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!