But what should I wear? How do I choose clothing that will stand out in my photos? How do I coordinate siblings? These questions are some of the most frequently asked questions before a photo session. On Monday, I had the fun opportunity to do a photo shoot with The Happy Heart, a children’s boutique in Arlington Town Square. The purpose of the session was to photograph some of the new spring lines of clothing they carry in their fantastic and charming store. I have already known and loved Happy Heart for awhile; but, I fell in love all over again. The owners of the store, who happen to be close friends of my family, have FABULOUS tastes. I have over 100 pictures from this session that I’d love to share, but I just picked some of my favorites. The kids in the photo session were so great! Even with the cold temps outside and a photographer with hardly any voice to direct, they were such troopers and rocked the shoot! The clothing featured below from their store are all perfect examples of what works for a photo session. Lovely, simply lovely!!

Hint, hint!! Return tomorrow for a special announcement concerning our partnering with The Happy Heart for a special Spring Mini Session coming up later this month. Details tomorrow! I’m so excited. 🙂

And, my fellow mothers of boys, we all know how difficult it is to find cute clothing for boys, right? Never fear, my friend Laura, who owns the shop has two adorable boys of her own so she doesn’t leave them out!! Check out these rockin’ outfits…

Be sure and check out The Happy Heart this spring! I promise you will leave with both a happy heart and a cheerful face!

Well, not really; but, it is getting soo close! We had more beautiful snow today in Memphis; but, here at 1:17 Photography, we are thinking spring! Warm days, green grass, bare little feet, sundresses, tulips, azaleas, sunshine!!! They are all coming sooner than you think.

Beginnning today, we are taking scheduling requests for the coming months of March, April, May and June. If you are interested in scheduling a session, please email jodie@117photography.com and let her know you’d like to schedule a session. We would love the opportunity to work with you this spring or summer.

And, because a post is always better with pictures, a few of my favorites from last spring into early summer! Enjoy…and think warm thoughts!

Abby. She was such a gem for me yesterday. She was so alert and looked right into my camera which is a  rare thing for a baby only 7 days old! And, then, like a little princess she fell fast asleep and allowed us to pose her to our heart’s content.

It was such joy listening to the “oooh’s and ahhh’s” of Abby’s Mom, Dad and Grandma. They were so proud of her and it wasn’t hard to see that they were quite enamored with this little treasure. She’s the first for this sweet family and I think God especially blessed little Abby with a loving family!

There are so many gorgeous pictures. I am not sure what I am more in love with from this session. It’s a toss-up between the great light of this beautiful home, the awesomeness (is that even a word?) of my a-maz-ing new camera that I finally had the opportunity to use, or the adorable little lips and angelic face of Abby.

What do you think? Admit it…you love it, too!

I debated for quite awhile before deciding on the title for this post. Matthew’s Heart? Matthew’s Smile? But, in the end, I just settled on the title of Matthew…because that is who this post is all about! A bit longer than my normal posts but such an encouraging story!

I remember the session like it was yesterday, but actually it was October 2007. I went to Matthew’s home for his newborn session. As is typical for my newborn sessions, Matthew was only a few days old. His big sister, Lainey, already my buddy from her previous sessions with me, met me at the door with a huge smile and proudly introduced me to her new little brother. Matthew’s mom, Angela, and I worked hard that morning to get some precious newborn pictures of Matthew. I remember how Angela and I kept commenting on the “cough” that Matthew had. I remember us talking it through…just two moms trying to figure out what might be going on with this helpless, tiny baby boy. What it a cold, reflux? Angela told me she was going to take him to the pediatrician again because her gut was telling her that something wasn’t right. Little did she know what was ahead for her little guy.

In Angela’s own words: “Our doctor looked at him for about 3 minutes and sent us to the hospital for a chest x-ray.  The results came back and I received a phone call at 2:30 p.m.  He had an enlarged heart and we were to see a cardiologist first thing Tuesday morning.  After the longest night of our lives, we went to the cardiologist on Tuesday morning at 10:30 a.m.  By 1:30 p.m. we were sent to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital where we were told that our son, at 4 1/2 weeks old, had Coarctation of the Aorta, which is a narrowing in his aorta.  He had a heart the size of his entire chest cavity; the cough I had been so concerned with was congestive heart failure; and his kidneys were failing.  The surgeon came in about 7:00 p.m. and told us Matthew was going to have heart surgery in the morning. ” Matthew had that surgery, but it was unsuccessful. They needed to do another surgery with a new cardiologist. “The only problem was she had only performed the surgery eight times and only once on an infant.  Again, my husband and I were in complete shock that we would have to have surgery again and that Matthew would be the ninth person to have this type of surgery.  We had faith in our surgeon and doctors that this was the right decision.  Matthew had surgery on December 28, 2007 and had a bypass graft attached on the right side of his aorta.  The graft should be large enough to take Matthew through most of, if not the rest of his life. We stayed in the hospital for almost three weeks.  While there we interacted with alot of employees of Le Bonheur, from cafeteria workers to heads of surgery.  Everyone of them showed genuine concern for Matthew and our family.  We are so blessed to have a wonderful place like Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital here in Memphis.  Their staff, nurses, doctors and surgeons took care of our family and gave us our son back.”

