I love these colors and lines on this rug. Such luck that baby Tess’ bow matched the rugMy friends welcomed their first baby, Jack, into the world in 2014 and I was lucky enough to take their photos. **I must note that Hattie and Bailey (the dogs) are also their sweet fur babies so they are have a new little brother!**

 

Jack is a really good baby and he slightly rivals me in the newborn weight class – he was over 9 lbs while I was 10 lbs 10 oz. (I finally understand and have so much sympathy for my poor mother!)

 

I always love seeing my friends as parents and getting a glimpse into what their life is like at home. Haley is one of the happiest moms I have ever met. She was just tickled to finally hold her baby. While Ryan was one of the most proud dads that I have ever seen. He was such a natural and just loved being with his son. I can’t wait to watch their family grow.

 

Enjoy!

 

I always love photographing friends because I get to see them in a new light. Brent is an old friend and I have loved watching him go from crushing on Lindsay, to dating and now engaged. Lindsay confessed that she was nervous at the shoot which was such a great learning lesson to realize that sometimes I am not the only nervous person. (Yes, I am nervous at almost every shoot. It gives me my edge I guess?)

 

Grace is my niece-in-law (it’s totally a real thing) and one day we turned an afternoon of play into a photo shoot. She is really into Frozen (like every other kid in America) and loves to sing and dance. We turned on the Frozen soundtrack and she started acting out the movie and I must say she did a pretty good job for a two year old. Grace is very into princess dresses so in-between singing “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” I quickly hung three of her princess dresses behind her and by some stroke of luck I got her to stay still, stand there and look at me. I just love this photo, it’s soo Grace.

 

My dear college friend Becky had a baby shower back in January in Oklahoma City. She brought the sonograms of baby Vivian who is named after her husband’s grandma (the woman in blue). I was busy in the other room taking party pics but luckily my friend Kailey saw this sweet moment and called me over to capture it.

 

As I was walking back from scouting a spot to photograph the Beckstrom twins’ after their baptism, I found their grandparents cuddling them in front of these arches at Christ the King Church. It was and still is one of my favorite moments. Confession from your photographer: I love watching dad’s or granddad’s with their babies. What luck that I got this photo of Avyen and Liam’s Abuelo photographing his daughter and granddaughter. He was so proud!

 

 

While I am still on the subject, I really love watching each dad with their baby. Dad’s are just SO proud of their kids and light up when the hold them. Dad’s who have daughters might be my absolute favorite. The way they melt for their baby girl always makes me grin ear to ear. God bless all these wonderful dad’s and all the other fantastic dad’s that I was lucky enough to meet this year.

 

This year I photographed a few interiors for an interior designer and it was such a fun learning lesson. The framing and lighting is a little different from other projects and I was extremely grateful for all the opportunities and challenges that I learned while shooting interiors!

 

I have been fortunate enough to second shoot with John Sargent from John Cain Photography. I met John randomly a few years back at a Children’s function and we quickly became friends after I teased Wes, my fiancé, for not smiling in photos. John has taught me so much about wedding photography and I am beyond grateful to have him as a friend. I really enjoyed photographing this gorgeous wedding back in the summer.

 

I love this shot of the kiddo in the fedora. So very Frank Sinatra in the making. 

 

My nephew, Lincoln, is one of my favorite kiddos ever. And I love how he and his baby sister, Bella, blend in with Mickey Mouse and friends.

I sure do love kids and their “isms”… like carrying everything all at once. Such sweet little tiny hands!

 

Here are two of my favorite photos of one of the kiddos from the Down Syndrome Guild calendar. We were shooting with Mico from the Mesero restaurants and he was running a little late. We were trying to find a way to distract this kiddo to keep him happy until Mico got there. The caveat was this kiddo didn’t really warm up to women like he does to men…and there were 3 women there to distract him. We had a bit of time so while we threw a ball around with him and I snapped away.

 

I am pretty sure he saw himself in the reflection of my lens which turned out to be a pretty fun picture.

 

When Mico walked in, the kiddo ran to him like they were old friends. It was awesome.

 

Again with dads and their babies…I particularly love this one because of his reflection which was not on purpose but a wonderful “mistake”!

