April Ingram Photography

He would be 7

2012-02-13T19:47:00.000-08:00

I have drafted 4 posts. Deleted them all. I will just post a song. I miss you, Mac. I know you cannot hear me or read this, but your Mama loves you and aches for you every single day of her life. Slowly, everyone is forgetting you. I will never, NEVER forget you, Mac. I love you, my precious sweet baby boy. I miss you, Mac.

Joshy!!!!

2012-01-18T14:11:00.000-08:00

I am pretty much in love with my nephew. He's made me an aunt for the 6th time. I have two beautiful nieces and 4 handsome and wonderful nephews. I am a well seasoned aunt. Yet, Joshua just makes me melt into this puddle of goo whenever I see him, hold him, play with him, or even think about him. It's not as though all of my other nephews or nieces are not near and dear to my heart. I love them all, very much. When my oldest niece, Bonnie, was younger and then when Will was born, I was still figuring out babies. I enjoyed them, loved them, but wasn't very motherly like at all. I was all "Auntie April". By the time Luke was old enough to play with, I already had a kid. Likewise with nephew Caleb and niece Rosemary. Totally in mommy mode at that point. Now...all the other kids are big. Bonnie is almost 12(WHHAAAAAATTTT?!?!?), Will is 9, Cate and Luke are 8, Caleb is 5, Simon & Rosemary(affectionately called Moe, by me) are 4 but nearly 5, and Liam is going to be 4 this May. The "babies" are not babies anymore. So hanging out around Joshua is totally different. All of my kids are self-sufficient. We are a bottle-free, crib-free, diaper-free family. Our kids are growing up! But Joshua...he's new. He's tiny and sweet and fat and cute and makes gurggley sounds and is just finding his own little personality. And he LIKES ME!

In a weird twist of fate, I was present for the birth of 4 of my 6 nephews and nieces. I wasn't there when Bon was born because Seth and I were not really dating yet at that time. I was there when Will was born, I literally watched Luke come into the world, and I was there at the hospital when Caleb and Rosemary were born. But I was at my in-laws with Caleb when Joshua FINALLY made his grand entrance. So I am closest to Bonnie and Joshua, even though they were the only two that I wasn't there for when they were born. hahaha!

So, while I could never pick a favorite out of the lot of beautiful nieces and nephews, Joshua just as a tight hold on my heart these days. I think I am simply enjoying being able to enjoy the closest thing you can get to your own child without it being your child. For so long, my own kids took so much of my time and energy and attention that I was not able to fully enjoy this. Well, now...I can.

Being able to enjoy a baby that isn't mine is actually quite grand. I cannot explain it exactly. But what I do know is that this little feller has stolen my heart and I adore him and I am so thankful that my own kids are old enough to wipe their own butts and feed themselves so that I have have two readily available arms to hold this little miracle that is my nephew, Joshua Abel Brown. I love you, Joshy!

why I am still not a grown up

2012-01-17T09:52:00.000-08:00

Me, today

In case you were wondering, yes. My husband does have the patience of a saint.

Bring it on, Spring!

2012-01-11T06:14:00.000-08:00

So...Christmas is over now and so is my birthday. I'm 27! I actually told Simon the morning I turned 27 that it was my birthday and he looked very shocked "YOU have a birthday!?!?" I guess for a kid, your parents are ageless, they are just your parents. No need to put a number on them, it's kind of nice when you think of it.

I made a slew of New Years Resolutions, mostly spiritual. Make time to pray the Rosary, be more patient and forgiving of others, no gossiping(I never get to talk to my best friend anymore, so this might actually stick this year! Miss you Jess!), Be a better Catholic, essentially. I also decided that I needed to be healthier after pushing my body to the brink of diabetes this Christmas, hahaha, just kidding. But seriously, I think I ate more sweets and crappy food in 3 weeks than I did the rest of the weeks of the year combined. But I guess that's one non-spiritual side effect of Lenten fasting is that I get a chance to reverse some of that damage. So...while I am not fat by any means, I have a very superficial goal of being back into a bikini by beach time, which is only 4 or 5 months away. But who reads this blog to hear about all that junk, huh?

Here are some(and by some, I mean a ton) pictures from my Christmas break....y'all wanted to see my family, right?

Cate sang with 2 other girls at the Christmas program at her school. That's my little shrimp off to the left. I couldn't get a good shot of her :-(

Foooooood

wiiiiiine

Nephew, Joshua, isn't he precious?

Seth took Simon hunting for the first time...that lasted for about 10 minutes No, they didn't kill anything.

The kids made a gingerbread house with Aunt Vickie(who will likely be mad that I put a picture of her in her jammies on my blog)

Liam made a lot of messes

The annual Ingram family picture got stranger

Cate turned 8 on the 23rd and decided on the 21st that she wanted a party at the skating rink. Good thing we know the owners!

