It’s been 2 1/2 years now that I’ve been a client’s of Lynda’s. The faith of my hair color is in her magic hands. One day, I’ll embrace the grey, but not just yet. My visits are frequent (stubborn whites oblige!), but it’s always a pleasure to visit with Lynda. After 7 weeks in France, I’m always anxious to sit back in her chair. This past summer, I walked into the familiar saloon to see Lynda cradling a precious newborn girl. In the space of a few weeks, she and her husband, had been offered the wonderful opportunity to adopt Isabella. A very unexpected event, with hardly any time to prepare for this special arrival in their family, it’s as if they had been waiting for her all along. Bella’s big brother is a champion helper, and Lynda is in love with her daughter.
At 7 months, she’s precocious, beautiful and such a happy baby.

A very happy couple expecting their first baby on April 1st. Their pregnancy came as a surprise. Bridget’s Dr. didn’t think she could conceive, but yet a little miracle is about to happen. Along with the discovery of this very special arrival, more exciting news came in, Colby was accepted in medical school! I see a bright future for this young couple, a very happy couple indeed. I can’t wait to meet and photograph little Emerson, and wish you the best of luck in your carriers.

I am so thankful, and it never hurts to acknowledge it, we have been extremely fortunate over the years with wonderful baby sitters. Tayler is one of our very favorites, and today’s doggie is her baby. Dixie is 2 years old, a beautiful mix between a Lab and a Rottweiler. She has gorgeous blue eyes, a luscious shiny brown coat, with the most playful personality. Coco was very happy with her play date. Tomorrow, I plan on sharing a beautiful mom to be. With my adorable assistant, my lovely niece Olivia, I’ve had a very busy week photographing babies, bellies, senior… We are loving the new studio. Once the last touches are done, I’ll post a couple pictures here.

Bashfully, I’m posting after a solid 2 months of blog abstinence. I don’t even have a good reason for such a long absence, just “a series of unfortunate events”, nothing worth going into details. I am very thankful for the emails from faithful blog reader asking when I would post back some pictures. I’ll try to be more persistent, I’m certainly not in lack of images to share at this point, and have some from our trip to France this past Christmas. Since our return I have been very busy setting up my STUDIO, my own studio!!! It never occurred to me when I first started my business that I would eventually want a studio, but I’ve reached that point. My husband was very encouraging and kindly offered to give me his “man lair” in our house. I did some major renovations, decorations (love DUH) and have the coolest space for newborn photography, with the most exquisite light. My niece Olivia had plan to come visit us during her winter brake, with the desire to learn more about photography. The timing couldn’t have been better, she arrived Sunday night and Monday morning we had our first session ever in the studio. Meet Quinton, 12 days old, a bundle of sweetness.

We are now in France. Paris was all white, and when we drove home from the Marseille airport, snow was falling steadily. We woke up to a delightful scenery, overnight enough snow had collected to make a thin white blanket everywhere around us. My parents’ house is mildly decorated by american standards, but is still in a very festive mood with the huge family gathering we are having. It’s warm inside by the fireplace (the real thing, wood burning giving a true winter smell and feel). It’s …heaven. I will try to post some pictures of our outings. While I would be content rooting all day in the house enjoying my family (we can talk for hours), Henry much prefers taking day trips, with some cultural flavor. More about that soon. In the mean time, I wanted to share some images from an awesome family. The weather wasn’t much cooperating on our first try, but the second time around, it was ideal.

Beth Ann,

Walker and Peyton,

Matthew,

Some sibling love,

Walker has the good looks. Seriously, everyone in this family does, they’re all stunning. I predict lots of worries for the parents when these gorgeous children all reach their teens…

Rocky and Brett, a really cool team. Parenthood to 4 kids definitely requires a great deal of involvement from the parents. I’ve heard Rocky describe herself as a taxi driver to 4 busy children. Her commitment is paying off, they are all 4 very accomplish in all domains, sports and academics alike.