 

I also love mom’s with their babies…especially when I see sweet moments like these…

 


Lori Wilson PhotographyLori Wilson Photography

I photographed these two girls just before a rain storm rolled in over at Grapevine Lake. The whole lake was foggy and it kind of felt like Cape Cod meets Texas with all the gloomy weather and driftwood plus the bluebonnets.

 

Oh poor Hayden. Her expression is how every big sister feels when the baby comes home. I hope she is more used to it today. Not exactly what I was envisioning for this photo but still honest and captured her journey into big sister hood.

 

These two were Wiggle. Worms. Mom warned me beforehand that they have a hard time staying still together and boy was that true at this shoot. After we played and played, I finally stood over them and tickled them in between photos. I think the outcome was pretty fun.

 

Stewart’s mom is an interior designer so I have a major crush on his room. He stood there on his bed and I asked him to show me his muscles…this is what he did. Adorable.

 

Rebecca’s parents did a great job at making her not so shy around me and convinced her on the way to the shoot that we had met. Brilliant. A great lesson that I have shared with other parents of shy kiddos.

 

This photo reflects so many of my shoots. Gabby looks calm while behind the lens I am holding her two “babies” on my camera so that she will look my way and her mom is trying to calm her littler sister down before she puts her in the photo. Beautiful chaos.

 

Audrey wasn’t the biggest fan of wearing this Santa hat but somehow we were lucky enough to have her wear the hat and not cry, play with the package and the sled was brilliantly placed there. Again, total luck. It reminds me of what Mark McGwire said – “You cannot try to hit a home run, it just happens.”

 

Confession from your photographer:  Watching your kids grow and comparing where they were months or a year before makes me so happy. I love seeing their personality come out and I am giddy every time we schedule another shoot.

LOVE THIS. I feel like these three will love it when they are older and will also probably wonder why their mom did this to them.

 

This was my first “styled” shoot and I really loved putting it together. This kiddo was a total natural. I cannot wait to have fun with more styled shoots in the future

 

Getting 5 kids to look at you AND smile at once is much harder than I ever imagined, just FYI.

 

I am total sap. I have photographed Vivianne from birth to 6 months old, a quick bluebonnet session around 7 months and then finally her one year old photos. I am a sap because I almost cried after this shoot. She just grew up so fast. I can only imagine how mom felt.

 

I also almost cried at this shoot. Again, I have seen Harper from birth to 6 months to a year. Gosh I am going to be a total mess whenever I have kids.

 

Boys will be boys. I love sweet Hatch. All he wants to do is run and play.

 

The lines in the tree…love!!! They beautifully move and create their own path. I am getting married here in May and I can’t wait to see what our photographer captures.

 

Smiles from babies are a coveted thing in general but they are REALLY coveted in photographs. Instead of taking photos of just Everly her parents had to jump in to get her to smile.

 

When Devon’s mom said she wanted to put her in her halloween costume at their Christmas card shoot I knew it would all make sense once I got there and it totally did. Tears and all (the struggle is real), this Christmas angel is just too cute.

 

Confession from your photographer: I always love hearing details about your baby and family but I love to ask what they weigh because I was 10 lbs 10 oz as a newborn…I like to have something to compare to. Baby Jack was almost as big as me.

 

I love these colors and lines on this rug. Such luck that baby Tess’ bow matched the rug.

 

I had the best time photographing my fantastic sister-in-laws calligraphy classes. Natalie is such a talented calligrapher and an encouraging teacher. Check out Natalie Grace Calligraphy for upcoming classes and for your calligraphy needs!

 

This photo is of my best friend and her fiancé right after they got engaged. I really love it because of the light and color. The street lamp behind Lindsay (or as I call her “Gucci”) cast a nice little yellow/tungsten glow while the sun finally setting just behind them. To me, it almost looks like a set. Again this was complete luck – Barron and I did not meet before to discuss exactly where he was proposing so this was so serendipitous. Also it’s a miracle that my hand were not shaking from nervousness.

 

While I love posed photos, sometimes the moments in-between are just as great.

