Meet Mr. Serious

err, Cade, that is. He is such a funny little guy... he looked at me as if he were saying, "Lady, give it up, you are SO not funny." Lucky for him (or maybe me), he's super cute, smile or not, and I ended up with some darling images.

We finally got him to crack a few happy grins (and even laughs!) when his mom played ball with him!

Here's a little funny from todays session.... we met downtown, and of course that means we'll be trekking all over the place. Well, we get to our second little "location" and Kristin looks at me and says, "Where's my purse!" She had left her purse near the restaurant where we started the session... luckily the server had found it outside on the patio and took it in. Well... thats not it. Towards the end of our session, we start walking back as big brother Cole had to go potty. I freeze in the middle of the sidewalk and say "Where's my camera bag!" Go figure, I left it back at the last location we were at! Good thing downtown wasn't crowded today or else we might be out a purse and a camera bag!!

Eagan │ Jackson Michigan Baby Photographer

You'll probably remember Eagan from the Baby, You're Beautiful! Contest... he was one of the top 3 winners. After my morning with Eagan and his family, I can easily see how he was a winner... he is SO cute!

I can't tell you enough how lucky I am to have such a great job. One of my favorite things is getting to hang out with such cute little people, making them laugh and smile, goofing around and then heading off towards home to view all the great images of them that I captured. I also love meeting these little people's families too... along the way I've met some wonderfully sweet parents and I always enjoy new conversation with each and every new client I have.

Well, I guess I'll stop rambling on and on... and get to the pictures, already!

When I arrived for this session, I woke Eagan from his beauty sleep. He had the sweetest sleepy eyes and gave me this pouty lip as he studied me. He was in his jammies then, so I waited to snap pictures when he was dressed. Lucky me, I was able to catch that cute pouty look later on!

Drumroll, please...

Come check out the new face of Nicole Barczak Photography....Miss Madison Bunch!

Check her out HERE

Baby, You're Beautiful!

Don't you agree?

Saturday I photographed the winner of our Baby, You're Beautiful! Contest.... Miss Madison and her brother, Xander.

I am just in love with her gorgeous ringlet curls... aren't they precious?

Holy Moly, do you believe this?!

I just got home from a nice visit with my family who is in from out of state (Virginia and Georgia) and PollDaddy failed me again... the poll was still up and running. I had it set to close at 9pm, but for some reason it was still running now at 10:30pm.

Well, anyway, not that thats a huge deal, but guess what the polls showed?

I have a tie for second place. Can you believe that?

Anyway, our first place winner, and our soon to be featured face on the homepage of the Nicole Barczak Photography website will be the adorable curly haired Madison! Congratulations! (Madison will receive a complimentary session as well as a 10x20 storyboard featuring 3 images from her session).

And, for second place... what to do what to do? Well, the ever so cute Cade and big smile Eagan have tied... so, they will both receive a complimentary session as well as a complimentary 8x10 from their session.

Congratulations! I look forward to meeting each of you! Emails have been sent regarding scheduling your session as well as an information packet. As I said in my previous post, I've been having some issues with email lately, and thus far I have not received any responses to the emails. So, if you have emailed back to reserve a date for your session, please give me a call at 517-990-2929 as I haven't received your email. (Wait.... Kristin.. I do have you down for June 7th!)

Now, one more thing. I'm thinking of holding a contest for children aged 3-7. What do you think? Is anyone interested? Post in the comments... I'm on the fence with this. This contest has been quite exhausting, so if I don't have a lot of interest, I'll just skip that idea.

Round Three, Here We Go!

Let's review what each place will receive:

1st Place: a complimentary session, a 10x20 storyboard featuring 3 images from the session, as well as becoming the newest Featured Face of the Nicole Barczak Photography homepage!

2nd Place: a complimentary session and an 8x10

3rd Place: a complimentary session

I'm just so excited that I will get to photograph each of these adorable cutie pies!

You can vote once, for one child. The voting will end on Saturday, June 2nd at 9:00pm.

Polls are in... Round 2 is OVER!

Wow, some of these votes were pretty close with the 2nd and 3rd place kids... it was pretty interesting to watch!

The final percentage tally is in.

The three finalists who will go on to Round 3 will be:

Cade, Eagan and Madison!

Congratulations!

(everyone else who was in this round, watch your inboxes for a surprise!)

And moms of the round two winners... I will be contacting you to schedule your sessions while the third round of voting is going on. Sessions over the summer are getting pretty limited, so I want to make sure we get you in!

So, on to Round 3! Whats in it for the 1st place winner?

A complimentary session, a 10x20 storyboard featuring three images from the session as well as being the FEATURED FACE of Nicole Barczak Photography homepage! How cool is that?

Round Two!

Thank you, once again to everyone who was in Round One.  And, congratulations to Round Two contestants!  I am so excited to think that I am going to have the pleasure of photographing three of these beautiful faces!

Here is how Round Two will work.  You will get to choose your TOP THREE Beautiful Babies and vote for them.  You will only be able to vote ONCE. 

Round two will end Wednesday, May 30th at 9pm. 

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Oh my goodness!

