Gender Reveal Mini Session Special

For the whole month of July, I will be having a Gender Reveal Special!!! This is perfect for mother's to be who want to have a little fun with their pregnancy and let people know in a fun way what they are having! These sessions will only be 30 minutes long, which in this Texas heat is perfect for mom! This session includes a mini accordion book with images, two 8x10's and 10 images sent to you via yousendit.com!

This special will be going on for the entire month of July! Even if you are not due any time soon or don't know what you are having, that's okay! The session just needs to be booked and the deposit paid in July! ;) 

I look forward to meeting all you new mommies!! 

Sunflower Field Session & My Trick To Taking Children's Photos

I have been wanting to take the girls out for a photo shoot for a while. Before I became a photographer I use to set up all most monthly sessions for them with my family photographer. It was so much fun, getting their outfits together, fixing their hair, painting their nails. So when I became a photographer I remember telling myself "OMG, I'm going to be able to do themed photo shoots with the girls ALL the time, and it's going to be SOO much fun!" Negative. But that wasn't going to stop me from trying. I just had to get a groove with my kids. Isabel is pretty much a breeze to take pictures of. Sophia on the other hand....

As soon as I take the girls out to a spot for photos and position them into the very first pose, Sophia always says "I'm ready to go home" or "Mommy I want purple candy" or "I DON'T WANT TO TAKE PICTURES!!" (insert eye rolls here) So last night after telling her we will go out and get yogurt, ice cream with purple lollipops (& giving her a dollar she found at the bottom of my purse) we were ready to go!

Doesn't that look like the face of someone ready to take some pretty pictures. :0) She's got that wink down.

Now I know I can't bribe other peoples kids with candy and ice cream. ;) So this is my trick to taking children's photos.

At a lot of my sessions with children, when they are being fussy or just don't want to get their pictures taken, the parent's will often apologize to me. I always tell them that it is okay, and that with kids it's bound to happen, but we will work through it. And if I absolutely have to, I will tell the parent to have a seat or stay a little behind in the distance. When it's just me and the kids and we can talk and have a fun conversation without the parents around, they loosen up a bit. This is how I like to get those adorable little smiles looking straight into the camera! 

I always start the session off with these kind of photos. I like to get the kids comfortable around me, and talking to them and getting them to giggle a little or play peek a boo with me, always makes them forget that I am taking their pictures.

So after that is over and the kids and are are BFF's, I move on to the fun stuff! I {LOVE} candids. I love capturing the natural impressions of children. These are the photos you go back and look at and can see time frozen in their smiles, you can feel the wonderfulness of each kid shining out. Getting candid's is sometimes difficult, but if you aren't afraid of being absolutely ridiculously crazy, it should be a breeze. I will sing a song, dance around, play peek a boo (I bring that one out a lot, because it always works. With every peek, I have a different goofy face), or tell a joke {I really need to work on these. lol} I may have to add some jokes notes on my ipad for the older kids.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures from my sunflower field session with my little ones. And I hoped I helped with getting pictures of your little ones. And for my clients, now you know that I too have the same problem with my kids. ;)

-Nicole

Inspiration Through Art & Malachi

I woke up this morning, a little later than usual because school's out!! And I didn't have to drive my daughter to school!!! Yay for sleeping in! Sorry... I was a little too excited about that. So I woke up, grabbed a bottle of water and hit my couch. Ipad, Iphone, and Macbook in hand. Since the kids were upstairs sleeping still, I got to turn on the news channel while I sat on the couch and read emails, add sessions to my planner, and browsed through Facebook.

So as I opened emails and started to work, I saw this!!

**PLEASE NOTE- This is very personal, so I wanted to let you know in advance as to not shock anyone**

Before I continue with this story I want to you back a couple of years. This is my stepson Malachi. When he was 1, he had to have a heart transplant. Ever since then he has been taking special medication, visiting the hospital regularly for check ups and such. But in July 2008, Malachi got sick and we had to rush him to the hospital. 

Before I start telling this story I just wanted to add something in. When people find out about him, they often whisper to me and ask what happened, because they feel like talking about it will upset Ray or it's probably something he doesn't want to talk about. But it's not. As hard as all of this was on us, even though it's hard for us to talk about. Getting his story out there means more people know about him. If we never brought him up, people wouldn't know that Sophia & Isabel have a brother. And they wouldn't know he existed. And that's not what we want. We want people to remember him. We want people to know the girls have a big brother. If you ask Sophia who Malachi is, she will say "My brother". We even got Ray a build a bear for Father's Day and named him Malachi & Sophia takes him everywhere. We want him to be remembered, not forgotten. So even though talking about him means we have to talk about the bad, we also get to talk about the good. And that's what counts.

