Strider's Blessing Day

Introducing Strider Bravo!!!

It was this little guy's baby blessing day recently.

 Family came from all over to be there for Strider's special day.

Congratulations!!!!

Nikolai & Noah's 1st Birthday

Nikolai and Noah recently celebrated their 1st birthday!  

Their sweet momma came prepared with with the balloons, the basket, and lollipops!

Oh, and the twins' daddy is a very talented artist.

Check out this chalkboard art:

Babies and balloons... the best combo ever!

We had such a fun time during this evening photoshoot.

Okay... now time to show of some of my personal favorites from our time together.

Check out those curls!

Nikolai

Noah:

Adley - 9 months

I met Adley and her mom, Maggie at Collette's 1st Birthday Party in January.  

I had a fun time in the studio capturing Adley's sweet little personality.  

Her big toothy grin is amazing.  And I loved to see how much Adley loves her mommy.

Do you like what you're seeing?

Do you have a little one, or a grandchild that has an upcoming birthday, 

or has reached a special milestone?  

I love to capture images that show true personalities.

I have a photo sessions available in June.

Comment below, call/text me, Lisa Ward, at (435) 374-8639, or send me an email at lisawardphoto@gmail.com for more information.

Yearly Portraits of My Kids

I've never been impressed with the traditional school portraits that the kids bring home from school every year… so I don't buy them.  Instead, I take my own portraits of my kids.  I try real hard to capture their real smiles.  This year, I consider the results a great success.  I mean, just check out these smiles:

B - 3rd grade - age 8

T - Kindergarten - age 6

K-Preschool - age 3 

J - 4 months

Toothless baby smiles are the best!

Day 3 in RAINY California

After the first full day of learning, most of the workshop attendees walked over to Fred's for dinner.  Me Ra and Brian came.  I lucked out again and got to sit by Me Ra.  Me Ra and I had a great conversation that completely shifted my thinking.  She helped me realize that I totally can charge more for taking photos and gain a client base.  Also, she told me that it's a good idea to specialize in something instead of just offering whatever kind of photo session that people wanted.  Me Ra gave me a great compliments... "I've seen your photography and you are simply AMAZING!  Your photos are what every mama would DREAM of having.  You've got to receive this truth and go for it because seriously girl, your work is awesome!... Take the leap. You know I love you and I'm in your corner!"  I'm really excited about the direction I'm headed and can't wait to see what the future holds for me and my photography.  Anyway, I think that my main CONFIDENCE issue has to do with me believing that my clients will not value my photography as much as I do.  I guess that's why I've priced my work so low in the past.  One thing Me Ra said that really helped me is that, "Fear and doubt will always be there as you plug along.  But when you actually achieve your goal, the fear and doubt is no longer present."  Time to face my fears!

Day 2 of the CONFIDENCE Workshop was my favorite.  We learned about metering and the different metering modes, what the 6 must have photos are for consumers (family photo shoots), the different ways you can use the TTL (through the lens) flash, Lightroom basics, Me Ra's story, paid vs. pro photographers, using social media, outsourcing, and good to know camera settings.

I was SO excited to do family photo shoots on the beach, but unfortunately, it RAINED!  So we had to make do shooting in this extra wide hallway.  We had a few minutes to have each other take head shots of each other.  Here's Nicole Moore taking my picture.

Photo Courtesy of Teresa Rish

 Photos Courtesy of Amy Rhodes

And now on to the photos I took of the families that came.  The lighting situation was crazy because we had to work with window light and overhead light.  Taking photos of families with small children can be a challenge.  But I am proud of what I was able to capture.

This gorgeous mom and her son were so sweet together.  If you observe this picture closely, you may be able to tell that there was a window to my left and a dark hallway behind them.  I loved learning how a dark hallway can make the photo appear as if we were in a studio with a black backdrop.

Check out the littlest dude in this one.  I LOVE how he has his arm around his mommy's chin and is touching her cheek.  Oh, the love our babies have for us is precious.  This photo was challenging too with the backlighting that's going on with the large sliding glass door.  Even though the mom and boys' hair is kind of blown out, I don't think that people with an untrained eye would even notice that.  One great truth that Me Ra taught us was that as photographers, we tend to pay the most attention to the technical aspects of our photos while consumers pay most attention to the content of the photos.