I got to spend time with my favorite people

I think this was the only night that Seth and I didn't have company at the house.

It was a wild, crazy, fun, and awesome Christmas. Now it's all back to reality. The tree is gone and Winter still hasn't fully arrived in Georgia(which is fine by me if we skip winter this year all together). I am looking forward to all the great things this year has to offer and my countdown to spring has begun. I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Welcome to 2012!

Katie's Bridal session

2012-01-06T05:23:00.000-08:00

Remember Katie? That hot chick up there in the header picture? Well, she is a married woman now! That's right, I rang in my New Year by celebrating the union between Katie and Ryan on New Years Eve, but before we get to the wedding pictures, we have to back track a little. Now I have been sitting on this bridal session since Summer with orders not to post until after the wedding. I am very excited to share them now.

I am in love with Katie's wedding look. She was so sophisticated and glamorous!

The Bauer Family

2012-01-06T05:07:00.000-08:00

I have a special place in my heart for procrastinators seeing as how I am one myself. So when Tara emailed me and asked if there was any way I could work them in just before Christmas...I had to find a way! Truth be told, I had been wanting to get my hands on this family since the twins were born, so I jumped at this chance to work with them. It went great and within 24 hours of shooting the session, Tara and I had already worked our butts off to get some prints AND Christmas cards ordered. We're good, I'm telling ya...goood.

The Latham Family

2012-01-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

Hi there! I'm back :-) I had a wonderful, amazing Christmas and New Year filled full with family, friends, food, and fun. Now that 2012 is here, I'm feeling refreshed and ready to get back into the game. So let's get started by back-tracking just a tad and covering my last two sessions of 2011.

I can't think of many ways I would have preferred to wrap up this year than with the last two families that I photographed. Both sweet, fun, and beautiful families with 3 kids(just like us, right? well, ok, we have 3 kids anyway). The first of the last two families was the Latham Family. Patrick is the pastor of my Mother-in-law and Father-in-law's church in Cedartown, so I have known of them for a while but never had the pleasure of getting to know them much before our session.

Now every now and again, I run into this problem. I get one of those elusive sessions that for one reason or another, keeps getting cancelled and rescheduled, some times many many times. The Latham's and I rescheduled about 4 times I believe. Once for weather, then Patrick had to have his appendix taken out, then I got sick, and...well...it was just a mess. But we did it, it was accomplished, and it was a blast!

Christmas Break!

2011-12-10T05:38:00.000-08:00

It's almost here! It's almost time!!! All year long, Seth works very hard at his job, going to work sick even. We never take vacations or trips longer than a night or two because we are poor. During the long Summer months that can seem very frustrating but in December it all pays off. Seth takes a ton of time off work in December and we pretty much party and eat and sleep for about 2 1/2 weeks solid. AAAAA-Mazing. So now that I actually have a "job", I have to think about making sure I plan to take some time off as well so that we can enjoy our Christmas break together. Sounds easy enough, just don't book any appointments during that time. Pshhh, I can do that. But the real time sucker is the editing. So I am sitting here this weekend trying to just breath and refresh for the big week head of me full of photoshop and burning and delivering packages. It's all going to be worth it because from December 19-January 5(my birthday is the 4th...Not working on my birthday. Get hair cut on Birthday, drink wine, eat bad stuffz. Not work) I am going to taking lots and lots of pictures like this:

That's right, gonna take pictures of MY kids. Whoohoo!

So bear with me this coming week, Y'all. If you are waiting on pictures, you'll get them. If you are waiting for me to blog your pictures...well...just bear with me. We'll get there!

The thing about kids

2011-11-30T05:22:00.000-08:00

Kids are great. I love having kids. I really don't understand why anyone would not want to have kids, I mean, what do you even DO when you don't have kids? Sure, a week or two of enjoying a clean house and a full nights sleep would be nice, would be cool to even go out a few times without having to find a babysitter. But after a while it would just seem boring to me unless you were wealthy and could afford to travel. If you are going to be poor anyway you might as well have kids. They keep you entertained at least!

Hey, here is one thing about kids. When you have kids, that's pretty much all you can have. Kids. Now, like I said before I really love my kids and I love being a mother. I love having kids more than stuff, which is really convenient because a child's primary goal from the time they are born is to destroy everything in your house. I used to just think they were being mean but now I think they are preprogrammed by God to be this way to strip your entire life back down to essentials and humble you as much as possible. I could give you a list a mile long of things that my kids have destroyed, broke, shattered, flushed down toilets, shoved into DVD players, and smeared poop on but I am really just going to concentrate on ONE area of their destruction: The Christmas decorations.

