Kathryn and Leo Holiday Portraits at Sunken Gardens

Kathryn and Leo decided to use the awesome locations at Sunken Gardens for their Christmas card photos this year. The park even had a day that dogs were allowed in! In addition to the usual great scenery, they had lots of pointsettias; even a giant pointsettia tree to use as a background. The only problem at the Sunken Gardens is trying to find enough time to fit everything in.

Starting out by a small tree near the park entrance.

I always love those in-between moments the best.

We came around the corner and found this huge tree! Score!

I'm always a sucker for a backlit forest.

Let gets comfortable in an area he chose himself for some individual shots.

Found a nice patch of grass to play around in.

The sun starts to drop and creates really intersting light throughout the property.

Despite the great colors everywhere, I still like a few converted to black and white.

Another succesful holiday portrait in the bag and in time for Christmas cards! More posts to come so hopefully I can get caught up again! Check back soon.

Rett's Spooky B-Day

I suppose the Halloween-inspired theme for this birthday party gives you an idea how far behind I am. I've photographed Rhett on several occasions and was glad to be there to shoot this superhero Halloween extravaganza.

The birthday boy shows off his "muscles."

Spooky cupcakes waiting for hungry kids.

The fairest princesses in the land.

Mmmmm, Capri Sun.

Baby eats while the big kids go play.

Plenty of love to go around.

Big brother fixes sissy's dress.

Darth Vader does the jitterbug.

The whole fam gathers for a group shot.

Happy Birthday Rhett! Here's to another year.

Tampa Photo Beach Wedding, Don CeSar Resort

These are from a small beach wedding held on a weekday back in October. I was only there for an hour or two, but we managed to get plenty of photos in.

Puppy Power

These puppies were bred to be sold by the owners. But once they saw the lone golden pup, they had to keep him for themselves. They wanted photos to help sell the puppies, but they also wanted a special keepsake to have long after they've moved on to new homes.

It took some wrangling, but we managed to get them all in the basket and looking in the same direction for this image.

In addition to the group shots, I made some individual portaits of each puppy.

Maybe she sees her reflection in the lens.

They named this fella "Longo" after Tampa Bay Rays star Alex Longoria so we had to incorporate some baseball elements into his photos.

A wider view.

"What are you doing?"

Awww. We managed to squeeze one in before he toppled over.

The puppies were in constant motion to escape from the basket. OK, we're done - you can all go back to sleep. Good dogs.

Cousins Portrait Session

A few months ago I took these photos for a family that had a cousin in town from overseas. That doesn't happen often, so they wanted to make sure to get some good shots of the girls all together. These images are to be used as Christmas cards this year as a surprise.

The girls pose by the water and just have some fun.

Walking to the next location even made a nice image.

Some intermittent rain forced us to find shelter a few times. An old fence panel underneath the building made a nice simple background where there was really nice light coming in.

The sisters pose for a few by themselves.

The little one steals the show.

Too adorable.

The sisters pose in front of a beautiful sky. You can see the rain coming in from the left here.

One more shot while we waited out the rain.

These sisters/cousins were so photogenic and it was great to know that I was capturing family members together who don't get to see each other very often. As usual, rain causes some problems, but it always brings nice skies and beautiful light!

Family Portrait, Tradewinds Resort, St. Pete Beach

Headed down to the Tradewinds Resort not too long ago for this family portrait session. The family was down from Ohio on vacation and thought it would be a great opportunity for some family shots. We took advantage of all the great scenery around the property for lots of different settings.