The weekend of October 17th and 18th was a FABULOUS weekend for Smith Family Photography's Halloween/Fall Mini-Sessions! The weather was nice and dry...and warm and sunny. By all accounts it was a perfect weekend for the sessions!

The sessions on Saturday were held in Groesbeck at Old Fort Parker. We only had three available time slots for this location and they filled up quickly! I was SO incredibly happy when the Wier Family booked the first time slot! Last Halloween was the first time I met them at our very first Halloween Mini-Session. They kiddos have grown a lot! It really is amazing to watch them grow in front of the camera and know that I am helping their family capture their memories.

The difference a year makes! Here is one of their Halloween/Fall Mini-Session images from last year.

It's always so much fun spending time with these cuties! They have so much personality and we all feel so comfortable around each other, which really makes the photographs just that much better because they are genuine. With Kayson walking this year, we were definitely moving around much more trying to keep up with him! These siblings have so much love for one another :)

Sibling Love!  Isn't this the sweetest?? — Sibling Love! Isn't this the sweetest??

Another family I have had the pleasure of watching grow in front of my camera is the Craven Family. They were also clients from the first Halloween/Fall Mini-Session last year. They are also becoming more and more comfortable each time we have a session. This year, the youngest three participated in the session. The older ones all had somewhere else to be...as older kiddos typically do.

The three youngest Craven children...all smiles this year, 2015

Miss Emma really came out of her shell for this year's session! She was ALL smiles! Last year she absolutely refused to be in the group photo with her brothers.

We have recently started adding collages into galleries due to the amount of clients that have been requesting them. Collages are a great way to showcase your favorite photographs from the session in one frame!

We had one more client for the Halloween/Fall Mini-Sessions in Groesbeck, Miss Dixie...I mean, Wolfie. This young lady is very energetic, spunky, and full of personality all the way down to her toes! She would howl like Wolfie one minute and then want to show me how fast her horse could run the next!

Dixie was in character as Wolfie...and howled!

As we ran from area to area, posing in various positions and acting the part of many different things, her mom stated that she would like one nice photograph with her daughter. They got into position for the one photograph that mom requested and then this happened....

Dixie gave her mom a surprise when she asked for one nice photograph!

Mom finally got all she wanted...one nice photograph!

The last session on the Halloween/Fall Mini-Session weekend was held at Hewitt Park with the Senn Family. They had to have an early time due to some obligations at church that morning. I was honestly a bit worried when I was driving to the location because the sun really wasn't in the position that I hoped it would be for the session. I arrived and began setting up. As I was getting everything set up, I stood back and watched the sunrise. I realized at that moment that this session was going to be amazing! The light was going to be absolutely beautiful! I was even more blown away when I began working with the family and realized how cooperative all of them were...even the three young children!

Look at that light...and those cooperative kids!

This session went so smoothly from beginning to end! The kids cooperated so well and much to my surprise, one of the first photographs that we captured had every single member of the family looking at the camera with a happy face! Absolutely stunning!

For their session I decided to make them a fun collage which would showcase each of the children with a family photograph. Again, collages are great to showcase favorites in one frame. I personally love them!

We have recently started creating one or two collages per gallery. However, beginning today you will now be able to customize your own collage within the gallery by choosing the photos you'd like! You will simply choose the number of images you'd like on your collage and then you will choose the photos. I will arrange them in a collage and email you the "proof" for your approval prior to ordering from the professional lab. If you have a different size in mind, or a different amount of photographs, just let me know and I will do my best to build a product that you would like.

I LOVE FALL! I LOVE HALLOWEEN! As September and October inched closer and closer, I could not get those two things off my mind and I had a gazillion ideas running through my mind about a fall and/or Halloween photography mini-sessions! I researched and I brainstormed for weeks. Finally, it hit me like a ton of bricks - I should have a Fall/Halloween mini-session in three towns over a weekend in limited quantities.

Now that I had a plan, I still had a lot of preparation in putting it all together. I had to find a "set-up." I envisioned hay bales, mums, pumpkins, possibly a scarecrow and maybe a few other items...and LEAVES! Leaves are a must if you are going to have a fall mini-session, even if you live in Central Texas! I climbed into the attic and scoured through the storage shed to see what decorations we had. I made a list of items that I needed and went shopping.

The set-up was complete after a quick shopping trip. I think it actually took me longer to dig through what I already had at the house! Next, I needed to put together a flyer, but before I could do that I needed to find two models. Typically I just use my own kids for these things, but they just don't give me the excitement anymore for some reason. I thought and thought about who I could use and then I had another revelation! I could do a model call to find some terrific models with fresh faces that would actually be excited to be in front of the camera!

The ad I used to find my two terrific models.

I posted this ad in two places. I posted it on my business Facebook page and I also posted it in the Limestone County Sway N Shop Facebook page. I received several inquiries and was only going to take the first two children that met the requirements. The children had to be a certain age. I wanted kids between the ages of 3 and 6, as they are generally able to concentrate for the amount of time I needed them to and they are just plain fun to work with. Another requirement was that they had to be able to have a cute costume by mid-September for the modeling session. The final requirement was a signed model contract and a $25 deposit to secure the modeling session that would be returned to the parents in the form as a credit to use towards prints from the session.

The first two models that met all three of these requirements were....Miss Dani and Miss Genesis!

Miss Dani's modeling session was first! She bounced out of the car and was so excited to have her picture taken (or at least I'd like to think that was why she was so excited). She had the cutest curls in her hair with a gorgeous blue princess dress. She was the blue Cinderella :) She cooperated so well and did everything I asked. You can tell that she felt so incredibly beautiful in that adorable dress.

Dani also brought a candy corn dress to wear for some of her photos. This dress was way adorable! It came with a necklace and head band that coordinated with the dress. Again, you could tell that Dani felt so beautiful wearing that dress!

Dani feeling pretty in her candy corn dress!

The second model was MIss Genesis and she arrived just as excited as Dani. She hopped out of the vehicle wearing an adorable cheetah costume complete with beautiful curls and whiskers painted on her face! Genesis also cooperated so well and did everything that was asked of her. She looked so stunning in her costume and again, you could tell that she felt like the cutest little cheetah EVER!

During the session with Genesis she posed a variety of ways and we were able to get some great shots. When I began looking at the images on my computer one photo in particular caught my attention. It was an ordinary image of a beautiful girl standing on a bale of hay in the park. The more I looked at it, I realized that it would make a beautiful creative image for fall. I decided to turn it into one of my Signature Edits.

Photography is my passion...like cake :) Signature Edits are like my cake with a TON of frosting! I start with a beautiful image that for whatever reason makes me wonder, "I wonder what this would look like with..." I start putting the vision together piece by piece. Signature Edits take a great deal of patience and time to put together. It is not uncommon to spend over two hours working on a Signature Edit.

With the help of these two terrific models and their parents, I was able to put together an ad that I love to advertise our upcoming Fall/Halloween mini-sessions. I pre-released the details to my newsletter subscribers for early bookings. I have limited sessions - 3 in Buffalo, 3 in Groesbeck, and 6 in Waco during the weekend of October 17th and 18th. Due to the pre-release, 3 of the sessions are already booked so far! The public release of the mini-session will be October 1st.

Halloween/Fall Mini-Session Success!

A Tale of Two Terrific Models