My friend and Matthew’s mom, Angela, has teamed up with some friends to plan an amazing event to help raise funds for LeBonheur. Angela contacted me about donating to their auction and I was so touched. I think this event sounds like so much fun. My daughter and I are going to attend the GenerosiTEA Party and make crafts, dress up, and, of course, have tea with my little princess. I have attached a link here,https://secure.lebonheur.org/generositea/register, for those of you who might be interested in attending. I would love to see many of your faces there to help support LeBonheur.

Wow! Can you imagine? The amazing thing is that Matthew’s story continues. He is now a little over 2 years old and is doing great! I have continued to have sessions with Matthew and so enjoyed watching him grow into one of the happiest children I have the privilege of photographing. I love this family!

So…Matthew’s Heart? Matthew’s Smile? To me, it is all about his smile. Thank you, God, for the gift of Matthew! Thank you for mother’s intuition. Thank you for a hospital full of doctors and nurses in our city who took such good care of him. Thank you for the honor of capturing moments like this…

One of the many joys of my work is seeing the children that I work with grow from tiny, helpless newborns into a little person with their own look, personality and smile! Yesterday, I went to Parker’s house to do the 2nd installment of his Little Gifts Newborn Club for the Sit ‘n’ Smile session. This precious little boy was b-u-s-y! His sweet momma and I had to work fast and think on our feet; but, it was so worth it. We came out of it with some gorgeous images. One of the things that I love about going into a client’s home and doing a photo session is the opportunity to incorporate special items that wouldn’t be available elsewhere. In Parker’s session, the rocking chair was his mom’s when she was little! Enjoy the cuteness of Parker!

It is always such an honor to be asked to photograph a newborn. The emotions run so high and the feeling of love (and exhaustion!) are almost tangible. I love everything about those sessions and secretly they just might be my favorite. I get to love on those precious little gifts from God and am reminded of the joy of parenthood.

Little Miss Fynlee was the perfect newborn. She could give lessons on “How to Behave at your Newborn Session.” She was born on December 21st-what a Christmas present! I usually like to photograph newborns within the first week of their birth; but, since Miss Fynlee arrived right at the holiday, I had to wait until the first week of January. I’ve worked with this wonderful family before and photographed big brother’s newborn session a couple of years ago. I was so honored to be asked to document their newest addition. Take a look and I think you will agree. Pink is perfect!

Today is the day! Something new, fun, different and a little scary! I’m starting a blog. Putting myself and my work out there for the world to view. I wanted to have a way to share my images from my photo sessions with my fabulous families more often. I tried to be good about updating my website often, but it never seemed to happen. I am hopeful that this blog will be a way for me to share images with you more frequently! The blog will be the place to find fresh images, exciting news, and even a few contests now and then. I’ll use it for a “sneak peak” of images from sessions. Should be fun! Be sure to come by and visit often…you’ll never know what you’ll find!

In conjunction with the new blog, comes another exciting event for 1:17 Photography. We’ve got a new look! I am super excited about our new branding. We’ve redesigned our website, logo, packaging, and business cards…can you tell I am excited? The fun, fresh, and colorful new look debuts today and I am so proud of the look we’ve created. The new look incorporates the meaning behind the name of our business, James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above.”, incorporating bright and colorful gifts within our brand. Our new tagline is ” …because every child is a gift”.

As I mentioned, the website is completly redesigned and has a fresh, colorful new face! When you go, be sure and turn up the sound and listen to the song I chose for the site this time. I agonized about this choice as it is so important. The song is by Nichole Nordeman and is entitled, “Legacy.” It is not a new song, but one I just heard for the first time the other day and it blew me away. My husband and I have this conversation all the time about how I am drawn to a song because of the words and he is drawn to a song because of the music. It is absolutely critical for the words to touch me on a song or it is lost on me. When I heard the words to this song, I knew immediately that I wanted to use it on my site. I love the message that it sends to us as parents. Are we doing enough? Are we leaving a legacy?  As I sit here and marvel at the path my business has taken me over the last four years, it is overwhelming. It has been such an adventure and full of such joy. I have made relationships that are a treasure to me. And I know it is all because of Him. As the song says, I am “a child of mercy and grace who blesses Your name unapologetically.”

And because a post is so much better with a picture, today I have to leave a picture of my beautiful little girl. Today is her 6th birthday and is such a joy in my life. She loves all things frilly and girly, loves her friends and family, has a sweet spirit that is amazing, and a gorgeous smile that melts my heart daily! Happy Birthday sweet girl!!