When I got married some 9 1/2 years ago, I inherited a lot of Christmas ornaments and decor in addition to buying many pieces myself. So we spent a great first two Christmas' married with many lovely Christmas decorations. Then the third Christmas Cate was 1. We lost a lot of good ornaments that year. *sniffle* And then she was 2! And 3! and Then there were 2 kids and then 3 kids! And then there was that year that we had a 2 year old AND a 1 year old! We drank a lot of wine that Christmas. So...8 years after having our first child, we are down to about a dozen or so ornaments left for the tree. I used to think tree's with all those stupid ugly ornaments that the kids make at school or in Sunday school were really lame and tacky. Now I have one because there is absolutely no point in buying new ornaments. They'll just break them. I actually had great hopes for this Christmas. My youngest kid is now 3 years old so he's past the whole tugging on the tree age. I thought we might buy a few ornaments. Then he found a rudolph ornament to play with, yanked it off the tree and in the process knocked a Santa ornament off causing santa to lose both his legs. Later I found a grizzly sight under my computer desk...rudolph had been decapitated :-( Sooo, maybe new ornaments in a few more years.

Thanksgiving!!!

2011-11-28T05:19:00.000-08:00

I was halfway excited and half dreading today. It is a rainy cold Monday in November(must.resist.writing.guns and roses.lyrics!). I was looking forward to getting back into a routine but at the same time very sad that our fun wine-filled week had finally come to an end. Depressing really. Oh well, Christmas isn't that far away ;-)

The past two weeks have essentially been a big fat blur. The first of the two weeks was pretty horrible. The boss was out of town all week and I figured out that I pretty much suck at being a single mom. Seriously, I now have a new found respect for anyone who raises kids alone. My house was about one week away from being a new episode of "Hoarders: Buried Alive" and I found myself crying over practically anything...like that day I realized that I had bought my rabbit a giant bag of guinea pig food and had already been feeding it to him for several days. *eye twitch*

Now this past week was pretty much amazing. The boss was back and had the whole week off work. We went Christmas shopping, had lots and lots of company, ate lots and lots of yummy food, and the best part of it all was that my Mammaw, daddy's mom, and my uncle drove all the way up to Cedartown from Orlando. I haven't seen them since 2008, the Christmas after my grandfather passed away. It was wonderful to watch her with her great grandchildren.

This is both my grandmothers. They are buddies and were so happy to see each other!

Mammaw and Daddy

Our cousins immediately changed their Thanksgiving plans when they heard that Mammaw was going to be so close and drove from North Carolina to celebrate with us

My cousin, Jesse, and my brother, Jacob

Look how big my nephew, Joshua, is getting!

So that was our Thanksgiving in a nutshell. It was awesome. I hope everyone else had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Jacob at 18 months

2011-11-27T08:09:00.000-08:00

Here ya go...another BEAUTIFUL blue eyed baby to gush over. wait, I said baby, but Jacob is not a baby anymore, which is just mind boggling to me. It seems like it was just a few months ago that I was shooting pictures of this little fat immobile baby, then he was crawling, and then he turned one and now....he's pretty much your stereotypical little boy. Rough, tough, fearless, and non.stop.action. Perfect!

Alexander

2011-11-21T16:56:00.000-08:00

I always thought I would have at least one blue eyed baby. I have blue eyes, so does my brother and my mom and dad. Seth has these deep beautiful brown eyes though and all of our three kids inherited his eye color. Before, it was just me thinking one day I would have a blue eyed child....now I want to try just once more so I can have a blue eyed kid to take pictures of :-) Last week I shot 5 kids with beautiful blue eyes. FIVE. You saw Annabelle, meet Alexander.

Now in addition to not ever having a blue eyed child, I also never had a fat baby. All of my kids were skinny, scrawny little tiny things. They still are actually. Alexander is this chunky little ball of cuteness and fat rolls and brilliant blue eyes. Photographers dream!

Just ramblings :-)

2011-11-20T17:41:00.000-08:00

When I combined my blogs, I had NO idea how I was going to get random feelings and thought out in the open. I thought it would keep me from blogging really stupid things that no one really wanted to hear, but that I would put on my other blog just to have something to say. I guess at this point, if I write random weird blogs here, it's ok? Right? Well, we'll give it a whirl!(i'll illustrate with past pictures from my flickr archive...)

