2009: Top Ten Senior Photos

Time for my annual year in review! I feel like this year was such a whirlwind with having a baby right in the middle of portrait season and shooting portraits both when I was huge as a barn and also when I had a newborn at home.

But I also feel like it was an amazing year, and I thank all of my clients who were so great to work with! I met some fabulous new families and saw numerous repeat clients, both of which I'm so grateful for.

I've had a good time going through all of the sessions from the year to choose some of my favorites. First up is the Top Senior Portraits for 2009, in no particular order....
Thank you, Class of 2010, for a great 2009 :)

Connor's first Christmas

Hope everyone had a spectacular Christmas! Christmas is by far my favorite time of the whole year, and I wish it would last for half the year (with summer as the other half of course). And this Christmas was extra-amazing because we got to celebrate it for the first time with the best gift Evan and I have ever received!

(taken on Christmas Eve. Doesn't he look so handsome in his little holiday sweater?!)

We're lucky that both of our families are within a half hour of our home and while that means never having to choose between holiday celebrations, it also means that we are constantly on-the-go and attend every family get-together. This year, we went to five family celebrations in three days!

We had Christmas Eve brunch at Evan's parents' house with his immediate family, and mass and Christmas Eve dinner with my immediate family. On Christmas Day morning, we opened presents at home (Santa definitely visited Connor! He was a good boy this year ;) ) Then we spent late morning and early afternoon with my mom's extended family and then jetted out to Evan's grandpa's house in Ashland (about 30 minutes away) to spend the rest of the day and night with his mom's extended family. The day after Christmas, we had brunch with my dad's extended family. Whew!

Connor was very enthused about all of the present-opening...

Christmas Eve morning

Christmas morning

oh wait, he was awake for some of it!

early Christmas morning

Though we were totally exhausted after the weekend, we had a fabulous time and feel so blessed we got to spend such a wonderful holiday with our families. Connor did great the whole time and LOVED all of the attention lavished on him! Here are a few more Christmas photos...

(the hat says "Kiss Me Grandma")

my mom and I

Connor and his cousins - Garrett, Evie and Audie. Four grandkids under age 3!

Merry Christmas!

Awww my heart melts every time I see this photo! I got this the other night right before Connor decided he was done taking photos and started drooling all over his uncle's present. :)

Merry Christmas to all!!! Hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends!

William: Virginia High School 2010

My last senior of the year! I particularly enjoyed this session because it was in the small town of Virginia, which I had never been to before. I have a special place in my heart for small towns for some strange reason, especially ones with cute little town squares.

It was also really great hanging out with William, who was very laidback, easy to talk to and pretty much went along with whatever shot I came up with!

Here's one of my favorites...maybe even my absolute favorite. I think it could be one of the posters in the front of Abercrombie and Fitch!

oh my, I just love these country shots

I really like a lot of his more serious looks, but we got some nice smiling ones too :)

Here's that small town square I was talking about...love it!

We went out to the farm where William has worked for several years...

Another favorite!

Thanks William - enjoy your senior year!!

The A Family

I got lucky this fall with having really great families to photograph, and it was especially nice because it made everything stress-free while I was leaving my newborn to photograph some of these!

It seemed like Washington Park was a popular destination this summer and fall for family photo sessions, but my session with the A family took me out to the Sugar Creek Covered Bridge in Glenarm. It workd out really well since we had such a wet October and while the park was muddy, being on the bridge wasn't too wet at all!

And oh those precious boys...

Mom had said she wasn't sure that the youngest, Grant, would smile much for us.

I think Grant made a liar out of her!

In fact, these were some of the best behaved and easy-going kids we have photographed! I wouldn't mind having 10 kids if they all acted like these two... :)

What an adorable family. Maybe we can get together for a play date?! in a couple of years, when Connor might be a bit more interesting to Wyatt and Grant... ha. How cute. Love them.

Thanks for the session, A Family!!

Ellie: Tri-City High School 2010

So the last two seniors I had for the year were farm kids and wanted photos on the farm...which I absolutely LOVED!! I am obsessed with rural settings for photo sessions! They're so rustic, natural and beautiful.

The first was Ellie, from Tri-City High School in Buffalo. Her family is good friends with my in-laws, so we had a good time traipsing around their farm and coming up with some fabulous shots.

Here are some of my favorites...

yep, she's a country girl!!

beautiful eyes!

absolutely stunning

ahhh I'm CRAZY about this one!!
Thanks Ellie, hope you are enjoying your senior year!!

I'm still here!!

So I completely apologize for the quietness around here lately!! I went back to work at my fulltime job after Thanksgiving, and things have just been CRAZY trying to adjust to a new schedule, working fulltime and trying to get ready for Christmas!! I don't even have a single present wrapped yet :(

But I STILL have some sessions left to blog from the late fall, not to mention some very sweet photos of my baby boy, who just turned three months old last Sunday! I can't believe how much he is growing and changing every day. I love him so much I can hardly stand it and feel like my heart is going to burst every time I see him!!

But I digress (sorry, I was having a new mom moment).

Check back very very soon for some new posts. And in the meantime, I am cooking up some amazing new things for next year, and I can't wait to unveil it all in the early spring! There are going to be some really fun changes coming to Westlake Photography!!

oh and PS if you're still looking for that last-minute gift, we are offering gift certificates for photo sessions! These make a fabulous present for your mom or grandparents, who often want to get the family all together for photos but just never seem to get around to it. And through purchasing a gift card for a session next year, you are able to get a 2010 session at 2009's prices! Contact me if interested :)

and now I'll leave you all with a precious pic of Connor because what's a blog post without a photo!?