DelaLane Photography Blog » {Tell Your Story} Newborn & Family Lifestyle Photography in Yucca Valley, Ca

So much has happened in the past month! We started out the month in Washington, enjoying some time – including the 4th – where the grass is greener. The day we got back from our whirlwind vacation/business trip, demo on our downstairs began. Walls have been knocked down, new walls have been built, a circa 1977 kitchen has been torn out, a nursery is in the works, and my house is in utter shambles (but improving daily). And the big, big news? Adela is potty trained! There are a lot of things I’ve been hoping to get accomplished before the baby boy is born – the remodel and potty training being at the top of that list. The other major check on my pre-baby to-do list? Getting the DelaLane Photography website up and running. Check it out Here! Of course in the process, I broke most of the image paths and all of the links in this blog, so be patient as I sort all that out in the coming weeks. Oi Vey! Life moves so fast and there is still so much to do. Here are the highlights from July – month 7 of this 365 – one photo of my precious, potty-trained toddler for every day of last month.

  1. …airplane…
  2. …roses…
  3. …rock mover…
  4. …sparklers…
  5. …changes in the back…
  6. …first trip to Yellowstone…
  7. …playing the drum…
  8. …Pawn Star…
  9. …mini bed…
  10. …hot and sweaty…
  11. …gettin’ girly…
  12. …the face…
  13. …balancing in brother’s room…
  14. …clean up crew…
  15. …pucker…
  16. …baby brother’s heartbeat…
  17. …day 1 potty training…
  18. …day 2 struggles…
  19. …day 3, no accidents!…
  20. …music box…
  21. …washing hands after potty time…
  22. …behind the tarp…
  23. …measuring…
  24. …grumpy potty…
  25. …hiding…
  26. …Panda…
  27. …dance revolution…
  28. …dancin’ machine…
  29. …matching toes…
  30. …doin’ Daddy’s nails…
  31. …2nd day of swimming lessons…

Check out more Daily Dose of ‘Dela Here.

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Felicity’s 6 Month mini-session (we’re doing a session every month to commemorate her first year of life) took place the day after Father’s Day. It’s only fitting that we decided on a “Daddy and Me” session to capture a bit of her relationship with the big man in her life – a little bit of story time, play time on the floor, and swing time in the backyard.

The photos do most of the talking, but just a quick comment on the photo below. Felicity alternated between distraction and intense attention when it came to story time. That attention was never so fierce as the moment she saw a strawberry on the page. Man, she WENT for it. She was determined to pick it up and put it in her mouth I think. So cute!

Every month we try to get at least one photo that highlights this gorgeous girl’s toes. This time, we also wanted to capture her sweet feet in a way that commemorates how much she loves to nibble at them at the ripe old age of 6 Months.

And I was so happy to get to be there with my camera for her first bites of cereal. She was a real trooper. Despite her seeming reluctance (and adorable squish faces), word is that she has grown to gobble it up quite enthusiastically in the past month. But anything else – any sort of fruit or vegetable puree – still gets treated like “pure poison” according to Mom. 🙂

Go back and check out Felicity’s 5 Month “Mommy ‘n’ Me” session here. And look for her 7 month session coming up soon!

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It took me almost 2 months to get his 1 Month photos blogged, so this Month you’ll be getting a double dose of Callan (actually probably a triple dose, since I’ve now done his 3 Month session as well!) I can’t believe how much more alert he was this month! I’ve only ever seen him sleep. This time around he showed me those big blue (ish?) eyes the entire session. He took me in, for sure. It’s funny to watch babies watch you. It’s obvious when they don’t know you. And Callan didn’t pretend like he had any clue who I was. This serious little guy had a sort of puzzled, serious look on his face every time I caught his attention. It made me laugh. At one point, I actually took to massaging his brow to see if I could get him to relax a little which sent me and his mom into a small fit of giggles. Babies are so fun. Each one is different, even at 2 months old. Callan is reserving most of his smiles for mom right now, and that is truly awesome. It feels good to be the Mom, to be the one your baby wants to look at. I know the feeling, and there is nothing like it. After all, you are the one who grew him, birthed him, the one who gets up with him at night, the one who will be responsible for raising him for 18 years, the one whose life will never be the same because of his entrance into the world. Being “Mom” is a truly blessed calling, and it’s worthy of a little special treatment. And I’m happy for the challenge. We have many months to work on coaxing those smiles out of him, given that this is just one mini-session in a series of sessions commemorating his first year of life.