A week without the boss

I had so many great aspirations for this past week. I envisioned doing our normal daily routine, cooking supper like normal, putting the kids to bed at a reasonable time, and enjoying several kid free hours in the evening working on pictures and blogging, or using that time to clean the house or put away laundry. Unfortunately, I was too exhausted at the end of each day to really have any energy to put into work. See, Seth was out of town from Monday-Saturday so I was on my own all week long with the kids. I had not been nervous or scared of it. I knew I could handle it. Felt fine about it, in fact, I was looking forward to cooking a few dinners that Seth doesn't care for and having guilt-free TV and computer time at night. I also just like proving to myself from time to time that I can hold my own and survive without help. For some reason, I have put so much emphasis on the 'help' part of having a spouse that I forgot how much it means to just have someone else around. I felt terribly isolated and lonely this week. Most of it was my own doing. I spend so much energy trying to prove that I am capable of holding my own, I guess no one really even thought that I might just like to be checked on. No one really cared, lol. It was ok though, because in my premenstrual state, I probably would have just taken offense, or at least just insisted that I was doing fine and didn't need any help, just like I told my mother-in-law the 5 times that she called me this week to check on us. Seth came home yesterday but wasn't feeling well enough this morning to make it to mass. We're all getting a cold. So I cried periodically all through mass because that was NOT how I wanted this Sunday to go...I wanted us all together. And it's really embarrassing to sniffle and cry all through mass, so I bolted as soon as it was over hoping no one noticed. At least Cate was with me, she kept saying "Mama, your eyes are watering again, here is your tissue." I love that kid. Deep down, I think she knew that I was crying and that my eyes were not just watering from my cold.

A week with the boss

After having Seth gone for 5 1/2 days, I am highly anticipating this coming week! He and Cate both are off all week. We're going shopping tomorrow, having guests on Tuesday night, my grandmother and uncle are rolling in from central Florida on Wednesday, and Thanksgiving is Thursday. Our tree will be bought and put up on Friday. It's going to be a wonderful, fun filled week. I am so excited! This holiday season is gonna be amazing!

Being a Stay at Home Mom

Got told one day this week at the store that I was "lucky" to be a stay at home mom. Now we can go round and round from a Christian point of view about if there even is such thing as luck. Basically, I think of luck as being blessed with something good without earning or deserving it. So, in that case, NO, We are not LUCKY that I am able to stay at home. Seth works very hard to provide for his family, and we all make sacrifices. We've never had a new car, never had credit cards, never been able to go on vacations without help(financially), and we don't have iPhones or Droids or Blackberries like the rest of the world. We have old people cell phones, because it's what we can afford. We wear the same clothes for 10 years so that we can afford clothes for our kids. We aren't too stuck up for second hand things, and we realize that when we don't have the cash for something, we cannot afford it. So we don't buy it. We stress every month, have to answer for every dime we spend, and constantly remind each other how poor we are so that we don't get ahead of ourselves thinking there is more money there than there is. We work together, as a team, bringing in as much extra money as we can to keep our heads above water. We do make this sacrifice so that I can be at home with our children. I'm not lazy, I'm not "lucky", and I don't sit around eating bon bons all day. While I don't work nearly as hard as my husband, I do work and I *hate* that I have to be so defensive about what I do because moms who work outside of the home have a very wrong perception about what us stay at home moms "do all day". Yes, we get to sleep later, we get to stay in our jammies until noon if we want, and sometimes we get an afternoon nap. We also drive old minivans and don't carry Coach purses and don't have our hair "did" every 2 months(try once every year or two) and most of us don't even remember what a mani/pedi feels like(I think my last one was before I got married? like 9 1/2 years ago?)

I will actually bog client pictures this week!

Annabelle at 18 months

2011-11-16T07:34:00.000-08:00

I am just in awe of how much this sweet child has changed in the past year and a half that I have known her. I regularly refer to Annabelle as my "star" client. I do this for several reasons. Number one...she's just precious and all 4 sessions that I have shot for her have turned out beautifully. Number two, she's a really good and photogenic child, and even though this was our most challenging session to date, it still went smoothly and Annabelle did great. And number 3, I LOVE her parents and I really enjoy working with all 3 of them. So when Beverly emails me to book another session, I get really excited because I know it's going to go great. It always does. The Bradley's are just all around a fantastic and photogenic family who have been so loyal and good to me since the very first time we worked together. They are ideal clients.

For Annabelle's 18 month pictures, we met once a again in Rockmart, Ga. The Bradley's live in the Villa Rica area and it takes me a little over an hour to get to them, and vice versa. So every other session, we try to meet in the middle. Apparently, Rockmart+Us doing photos= Dreary, overcast, rainy day. Most photographers prefer to work under overcast skies, but I personally LOVE me a sunshiney day for photo's. I am not afraid of shadows or squinty eyes and have learned how to work around that. But I can make do with dreary day too if I have a subject who's inner sunshine shines as brightly as Annabelle's.

And reason #345 why I love working with the Bradley's...I was toting Annabelle across the parking lot, completely flattered that she reached for ME when her dad, Eddie, asked me if I would like a picture of me with Annabelle :-) I happily handed my camera over to Beverly and posed with my little cutie!

And I guess maybe I'll start making myself look a little more presentable when I go out shooting. Oh well, Annabelle doesn't care if I look crummy!