So back to the story,

We spent a day out with the family swimming all day. Once we left Malachi started complaining about his stomach hurting. We stopped and got him medicine and took him home so he could rest. After hours of laying down with stomach pains, and endless calls to his heart transplant coordinator, we finally just picked him up and put him in the car. Sitting in the car with Malachi on my lap we rushed to the hospital. I had my one hand on his head and one hand on his heart as I talked to him. Half way there, I felt him take a BIG, HUGE breath....and I didn't feel him take another one. I panicked... Ray told me to give him CPR. I started giving him CPR as Ray started speeding to get to the hospital. Once we got there he grabbed him and ran to the E.R. doors and banged on them so hard I thought the doors would break. They took him in and I met Ray in the hospital, were we spent the next week...Family & friends stayed there with us all week as we waited for him to wake up. Waited for him to get better. But it didn't happen. After a week of him getting worst, the doctors finally told Ray there was nothing more they could do. Everything was shutting down. So Ray made the heartbreaking decision to turn off his life support. 

Ray had told me that they have been in and out of the hospital all his life. They stayed in the Ronald McDonald house of Charity for a while. They've been through a lot and a big chunk of Malachi's life was spent in hospitals. So after his death I wanted to do something for him. I wanted to do something because of him. So every year on his birthday, we send out invitations with a list of toys and items our local Children's Medical Center needs for the kids who can't leave the hospital. We take everything to the hospital and fill out the forms with Malachi's name. So when we get the Thank you letter it says "Thank you Malachi" 

But I wanted to do more. 

I just recently found out about Inspiration Through Art. And knew I wanted to be apart of it. So after filling out my paperwork, I received my "approved" email letter this morning! This means the world to me. We don't have many pictures with Malachi besides pictures just snapped of him. I really wish we would have had family photos, or even more photos of him. You can never have too many. So knowing that I can help other families stop and remember the importance of memories like this makes me feel like I am doing something worth while. 

"Our mission at Inspiration Through Art is to help provide and capture memories for families who are dealing with hectic schedules due to having a child who is suffering from a serious illness or life altering disability. We are here to offer emotional support through the beauty and expression art has to offer, as a way of healing and coping. We understand that in the midst of being thrown a diagnosis and having and having to switch from a "normal" life to a life that is totally different, and often scary, things like getting photos taken is sometimes a huge challenge and is one of the last things families are thinking about. But when everything is done, and either the child has reached the end of their battle, or has proven the odds against it many wish they had more time to stop, and capture the journey that they lived through for so long."

In Memory Of Malachi Christian Arbaiza

Reality Monday

Yesterday was Mother's Day! Did all you lovely mother's out there have a fantastic relaxing day?! I am a mother, but I also have a mother so this day is not all about me. And I'm okay with that.

We spent the morning at my mom's house & took her to The Pizza Lounge. I love this place. LOVE. When I lived in Dallas I would visit often with my friends for a thing we liked to call "pizza nights". We didn't necessarily eat pizza on these Tuesday nights but more or less, have some beers and hang out. Anyways, off topic.

YUM....

By the way...I didn't take this picture. I would have taken a picture, but....I was way to busy eating a Nickel Bag. If you haven't gotten curious enough to google The Pizza Lounge by now I'm sure the thought of me eating a nickel bag will make you want to do some research. ;) 

After a yummy lunch we drove over to Ray's mom's house to visit and eat again. What? We didn't want to be rude. 

It's always nice when you get to stop and hang out with family. Not to mention I have really gotten a flow going on with my work and editing. I don't have it down to an exact science yet, but I am happy that I've learned some new tips to speed up the process. This makes me excited because 1.) I get my editing done faster and therefore have SO much more time to do laundry and dishes (I know, you're jealous huh?) but also  2.) I am able to get client's sessions out to them a little sooner. Happy Dance. And since I take order's for canvases and prints before sessions are sent out I like that it doesn't take too long, because I don't want people to get their goodies once they forgot they even have goodies coming. 

Man, I am all over the place today with this post. As I'm typing this, I keep staring at the photo above and I keep telling myself" Nik, this had absolutely nothing to do with pizza.....or Mother's Day!?" So I guess I'll get back to that. 

Soooo.....Guess what I got?! 

I got a dutch oven!!!

and a wok! You all know what a wok looks like, right? So I don't have to search for a picture because I'm too lazy to take one with my camera and upload it. ;) I am a big nerd and these gifts made me extremely happy. I like to experiment in my kitchen and cook/bake home made things from S.C.R.A.T.C.H. and I can't do this if I don't have the right equipment. So everyone suffers really. 

So I got exactly what I wanted for Mother's Day. I know what you're thinking. Great story right? 