Aww... Big brother adores his baby brother.

It was fun to experiment with different cameras and lenses.  Brian let me try a 70-200mm lenses that was worth $1500!  It was a heavy lens, but I got some great shots with it.  I was also able to try a Sony Camera.  My favorite feature of the Sony camera was the live view mode.  As you change the manual settings, what you see in the live view window is exactly what you get when you press that shutter.
Here's my favorite family shot of the day.  This family was full of energy.

Meet Sean.

He is the perfect combo of sweet

and macho.  Just check out those muscles!

The photo above perfectly sums up my weekend.  I got to take a weekend off just for myself.  I got to meet new friends and learn more about photography... one of my favorite subjects.  And to top it all off, I won Lightroom 4, the newest photo editing program!

 Thanks, Me Ra for following your dreams.  

You have blessed the lives of many.  

You are so down to earth. 

Your compliementary words and words of encouragement mean so much to me.

One of the ladies set up a Facebook group so that we can all keep in touch.  

It was so fun to spend a few days with people who are as obsessed with photography as I am.

There was a special bond that was created that weekend.

I sure hope to keep track of everyone in our group and hopefully meet up again someday.

Day 2 in Sunny California

I didn't sleep too well the night before.  My mind was racing just thinking about how much fun I'd already had... flying solo to CA, finally seeing the amazing Pacific Ocean, meeting new ladies for dinner, staying in a fancy hotel, etc.  Oh yeah, and I kept thinking about how the next day would play out... meeting the rest of the ladies in our group, what yummy food I'd be eating, what new things I would learn, etc. 

That morning, I got ready and had just enough time to walk briskly over to the pier.  I wish I'd had 30 more minutes to take in the scenery.  I just had like 5 minutes to look around.  I saw surfers, several volleyball games going on, seagulls, and people just strolling along the ocean shore.

At 9:30am, the CONFIDENCE Workshop began!

Me Ra Koh and Brian Tausend were the presenters of this workshop.  There were around 20 ladies in attendance.  We first went around the room and introduced ourselves.  When it was my turn, I told everyone the normal info of how I am married with 3 kids, etc.  Then I shared with everyone my embarrassing story about one of the times that I applied for the SOAR! Scholarship (that Me Ra and Brian created.)  The main part of the scholarship application is the 2 minute video each applicant submits stating why they feel that they deserve to be awarded this scholarship.  For the life of me, I just could not figure out how to upload my video!  So I read the fine print that said to call/email Brian if you had any technical questions.  And let me tell you, I emailed Brian, then called Brian and left messages on his phone WAY too much!  To make a long story short, we figured out how to upload that darn video.  A couple days later, I was online and discovered that the "Brian" who'd been helping me out was ME RA'S HUSBAND!  Ahh!  I could not believe it.  I just figured that Brian's last name was Koh, like Me Ra's!  Right then and there, I threw my hands up and told myself that I should just forget about winning that scholarship.  Who in their right mind would award a scholarship to a needy girl who couldn't even upload a video?!  Sure, I wanted to get recognized, but not in that way!  Everyone in the conference room got their good morning laugh in.        

Anyway, so we learned about many things in Day One of the workshop.  We talked about understanding the different types of camera lenses, about The Magic Three (Aperture/Shutter Speed/ISO), playing with different camera modes, framing and composing photos, and the elements of storytelling photos.

We had a lunch break in the early afternoon.  There were large round tables set up in the beautiful courtyard for our group. We each had a gigantic, fancy chicken salad.  The presentation of lunch was top notch.  It was yummy, but it involved cutting up practically the whole head of lettuce.   

I am a visual learner.  So when it came time to do our Mom and Baby Photo Shoot, I was so excited.  We had 6 moms volunteer to model for us with their cute babies.  See me and my fabulous picture taking posture below.

 Photo courtesy of Candi Naranjo

Meet Steven.

This little guy is about 12 months old and his parents just ADORE him. 

Meet Karene and her precious baby girl.

Meet Katie and her daughter, Karis.

 

Katie's mom hopped in.  I sure love this 3 generations shot.

Katie is also a photographer.  Check out her fantastic photos HERE.