One of my favorites — trying to get Mommy and her two boys and baby — when who should appear but the adorable 4 year old cousin!

The expression on Baby’s face in this next picture makes me smile every time I see it!

We finished our session with some good ol’ dancing fun (for the kids who are old enough to dance, anyway).  This was some version of ring-around-the-rosie.  Or inspired by…or something….

Terrific way to spend a morning — so glad to meet you, K family!

All the best,
- Danie Smallwood

Here, however, I can, at long last, show you the results of my “A Morning in School” project.  The goal? As with all lifestyle sessions, I wanted to create a series of images that captured the details of a typical morning in preschool.  Beautiful portraits are wonderful, but when I think about what I, as a mother, really want to look back at when my children are grown, I’ve realized that it’s the little things we do every single day that I’ll want to remember the most.  So my idea was to capture those details, and hand them to my client in a beautiful custom-designed album.

I think the pictures will largely speak for themselves!  Images of the album to come soon!

Stay tuned for images of the album — they don’t do it justice, but you’ll get a little glimpse.

I’m trying to write less so I have time to show more, but just have to add — this next image stole my heart as I was editing.  Just as I opened this image, the soundtrack to “August Rush” started playing on my computer, opening with the words,  ”I believe in music the way that some people believe in fairy tales.”  Ummm…how appropriate for this image!  You can just feel the soundtrack that is running through this child’s mind!

- Danie Smallwood, family photographer

When things got busy this Fall, I cheated a bit and relied on Facebook for some of my sneak peeks.  As a result, somehow I think I forgot to blog about this session at all!  Which is truly a shame, because this is one of my favorite families — yet another repeat client this Fall (thank you wonderful families!)!

The following images, featuring the gorgeous Fall foliage this year in Washington, DC, are those that Kimmie specifically mentioned she wanted to display together; so I reedited all of them to ensure that every image complemented the others — so important for a wall display!

Above – we’d gotten off to a tricky start, with little boy I absolutely fascinated by the Fall leaves.  Of course, we all were — that’s why we wanted to photograph in the Fall! — but it was no easy task getting past that intense concentration!  But, of course, we still managed lots of great images.I love a family that includes their dog in their family photo. 

One of my favorite things about photographing the G family is that they always include their dog, Sadie.  Isn’t she beautiful?  As a dog parent myself, this image just tugs at my heart, full of the trust our pets have for us.

Did I mention that I got these printed on metallic paper and they kept all the brightness and life that our backlit LCD monitors show….  Stunning!

- Danie Smallwood, Photography by Danie

When I’m planning a session, talking to the [usually] Mom ahead of time, and starting to organize my thoughts, I’m fighting all kinds of unknowns.  What will the weather be like?  What are the children going to be like?  How will the parents handle the kids if they’re not cooperating (as they say in West Side Story, “just play it cool..real cool”).  Often, I’ve never been to the location before, and can only take a client’s word for it that there are angles that won’t show cars.  Etc.

But I usually have one image planted in my mind that I am determined to get.  This is the one I’ll get stubborn about.  Luckily, with the “S” family, I caught this one very early in the session, before Sister stepped into the stream, and the kids needed a snack and bathroom breaks and…

I knew while on the phone with Mom before the session, that this was the image I wanted.  The one that showed joy and love and just plain, good, old-fashioned fun.

So, I left happy!  And I hope, “S” family, that you love these and the rest of the pictures to come shortly!  Thank you for sharing that beautiful afternoon with me.

- Danie Smallwood, Bethesda, MD child photography

I then spent the next few hours just following these two brothers around the park.  Little brother is Mr. Personality, and has so many different expressions, I could do a whole storyboard of close-ups of his face!  I love this devilish little grin.

I actually know the O family from a few years ago when Mom and I were in a playgroup together with our older sons (Big Brother here is the same grade as my own little guy).  Sadly, our paths don’t cross as often anymore, but my kids will still benefit from our morning of exploration.  These brothers found a patch of bamboo tucked away in a corner of the park that I’d never even noticed before — and played there for close to an hour with a few sticks of bamboo and some leaves.    Ah, the creativity of childhood.

This shoot was exactly what I like to do — squeeze in a few “formal” family shots (if the kids are up for it) at the beginning, and then be, for the most part, a fly on the wall, documenting the kids at play.

It was great to see the O family again.  Repeat clients are, of course, the lifeline of any photography business (only one reason for my reciprocal referral policy).  Much more than that, though, it just makes me a little giddy getting to watch, in tiny slivers, these little guys grow up.  Thanks so much for sharing your family with me once again, O family!

See more “O” family pictures here, or see the slideshow — including their mini-album! — below.

- Danie Smallwood, Photography by Danie

Julia is a doula and actually does birth photography (you can learn more at FocusedBirth.com).  Despite taking lots of pictures of her own family, she suffers, as so many photographers do, from a lack of pictures that actually show her children has a mother!  (My own mother complains so strongly about this that sometimes I fear to send more pictures with just my kids!)  So this session was a little different than my usual child photo sessions here in Bethesda.  We had a very specific goal: pictures of Julia and family, Julia and kids, Julia and husband.  Brilliant idea!

The cherry blossom trees were not in full bloom, but spirits were still high!  The skies were gray (and even opened up for a time), but still we were surrounded by the beautiful colors of Washington, DC in the spring.  And while we may have had to (multiple times) coax large sticks from a certain 3 year old’s fast grip, and bribe both children (and adults) with grandma’s homemade cookies in lieu of the dinner they normally would have eaten around that time, I think we all had a lot of fun, and we definitely appreciated the 60 degree temperatures!

It’s quite shocking, actually, that we all (both Julia and her husband Andrew are Davidson grads, as are my husband and I) ended up living in the Washington, DC area in our post-Davidson College years; have children fairly close in age; and have run into each other precisely once (and that was just Julia and I!).  Now that we’ve met up once, hopefully another fun outing will follow sometimes before our kids hit high school…..

And in other news, after a fantastic photography workshop a few weeks ago with Sandi Bradshaw; and some time with my best friend from elementary school and her new baby; and getting to see my sister Theresa Jeanne’s art opening at James Madison University; and trying to finish our taxes….well, I’m behind on blogging.  So I’m starting in the middle and working around, and hope that after April 15th, things will be running much more smoothly around here!

Happy Spring!

- Danie Smallwood, Bethseda, MD child and family photos

– Danie Smallwood, Bethesda, MD Family photography!

I just LOVE this next set of photos — from bottom to top, it shows the growth of their family (yep, the dog trumps even the husband!).

On a business note, I have just booked my last available session in 2010, but if you’re reading this thinking, hmmmm, I should have booked, it’s never too early to get on the books for 2011 — the calendar is already filling up.

- Danie

– Danie