This Newborn Rocks!!

And so does his Mom for coming up with this idea!! I first met this family in November of 2008, when I did newborn photos for their middle son, M, and now we're doing photos of Mr. R, boy #3!!

Isn't this photo with Dad's guitar just the best? Seriously, who can resist a baby with a mohawk and a guitar tie? :)

And Grandma made him this little bear hat before our session... isn't it just adorable?

Finally, Mom asked if we could try a family shot in their bedroom on their bed. Heck yeah!! I loved the idea, and love the way it turned out!! Look at Mom and all her men... Testosterone City :)

Thanks to the K family for letting me capture these memories of your newest family member! You certainly have 3 handsome boys... congrats!

Stunning 2011 Senior Rep

I just realized I had posted some of these on my Facebook page, but not on here... it's hard to keep up with all my various social media sites! LOL But I can't go without sharing some of these photos from a recent senior session. Hannah is actually one of my 2011 Senior Reps from Wilmington High School. If you like her photos, find her and ask her for one of her cards... it will be worth a $25 credit for both of you when you book your Heidi Kreitz Photography senior session!!

Lookin' good, Stacey, lookin' good... LOL

And one of my faves from the day... her mom said it looks like a magazine ad, which is such a great compliment :) If only we could find a magazine that wants it...

Thanks for such a fun day, Hannah! Hope you love all your photos as much as I do :)

A family session at the waterfall!

This session was on a hot, hot, day in July (imagine that, a hot July day in Chicagoland!), but it was OK, because it was a special session... for a couple reasons. First, the D family are friends of ours - my daughter has been friends with R since kindergarten (hard to believe it's 5 years already)! Second, this family purchased this session through a silent auction. Back in the spring, I donated a gift certificate to my son's Cub Scout troop, and the D family won the auction! Talk about a win-win situation - the Cub Scouts made some money, the D family gets some great family photos, and I have fun creating those photos! Yay all around :)

Here is a quick preview from the session... a cute photo of R&C alone...

And one of the 3 kids together... love it!

And finally, one of the D family, including Aunt K. The waterfall was pretty crowded with people visiting and exploring when we first arrived, so I was very happy we were able to get some photos after all. I don't think you can really beat this spot for a family photo!

Thanks for a fun session, and I hope you enjoy your little sneak peek... and thanks again for bidding so diligently at the silent auction!

Such a gorgeous setting for a wedding!!

Those of you who know me know that I do NOT do weddings! Well, a friend of ours called me about 2 weeks before his wedding to tell me that their photographer fell through and they had nobody. How could I let that happen? So I stepped into the role of wedding photographer - ONCE and ONLY ONCE - and set out to capture J & K's day. I am not completely done editing, but here are a few...

I hope I was truly able to capture your memories of such a special day! And I must say...wedding photographers... kudos to you! I went into this project thinking that wedding photography would be a challenge, but I now have an entirely new respect for those of you who do weddings on a regular basis.

J & K... hope you enjoy your photos!

Lovely family session!

Before we went on vacation (some fun vacation photos to come when I get to them!!), I had a chance to take a few quick family photos. Isn't this family gorgeous?! I may be biased, because they are my brother-in-law and his family, but I honestly think they are great :) They came up to IL to visit for a few days from TN, and I was really excited we were able to squeeze in a few photos amongst all the family craziness!!

Here is one of B&A together... love it!!

Here is one of the whole family together... you'd never guess by their smiles that we were all in the middle of one of the largest swarms of mosquitoes you've ever seen...

And one of the kids alone... tried a little different feel on the processing here, and I think I like it! See how nicely they smile for their favorite (well, at least I like to think so!!) Aunt Heidi :)

And finally, one of my adorable niece M and her American Girl Doll - what trip to visit Chicago is complete without a stop at the American Girl Store?!

If only I could let you all (or should I say "Ya'll") hear them speak... they have the cutest little southern accents ever!!!

More Twins :)

...except these twins are a little older, wearing gorgeous First Communion Dresses, and didn't cry quite as much :)

Here are a couple individual shots of the girls looking all sweet and innocent...

I thought I would try a different kind of processing on this photo... I think I really like this look!

And then I asked myself... how can you tell when the session is over? When the 'models' have had enough? This photo speaks for itself...

At least they're still smiling as they try to throw each other to the ground... their Mom, on the other hand, probably not smiling QUITE as much since they're wearing WHITE dresses!

Twin Bundles of Joy :)

I was so excited to photograph boy/girl twins last week!! Mr. S and Miss P decided to start the session out on their own schedules - when one was sleepy, the other was ready to eat or just look around for a while - so while they were each doing their own thing, I started out with some individual shots.

Here is Miss P, with those chubby, squishable little cheeks :)

And sweet Mr. S... who can resist a baby who smiles when he sleeps?!

We FINALLY got them both to sleep for just a few minutes at the same time, and I worked feverishly (which means I worked really hard, but also was sweating like I had a fever in the oven-like studio) to get some of these shots of them together. I always tell the parents that if we want the babies to be comfortable sleeping in their birthday suits, then we need to be prepared to sweat a little!!

And it was worth it? Look at these two sweeties and you be the judge...

Finally, how about some too-cute-for-words, sleeping twins in a giant bowl?

Yeah, that'll do for now :)

I had a lot of fun meeting these two (and their big brother, who was SOOOO very patient through this super-long --not to mention hot-- session). Hope you enjoy your preview!

Stormy Weather...

I could have titled this post "Very Wet June" or "Way Too Much Freakin' Rain", but decided to focus on the very cool lightning storm we experienced earlier this evening. The sky to the south was lit up for almost 30 mins with nearly constant lightning, and we heard a low rumble of thunder that really didn't seem to stop that entire time.

I have always wanted to try to capture some lightning photos but never really had an opportunity. Tonight, I decided to give it a shot and was able to get some pretty cool shots!! These were all taken without a tripod, as I didn't want to waste time trying to find it. I did, however, prop the camera on a table and some books so I could set the exposure to 2 seconds. I probably took about 25 shots, and these were the three that were keepers...

I think this one is my favorite...

We did stay dry earlier in the evening through this portion of the lightning storm, but I think the sky is about to open up and drench us once again :(

Another sweet newborn girl :)

Last week I had yet another sweet newborn girl to photograph :) Miss C was such a cutie... and even though I'm showing these sleeping photos, she was awake and alert a lot of the time too. Such big, bright eyes... I even got some eye contact!

I was able to sneak in a few of her in this adorable hat...

And finally, one with my macro lens. I just love this shot!

Thank you to T & R for letting me photograph Miss C, and her big sister I. You have such a beautiful family - I really enjoyed meeting all of you :)

Sweet Newborn Girl...

I had the opportunity to photograph this sweet doll this morning... she was SO very good!! I can honestly say she is the first newborn NOT to have any accidents on my blankets... or on any of the people who were present:) She slept like a dream, and didn't cry once! Look at this adorable little bear...

And we had to get her older sister in on the act! Miss K is 4, and she was very proud of "her baby"! I love the expression I caught on her face in this one...

I have so many fantastic photos from this session, but wanted to get these 2 up as a very quick preview before I begin the weekend of softball madness and get behind. Thanks so much, K and R for allowing me to photograph your two beautiful daughters!