The yellow bassinet in these photos was Callan’s Daddy’s when he was a baby. We wanted to incorporate it into our session as a piece of his history, since it’s the very piece of furniture that Callan himself is now sleeping in every night. And he’s almost too big for it already! I love when families bring personal items like this into their sessions, especially ones with history.

While getting the shots below, Jennifer commented (through laughter) that I should have somebody taking pictures of me when I’m taking pictures.  In order to get any light on his face I had her holding the bassinet up at an angle while I, with one hand, held a reflector and, with the other, held a camera, balanced on my tippy toes to get the height I needed (all 5′ 3″ of me) to get his whole body in the shots. I frequently look comical during photo shoots. Ask my clients. I don’t mind looking ridiculous. His precious, goofy expressions were worth the contortions. 🙂

This last one is one of those photos that proves the rule. With toddlers you usually only have 1 chance to get an orchestrated shot. When you ask a toddler to do something (in this case kiss her little brother), you better be ready. If you’re lucky enough to get one who likes your idea and goes for it, they probably won’t do it twice. This was the last image I took during this mini session and I didn’t get a second chance. We were lucky enough this time to end up with a sweet image anyway.

Go back to Callan’s newborn session here. And look for Callan’s 3 Month session coming up soon!

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  • Melissa - I love love love on-location shoots. I also love that although small fine details may have been enhanced, you really have to think twice to see if they are in fact altered in any what because of the “newborn skin” as I call it. (redness). This is a great set 🙂 very lucky clients to have you!!ReplyCancel

This session was a gift from a real-estate agent to her clients. Many times an agent will do something nice for their clients after a new home closes (at least the best agents do!) When we bought our house, we got a good-sized gift certificate to our agent’s awesome Antiques Shop – a *really* great gift that gained me access to a bunch of really cool old furniture which I love. This idea is just as good, or better. These clients received the gift of photography, a session to commemorate a new chapter in their lives, the beginning of a journey in their new home – their BEAUTIFUL new home.

We wanted to to do the session mainly outside (since they’re still working on getting fully moved in) and so we set the session up for a time of day when the front porch would be cast in flattering light, which meant getting the kiddos up really early in the morning. It took them a little while to wake up, but they did amazingly well one we got the sleepies out. Their Mom, Holly, wanted to stick with a less scripted session that captured natural interactions between the kids and some of their favorites things.

If you know anything about me, you know this kind of session is right up my alley and falls in line with my vision for DelaLane Photography. I encourage activity-based sessions because they usually end up feeling more real – probably because they are. When we base our photo sessions on something fun and familiar, activities that are natural to you, you are more relaxed (and kids are more relaxed!) so we end up getting better images in general – both candid and posed – with a lot more fun and a lot less effort. In this instance we got out some of the kids’ favorites books, some coloring materials, a tricycle, a scooter, and a basket for picking (is it called picking? or cutting? or clipping?) artichokes. I champion “At Home” sessions (click here for more examples) too. I believe that using your own space and things as a backdrop for your photos, you are commemorating a piece of your history for yourself and for your kids, and for future generations. You’re letting me help you create images that are completely unique to your family – a situation where your photos are guaranteed to be different than every other family’s because they’re taken in the space you living in, the space you’re creating, a true part of your family history. That’s a beautiful, sentimental, worthwhile thing.

Congratulations on your new home, M. Family! I enjoyed our early morning session. Your house and your family are beautiful. Thanks for letting me capture a little piece of your history. 🙂

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I adore this girl. This is my 6th session with her (seventh if you count the maternity session I did when she was still just a bump), and she’s becoming family to me. She is beautiful and sweet and has a smile that lights up the continent. If I feel that way about her, you can image how her Mom must feel. When Nicole saw these photos (and the rest from our mini-session), she said that the images “captured how in love we are with each other,” speaking of herself and her daughter of course. I just love that. It still makes me smile. That’s the goal. And I couldn’t ask for 2 better subjects. This Mommy and Me session goes down as another of my favorites this year so far. It was easy and fun and sweet and captivating. I feel privileged to have gotten to capture a little bit of their love affair. 🙂

Here are the links to her 4-Month, 3-Month, 2-Month, and Newborn sessions.

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