Brenna | 1 Year

Not many people think beaches when they think of Cleveland, but there are some gorgeous stretches of sand up here. Huntington Beach in Bay Village is one of my favorites, and it was the perfect spot for 1-year-old Brenna and her lovely parents. Remember when this little girl was tiny? Now she's wearing miniature dresses and playing in sand and smiling and walking! I can't believe how fast a year goes.

Enjoy one of my most favorite family sessions ever! Brenna is as darling as they come. :)

Her smile is so adorable!

That one down there melts my heart!

Sand is so fun and interesting. :)

Brenna, when you want to hang out you let me know, OK? :D

To see more from Brenna's barefoot session, click here to view a SLIDESHOW or watch it here:

The Beal Family

You know those families you admire, even though you're perfectly content with your own? Yeah, that's the Beal family for me. I secretly want to be on the inside of all their jokes because they laugh all the time. It's kind of contagious. Obviously, I had fun documenting this family in one of their most important years yet ... both Sophie and Seth are recent graduates (of college and high school, respectively) and have big things on the horizon. I'm excited to follow along (and maybe sneak into a family function or two every now and then?? ;) )!

What I'm Working On ...

It's that time of year again! Warmer weather, more sunshine than usual and weddings every weekend. :) I'm about a third of the way into my season, and so far it's been fantastic. I can definitely feel the crunch though. There are late nights, lunches at my desk and hesitations when people ask me to do things. My aunt called recently and asked me to come over for lunch. My first inclination was to say I was too busy, but then I realized how ridiculous that was. When I get busy, I tend to lose sight of what's really important, and what's really important is not working seven days a week without a break. So today I'm looking forward to a lunch away from my desk, in front of people who are important and who I want to make time to see. That's the best part of this job; I get to manage my own schedule! So, in lieu of my planned blog post for today, I'm going a little bit easier on the workload and sharing a couple peeks from recent portrait sessions. Thank you, thank you, thank you to my patient clients! :)

Miles' Cake Smash

Is there anything cuter than babies eating cake with their hands? The answer is no, not many things are cuter. I got to photograph a little boy's 1-year-old birthday party this last weekend, complete with a cake smash. Miles, however, wasn't all about using his hands as utensils. In fact, he hated being messy. I love this series of cake-smash photos because it leaves no question as to how it went down. But hey, maybe it means he'll keep his room clean when he gets older. :)

He was not OK with that icing on his finger. But he quickly realized that cake tastes good ...

He ate it so gingerly.

But even though cake tastes good, it didn't outweigh the fact that his hands were slimy.

:) The end.