Wrong.

I woke up in the morning and realized we were gone all day yesterday, so no one cleaned the house for me for Mother's Day and now it's Reality Monday and I have an entire house to clean. 

Happy Monday!

Blue Bonnet Minis | Dallas Child Photographer

This was my first year for bluebonnet minis. I was very excited, but very nervous. I already had the date set and client's signed up. But where were the bluebonnet's?? I went exploring for days with a photographer friend of mine, and we found some "patches" of bb's, but nothing more. I wanted a field! I wanted a sea of blue in my photos. So after day two of searching, I had only 2 options. 1.) set this mini back a week or two and hope they grow some where besides the side of the road 2.) make the best of the area I found. Both of those options made me sad. Don't get me wrong, the area I found was quaint and had a good area, but it wasn't what I had been DREAMING about for my first ever bluebonnet mini. So later that night, once Ray got home from work I was telling him of my adventure, and he said "There's a big field of bluebonnet's I see on my way home from work." WHAT?! He said he knew I had been looking so every time he leaves the house he keeps an eye out, and this field seemed to be growing every time he saw it. So I told my photog friend, and we both came to the conclusion that Ray didn't know what he was talking about. LOL And that this "field" he was speaking about was probably a patch just like the ones we saw. We thought this because when he told me where it was, it was seriously only a street away from where we had initially been looking. So if there was a field we would have seen it right?.....

Wrong.

We were oh so wrong.....

I decided "what the heck, let me go check it out. What's there to lose" As soon as I pulled off the highway and onto the service road I could see blue to my left....LOTS OF BLUE. I called my friend and just said "OH MY GOSH!!!" I sent her the pictures and she said "Okay, give me the address to that place now! lol" We met up there and just stared, for forever. We were so ecstatic, and even more excited to bring our clients out here! The best part about it was that when my client's were there, we were the ONLY people out there. So we had the whole field to ourselves. 

So this is my semi-long story of my first bluebonnet mini and the exciting little adventure I had finding this place. I hope you enjoy the pictures. =)

Sebastian & Damian | Dallas Newborn Photographer

How I got the amazing opportunity to meet Sebastian & Damian
I have been wanting to dip my feet (so to speak) into newborn session's for a while. And when I met this adorable family back in December for a family session, I never thought it would lead to just that. Grisela was pregnant with twins & after the session was over she asked me if I also do newborn sessions. I was over joyed that she hadn't even gotten her pictures back from this session and she already wanted to book me again! We chatted for a while, and I let her know that I haven't had the pleasure of being able to shoot a newborn session before but I would absolutely LOVE to do hers. So we booked it and I anxiously awaited  their arrival like I was waiting for my own babies to be born. I planned, and shopped, and search google & blogs endlessly for hours to get ideas and tips and tricks from other awesome photographers.

Then the day finally came....
We planned to do it around 3 pm so that her husband could take her son out for the afternoon to give us quiet time. Being that this was 1.) a session with twins and 2.) my first newborn session ever, that probably wasn't a good idea. It took us a little while to get a groove and get {one} of them to stay asleep.....for about 3 minutes. ;) As you can see from the picture below they weren't having it, and honestly from this picture it looks like they were being goofs and giving me a hard time on purpose, lol. So the sun was disappearing from the big window behind me, and there was nothing else I could do.... Except, to tell Gris not to worry! I would be back tomorrow early in the AM if she was available, and that way we would have all morning/afternoon if we needed that. So I left my things there and came home to get my gear and myself ready for day 2.

Sebastian & Damian- "Such a hoot"

So the second day finally came... ;0)
I got there around 10 in the morning and we decided to set up in the nursery so that the other little ones in the house could play and make noise and it wouldn't distract the babies. And today I brought a space heater. Yes I know what you're thinking. "You didn't take one the FIRST day!?" No. {insert, I feel stupid face here} I had planned to buy one that weekend before, but with all my errands and running around {with my toddler} it was hard to go to every store I needed to and it just slipped my mind. So hooray for day 2! Seriously! We had this heater on full blast and I think we probably lost a pound of two. We were sweating like we were in Zumba class, but these 2 little munchkins were loving it so sweaty we stayed.

Sebastian & Damian- "The Cowboy & Indian"

Do you know what the best part of doing a newborn session is?....
I always got to hold a baby! Mommy rocked and fed one, while I did the same. It was so sweet & I loved it.

Did I mention that Grisela's mom actually made all of the hats for the session?! Aren't they amazing! She did such a great job on all of them and I was so excited to get to use them!

I hope you enjoy vicariously going through this experience with me, and I can only hope I get to photograph another newborn soon! <3 br="" nbsp="">

Nicole A.