We have some property about an hour and a half from our house. Right now it is just a beautiful piece of property without a house but Steven has been hard at work planning a future house. A few weeks ago, on a perfectly beautiful cloudy day, we stomped around "the farm" (as we call it despite the fact that there are no animals there) and tried to pick the perfect spot for the future house. We even picked a spot for the boy's future treehouse too. The house will look out onto this pond.

Sayer shares my love for hoodies but, unlike me, the hood always has to be up and it has to be completely zipped up too.

Picking the perfect spot...

One of the boys' favorite things to do is tackle their Daddy.

A little collage from the day.

So, what about you? What is in your heart on this Love Thursday?

Objective: try something new by making a simple collage of images.

My oldest son, Sayer, recently lost his first tooth. I still can't believe it by the way but then I am always shocked by how fast he's growing up. So, in an effort to capture the big moment, I brought him up to the studio this past Sunday for a little mini session. My concept was a single image on a white background that I could make into a big canvas and put in their room. I was going to put it alongside this one of Finn, which is currently a 40x40 canvas:

If you are a follower of these Monday Lessons, you might be saying..."hey! she's going into a session with her kids with defined expectations! She said not to do that last week!". I know, I'm busted. Well, so here's what happened (and it proves my point), I have this idea for a single one image thing and sure enough I am not just seeing "the one". So, I switched gears in our little session and used my new chalkboard wall. I had Sayer draw himself a little backdrop and we did a few more shots. Once I started to look at these more, I really felt like they would look best as a collage. My one shot canvas idea seemed shot. This is what I came up with:

I love making collages of images and this one is super simple to do. So, my challenge to you this week is to come up with your own 9-image collage. Here are the simple steps:

Step One: take 9 images and crop them all to 5"x5" and 300 dpi. I use photoshop. If you are using photoshop then all you have to do is grab the crop tool. Once you have that tool selected, you can set the dimensions of the crop in the tool, like this:

Step Two: Go to FILE>NEW. Make a new document that is 15 inches x15 inches by 300 dpi, RGB color, background: white.

Step Three: drag guides to create 5" squares. (Need help with dragging guides, just email me)

Step Four: Drop your 5x5 images into the grid, flatten the document and Voila!

Optional Step Five: If you like the gray border that I put around the 9-up collage above, it is also simple to do. Go to IMAGE>CANVAS SIZE. From there you can add pixels or inches (your choice) and it will increase or decrease the size of your canvas (not the overall image). If you want a color, there is a drop down menu there that allows you to choose colors.

Here is an image that shows the canvas size menu and it also shows the guides from the earlier step:

So, what do you guys think? Would a 9-up collage printed as a 40x40 canvas look good next to Finnian's big single image? Or do I need to choose one of the blackboard ones or one of the white ones? Let me know!

If you guys make one of these, I want to see it! Post a link in the comments below! I love hearing your comments, they make my day.

We had an amazing view. It looked great both during the day and at night and was especially amazing this one afternoon after a rain. Isn't that rainbow incredible?

We spent most of our time walking. I love walking cities probably because Houston is NOT a walking city at all. In Houston, we spend all of our time in cars so strolling the streets of SF is a real treat. We did a bunch of shopping too. One of my favorite little shopping finds was in a little doggie boutique in the marina. Do you think I should have gotten these for our dogs, Phoebe and Milo? We could have even have a ceremony!

On our last day in town we took the trolley down to the marina and walked around. I was so excited to round a corner and find...an In N Out Burger!! I always look for In N Out burger when we go west and make a point to eat there at least once. I used to live in San Francisco and, when I lived there, they didn't have one. So, I made Steven stop and eat a double-double with me at 10:45 am. Yum!

You might think that we'd be alone at that hour at In N Out but no! Have you ever heard of Santa Con? It is one of the most hilarious and creative gatherings that I have heard of. There is also one called Santarchy. Just the word, Santarchy, makes me laugh out loud.  The basic idea is that thousands of people gather together, dressed in their various interpretations of Santa-esque things, and walk through the city partying and drinking. They start early in the morning and end up all at one central spot where they party until the wee hours. Check out the links and you can witness the madness.

So, that fine morning in SF, the Santacon crew (or one group of them) had gathered at the In N Out for some sustenance to go with their "spirits". These guys were the "agents". I guess they helped keep everyone in line?

More Santacon highlights...

I'm hoping that Santacon has a gathering in Houston this year. If so, I'll be there with, um, I guess sleighbells on!