Thanks again y'all! It was a blast, as always!

Yea! Halloween's over, now it's Christmas! wait...

2011-11-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

Wasn't there something going on between Halloween and Christmas? Something about Turkey?

Anyway, we had another successful Halloween at the Ingram house. Another wonderful, fun, crazy, busy, and utterly exhausting Halloween. Halloween is always one of those Holiday's that is built up with great anticipation and many dreams and visions of lots of fun activities that never all come to fruition. As you know, because I tell you, ever year, I am kind of obsessive about my children's Halloween costumes. It all start when Simon was a baby and I had bought him a frog costume at a local consignment sale. I thought it would be super cute to have Cate be a princess that year...you know because of a princess and a frog? Well, I thought it was cute but no on else really put the two together enough to realize that we were doing a theme. Ugh. So the next year Cate was a cowgirl, Simon was a cowboy and Liam was a horse! Even CUTER, right? Really? Still nothing. The next year was when we started really getting serious with the Mario Brothers theme and while Cate looked a little like a Helena Bohnem Carter character and Simon looked like a chimney sweep and Liam....well, he kind of looked like Hitler by the time he'd rubbed off some very crucial parts of his eye-liner mustache...it was really neat to have pulled it all together and knowing that I had spent practically nothing on their outfits. I was happy. And so we have been doing our themes and I was particularly excited about this years "Lord of the Rings" theme!

Now, call me crazy but I am that really lame mom who...after I have my pictures of the kids in their costumes, I am really already over it all. I will add that getting to that point is quite exhausting and often times down right infuriating. Someone always has a major wardrobe malfunction or get's tired and whiny and they are ALL just ready to GO GET CANDY. This year was...fun. Cate had come home with a bag full of candy from school and was so excited to share with her brothers when she got home from school. Awww...right? So sweet of her. Well, I'll just go ahead and tell you. My kids are NOT used to eating candy. We aren't healthy nutty or anti-candy but we just don't buy sweets or soft drinks very often. So when they do get a large amount of candy in their system in a very short period of time their "system" kind of flips out and starts telling their tummies "GET IT OUT! THIS IS WRONG! ALL KINDS OF WRONG!" and they get sick. So Simon's sitting there holding his tummy trying not to vomit as I am trying to convince him to let me glue hair on his feet. 'Cause he's a hobbit, hobbits have to have hairy feet. They just have to. The compromise was that I could glue hair on his feet...but it had to be fake hair. I didn't have any fake hair save for a really hideous curly jet black wig. I had no other option. So my Samwise Gamgee looked great except for the pubic looking hair glued to his feet with rubber cement. Yeah, you know it's bad when your FATHER is calling you "Pube foot" all evening. Grand! So after pictures we drove to Cedartown with Simon's pub-feet and his head in his pumpkin bucket in case he had to hurl. And this was before we even started trick or treating. Face.Palm.

We survived, I got my pictures(which turned out terrible), they got their candy(which is now all gone), and we made it home before 9:30 which was phenomenal because Seth and I were both exhausted and so were the kids. I was just counting my lucky stars that I was smart enough to not do a costume this year that required any face paint or colored hair spray that would need to be washed off. So after yanking some hobbit hair off of some feet...they all fell asleep.

Our Lord of the Rings theme inspired my sister-in-law and Best friend to do the same with their kids. Unfortunately we were not able to get all 6 of the kids together for one picture but we did meet up with caleb at my moms

and Noah and Joseph later at my grandmothers

So there you have it! I hope everyone else had a great and wonderful Halloween!

Self-portrait recap crap

2011-10-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

So...you ever notice how photographers are always taking "artistic" and "creative" photographs of themselves? I know, right? How self absorbed!

Hahaha, yeah, not really. If you did ever notice that, the reason they do that is very simple. Actually there are probably a few reasons. #1.) No one ever takes their picture unless they surround themselves with other photographers. #2.) They are the one person in the group with a camera so they are behind it, never in front if it unless they are holding a remote control. Or are really really quick at jumping into frame after pressing the timer button. #3.) Even though we are photographers, we do actually like to have SOME pictures of ourselves.

So today I had family portraits taken by a very good and close friend/photographer(Tiffany Dacy) . I have been home stalking her facebook fan page every since. Desperate? Yes. But I will be patient. Anyway, it got me thinking about how I feel about pictures of myself. I will admit it freely, I am so far from photogenic. I am not really ugly, but I am not a super model. I'm just a plain ol' mom of three with a big nose and a big goofy smile and droopy eyes. I look like my mawmaw, actually, the older I get. Really, not ugly per say, but not really pretty either. Which is FINE, I am totally comfortable in my own skin. Women have this preconceived notion that if you don't feel beautiful then you can't feel confident and happy, which is complete bullshit because I know I am not beautiful but I am perfectly happy with the way that I look, absolutely confident, and completely happy. Does my confidence make me look better in pictures? AHahahahaha...hahahaha...ahhhhaaa. Ha. Ha. Yeeeah. Not so much. But I am who I am and I still think even us poor souls lacking in physical beauty should still have pictures of themselves.