 

When I received an email from the Von Kennel family about taking their 3 month old’s photos at their family farm, I was intrigued. These two taught me that you can do a 180 at just about any age. They were living in Oak Cliff and quit their marketing jobs to become tomato farmers and they have never looked back. What an inspirational story. Their farm is called Amelia’s Farm and sells tomatoes to fantastic restaurants in Dallas and Fort Worth. They are so cool.

 

While I tend to get seasick anytime I am not on land, I decided to take a wedding on a sailboat this past Spring. It was so beautiful and whimsical. I am glad I faced my fear and shot this wedding.

 

My dad restores cars for a living so when I have some free time I hop out to his shop in Garland, TX and do some office manager work as well as photograph the cars. The results from this Mustang were gorgeous. Every time I’m there, I am reminded that car restoration is an art. From welding to painting, it’s a gorgeous art form. You can see more of his work at Wilson Auto Repair.

 

Engagement and couples are always fun too. Newly engaged couples are so in love and so easy to work with. I am looking forward to photographing these two at their wedding in July! 

 

traveled to New York in October and there were some pretty fabulous views.

 

     

This selfie was courtesy of my dear friend Susan. Since I am always taking photos it is nice to have someone take a photo of me for a change.

 

Again, photographing friends is always the best.

 


     

     

I also really like photographing dogs with their owners or just as they are. Dogs are almost as hard to photograph as kids – they don’t like to sit still. Here are a few puppy favorites from my view in 2014.

 

And horses are fun to photograph too…especially miniature horses.

 


Lori Wilson Photography     

Lori Wilson Photography     Lori Wilson Photography

Lori Wilson Photography     Lori Wilson Photography

Newborns are probably my favorite thing to shoot other than toddlers and kids because who doesn’t think a baby is beautiful. Also when the baby is peaceful the whole world just stops.

 

 Finally I leave you with a few personal moments that were my favorite views from 2014. First being Wes’ grandpa, Bud. This is going to sound silly but I knew I loved Wes soon after we started dating because he loves dog and the elderly. Bud is one of his most favorite people in the world and I have to admit he is pretty special to me too. I always love to tell stories about Bud because he is who he is. He is man who leaves water out for the opossums and cats because he believes every one needs a good drink of water. He is also such a giving man. Every time we go to see him he tries to give us something that is his. If the Giving Tree were a human I think it would be Sheldon Oscar “Bud” Charles. I can’t tell you how many times he has offer is old Astro Van and his house to Wesley. The second photo is of Bud and Wes. Wes wears that Cowboy’s polo every Thanksgiving to make sure everyone knows what he will be watching that day

 

Another favorite view was from my nephew Lincoln’s second birthday party. Hope or Hopey is his best friend and when he saw her, he ran and hugged her. They started off toward the playground and I quickly stopped them for a photo. This just melts my heart. He’s growing so fast.

 

Here is a photo of my mom holding her grand baby’s hands. Bella was just a week old when we took these. I love my mom’s hands. They pick up when I am sad and give me a thumbs up when I need to celebrate. My mom has always been one of my biggest supporters (her and my dad fight for the biggest supporter spot) and she is the one who originally inspired me to take photos.

 

 

Finally, I hope this photo made you laugh. While it looks slightly disturbing it’s actually a really sweet story. On a shopping trip to Wal Mart, my brother-in-law, Jody, saw this monkey mask and put it on to scare Lindsay and Lincoln. Lincoln totally lost it. Jody quickly pulled the mask off his face and hugged Lincoln. On the next trip to Wal Mart, Lincoln asked his mom to take him to the monkey mask. He looked at it and finally touched it. The next time they were at Wal Mart Lincoln asked to go again to see the monkey mask. This time he put it on. Lindsay decided they just needed to buy the mask for him. I love this story because it reminds me to face my fears. There are so many times at shoots and in life that I find myself a little afraid whether I realize it or not. My biggest goal for 2015 is to face my fear like Lincoln did his.

 

Funny side note, sometimes he sleeps in the monkey mask. You gotta love kids.

 

 Thanks for looking over my view of 2014. I can’t wait to see what the next 365 days bring. It’s going to be a great and thrilling ride.