Just a Lady with a Camera: Blaze Michael

The weekend before Thanksgiving I was honored and overjoyed to be asked by my cousin Nathan to take pictures of his son Blaze for him. (I am over the moon ecstatic actually because up until this point the pictures that I have done for people have been offers on my part)
"When are you coming home to Tamaqua?"
"Ugh, I dont think that option is going to work. What about meeting halfway in Hershey? We can eat some lunch at Red Robin and then find a place afterwards to take the pictures"
"Sounds like an awesome plan! THANK YOU!"

Now I am left to think, where can I take Blaze to get his pictures taken? My initial thought - let's go to the Fort Indiantown Gap exit off the interstate and go to the park that my SIL took us a few years ago for our family portraits. Upon further thinking, WHAT AM I THINKING? haha this park has no playground, nothing to keep a 17 month old entertained so I can take his picture! The most common thought then occurs to me, "you cannot pose a 17 month old, this is going to take all of your creative juices and a whole lot of prayer" LOL

The answer to one of my prayers, the discovery of Cocoa Castle a super cute playground that is only miles away from the Red Robin. Now my creative juices can start flowing. I am still super nervous. When we get there and start shooting, (on a gorgeous fall day, I might add. The weather couldn't have cooperated with us more!) my nerves slip away and I actually develop some confidence in my abilities (another answered prayer). Blaze just runs throughout the playground and I tag along for the ride. I will say though "Thank God for digital cameras" because my camera is on action mode the entire afternoon (which also means that I am shooting two or three pictures every time I hit the trigger). I tried putting it into other modes (portrait, AP, landscape, etc....) and the result is just blurry or out of focus pictures because Blaze is just GOING. Who can blame him either? This park is seriously super fun and awesome! (it actually was featured in an episode of Jon and Kate Plus 8) The result: 837 pictures at the end of 2 hours!!!!! haha I uploaded the pics at home on my laptop and it was like watching a mini Blaze movie play itself out across the play equipment.

Now the hard part: editing. I use a website called Picnik which isn't the super fanciest site (I do pay for the premium membership which is only $25/yr) but it is very user friendly and I love the effects I can produce. I narrow the selection of photos down to a little over 215 and then begin altering originals into black-n-whites, sepia tones, adding text & stickers, plus everything in between.

The end result: pictures that I totally in love with and I happy to report that so are Nathan and Aunt Karen!
You have probably seen these all on Facebook (I have been adding them along the way to give Nate some sneak peaks till I am finished) but these are some of my favorites out of the bunch with additional commentary that I didn't add to the pics on facebook since I didn't want to write captions

Enjoy :-)

I don't think he dropped that superball all afternoon

it took him awhile to warm up to the swings and Daddy had to be the one pushing

I am SO happy that I accidentally caught this moment on camera. Doesn't it almost remind you of a Forrest Gump moment (like in the movie where they are sitting on the log together, looking identical)

Nathan (or Nikki - cant remember which) was holding crayons, leftover from our lunch at Red Robin, above my head and asking him to point to certain colors

This shot was actually Maddy's idea

If Blaze would talk he would be saying "OMG Tabitha! Are you done yet?!?!"

we are not above bribing him with swedish fish towards the end of the shoot (I dont think anyone in our family is above bribery with swedish fish! LOL)