And since no one else will ever take them for us some times we do it ourselves. Sometimes it can turn out well...

And other times....

Yeeeeaaahh.

So...essentially, photographers starved for attention do a 365 self portrait challenge and end up with 365 really embarrassing pictures of themselves doing really weird stuff. I have just started to appreciate my past photo challenges and projects, like my 365's. All my crazy self portraits that pushed my creativity to the brink...

It pushed me past my comfort level to be more comfortable in my own skin...

And above all else, it has provided me with the platform to produce some of the most important and sentimental work of my career as well as some of my most cherished memories of my family...

It might seem "vain" and ridiculous to many people, but being your own model is really special sometimes. I have taken so many pictures that mean so much to me. I deserve to be in pictures too, regardless of how plain and unpretty I might be. I am totally comfortable with being in front of the lens. Pictures are important. YOU are important. I am important. And pictures of us all are important.

Caleb & Joshua

2011-10-25T05:49:00.000-07:00

Someone told me once "Wow, you are really good with babies and small kids!". I was never sure if they were sincere or sarcastic in that comment because I pretty much stink at photographing babies and I just rile little kids up and make them misbehave so their parents are always yelling at them to be still and smile and threatening to not take them to get ice cream afterwards. At least with kids who are big enough to run around, you can get good shots whether they sit still or or...well, most of the time. With BABIES under say the age of 5 months or so, they just kind of lay there, starring blankly into space or crying. Naturally, starring blankly into space is the preferred "baby face", but it's still a challenge for me.

Working with kids in general is never really "easy". I typically tell parents to expect the session to take an hour-two hours depending on the cooperation of the kiddo's. Sometimes it just takes them a while to warm up to the idea of pictures and sometimes they get tired of the idea of pictures before we are ready and they need a break. Sometimes it's worth it to stop and feed a baby or give a kid a snack and a drink. Every session, every kid, every baby, every parent...everyone is different, so you never know exactly what to expect from the session and when things go sour you have to remember....

Fortunately for me...Caleb and Joshua are my beloved and precious little nephews. The session was at MY house which is very familiar territory for Caleb. And they love Auntie April! What could go wrong!?!

Uhhhh....yeah. Like I said

2011-10-17T14:53:00.000-07:00

I hope that this post is not taken as bitchy, or angry. It certainly isn't. I am not angry. I am not upset. Just a little "eye-twitchy". I don't know if that's really a word, but if it isn't already, I want a dollar every time someone says it because it's MINE.

Please, please, please give me as much notice as possible when you need to cancel a session that you have booked with me. I plan my life, personal and social, around my photography schedule. I completely understand that sometimes you have no choice. Your kid is sick, you have to spend some cash to fix the car, etc. It doesn't always work out. I get it. I am a normal person...a mom, 3 kids, with bills and a house and family obligations that pop up last minute. Please make sure that when you book your session you have thought about all the events that might pop up, you made sure that everyone to be photographed can be there, and make sure that you write the date down so that you remember it.

In the event that you realize that you cannot work it into your budget, that your kids/family are getting sick, that something else is going on that day that might press you for time...please let me know in advance. Like I said, I schedule my life around my photography schedule, not the other way around. I really take your session seriously enough to pass on invitations to weddings, parties, bridal/baby showers, and other things that are important to me. In 4 years at this, I have cancelled and had to reschedule about 3-4 times for personal reasons. I have shot with sinus infections, fevers, sprained ankles, scratch cornea's, and with terrible sunburn. I take great care to make sure that I am available and able to be there to do my job. I request somewhat of the same respect. 2-3 days in advance is perfectly understandable and acceptable. I would love the opportunity to schedule other clients who might LOVE to have your spot. Canceling at the last minute removes my option of scheduling someone else or from making/confirming other plans for myself and my family. I also have one of those husbands. You know, the type. Has so many fires he needs 4 extra irons? That's the one! when I book something, I don't just assume he'll be here to watch our 3 children. Odds are, he probably isn't going to be, therefore I have to find a babysitter for them, which is fine when the session actually takes place but when it doesn't, I've not only set aside hours of my time, but also of my sitters time. You see where I am going with this?

Look, I am not trying to be ugly, or selfish, or mean, or accusing. All I am asking is that you give me the same respect that I give you. Don't book a session unless you fully intend to go through with it. If there is a situation that arises, just call me as soon as you think there may be a problem...even if it's 2 weeks before. Give me a fair chance. If you think it might be a problem, we can reschedule then and give someone else a shot at your time slot.

