No..I’m not going on tour. 🙂  It’s time to pound the pavement.  I’ve signed up for another half marathon.  I’ve talked my friends into it, which means I have to run too.  I have two under my belt, plus a few other random smaller races. 
I have to stop here and explain.  I was the girl that got lapped in the mile run in high school.  I’ve never been an athlete and the thought of running more than 5 minutes hurt thinking about it.  So, if I can run for 13+ miles, then anyone can.
My ipod is my best friend during the whole training thing.  I love listening to the band Down Here, plus a few other random songs like Boulevard of Broken Dreams, When did your Heart go Missing…stuff that makes me want to dance!  Or run.
-Kristin

Yeah for Friday!!!
-Kristin

After hours upon hours in the car coming home from spring break, I was rewarded with a nice little surprise in my inbox.  I am featured on Blogs of Photographers right now…a site that I enjoy reading myself!  It’s always fun to hear other people’s impressions of my work too. 🙂
She commented on my blog header, which is one of my favorite pictures.  I thought I’d show a few more from that photo session that never made the blog.

These were taken at the very end of the session, I’m so glad that her mom brought along her dress up clothes, because it gave her that second wind.  She was just prancing around the forest…as a true fairy.

Thanks Mary, for featuring me on Blogs of Photographers and to Lisa for inspiring this series of photos!
-Kristin

I wanted to share a few pictures from the Grounded magazine shoot I did a few days ago.  We are still on Spring Break, so thankfully I have these pictures on my laptop and in a few days it will be back to the daily grind…and back to lots more posting. 🙂
In the meantime, here are Kae and Christian in one of my favorite super grungey secret spots!

Keep in mind, all the dead space at the top will be for print…

As we were shooting a Doritos truck drove by and parked to do some unloading.  I had the guys stand in front before it drove away.  Kind of a cool look!

You can think of me tomorrow as I’m sitting in traffic all day on the 5 coming home!
-Kristin

I met the Stutz family on Wednesday morning…literally on my way out of town.  It was actually pretty nice to be out of the house while Brent packed the car for our day-long trip down to LA for spring break.
I’ve always wanted to do a photo session at Ardenwood Farm, so I was really excited not only to be able to work our schedules out to do this session, but also at such a cool place!

I took each of the kids away for a few minutes to grab some individual shots and here’s what I came up with!

I thought this shot was kind of fun, taken in the open doorway of a barn.

And Michelle kept telling me how unphotogenic her and Shawn were.  Umm…I beg to disagree. 🙂

And this one of the kids is one of my favorites…it just looks like they are at home on the farm!

Thanks guys…it was so much fun hanging out with you!  I hope you enjoy the rest of your spring break week at the beach!
-Kristin

This morning I met the youth staff from The Neighborhood Church up at Greenridge to take some black and white staff pictures.  I ended up taking some of my own kids after the staff left, just to brush up on my black and white technique. 
I had them each entertaining each other…in the end we were all cracking up hysterically!

The original ham was the most serious this time!

And here’s a few pictures of the staff…

And that’s not even all of them!  They are a good looking bunch. 🙂  I know it’s hard to be in front of the camera…especially with all your friends watching you!  But, they did great and we all had lots of fun.
-Kristin

After church today we went over to Vanessa’s annual Easter brunch.  It was our first year and we had so much fun!  Leave it to Vanessa and her sisters to plan an amazing ‘event’  for all the kids.  Everything was amazing from the brunch buffet to the goodie bags for the kids.
Speaking of kids, this year the kids out-numbered the adults.  That’s a little scary! 
Here the are all lined up on the stairs for a picture.  Doesn’t it just look like a sea of kids!?

And I noticed that a few of the guests had been in front of my camera before…like Elizabeth and Ethan!  Although I don’t think I captured this side of Ethan. 🙂

Here’s Cooper moments before the crazy-big Easter egg hunt.  He got the memo that said shoulders up makes you look cute.  (Notice this new pose in ALL his pictures.)

