One of the best things about my job is reconnecting with old friends when they are searching for a photographer. I met Tracy shortly after I bought my first “real” camera, when I was dabbling in flowers and sunsets and landscape photography. We worked together at RECON, and I think she may have even seen the images from the very first wedding I ever photographed, back in my film days. And there were plenty of photographers at RECON eager to guide me as to what cameras to buy and where to find the best photography information. Who would have guessed that years later, I would be photographing her wedding?!

Tracy and Andy were so fun and nice to work with, that they truly remind me why I love my job so much. Above all, they wanted to enjoy their wedding, and they were excited to make beautiful memories through their photography. I couldn’t ask for anything more! They also selected a gorgeous location, which is one of my favorites: The Thursday Club. Here are some of the images of Tracy getting ready.

Her dress had stunning beadwork on it:

Excited to see her flowers:

Admiring her beautiful bouquet:

Walking down the aisle:

I love the beach in the fall and winter because the skies can be so dramatic:

Tracy’s ring was so unique and pretty:

Isn’t she GORGEOUS?!?!?!

Oh, and Andy’s looking pretty debonair himself!!!

Super excited to get the party started!

A beautiful setting for their first dance:

Andy made Tracy the COOLEST slideshow. It was neat because he actually did video commentary in between the slides of them and it was cute, funny, romantic, and sweet. I think Tracy found herself a keeper, for sure!!! Here she is beaming about the slideshow and I think she looks so beautiful:

Tracy’s “something blue:”

In the center of a traditional Italian dance:

I believe this car is a 1931 Durant. VERY cool.

-shawna K

I seem to have been having some email issues last week. If you emailed me and didn’t get a response, would you kindly email me again? I don’t know what happened. Thanks!

Tyler has decided that my camera isn’t funny. Jordyn ALWAYS thinks I’m funny - she’s very easily amused as you can tell. Here is a typical kind of “Shawna” shot:

I was really trying to get some cute ones of them standing up, but they were very concerned that their precious feet were touching the grass. We mustn’t have that now!

And the kind of stuff I like to do when I’ve taken the other shots I’ve wanted . . . a little fun and a little funky. Betcha can’t guess what camera I took this one with! (If you think you know, feel free to email your answer to me — it might be worth something!)

-shawna K

Isn’t Miss Emily adorable? I swear she’s my new spokesmodel for Pattycake! She’s adorable and bright-eyed and way too cute! I had so much fun with her yesterday. The fun part about photographing kids is that I get to act totally whacky to get their attention, which isn’t a stretch for me. Of course, Miss Emily sure knew how to work the camera!

Hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more pics of her in the very near future!

-shawna K

Little Zoie was quite the sleepyhead this morning. I hear it’s because she keeps her mommy up all night with tummy troubles! Poor little baby! Isn’t she just as sweet as can be? Rumor has it that this tiny little preemie has grown to about 8 pounds in only 4 weeks! Sounds like mom is doing a great job. Isn’t she gorgeous?

Family portraits are in full swing here at shawna K studio and Pattycake. Since I’m only taking on a very, very limited amount of sessions this year, my open time slots are filling up fast! One of the things that I love about the holidays is getting together with family, friends, and clients that I don’t get to see very often for portrait sessions. Recently, I photographed “Aunt Paula” and “Uncle Jim’s” family. We did the big group shots, but I always try to sneak in a few individual portraits if I can. Here are a couple of cute ones of their precious grandchildren, Drew and Allison.

QUESTION: What’s bigger than Tyler’s eyes?
ANSWER: HER CHEEKS, OF COURSE! haha!

Jordyn’s had these two bottom teeth for FOREVER (since around the time of her 6-month check-up), but she never shows them when I’m taking pics. Finally, I got ‘em on camera! She has this crinkly nosed little grin that she does and she moves her lower jaw to the side and giggles . . . She didn’t do the whole routine for the camera, but at least she showed those pearly whites! Yay!

By the way, the babies are now 9 months old and they are doing the most fantastic little things! Tyler can crawl, pull herself up, walk all around the furniture, turn around while standing up and holding on, say “DaDa,” hold her own bottle, mimic drum playing (she pounds on everything from the ottoman to her high chair), and she clapped today for the first time. She has a ton of hair and still no teeth. She prefers breastmilk and formula to baby food, but she loves cold water in her sippy cup. Her favorite things to do are growl and holler for fun and JUMP. She loves, loves, loves to jump. She also loves ice cold teething rings. She’s very, very wild, but she clams up and becomes quite introverted in public. She stares at everything and takes everything in. She’s my little night owl and her eyes are wise beyond her “months.” haha!

Jordyn finally graduated to a “real” crawl from the Army man crawl, and she can pull herself up, too. She can walk around the furniture a little bit and when you walk with her she tries to “step,” but she’s better with the vocabulary: DaDa, LaLa, HaHa, GaGa. She claps very well when you say pattycake and likes to join Tyler in the drum playing. She pulled herself up AND learned to clap all in the same day! She has two teeth, but still very little hair. She loves every bite of food you put in her mouth, but she loves nursing, too. She also loves to talk, sleep, and smile. She’s the happiest baby I’ve ever met. Her favorite things to do besides eating are pulling Tyler’s hair, laughing, and singing–sometimes simultaneously! She loves Baby Einstein movies, her little car exersaucer thing, and she loves the birds and bugs that hang from Tyler’s exersaucer (but she prefers to play with them when she’s actually sitting in her own car exersaucer - go figure). She’s a little morning person already, just as happy and babbly as can be starting at about 5:30 or 6 am! She’s TOTALLY afraid of strangers!

Both girls are Mommy’s girls, but they love their Daddy. OF course, no one is as big of a Daddy’s girl as Devyn! Devyn is now 4-and-a-half and she’s smart as a whip. She loves her preschool and is very, very spiritual. She can write her own name and knows how to spell some basic words. She even knows how to spell the names of some of the other kids at her school. She wants to read in a bad way and gets frustrated because she can’t yet. She can read her own name, though, and knows how to read McDonalds, Jack-in-the-Box, Denny’s, and Barbie. Oh, alright, I guess brand recognition doesn’t count! haha! All she really wants to do is swim. She’s having a real hard time with the fact that all of the pools in the family are too cold right now . . . because she loves to swim (she can do the crawl stroke) and she loves to dive (her cousins taught her how to literally FLIP into the pool). She loves to sing, too. I’d love to get her into modeling and acting now that she can actually follow direction.

Well, that’s us for November 1. Mike and I are pretty much the same. haha!

-shawna K