I love my job and I love my family and I love my life. I want it all to flow well so that everyone is happy. But it takes more than just me to make that happen. I get full cooperation from my precious husband and babysitters, sometimes I get it from my children. Not often. All I am asking from you, my sweet wonderful people, is a little cooperation and communication.

I fully appreciate your patience and attention through this blog if you made it to the bottom. Thank you to everyone of you who are constantly supporting me and helping to make me a better photographer.

Since that was all heavy and all, please enjoy this really old picture of Simon realizing that shortening wasn't nearly as yummy as he'd imagined it would be(picture taken February 2009) Totally out of focus, but pretty hilarious.

Ingram's went for a hike

2011-10-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

We've had a...weird and long week. Fleas and whatnot. We had to vacate our house all day yesterday to have it treated to kill the fleas. Not that I minded hanging out with my in-laws all day or anything, but not being able to go home when you want to is just kind of stressful, you know? I think the whole flea thing left me totally wiped out and my nerves were shot. Now, I have this condition which the doctors label "generalized anxiety disorder" which essentially just means that I am too big of a pansy to deal with stress and my body freaks out and starts having it's own kind of temper tantrum that they call an "anxiety attack". They don't happen often anymore, maybe a few times a year, but if anything could bring one on, I suppose a house full of fleas, having to pay an exterminator, and having to wash every thing in my house will certainly do it. And that's what was going on, and so I had one, and it sucked. But let's skip ahead a bit, right? Yeah, let's do that.

This morning I was feeling MUCH better. With two photo sessions cancelled for today and the other not until 3:00, I need to get out. Bad! We loaded up the fam and headed to Alabama for the morning. After a wonderful hike at little river canyon, I felt completely refreshed and invigorated. We got home in time for me to change clothes and grab my "good" camera and head up to Berry for an engagement session, which I will blog later this week(yea!).

So that's that. I just wanted to post something positive and nice after my raving, psycho-rant about fleas on Thursday. Unfortunately, y'all caught me at the start of my little "episode". I'm totally better. Until I see something small and black in my peripheral vision or feel something on me...then I start twitching again. But for.right.now. I'm good.

(my old, beat up, struggling Rebel is my travel camera, so please don't judge our travel/adventure pictures if some of them are kind of crappy...mmkay, thanks!

Brian + Leah

2011-10-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

Leah and Brian's July wedding was the second chance that I had to photograph one of my own bridesmaids weddings. Yes, over 9 years ago, Miss Leah was a bridesmaid in MY wedding.

Look at all those skinny pretty girls and men with full heads of hair! well, my brother Jacob was balding, but he had a heck of a lot more hair than he has now....which is none. where was I? Leah! That's right...

Yes, Leah and I go WAY back. We've watch each other grow up, start families, experience heart break and dark periods of our lives, and rise above it all. After 15 years of being someone's friend, it's an incredible feeling to know that if I ever needed anything at all, they'd be there for me. Since I love my friend so much, I was thrilled to be able to watch her fall in love with a wonderful man and stand before God and their families to become his wife. After everything that Leah has been through over the past few years, I felt an overwhelming sense of joy to watch Brain practically sobbing while saying his vows. It was confirmation that this is truly a match made in heaven and that through thick and thin...these two sweet souls will always be just as in love as they were on that HOT(I'm not exaggerating, it was HOT) July day when they became man and wife. Congrats dear friends, May God bless you all the days of your life and may you always feel like newlyweds :-) It's one of the best feeling in the world, I hope you never lose it

Love y'all!

The Gonzalez Family

2011-10-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

This is another one of those "so I have known Candace since forever" posts :-) It's the blessing of being raised in one place and staying there into adulthood, you get to watch people that you have known pretty much all your life grow up, get married, and have kids. It's fantastic, I love it! Candace was always(and still is of course) such a sweet soul. So it was no surprise when I met her hubs and kids that they were equally as awesome as she is.

Aleigha and Lui are quite possibly some of the sweetest siblings I have ever met. You can tell that Aleigha takes her roll as big sister very seriously, just like Cate. They are both very serious about being bigger and bossier than their little brothers. But Lui doesn't seem to mind because he just ignores her and does what ever he wants to do anyway :-) Just like MY kids! Oh my gosh, maybe my kids aren't so weird? They are just normal! *whew* Good to know. I dropped off the disk with Candace just this morning and had to laugh when she told me that her hubby, Carmelo, was seriously skeptical about my professionalism after our session. I'll be the first to admit, I am a big kid at heart and having 3 kids myself gives me a unique advantage because I know better than to ask too much out of the little ones. Forcing them to sit still? TELLING them to smile on command? Essentially asking them to do everything that is totally against their character and even ability? Not gonna make for a fun session for anyone! So I show up with my little bag and my camera, wearing chucks and a ratty old hoodie and hit the ground running and being silly with kids that don't know me from Adam's house cat. It's how I work and it hasn't disappointed me yet. And hello, Lui told me "I love you!" about 20 times as we were wrapping up and leaving so....yeah...at least the kids like me. And hopefully the parents do too once they get their pictures! ha ha! On the bright side, Carmelo did end up thinking that I wasn't that crazy once he saw more of the pictures ;-) See, people? I know I seem like a nut job but I know what I am doing...most of the time.

