Adorable Family

I'll admit... I was a little nervous going into this session. I had chatted with their mom and she had voiced her concern with getting her two year old to cooperate. I assured her I'd try my best to get some great shots and silently crossed my fingers.

A 5 year old, 2 year old and 1 year old.

In one session.

Sounds like a concoction for chaos, right?

Far from it! I was amazed at how well mannered these kids were. They were a little hesitant of me at first, but then they warmed up and were so stinking adorable. They all had big, beautiful eyes and, well, their entire family was gorgeous!

I am not sure how I'm going to pick just a few images to show for this sneak peek.... they're all beautiful!


Rona, I'll have your gallery up by next week, I promise! :)

The 5lb 9oz little peanut Penelope

You probably remember her mommy's maternity session... gorgeous. I I was so excited to meet Penelope. Her mommy said she was just so tiny and beautiful, and boy was she right!

I couldn't believe how little and petite she was. She was up to 5lbs 9oz (from 5lb 4oz leaving the hospital) and absolutely precious. She must have been excited to meet me too, because she barely slept a wink.



Penelope and "big brother" Oscar... what a gentle boy!

Of course, I had to get a close up of her little toes...

Just P

Porter still loves his Bumbo seat. We let a friend borrow it for awhile and her baby no longer needed it (she's standing now, and obviously sits on her own too), so she returned it to us. Porter thinks its pretty fun to sit in his "Bummo Seeeeet!" and watch tv.





Keep an eye out for the next few days... I'll be posting a sneak peek of a peanut of a little baby girl, weighing in at just over 5lbs. OOOhhh precious!

Tara │ Jackson Michigan Senior Photographer

I hope you are pleased with your pictures!

Maternity │ Saline Michigan Maternity Photographer

Here is a session from last week. I can't wait to meet this little girl once she's born. And she WILL be early, right Linzi?

Family Sneak Peek...

Gosh, I've been slacking on the blog. I now have 3 sessions to catch up on with sneak peeks.

Here's the first..

Holiday 2007... coming quickly!

If you're thinking of Holiday cards this season, now is a great time to be thinking of getting your order in before the holiday rush. This year I am doing things a little differently... I have created (or, for some of the templates- purchased them from vendors) a set of holiday cards for the 2007 season. Some are from last year, but were my favorites so they're back again. Anyhow, I will be setting up a link to the cards I am offering and will link you to them soon. For now, here are a few.






If you have had a session with me and wish to purchase holiday cards, drop me an email at nicole@nbarczak.com

The deadline for placing your order is November 10th.

*Crush*

I had a session this weekend with a kiddo that I just want to pinch his cheeks... Mr. Personality himself. I love 5 year olds... they are so so fun. Peyton's mom booked a session all for him to celebrate his transition into kindergarten. What a great thing to do!

Now, immediately I knew we'd have fun during this session. His mom told me the only problems I would have would be getting him to STOP hamming it up for the camera. NO. NO. NO! I looooove ham! When kids just throw out their personalities at me, that is awesome and that is what I am out to capture. One of my biggest compliments is to hear that I totally captured my subject's personality in my images.

Now... lets start off here...
Mr. "Stuff" himself. Acting a little cool, a little shy, a little wary of the "is she funny or is she just weird" photographer.

And then here...
Laughing at something silly his mom or I did, I'm sure.

I love me some funny faces.

And of course, we had to be a little rebellious...
"Rock on, dude!"

I had so much fun with Peyton and his mom, AND his baby sister Ava. I snuck in a snap of her too... simply angelic.

His mom emailed me after they arrived home and said that Peyton announced in the car that he wants to marry me. Now, isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever heard?

The session where you realize WHY my clients are all laughing in their pictures... │ Jackson Michigan Senior Photographer

If you ask Trevor and his family, they'll tell you what a kook I am. First, we head to this beautiful park in Hillsdale (I'm not usually one to like "park settings" but this was a pretty cool park!), and the mosquitoes SWARMED me. I'm not kidding, they were starting to think they were going to get a bill from me for a blood transfusion after the session. Anyhow, for the majority of the time I was shooting I was also swatting and dancing a jig to get the bugs off of me. Quite a sight, I'd say, as I can't dance to save my life.

