Mother’s Day is almost here, and what better way to show your mother your love than through photos that she’ll cherish for years to come! I know, it sounds kinda cheesy, huh?

What I’m really trying to say is that I would love if you’d book my photo services this May & join me and my cousin Jennifer in raising money for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Here is Jennifer (in photos I stole from her Facebook page…sorry Jen!)

Jennifer will be participating in the LA Walk for Breast Cancer in September, and to help her with her efforts in raising money for this wonderful cause, I’m donating 50% of my session fees for the month of May directly to her walk.  So, when you book a $100 session, $50 of your session fee goes to Jennifer for Avon’s Walk for Breast Cancer.  What do you get?  A 2-hour session with me in a location of your choice, a complimentary 8×10 or two 5×7’s, an online gallery of all your images, and the knowledge that you’ve helped with Avon’s Walk for Breast Cancer.  Avon donates the money they raise to pay for medical expenses of cancer patients & to fund tests to find a cure for this illness that will unfortunately affect many of our lives.

So, give a Mother’s Day gift, book a newborn session, get some senior or graduation portraits done, or just get some girlfriends together for a fun outing and capture some great memories with me.  All sessions booked during the month of May will benefit this wonderful cause.  Thanks for the chance to help out, Jennifer!

My dear friend Heather & I shot an intimate wedding yesterday at the United States Naval Academy Chapel for Jacque & Joe.   Since I’m still working on previous sessions (and laundry, and dishes, and raising children), I’ll give you a quick preview of this fabulous couple!  Check back next week to see their full blog post.

And now, presenting Mr. & Mrs. Parker!

If you don’t remember Madelyn Serene, then click on her name to refresh your memory.  She is the first newborn I ever photographed, and my neighbor.  Well, she’s like 8 months now and so big!  She has such a sweet personality that my girls gravitate towards her every time she’s outside.  Maddie’s mommy & daddy got her a “car” recently and we snapped a few shots of her riding on it.  It’s super cute, pink (of course!), and great for little ones.  Here’s Madelyn riding on her car!

And just for fun, here are two photos to show just how much Maddie has grown up!

You may remember Justin & Sam from my “Bare Bellies” party a few months ago.  After they’d looked at all their photos, they decided they’d like to have an album to represent Sam’s pregnancy with baby Jackson.  Well, I finally got around to designing it, ordering it, and just mailed it off to Justin & Sam.  I thought you might like to see what it looks like as well.  Albums are a great way of getting the majority of your images at a more cost-effective price.  Although each image isn’t as large as a print may be, they are displayed beautifully in this keepsake book.  And for people like me who wish they could scrapbook, but never get around to it, it’s a single place to hold all the images from a certain event or time-period (aka: the lazy man’s scrapbook).

For Justin & Sam’s album I decided to go with my old favorite, White House Custom Colour (WHCC).  They are fabulous and have always been good to me in the past and I would recommend them to any professional photographer.  Sam chose the 8×8-inch album with a fabric cover in tan.  It has 20 spreads, or 10 pages front & back, and the pages are the “magazine style,” meaning they don’t lay flat.    And as I do with each album, I let Sam & Justin have as much input as they wanted.  Sam told me some photos that she did not want, and ones she couldn’t live with out.  After I designed the book,  I sent Sam & Justin a preview via Facebook, and they approved it.  It’s that easy.  Here are some pictures to better explain myself.

The front of the album.  It’s hardcover, with tan fabric wrapped around it.

Here’s a view from the top.  You can see the pages inside.  The first and last pages are a black.

Here is the binding.

The front and back inside cover come with black paper like this.

This is how the book looks laying open.

And finally, a view of the book from the top, opened.

Enjoy your album, Justin, Sam & baby Jackson!

I love making new friends!  I just love it!  I especially like making new friends that I later get to shoot for.  I met Dustin & Stacey through my sister-in-law and her husband, Bert & Laura.  They attend a church called Abbott Memorial Presbyterian Church that my husband Josh and his family used to attend until he was about in his pre-teens.  Now, Josh knew Dustin as a child, but it was really neat when we got to reconnect with him and his beautiful wife, Stacey at various events.  Over the course of seeing them at events and on Facebook, we learned that Dustin is a website guru and decided to have him overhaul my previous website.  As you all know, he did a fabulous job!  We also learned that he and Stacey have a handsome little man named Ian.  And this past weekend, in honor of being one & just an overall lovable boy, I got to photograph Ian.

Dustin & Stacey had me meet them at Du Claw on Bond Street in Fells Point.  As I was getting closer, Dustin called to warn me that it was Pirate Day in Fells Point!  What?!?!?!  That proved to be a lot of fun in addition to our session.  We had children (and adults) in pirate costumes running around having sword fights, cannons booming in the background, and many colorful people.  Ian got in to the pirate mood as well.  Enjoy their preview photos, and a few “pirates” I also captured.

Ian is a new walker and these are his super cool baby shoes!

And now for the colorful pirates!  Arrrrggghhh!