciting? You can't think of a cool graffiti wall somewhere? Or neat city street? SOMETHING? ANYTHING! Nope! The beach. Sand and water. The ol' nowhere-to-park-walk-5,000-miles-in-the-heat-complain-about-how-many-people-are-there BEACH!



And then, the same beach-lovers who couldn't imagine a family photo that didn't include ocean water, are afraid to get their feet wet and complain about sitting in the sand. Grrrr...



Of course, none of the subjects shown here were complainers in any way! It's just that I want people to think outside the box, I guess. Maybe, as the photographer, that is something I need to work on.



Maybe I should be pushing them to try something they wouldn't normally think to try! I think one of the things I need to work on is sharing my vision for a shoot and then standing firmly behind it. I do tend to back-down to make the "customer" happy, but if, in the end, they love their photos and they have something a bit more unique, they may be even happier than they are with their classic beach photos. Who knows....

All I know is this:

1.) I've seen too many professional photographers [who everyone *loves*] go to the same location over and over again for shoot after shoot and it gets very cookie-cutter-looking.

2.) If I'm asked to do another beach shoot, I might bury myself in the sand before we leave and ask my assistant [sister] to cover my head and leave me for dead!

I'm slowly becoming a fan of sun flare, but it's really been a slow process. Because of that, I have one [ONE!] sun flare photo to share.



This is a photo of Joe, Stephanie and baby Addison from about 8 months ago. I figured now was as good of a time as any to use it since it was just Addy's first birthday (two days ago) and it happened to have a bit of flare.

Head over to I ♥ Faces to see the other amazing, flare-filled entries or to enter a photo of your own!

It has been a long time since I've participated in the I ♥ Faces challenge! I won't go too much into why I've stayed away, but I will say that it started to feel a little less fun than it originally did.

This week, the theme is Autumn Beauty and while I wish I had a beautiful photo of some beautiful person wearing an orange sweater sitting in a pile leaves drinking a Hot Toddy while picking apples....I live in South Florida, so that is pretty much out of the question. What I DO have, however, is a beautiful photo of a beautiful person [Hi Danielle!] surrounded by lots of brown. Brown is a Fall color, right? RIGHT??? I honestly don't know, but every time I want to participate, there is some theme I just don't have a photo to suit. It has been about 6 or 7 weeks in a row now and darn it, I want to play!! And Florida is just so darn green!! Everywhere you look - GREEN! Or blue!! BLECH! I want red, orange, maroon! SOMETHING!!

Anyway, this is my photo. And it's about as "Autumn" as we get around here....

Please check out the other entries at I Heart Faces, or enter a photo of your own!