Just a 24 more hours until we board on our plane, still no suitcases packed, but here I am in front of my computer… it’s addicting, I love what I do. It’s the most satisfying feeling to edit a file into a beautiful image on my screen, and then such a reward to share them on my blog. Isn’t she lovely? Just so peaceful. I’ve used a couple of my new hats and “wraps”, and am delighted with the way they turned out. Can you tell I’m all bubbly with excitement and joy to go home for Christmas?
On with the images, before I start babbling about my heaven on earth…

Charlotte had no interest for a pacifier, but just started finding her thumb. I think it’s so cute the way she covers her face with her hand.

She has the most beautiful full lips, but then of course when you see her parents, it’s pretty obvious she had to be gorgeous.

That little dimple in her elbow… sweeet

An angel passing,

Jennifer and Cameron, I had such a good time photographing your precious little one, thank you for trusting me. It was a pleasure to meet you and I think you’ll be happy with this last picture. I’m glad we gave it one more try… it was worth the effort!

and we board the plane. They’re expecting snow this weekend in my dear Provence, wow, the kids are going to be besides themselves!
Again, a beautiful family to share. I know I always say that, but beautiful is what they are. I’ve been photographing little Emma since she was a newborn and she just gets lovelier every time I see her. Brian, her big brother, is a sweet handsome little guy too, I love the pictures with his mom Julie. Greg (dad) is totally wrapped around Emma’s little finger, their pictures together melt my heart. Emma was telling me how Greg is “my daddy”.

How sweet is this little guy? He was just a charm, perfectly comfortable swaddled in the stork/branch pose. I love my new branch, it’s from a beautiful tree grown in California, I’ll have to get the name of it. I’m also crazy about those little knitted hats, isn’t this one just so cute? I must say the model is adorable, and probably anything on him would be very cute.

It’s a busy time of the year, with decorations galore, the roads crowded with shoppers on a mission. Sitting in front of my computer, I’m editing pictures of beautiful families getting their yearly portraits for Christmas cards. Christmas used to be one of my favorite holidays in France, because it was always a huge family gathering. It has taken a whole new dimension in the US, the decorations and the outdoors lights are spectacular here, but I’ve missed my family and french traditions. This year will be the first for me to go back home (happy happy Arielle!!!) since I’ve been engaged (15 years ago on Christmas eve). Henry has been teasing the kids that our french tree will be more like a Charlie Brown branch, but they will love the 13 deserts, the house filled for 2 weeks with 30 relatives (my mother is super women without the flashy suit), maybe some snow… Oh, I just can’t wait! It’s been forever that I’ve had a Christmas in Aix-en-Provence, I’m pretty sure I was in high school last time. This holiday season will be very special indeed, just like my childhood favorite memories. In the mean time one lovely local family,

David, with his radiant smile. Flora and Yana,

I love Anthony’s spider man suit, it is totally him, and the colors are stunning on the canvas I had made of this image

2 weeks ago I treated myself to a wonderful workshop, from the Baby as Art team, Carrie Sandoval and Brittany Woodall. It was a very short workshop, 2 days in all, limited to only 6 attendees (so so nice compare to the big groups of 20-30 attending wedding photography workshops). I have been a huge fan of their work for a while and was so excited to found out they were willing to share their skills. I love going to workshops, they’re very intense, I always meet wonderful people (who all share the same photography passion), I always learn and come back a better photographer. I wondered beforehand how Britt and Carrie would be able to show us the many poses they are so famous for, after all didn’t it all depends on their little model’s mood? They’ve been described as “baby whisperer”, and I witnessed first hand their ability to sooth the babies. With a total of 6 little models, including a set of identical boy twins, they demonstrated the many poses I was so eager to see them perform. We each had time to photograph the sweet babies, and fallowing are the pictures I took, once Carrie and Britt had work their magic.

Lincoln, 14 days old was our first model,

The twin boys (Harlan and I think Justin), 13 days

The only girl, Shea 5 days old,

Bryden, 10 days,

Holden, the youngest at 4 days. His big sister, Parker came with their lovely mom.