R girls for Christmas

Two of my favorite little girls (yes, this is Baby C from her winter newborn shoot) who are all dolled up and ready to get some pictures taken to remember Christmas 2012



C&J Children's photo shoot

On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of shooting the first official photo shoot since beginning my business: TabbiAnn Photography at the beginning of the month. My 1st client: Jodi, a woman I have known for years since teaching her son in one of my kindergarten classes at Marion. We settled on a date, time, and location (Norlo Park, Chambersburg) and were ready to roll. Here are my faves from the morning :-)

Blaze is 2

Had so much fun doing this photo shoot. Headed over to West Penn Park (back home in Tamaqua) with my aunt Karen, aunt Susan, and Taryn. thank goodness for their help as well :-) The first 20 mins or so all I got was pictures of Blaze's back (little stinker turned away every time I got near him)
But eventually, he warmed up to me, remembered who I was (maaaybee haha), and of course, there was LOTS of swedish fish. (I started joking around that he is just gonna turn into Palvov's dog when he sees me coming towards him with my camera. He will KNOW that Swedish fish are on the way! LOL)
Hope you enjoy these pics as much as I do!

Mary's Photo Shoot

Last summer (yeah, I know should have posted MONTHS ago on this one) I got to do my first Senior Photo Shoot for my sister. I took her to my family's grove in Tamaqua and was totally thrilled with the results!! I have tons of favorites from that afternoon (and posted dozens on Facebook) but once again I am trying to get my shoots all in one central location :-)
Check 'em out ladies & gentleman!

 



 









Maddy's photo shoot (from October)

I am just trying to copy all of my photo shoots onto my photography blog. I have added more from my original post on The Eckenrode Exclusive....

well over the course of this month Maddy and I put our heads together to be creative and do her school pictures. This year I wanted to shoot her pictures instead of having her aunt Amanda take them and so I was super nervous because I wanted to do just as good of a job and make sure she loved my pics as much as she has loved her school pictures in previous years. We took a few in Caledonia but the majority of the photos (and the nicer ones that we both liked more) were taken just down the road at Airport Park. I finished editing them tonight and finally let her see them. Her response: "I like 'em! You did a great job Mom. They look really good"
Here are some of my personal favorites...... I am going to post more on Facebook in a few days

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)

"Put a fish in my mouth, I am laying here for you Daddy"

hit the duckie

"Come on Nana, time to go home"