Jake was the oldest kid…hence the overly stuffed easter bucket!  Don’t worry, I made him give 20 eggs to little kids afterwards. 🙂

Cooper was SHOCKED to find prizes inside each of the eggs!!!  I think this is my favorite picture from the day.

Here’s Jillian, just being cute.

After the egg hunt, she ducked away during the picture taking fuss and was ready to drive away with her loot.  I caught these moments through the slats of the deck.

And I made the brothers take a picture.  As you can see they are thrilled about this. 🙂

The party was a blast!  It was fun to see familiar faces and meet some new people as well.  My kids were talking about it all evening.  What a great time!
-Kristin

I guess it’s fitting that I end the massive postings of Easter pictures just a few days before Easter.  All the pictures have been edited, printed and delivered.  It feels great. 🙂
My last two sessions of the day were good friends, so it was really nice to end the day this way. 
Here’s Will all spiffed out in his new Easter hat with his sister Emily, who’s not quite so sure about this whole situation.

But in the end, I got a pretty cute smile out of her. 🙂

And Will too!

These two couldn’t be any more adorable!  Thanks for bringing them out Sabrina!

Next up was Bridget, who is counting down the weeks until Baby #3.  When she called me to see about coming out for an Easter session I was so excited about the possiblity of doing a mini-maternity session…especially with the couch.

It’s hard to believe this girl already has two boys…doesn’t she look amazing!

And shooting at 5pm was the perfect time for some gorgeous sunset lighting…

Thanks for letting me document your pregnancy, Bridget.  I can’t wait to meet Cole!

Easter is such a meaningful holiday for me.  It’s much more than all the Spring fun…it’s the sacrifice that was made so many years ago that changed my life in so many ways.  I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!
-Kristin

Fifteen minutes is not a lot of time.  That’s the time that I had to get some great pictures of the children that came out for my Easter mini-sessions.  Normally I work pretty fast…I have three little kids of my own, so I’m used to making decisions on the fly and catching moments as they come.  But sometimes being fast isn’t a good thing.  Two year old Victoria had just woken up from her nap and wasn’t super excited about having her picture taken.  Her mom told me that she was very shy and had never smiled for a photographer before.  I was up for the challenge!! 
This was one of the first shots I got and was almost upside taking it because she tucked her chin and was not about to look up at me. 🙂  But there’s something about it that I love…

Cathy was assisting me for the afternoon and between the two of us, we  slowly but surely coaxed Victoria into an almost smile…

I can’t remember exactly what we were doing, but I’m sure we were making fools out of ourselves.  Then it happened…

I think it was my proudest moment of the day. 🙂  I wish I would have had more time with Victoria, but I was glad for our fifteen minutes and the hard-earned smile.
Next up was Natalie…she met me at the beach last fall and I was so happy to see her again!  She is such an expressive little girl and now she can add chatty to the list of adjectives to describe her. 

Another of my favorite shots of the day is this one of her running away from me!  I love the lighting and how it captures her in the moment.

We were so lucky to have a perfectly sunny day and I love how it brought character to each of the pictures!
-Kristin

Sometimes in photography…just like in life…you have to know when to wait and when to push forward.  Working with kids means that they are the star of the show.  They run the program.  I’m just along for the ride.  🙂
In my afternoon Easter sessions I really had to learn when to jump around and have fun with the kids and when to capture them in a quiet and meaningful moment.  It truly is a dance!
This is Gavin…in one of his quieter moments.

And his older brother Bronson in peaceful moment.  I love the lighting in this shot.

And as brothers love to have fun…here they are…in a not so quiet moment. 🙂

Next on my list was two little girls…Sophia and Ava.  I love their names!  Jill referred them and told me…you will be photographing two little princesses.  Boy was she right!
Here’s the youngest, Ava.

And her big sister Sophia…whose hair I WANT!

And here they are just having fun…

-Kristin