I am having a heck of a time getting the closed polls to show up on the blog... the voting is over, the polls have been closed, and now its gone wonky on me! Group 6's poll keeps showing up under different groups posts... and I can't get any other poll to show up. SO, I've posted the link to the poll underneath each groups pictures.

Gosh, I didn't mean for this post to be all about my troubles.... I wanted it to be celebratory!

CONGRATULATIONS to the top 6 winners!
***Cade B., Eagan, Kamryn, Cadence, Madison and Jalyn F!***
A couple of the polls were NECK AND NECK up until the very end, and I am just astounded at how many votes there were! WOW.

And I want to thank EVERYONE who entered the contest. Every single child who was in this contest was absolutely beautiful, and I am so glad that I relied on voting to choose as I would not have been able to pick the winners myself. It would be too hard. Those of you that did not make it to round two, keep an eye out in your inbox for a special surprise. ;)

Awesome awesome awesome. I can't wait for the next round. I'm trying to get the next poll ready and will post it by tomorrow morning.

Three Winners... Three Rounds!

As per hubby's advice, he thinks there should be three rounds of voting. There are 30 entries into this contest, so I was having a difficult time deciding how I want to split up the voting. My husband says, and I quote, "You'll get a truer result if you do three rounds." So, three rounds it will be.

Since there will be three rounds, the voting is going to begin a little sooner than originally expected. This way the duration of each round will have a little time to air on the blog.

The first round will begin Friday (today) and end Sunday at 9:00pm. The second will begin Monday (hopefully by morning!) and end Wednesday at 9:00pm. Third and final round will begin Thursday and end Saturday at 9:00pm. The winners will be announced on Sunday at 9:00am.

Here is how it will work.... there are SIX polls below. You may vote ONCE FOR EACH GROUP... so, total, you can vote six times, but only once per group. Each group/poll will be in its own post... I'll begin uploading now!

I do want to say thank you to all the contest entrants... and GOOD LUCK! Each and every one of these children are incredibly adorable... I don't know how anyone is going to be able to decide who to vote on!

**ETA** I think there was a misunderstanding with the entry time limit. Entries were due BEFORE the 25th... BY MIDNIGHT on the 24th. I apologize for anyone who misunderstood the entry rules and has submitted a photo too late! I'm sorry!! Please keep checking back here on the blog, as I will be running more contests this summer!

Groups...

And there will be three...

Three winners!

We've had a huge amount of photographs submitted for the Baby, You're Beautiful! Contest, and it has been decided that there will be a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

The 1st Place Grand Prize winner will receive a complimentary session and a 10x20 storyboard featuring 3 images from their session. ($195 value!). They will also be the featured face at Nicole Barczak Photography!

The 2nd Place winner will receive a complimentary session and an 8x10 from their session. ($100 value!)

The 3rd Place winner will receive a complimentary session ($75 value!)

Voting will begin on Monday, May 28th. There will be two rounds of voting. The first round will end on Wednesday, May 30th at midnight. The second round of voting (for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place) will begin Thursday, May 31st and end Saturday, June 2nd at midnight.

You will be able to cast your vote here, on the blog. Only one vote per person, please.

***There are less than two days left to enter in the contest! Photos must be submitted before MIDNIGHT tomorrow (Thursday)!***

And I can't possibly leave you without a picture...

MUAHHHH!

Less than a week left

Six days left to submit those beautiful baby pictures for the contest!

I'm going to try to get better at sharing pictures on here.... I mean, pictures other than from sessions. Pictures of whatever.... my son, something I found amusing throughout the day, something pretty, something old. Just something. A picture. Maybe eventually I'll do a challenge with this in mind... but for now, I'm going to share some pictures from this evening. Porter and I went on a walk and stopped by the lake to pick dandelions. He loves to destroy them. As usual, I was unable to capture anything resembling him looking in my direction, but ah, such is life.

and here's something new... a new little technique... kind of resembles a painting. Kinda cool, don't you think?

Keep on Submitting!

We've received numerous entries to the Baby, You're Beautiful! Contest so far, and I'm amazed at what adorable children you all have! The voting is going to be tough!

Remember... the more entries there are, the more prizes there will be. So, if you know anyone who has been tossing around the idea of booking a session with me, now they can have the chance to win a free session! Thats a savings of $75!

I couldn't leave you with two posts in a row without pictures.... so here's one of my son and I on Mother's Day.

Baby, You're Beautiful! Contest

Send me a picture of your cute baby for the Baby, You're Beautiful! contest and have a chance to win a free session!

Here are the rules:

• Entries must be 0-3 years old
• Please note childs' name and age when submitting your picture.
• Do not send in professional pictures. If you wish to send in two or three pictures, that is fine, but only one will be posted on the blog for the voting.
• Entries must be children I have not yet photographed
• Entries will be accepted from May 14th to May 25th
• Voting will take place May 28th-June 2nd

Sessions will be held in Jackson or area within 20 mile radius of my business address. You are more than welcome (and definitely encouraged!) to enter if you live further away, but be informed that travel arrangements will have to be made on your part.

Email your pictures to nicole@nbarczak.com BEFORE midnight May 24th. The more who enter, the more prizes there will be... so send the link to your friends, your family, your co-workers with kids aged 0-3!