One of the things that photographers who are also parents hear all the time from others is, “Oh, you must have so many amazing photos of your own kids!” And while I’m lucky that I have been able to capture a lot of great portraits of my little ones over the past 5.5 years, there are also a lot of…. shall we say… bloopers.

In the photography world, we have a phrase that is shared often among photographers when talking about taking photos of their own children. We call it “Photographer’s Child Syndrome.” Let me explain.

It’s a different ballgame when it’s mom behind the camera. And when your toddler only wants to be held by mom, that means mom can’t get a picture of the toddler because they will just cry until mom picks them up. Or when your older child enjoys practicing all sorts of silly smiles and knows all of your tricks already that would get a natural smile or laugh, then you’ll only capture weird expressions on his face.

I wanted to share this blog post today to show the funny (though sometimes exasperating!) side of being a mom & a photographer. These are my holiday portraits of Grayson and Adelaide. And while yes, I do have a lot of great pictures of my little ones, I also have these funny moments to look back on. Grayson tried sooooo hard to be patient with his little sister, and the last photo in the collage below makes me laugh every time where he’s like, “Enough already!” and gets up and runs off!

P.S. You can bet that the crying Santa picture and the crying sibling one made it on our holiday cards this year!

P.P.S. My sweet girl was literally THE ONLY CHILD ALL DAY to cry at our Santa sessions in the studio. All because she wanted to be held by me, the photographer. Not a single other baby or toddler cried. So, I guess we’re just lucky like that that it was our own little girl!

These next few I actually love, and they made it onto our holiday card this year!

The day Santa came to the studio was a whole fiasco in itself. My kids had their turn with Santa in between our other clients, and after a whole morning of happy little ones (though occasionally nervous, but never fussy!), this was what we got. The chaos of the sibling portion I can only laugh at. But the PURE MAGIC that unfolded between my son and Santa Claus made every single part of the planning and executing of these sessions worth it, times 1000.

Adelaide spotted him sneaking over, but Grayson still had no idea.

Such a funny moment. Both completely unaware that Santa was standing right behind them.

When Grayson received his letter from Santa a few days before he came to the studio, the first thing Grayson told me was that we needed to bake cookies for him so that we could give him some cookies when he came to visit. My little baker LOVES helping in the kitchen, and he was thrilled to bake chocolate chip cookies for his favorite jolly fellow.

Adelaide kept her distance the rest of the time we were with Santa. She was mildly curious about painting the nutcrackers with the “magic paint,” but even that couldn’t convince her to step back onto the backdrop where Santa was sitting with her big brother. Grayson, on the other hand, had the time of his life and wore the biggest smile through every second of it!

We did take exactly one photo of Adelaide with Santa at the very end, and it lasted maybe 2 seconds.

Would you believe that ever since Santa visited us, Adelaide shouts “Studio! Studio! Ho ho ho!” every single day, running excitedly over to the studio door and asking to go downstairs to see Santa. Yep, I can’t believe it either! She’s been doing this for about 5 or 6 weeks now, and I don’t see her stopping any time soon.

I know this blog post is different from our regular posts, and I hope you enjoyed the humor in this little series of outtakes from my sessions with my own children. Click on the heart button or leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

Happy holidays!! I’m so excited to share a little sneak peek into our holiday sessions this year. I was so happy to see a lot of repeat families this year, and I love when they visit the studio year after year for their holiday portraits. It’s so much fun watching the kids grow, and this year I loved when the children walked in and asked right away about the toy corner and told me, “I remember this toy! We played with this last time!”. It’s seriously such a special moment for me each time a family comes back to my studio.

The all white studio is so versatile for these classic holiday portraits, and I keep adding to our furniture collection of chairs, benches, and loveseats with linen upholstery and weathered wood. Every year I add more trees or greenery, and I love how it all comes together so beautifully and I can mix and match furniture, wreaths, and trees across the setups while still keeping everything classic and minimal with the focus on the family and not too overwhelming with props. This year, I created three different setups.

The one I was most excited about was a collaboration with a talented local floral designer, Samantha Nass Floral Design. She absolutely nailed the design with the inspiration photos that I sent her and incorporated the most beautiful greenery, winter stems, and a hint of red flowers.

I’ve been wanting to do another giant wreath setup. The last time I did an oversized wreath was in 2017, but since then I’ve refined my studio style and I am in love with flocked evergreens, so a flocked wreath with frosted berries mixed in was just the perfect look for the studio. This was so much fun for some casual family & sibling portraits, and the perfect spot for fun Christmas pajamas!

I added the ornament wall the day before our sessions began when I saw that we had enough room for one more simple setup. I love everything in muted neutrals like gold and champagne, and this wound up being a favorite setup for just about every family! I love that I have the flexibility and space to do that for families in the studio.

Happy holidays! I hope everyone has a cozy year with their loved ones.