Michele Schanker Photography » Lifestyle Photojournalistic Photography

This post is VERY special to me. Why? Because it is some of the first photos I have taken of our son…Brayden! Yup, I had a baby on January 11th 2012. I have been waiting for this bundle of joy for a very long time. As I prepare to go to WPPI in Vegas this year I realized that it was 3 years ago that we decided we were ready to start a family. How I know that is it was 3 years ago that I went to my first WPPI convention and the convention was only 3 or 4 months after we had made that decision. We tried for a year at that time with no luck of getting pregnant. Then my hubby and I made another important decision….to leave California. We had this dream of moving to Colorado and raising our kids there. We loved the time we spent in Cali and felt like in the 5 years we were there we were able to see just about everything we wanted to. So we put the baby thing on hold while we focused on moving to Coloraodo. So here we are in 2012 and our Little Buddy (as I like to call him) is here and we couldn’t be happier! His name is Brayden Samuel and he was born at 4:32am on the 11th weighing in a 8 pounds 6 ounces.

These were taken at the hospital. Yes I wasn’t felling all that great afterwards, but I had to get some of our son at the hospital so my camera came with my hospital bag.

I love this one with my husbands hand on Brayden.

And some of the photos I’ve taken while we’ve been at home.

With babies, I love to capture some of the natural things they do…like crying when they are hungry.

Want to do some family photos during the winter months? Think you have to wait til spring cause its cold out? Not true…just think out of the box.

Here are a few ideas to toss around:

1. the inside of  a mall – choose an early morning time before the mall is packed

2. maybe your family likes to go ice skating – lets go to the local rink and follow up with some hot cocoa

3. Brave the elements and go play in the snow. A family snowball fight can make for great photos.

4. Do a home photoshoot. This is a great time to get some shots of kids and babies in their rooms. Maybe even break the rules and let the kids jump on the bed. Think of  a family activity that you like and let me shoot you in action. This could be family game night. Lets get out your favorite game and I’ll catch the action and candid expressions.

Hope that helps get the ideas flowing.

Another one of this weekends urban sessions was with the Stone Family. We wandered an alleyway near union station, looking for good lighting and cool backdrops. Here are a few of the photos I captured today.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Lisa and her dog Coby! Coby is about 3 years old and totally cute! This was his first time in the city and was very interested in all the sights and smells. We met at union station in downtown Denver and wandered from there taking photos in alleyways and what ever we could find along the way. I love taking urban photos…its probably my favorite type of photography. It really gets those creative juices flowing. Here is a sneak peak at some of Lisa’s photos.

We moved into our house in mid November, and with all the boxes I was wondering if we would get to do Christmas cards this year. Finally about 1 week prior to Christmas we got it done! (yeah a little late sharing this, huh) This is a tradition with my husband and I. We do self portraits for our Christmas card. Its great because it gives us great photos every year that we can put up in our home. I wasn’t quite sure what to do this year. I knew I wanted different…unique…something using furniture outside! I bought these leather chairs recently and got the idea of putting them in a field. I was going tp scour all over the area for the perfect field, but my husband says “what about the one right as your leave the neighborhood”. I took a look….and thought “that will work”. So in 30 degree weather we put the chair in the car and drove the 1/4 mile to the field. I have to say I think this years Christmas card was the best so far! Here’s a few shots we got of ourselves.