I had the fun task on Saturday to head out to meet little Joey! Those of you who follow my business know that I take a short hiatus from my shooting schedule during the month of July; however, I do make exceptions for newborns of previous clients and special friends. Joey’s mom and I used to work together and we also attend church together.His Mom and Dad have been beyond excited to meet him and it is such a joy to see their love for him. Abby and Michael, I am overjoyed for you with the gift of this beautiful little boy. God has blessed you greatly and it was an honor to spend some time photographing him for you! I hope you enjoy your sneak peak!

You know how much I love this little blue hat! Babies just look so adorable in hats! Love it!

And, finally, a piece of history on this photograph. This bassinet is a family heirloom in which all babies on Mom’s side of the family have slept in, including Joey’s Mom as well as his Grandfather. Isn’t that neat?

Fall scheduling starts today and we are so excited! Fall is such a beautiful time for photography. I love how in August and September I can still capture green grass, red cheeks from the heat, bare feet and suntanned skin. Then, just a few weeks later we move into the crisp days of fall and out comes the blue jeans and textured sweaters and changing of the leaves on the trees. And, there’s always a few smocked Christmas dresses and clothing thrown in for those holiday cards! I  know it is hard to think ahead when it is so warm and sunny, but the fall days are coming! And if your not in the mood for fall just yet, schedule a session in August or September and it’s plenty warm! I’d love to photograph your family this fall. Contact jodie@117photography.com and she’ll be happy to guide you through choosing your date and location for your very own fall session.

And, for a little inspiration, here’s a few of my favorites from last fall. Just a few as I could never include them all! Have a great day everyone!

And from August last year, a favorite! See, Fall covers all kinds of photographs! Schedule today!

That these were yours? I am sure you do! I love when the orders have come in and are ready for my customers to pick them up! It is so exciting…just like Christmas year round! Such fun. I love this photo selection paired with the beautiful Liv ‘n’ Lu frame. Bet they cannot wait to hang it on the wall!

Well, the great news is that you, too, can have some goodies like these ready to pickup soon! Big news! The updated calendar and session information has been posted on the website for the fall months. August through November are always our busiest months of the year. Head on over to www.117photography.com and take a look at the calendar page. You could be among the first to book your session and get your choice of dates. We will start taking requests a week from today, Monday July 19th. I’d love to work with you this fall so you can have some goodies for yourself! If you have any questions at all concerning our scheduling for fall, please contact jodie@117photography.com and she’ll be happy to help you out!

Little Miss Reese is obviously going to be a fun little girl to have around! She was born last week…FOUR weeks early and took all of us by surprise! God is good, though, and she came out a little fighter and didn’t have any problems after the birth at all. When I photographed her at 11 days she was only around 5 lbs 5 oz…teeny, teeny, tiny and ohhh so adorable. We had such a great time with her and Reese’s sweet mom so enjoyed bringing out the little gifts that she had purchased for her photo session. The little tutu, hat, and bloomers all were huge on her tiny frame but a little nip and tuck and we made it work like a charm! I have photographed Reese’s big sister for several years and it is so fun to now include Reese as a part of this precious family. Congratulations to all of you on your new baby sister and daughter…she is simply a precious little doll!

You all know by now that I really love both color and black & white images and usually find some of each that I love from every session. However, Reese’s session was just sooo pink! Everything was rosy and sweet and I just had to use the color on all them. Enjoy!

I have known Nathan’s mommy pretty much my entire life! She is the daughter of my mother’s dear friend as well as one of my little sister’s best friends growing up! I had not yet had the privilege of meeting little Nathan in person as they live all the way in Texas! I was so excited to get to photograph this sweet family last week while they were in town for the week on vacation. Terra and David, your little family is just precious. I am so thrilled that God has blessed you with such an amazing little man through the gift of Nathan. He is gorgeous and it thrills my heart to see you all so happy! Enjoy!

First, I have to say that I adore these kids names. Aren’t they just awesome names? How can you have such fun and unique names and not be fun and unique kids, right? I met up with these three siblings and their parents one night last week. I was sooo beyond thrilled that the heat wave had finally let up a bit so that we weren’t all melting into the grass! My take on this family is that they really love being together. Such sweetness to each other. I really loved how much they all loved on little Knox and just had so much patience and joy with this little guy. Families are such a wonderful gift from God and this family is just another picture of one of God’s great masterpieces!

