Photography tips for the New Year

Have you been trying to improve your ability to capture great images on your camera? It does not matter if you have been shooting for years or if you just picked up a camera for the first time, there is always something to learn. As you know I follow Me Ra Koh (a totally amazing photographer http://merakoh.com/ ) and from her I learned about a great site that has some great tips for photographers of every ability for the new year. Check out photojojo (http://photojojo.com/content/guides/19-new-years-photo-resolutions )and its New Years resolutions for photographers. Keep Shooting! Happy New Years!

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Sara Montgomery Photography had a great first couple months! It is still in development, but thank you to all of you who have been supporting it as it grows. The web site was completed, the only problem was that I was not happy with the end product. After lots of thinking, I decided to scrap the whole thing and start over. It will be some time before it will be up. I will update all of you again when I have a better idea of when it will go live.

The blog has been a lot of fun for me to do. I am excited to say that there is a new feature available to you on on the blog. If you are interested, you can now subscribe to the blog. When you subscribe, you will receive an email every time there is a new post on the site.

If you are interested in photographs or setting up a session, please email me at sara@saramontgomeryphotography.com . Keep following the blog for photography specials for the new year!

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope that you had a wonderful Christmas! We had a great time here. Christmas Eve we spent in Olympia with my mother and family, and Christmas day we celebrated at my home in Tacoma. It was nice to stay at home on Christmas and just soak up the joy in watching the kids celebrate Christmas. I love to see how excited they get when they spend time with their cousins and grandparents, sneak too many snacks or in our case chocolate covered raisins, tear open presents, check to see that Santa did indeed eat our cookies...the list goes on and on.

Ava was so much fun this year! She took so much pride in the gifts she gave people and she was just as excited as they were when they opened them up. It was fun to watch. She has been watching me take photos and has been requesting a camera for some time, she was thrilled to get one of her own. She took over 100 photos!

She will have to start her own blog soon! I believe that at least 90 of the 100 photos are of her gifts. It was so cute, she would set up the shots carefully, the dolls had to be just right, Olivia even started to help. As you probably have seen in one of my other posts, Olivia loves rubber ducks! She was very happy to get a "GINORMOUS rubber duck" (Ava's description... which she got from the Will Ferrell movie "Elf") from her big sister for Christmas.

Olivia loves to play mommy to her dolls. I could have watched her all day as she set them up, spoke to them, and most importantly to her, ensured that all of them (Olivia included) had pacifiers.

After all of the gifts, food and company, our girls were overtired and full of sugar induced energy.... Ava was running circles around us (literally) and Olivia could not decide what she needed anymore, but it wasn't pants, she assured me of that!

What great memories we made! Christmas can sometimes become a whirlwind of gifts, company, and food. With all of the rush, I hope that all of you had time to soak up the ones that you love. God Bless you in the new year!

Transformers... more than meets the eye!

Sunday I met and photographed a new family... It was great to step into their home to be greeted by four year old Elijah yelling, "Hey Sara, I am playing transformers in here!" You would think that I had known him his whole life, but we had never met! He is a handsome little guy with a awesome personality! I LOVE this shot of Elijah with his favorite transformer....




Now, meet Evan! He is such a sweet little guy and very laid back! You can tell that his parents and his brother just adore him!



It was so much fun to finally have a day that we could be outside for photos! We made use of a great park just outside of their back yard! It is somewhere that their family spends a lot of time. I am jealous that they have such a great place to play everyday!

I am so excited for Deborah and Tony to see these! I love Evan's smile, that soft baby hair, those two tiny teeth and they joy he puts on his mommy's face.
Elijah is so sincere... he LOVES his daddy...

These two brothers are going to be such buds! They were so much fun to shoot. Thanks Elijah for sharing your transformer with me and making me feel so welcome!

Time for Tea

What a great time I had with this family last weekend. It was fun to get to know the entire family, but especially little Jack and Jessica. We had lots of time to explore their home and play with all of their favorite things. Baby Jack even tried to explore my camera a bit!

Jack has the most beautiful blue eyes...

How do little ones make such adorable faces! I could just eat him up!

This is a wonderful photo of Heather and Jack....I absolutely love this photo. This daddy just adores his little boy! Can you blame him?!

Jessica is a beautiful 3 year old. We got to spend a lot of time together... she shared her snow globe with me, we talked Christmas, played on horses, jumped on the bed...we had a great time!
It is so much fun to watch kids play. Jessica set up a delicious tea party for all of us and her favorite dolls as well.

This picture totally makes me laugh! Leave it to a three year old to delicately throw back a cup of tea! I am sure that she did not miss a drop!

Thank you for letting me come into your home and get to know your family! I had a great time!

What do your kids love?

Well... can you guess what I received from my two year old for my birthday... If you guessed a very nice pirate rubber duck, you are RIGHT! I only got to keep it for a few seconds until it was quickly taken back and added to the collection above. It is so important to remember these things that your kids love. I do not ever want to forget how each one of these ducks have names, how they play with Nemo in the bath, and how they each get a spa treatment during bath time with shampoo, conditioner, and body wash.

So parents, get your cameras out... watch your kids playing.... get a shot of them with their favorite book, toy, game, etc. It does not matter if they are looking at the camera or if they are smiling.... just get a shot of them doing what they love. It will be something that you will cherish forever!

Christmas Is Coming ! !

It is Christmas time! Yea! I am so excited for the holidays this year! The kids are thrilled that we have our lights up and they are having daily dancing sessions with the singing polar bear and penguin trio in our living room! They have been waiting all year to get this out of storage!