I have to show this one first... This one is for you, Trevor... your... uh... what did you call it? "Zoolander Pose"? (I'm so out of touch with what is "in"). (Really, though... he was blowing a mosquito away from his face. )Ok, now, back to being serious....


I'm pretty sure this one he was laughing at me swatting at the gazillion mosquitoes that were attacking me...
This one... you HAVE to click to see larger. What a HAM! He wanted some pictures of him wake boarding (right?... wake boarding?) and, of course I say "Sure!". So, we head out on the boat and I start having flashing visions of me falling off the back of the boat and having a heart attack because *GASP!* dark water!!! (I'm terrified of dark water... even lakes. I swear, there are sharks and alligators and all sorts of creatures in there!). Anyhow, his mom and I got a good laugh about that, as she never goes in the water either. I wasn't sure how well the pictures would turn out, seeing I was on a bumpy boat trying to keep my little focus point on a moving subject. Interesting. Well, lets just say after feeling like a total paparazzi (and I'm sure Trevor was feeling a little celebrity-like, eh?), I got some great shots. This is one of my favs... showing off for the photographer.

Oh, another "What a nerd photographer" moment... We were just finishing up shooting at their house, and getting ready to go on the boat.

Trevor's mom looks at me, all serious like and says "So, are you ready for the suit?"

My jaw drops. My eyes widen.

"Whaaa..aaa...? Suit?? ME?" I stammered.

"Noooo, Trevor. For the wake boarding!" she says, cracking up.

HAHAHAH! I thought that she was asking me if I was ready to put on a suit to go on the boat to take pictures. They were all dying at my stunned face. I was ready to pull out the "Uh, sorry, thats not in our contract" line HAHA!

Congratulations, Sienna!

She won by... a mile. Craziness. I was blown away by the amount of votes she had, so I emailed her mom and asked her "What the heck is going on? You're KILLING the competition!"

She says "My family, my family! I not one to get all into contests, but my aunt has gone crazy and recruited all her friends, and their friends to vote. Her aunt told her... 'Oh, we can WIN this!'"

And win they did!

Congratulations!

Check her out: HERE

Its been a crazy, busy month so far.

Here are a few sneak peeks for the Reese family... I apologize for the delay and all galleries that are in progress will be more along the 2 week time frame instead of 7-10 days. I apologize, but life has been crazy and I have to stay sane somehow.

Meg and Duncan │ Jackson Michigan Child Photographer

I told myself I wouldn't work at all this weekend. But, what did I just get done doing? Editing a few images to post here for a sneak peek. *sigh* I'm addicted.

Anyhow, I'll try to keep this short and sweet, as I had big plans to day to scrapbook while Porter is napping and then we're heading to Coldwater to spend the afternoon and evening with my husbands parents. Thats about it for our big plans for the weekend.

This week I had a session with this family again for their "annual" portraits. Its amazing how much kids grow in just a year. We headed to Spring Arbor University campus to find some shade as the sun was large and in charge that afternoon.

Here is Meg last year:
Meg... oh spunky little Meg. She seems to have matured so much in the past year. I've heard stories from her mom about how she just loved having her picture taken last year and that she wanted to "practice poses" for me. Well, she was ready when I arrived! We took a few photos in the kids room, and while I was busy with her little brother (more on him later)... I walked out of his room, glanced into hers and found this...
Those are her WebKinz, by the way. And after this she proceded to tell me "Nicole, I have another idea!" and she struck another 4 or 5 poses for me. She is just too much. I couldn't believe she was just 5! Already she is quite qualified for a photographer's posing assistant, equipment manager (she does a great job hauling around the reflector!), and child wrangler. To top it all off, she does a sweet dance from High School Musical!

While I do have some other silly photos of her, this is one of my favorites...
Here is Duncan last year:
Now Duncan, on the other hand... he has me scared for what is in store for me next year. Energy GALORE! This little guy is exactly one year and 2 hours older than Porter. Yes, they share the same birthday! He was go go go go go go... and what a daredevil he was! He didn't bat an eye at the thought of attempting anything that big sis did, and he even wanted to jump off a ledge that was a good 2 feet higher than he stood! Silly boy. He is so sweet, though, and such a cute little talker. I sure had to work to keep up with him, and we resorted to a little reverse psychology to get him where we needed him to be. Here are a few of my favorites of Mr. Duncan...

Alright... that's it for now. Back to my regularly scheduled vacation weekend. Have a great one, all!