Every year I go all out for my holiday card. It's my business after all and so I always try and do something special. Normally it's a lot of fun coming up with my design and concept (planning my attack so to speak) and then the time comes to actually take the pictures...fun stops and frustration begins. Does it surprise you that I say that? I know you probably imagine that (of all children) my kids know how to have their picture taken right? They sit still and behave and I just snap away! It's a really nice fantasy and I like it too but that is not actually how it goes down.

Most kids (mine included) have a mind of their own when it comes to pictures. The best sessions happen when kids are happy, playing, wearing comfy clothes, are rested, not hungry and not aware that they are there for the sole purpose of being photographed. When I work in my studio or on location, there is a lot of play involved. I chase them around, make funny noises and ask off the wall questions to get them to laugh, etc. That is what makes it work- they don't really know that my main goal is their picture.

My kids are a bit immune to my charms. They know about the candy jar, they've seen my puppets and they know absolutely what we're doing at the studio. For us, I know how it has to be. It has to just flow. My kids are at their best when they are just being and I try and capture it. The problem is, sometimes I need them to do what I need them do when I need them do it, right?

I hesitate to even tell this story because I know that some of you got my card and thought how cute it was and how perfect and now here I am about to blow the "mystique" with the reality...Here goes, last year sometime in November, I take them up to the studio on a Sunday. I tell them what we're doing, the outfits were comfy, they were rested and fed and so on. Steven was with me to be my helper. They decided, for whatever reason, that they did NOT want to do what I wanted them to do when I wanted them to do it. I would tell them to sit together and one would stand up. I kept trying to get them to hug and they would wrestle. That was how it went. Steven finally stormed out of the room even saying something like "Damn it! It's not that hard!". Stellar parenting moment I know...I tried a save by saying, "Daddy, that's the naughty spot for you for saying a bad word!". Now when I think about it I just laugh to myself.

Finally I say, okay, let's make some silly faces. This always works for my guys. We ended on a fun note and called it a wrap but I was pissed. Here's the thing, I do this every day. I should have know that we had the shots without me being so uptight. If I had just relaxed and not had such specific expectations I would had so much more fun doing it. I know this so well but there I was trying to direct the action and getting all upset in the process.

Sayer knew I was a unhappy. Finn was oblivious- enjoying his "reward" candy ("only one piece and not two because you guys weren't super helpful!"). Sayer settles in on the floor beside my desk and starts drawing. I am downloading the cards and am pleasantly surprised that I did end up with some really fun shots. Again, not quite sure why I was so surprised. A moment later, Sayer comes up and puts this little drawing in front of me.

He says in a low, sad voice, "Mommy, I am really sorry. Here's a picture of me and Finn. I'm sorry Mommy that we weren't helpful". I froze, immediately feeling guilty. He says, "this is a picture of me and Finn doing the hugging thing you wanted us to do...sorry Mommy". My eyes pricked with tears and I felt terrible but at the same time I was just so proud and so touched that he had done this. Steven and I just looked at each other and we both hugged him. I had this empty silver frame sitting there and I put the drawing in it right away and put it on the window sill next to my desk. It's still there.

So, what's the lesson? Today it is not a technical one but something more important. My lesson was this, meet them where they are. It's just a photograph. Photographs are hugely important to me obviously but it's not the one image. It's all of them combined. It's the experience of taking them and the story that they tell as a whole. For me it reinforced that when I go in to a photo session with them and have specific ideas in mind for what I want to capture, I risk missing what they actually have to offer that day. That day it was this:

I had the shot that I wanted all along as well as a bunch of other ones but I wasn't really paying attention to what was there. I was too worried about what might not be there. Yes they were misbehaving and yes they were acting crazy but in the midst of it they were also being themselves.

I see it with my clients sometimes. If they come in with a set ideas of what they want they run the risk of being disappointed whereas if they come in with some general ideas, an outfit and a great attitude, they usually end up happier. A shy kid may not give me huge toothy grins when they first meet me and an active kid is not likely to sit still on command. We need to meet them where they are, especially if we want the photograph to be honest.

Happy Monday my friends!

Here's a little video that we made using a handful of recent images. I hope you all love it! It's a little taste of what's to come for all of my clients. What do I mean? Well, every January, I go in and rework my products, prices and offerings to make sure you guys have some new and exciting things to see. This year we are adding a new type of session and it includes a video like this! We take the best 20 or so images from your session and make you a slideshow that you can watch at home over and over again. Here's another one from a recent session with little blue-eyed Madeleine.Also...Facebook users, make sure and send me a friend request and I'll send you some images for your Facebook page. There is a link to my Facebook page in the menu options above under Websites.