Fran, the gorgeous mommy pictured below, told me that her kids looked great in black and white photographs. As much as I LOVED their clothing and color choices, I have to say that I agree with you, Fran. Your family looks amazing in b/w!

I love, love this holiday! I love the fun colors. I love that it is in the midst of summer. The 4th just feels like summer, doesn’t it? More than anything else, I absolutely LOVE the fireworks!! I am so grateful to have the privilege of living in this wonderful land of ours that God has truly blessed. I am so thankful to those that have served and are serving now to give me the freedoms that I so enjoy. We sang “My Country Tis of Thee” this morning in church and the words have been ringing in my head all day…”long may our land be bright, with freedom’s holy light, protect us by your might, great God our King.”

The other night my family got together to celebrate our littlest cousin’s third birthday! Happy birthday little Kallen! We ended the evening with my favorite…FIREWORKS! But, before the darkness set in and the fireworks began, I snagged all the cousions for a quick picture of them in their cuteness of red and blue. See, even the photographer can’t get a perfect shot…but I still *heart* them…a big, fat, puffy red heart!!

In birth order, from oldest to youngest…

In these next two I love the snaggletooth, the tounge hanging out, the snickers, the gum showing thru the forced smile! LOVE these kiddos! Maybe not perfect, but perfect enough to all of us. Happy 4th, sweet children! Now…let’s go see those fireworks!

As a photographer, there are days when everything just “clicks”…no pun intended. Monday night I was doing a little happy dance the entire evening. I had the joy of photographing the two beautiful daughters of our good friends.  The girls and I had such a good time just laughing and posing and enjoying the evening. The weather actually started to cool down a bit, the skies were slightly overcast which made for beautiful light, bright and colorful wardrobe and my little subjects…Seriously, how gorgeous are they? We started our evening in a field of wildflowers and then moved onto the Arlington Town Square. Lauren and McKenna, I loved our night together and hope that you had as much fun as I did. Love you girlies!!

A little vintage coloring for these…

I absolutely LOVE how they are laughing together in this one!

On these next two, I spent about 10 minutes deciding if I should post color or bw…finally, the bw won; but, only by a tiny margin!

And, this last one I just HAD to include. It makes me smile. Love the joy and pure childhood fun it displays! See…told you we had a great night!

Saturday was without a doubt a HOT summer day in Memphis! We’ve been in the midst of a heat wave that usually doesn’t happen until sometime in July or August and I have to admit it has been pretty miserable. I had two sessions scheduled Saturday morning at the Botanic Gardens and we even moved the times to as early as possible so that it wouldn’t be so awful. However, this heat almost had us all drained! But…we persevered and ended up with some beautiful images for these two sweet families.

First to have the fun was Riley and John Winn. I hadn’t seen these two since last summer and could hardly believe how big they’ve gotten. Miss Riley is almost 4 and such a beauty. I adore her big brown eyes! They just make me smile. And, Mr.John Winn…he had us all running in that heat! He is every bit of the typical 18 month old little boy. Interested in everything, curious about it all, busy as can be….and not a BIT interested in me or my camera. We managed to capture some though, in spite of his best efforts to get away from me. Love this sweet family!

After my time with Riley and John Winn, I had the fun opportunity to photograph a childhood friend and her gorgeous family! Ashley and I grew up next door to each other for many, many years and her older sister was my very best friend. I have so many wonderful memories with Ashley and her sister, Amye, and it is such a joy to capture some memories of her three gorgeous children: Madison, Lindsey, and Ingram. Ingram is about the same age as John Winn and he had just about as much interest in taking photographs. He was a busy little guy who was SO excited about exploring the Botanic Gardens. I was definitely NOT a part of his agenda that day. HA! What I loved, though, was watching his adorable sisters and the patience and love that they had with this little guy. They just loved on him and laughed at him and patiently waited on him to be ready. Girls, you were amazing. Ashley, so happy for you that you have such a precious family! Thanks for asking me to photograph them for you again. Hope you love what you see here…