Tonight Oliver (my nephew) and his parents came to visit us. Oliver's parents were the providers of the loud singing polar bear trio... this year they brought along an eight foot Frosty for our yard! I am wondering what our neighbors are thinking right now! The kids love it when they come to visit!

Isn't Oliver handsome?! Look at those cheeks... don't you just want to squeeze them! He is just the sweetest little boy! Oliver is 8 months old and very inquisitive... he loved the Christmas lights and even tried to eat a few of them! He is a motivated little guy... he is completely mobile, and will surely keep his parents busy for hummmm the next 17 years! I just love this little boy! How can you not fall in love with those blue eyes!

Thank you Kaia and Joe for coming to visit! I am so excited for you guys to have little (or not so little) Oliver in your lives. You are so blessed! Christmas will be so wonderful and fun for you this year!

Boys Will Be Boys

This weekend I had a chance to do a shoot with a great family! Brydon and Jake were the stars of the day. They totally crack me up! They are 5 year old twins, all about boys and boy stuff, and great friends. They made me laugh about as much as they made each other laugh. I will let you imagine for yourself what they answered when I asked them what we should talk about...

I have known these boys since the day they were born. It is so much fun to watch them grow into their own personalities. Brydon (above) is the ham. He knows just what to say to get everyone laughing. Jake (below) is a tad more serious, but just can not help but laugh and thoroughly enjoy his brother's humor.
These two little boys are complete heart breakers.... even though we did talk a lot about boogers! It was a great afternoon and a privilege to take photos for the this family! Thank you Chris and Stace!

Love those toes

Is there anything better than baby toes? So soft, so perfect. I can not get enough of them! Little ones change so quickly.... it seems like yesterday that my own kiddos were this little... I am so thankful to have photos. I never want to forget these special days and memories! I had the opportunity to take some shots of little Adeline this past weekend. She is such a sweetheart! Look at her beautiful toes!



Adeline's parents completely adore her. It is so obvious that with their love this little girl is going to grow into an amazing person! It was such a pleasure to be in their home and shoot photos for them. They have not had photos taken of her before so I felt quite privileged to have the opportunity to capture the beauty of their little girl and the love they have for her!

Family Photos for the Holidays!!!

Everyone needs a great family shot for their Christmas cards! If you are like me, if I do not get it done soon, before I know it, it will be January and I will be talking about how I let the time slip by!

If you guys are interested, I am planning on some short mini sessions to get some family shots for you. I am thinking approximately 30 minute sessions and I will give you a disc with approximately 10 shots for you to print as you wish. The cost will be $50! I am planning on doing this on location, possibly a local university campus. If you get a couple of your friends together and we can meet where you want and the price will remain $50... if there is at least two families. If you would like family shots in your own home or yard, the price will increase to $75.

The dates that I am tentatively looking at for this are Saturday November 17Th and Sunday December 2nd. Email sara@saramontgomeryphoto.com if you are interested in signing up for a time slot or if you just have questions.

Fall Family Photos

What a great time of year it is for family photos! It is beautiful outside, the air is crisp and people are beginning to get into the holiday spirit. It is time for you to start thinking about your holiday cards... you better include a recent family shot! I am pondering the idea of doing "mini" sessions for people if they are interested in getting a good family shot for this fall or winter.... more detail to come on that soon. Email me at sara@saramontgomeryphoto.com if you want more information!

I had a great time this afternoon doing a shoot for some close friends. We have so many leaves at my house that I convinced them to stay and play in them for their "mini" session. Their new little one is one of the most precious little things I have seen in some time! Here are a few shots from their session.

Little Zoey is so dang cute... it was hard to choose the pictures for you to see. She is so animated... her eyes tell such a story. What a cutie!

Of course Ethan took a little time out to jump in the leaves! He had a blast! Who wouldn't?

Amazing Fall...

This weekend we had beautiful weather. The sun was out, and we were all able to go out and play with just our T-shirts. The girls both had a great time in the leaves... well, at least Ava had a great time. We had some powerful 2 year old tantrums, but we were eventually able to bribe Olivia into having fun with Halloween candy!

Oops... Ava is calling... I will be right back.....

All right, it has been an hour and a half! Ava was calling me saying, "Mom... Come here right now!" I went to see what she needed while telling her that was not quite the right way to call me. I got to the top of the stairs where she was standing and she pointed off to her right. She said, "Look at what Olivia is doing." When I peeked off to the couch where she was supposed to be sitting, I noticed that she had climbed over the couch and was scaling the shelving with no trouble at all. She was going for her trophy, a tiny glass bird from my grandmother... I reached her just in time.

After that event, I decided that I should stay a little closer for awhile, and I decided to make dinner. Zach was outside working on the motor home, so I decided to do something simple for the girls... to my surprise, they both asked for second helpings of veggies... WOW! We had some music in the background... Michael Jackson came on, and for what ever reason I decided to show the girls some of my moves from the 80's... not a good idea. Olivia shook her head and said, "Mom, no dance, it not working." She was right!

AMAZING PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOP !!!

I can not begin to tell you how much I learned last weekend. Me Ra Koh Photography, http://merakoh.com/ , had a workshop right in town and I spent two days with Me Ra and her husband Brian. They were amazing! For anyone interested in learning about photography (beginners or professionals) you have to go to their class. You will not be sorry, and I think I learned as much about myself over the weekend as I did photography! We had a blast and I made some wonderful friends. Here are some shots that I took over the weekend.