I’ve seen my friend, Barclay’s parent walk their Basset Hound in the neighborhood ever since they moved to Pensacola. But since this past fall, I’ve missed them. They haven’t been able to take him out because he’s been diagnose with cancer and his health won’t allow him his daily walks anymore. However, Mister General Beau Regard, known as Beau-Beau to his intimates, has surprised everyone by outliving his vet’s predicted life expectancy. Like his mama told me, they all though he would be in doggy heaven by Christmas. He is enjoying life on earth, and although he has always been well loved, his illness has brought him some extra dotting that I’m sure is helping his strong will for life. He is treated to some special home made cooking, raspberry scones for breakfast… nothing is too much for Beau-Beau.
He is as elegant as his name, but a bit shy in front of the camera. It’s not just him, I’ve noticed dogs aren’t all that excited to stand on my white paper to be blinded by my soft box… To make matters worst it started to storm that day, and the sound of thunder made him nervous.
He is definitely a “gentledog”, with beautiful manners. I haven’t heard from him in the past couple of weeks and hope he is still enjoying scones..

Meet Erin, a very beautiful young lady, who just celebrated her eighteenth birthday. She’s about to graduate from high school and embark a very exciting period of her life, college. She will attend LSU, to study engineering… beautiful and smart.
We had a fun afternoon, scouting for different places to accommodate her different clothing styles.

A friend of the family made Erin’s fabulous red belt and some of her jewelry.

At the very end of the session, with barely anymore natural light available, we took this last series. These are my favorite images of the day,

And now a little slideshow with more pictures of Erin. Click on the fab button below to view, and stay patient, it could take a few minutes to load.

I’ve always enjoyed a beautiful “jardin”, the women in my family all have a “green thumb”. My aunt, who lives in England has created the most beautiful garden. Words can’t do justice to her little paradise on earth. People from all over the world come in busses to visit this slice of heaven, she has the most amazing and rare species of roses. All the women in my family can speak to the flowers, and they listen. Not me, or at least not yet. Some areas of my back yard (it hasn’t earned the name of garden…) look like a plant cemetery. 6 years ago, as I was 9 months pregnant with Olivia, and working on refinishing an antique chair on my porch, my mother begged me to give up trying to grow plants. I was stunned! This was not in the spirit of “keep trying and you will eventually succeed” she has raised me all these years. She continued telling me, she felt so sorry for the poor plants I would set out to buy, but forget to tend to after a while. I believe, that like all women in my family, if I really set my heart to it, I too, can be successful growing and talking to plants. Later, I will take up gardening. In the mean time, occasionally, I’m still tempted by a few favorite herbs, flowers, and attempt to care for them. I’m very proud to report that the fallowing pictures are of my almost 2 months old potted plants, and they are thriving!!! I couldn’t resist an olive tree (I know it looks more like a branch, but it probably fits my skills just right), symbol of peace, lavender (it’s Provence on my Florida porch), rosemary topiaries and amaryllis.
These plants have made me so happy, I get to enjoy them many times a day walking by, and then I’ll go out and rub between my fingers some lavender, and I’m transported back home in Provence…

Aren’t these beautiful? They have been blooming forever,

I got all these from our fantastic home/garden store, Duh.

I haven’t developed yet my green thumb, but I appreciate our beautiful earth and it’s amazing resources, and I can’t wait to take my kids to go see the new Disney movie, Earth. The trailers already have my heart flutter when the baby bird takes his first plunge out of his nest…

“Miss Mary Taylor” has been baby sitting my children for some time now, and I only have admiration for her. She’s a beautiful person inside and out. She’s studying to be, like her mother, a teacher. I know she will be dedicated to her work and a blessing to all her students. With an upbeat personality, a great sense of humor, and wise beyond her age, it’s a delight to be around her.
Did I mention that among her many talents, she’s also very creative and makes beautiful jewelry! She wore a few of her pieces during the session.
And she’s a genuine blonde, no hairdresser artifacts or magic to her beautiful hair, she can tame it any ways she wants in a matter of seconds, a dream…

This generous smile brightens her face all the time,

Like MT would say: “the shoot was funalicious. The day was prettylicious, and she was sweetalicious”. That sums it up pretty good. She has a way with words… and can make anything sound so special, just by adding “licious” to it. Asked about her “type”, she says: ” I like guys who are hunkalicious and beefy”.
To see more pictures from her session, click on the fancy button below (please be patient, it could take a couple minutes to upload):

This adorable set of twins was just a day shy of being 6 months old, when I came to photograph. They were just beautiful, and once more I was very impressed by their mother, Heather, who is so organized and keeps her house so tidy. Their aunt Michelle was in town visiting, and a welcome extra set of hands during our session. They already have a nice nap routine, I was just in after their morning rest and between lunch, Molly was exhausted by the time I left and had started her afternoon nap. What a life! Such a shame we don’t realize at that stage how blissful and uncomplicated life is… Again, like the recent twins I photographed, I was surprised to notice distinct personality differences, but both had the most pleasant disposition, and were very generous in smiles.

Liam,

I had such a hard time choosing between all the cute expressions these 2 were giving me, that I cheated and made 2 composite boards. The first, B&W, has Liam in the corners and center. The second, is reversed, Molly is in the corners and center.

Molly,

They couldn’t quite sit up on their own, but the boppy was a nice help.

Molly is out in her aunt’s arms. To me, when you hold a baby who totally abandons himself to you, the world just stops.

Aren’t they sweet?