Unfortunately, I was unable to narrow this down to a precious few pictures to share because, fortunately, I pretty much loved them all.

I call this one "blur"

And this one..."monkey"

Candace and Carmelo...It was a honor and a pleasure to spend an hour with y'all and your precious, wonderful, beautiful children. Thank you :-)

Ingram kids 2011

2011-10-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

I have been laying low for a couple months in blogasphere for a couple reasons. 1. I needed a break. and 2. You are totally about to get so sick of reading my blogs because you know what?? It's FALL!!! I think all photographers get a little excited ...maybe a little too excited...when Fall finally rolls around after the long hot summer months. Now, I personally love Summer and really don't mind the heat but for some reason, people who pay me to do my job don't like getting pictures back of them covered in sweat? I dunno. I don't get it either. But around the end of September the appointments come flooding in and I start having a panic attack and thinking "How in the world am I going to fit all of this in to two months?!?! Oh my gosh!" But I really do love it and I am super excited.

well, I sat down this afternoon and though "I should write a blog today, haven't blogged in a while" but I really wanted to do one last personal blog before diving into the clients blogs full force(which will start tomorrow, I have several to blog! eeek!)

I have a lot of nieces and nephews. 6, to be exact. And those are just the ones who are literally my nieces and nephews. I have 2 more that are my best friends kids. On Seth's side of the family, we have a grand total of 7 children(my 3 included). Now, every year we are faced with this daunting task of gathering up all 7 of these rascals and forcing them to like...stand still, be clean for like 10 minutes, and...smile. I know, right!? I don't know why we do this to ourselves...or to them.

Here they are, the Ingram 7...October 2011 :-) I know what grandma's gettin for Christmas....

living in choas

2011-09-16T18:58:00.000-07:00

The past 3 weeks or so have been so odd round here. If you didn't know, we've been remodeling our kitchen(a BIG bloggy posty about that when she's all finished and ready to show off--no one wants to see the messy in between photo's). I was out of town two weekends in a row and while that all doesn't seem so crazy when I type it out, it sure has felt crazy. I am used to being out of town, or Seth being out of town, or at any rate, one or both of us gone for the majority of the weekend. That's "normal" in our house. Odd is for us to both be home all weekend and nothing to be going on. That's just all kinds of wrong for us Ingrams. we have stuff to do, people to see, places to be. I think the whole kitchen remodel has literally drained us...and unfortunately we are only half way finished. Everything has been moved out of the kitchen and placed where we could find a spot for it. Coffee maker has been in one bathroom, while the coffee mugs were in the other bathroom closet. dishes in the dining room along with pots and pans, bakeware in the pantry, wine glasses in the media closet, the stove in the laundry room. It's literally an ordeal to make a sandwich and for most of this week, we didn't even have counter tops at all.

So picture it. Kid wants lunch. Sandwiches! Good deal. Get the bread from the pantry walk into the kitchen...umm, ok, no countertops. Go back pantry, pull out 2 slices of bread. Go get meat and mayo and mustard from fridge...ummm...oh dinning room table. knife/spoon/something to spread mayo and mustard...where would I find that??? Here...no. Umm...Oh I put them there. Ok. Plate...I'll just use a paper plate...where'd I put those? Laundry room, on top of stove, I remember. Ok. I got a plate. Here ya go buddy. "Can I have some water too please mama?" Yeah, yeah, no problem. Cups? Cups, we have plastic cups in the pantry. Come into the kitchen, remember there is no sink right now = no tap water. Must remember to refill the pitcher for the fridge. Go get tap water out of bathroom. Go give water to kid, take dirty mayo/mustard knife to bathroom to wash, put away in the dinning room...again.

Right now, I am listening to the sound of power tools in my kitchen and I know that when I go back in there, I will have new countertops, my sink will be back, and I will once again have a room that somewhat resembles a kitchen. Thank you, Lord, that this will be my last night in a long long long time of having to wash dishes in my bathroom sink!

Yeah, my mirror has spots all over it. Don't judge me. It's been a long week.

Tybee Island retreat

2011-09-12T06:17:00.000-07:00

As I was driving the long boring haul between Savannah and Macon yesterday, headed home from Tybee Island, I had a lot of time to reflect on my weekend away from my family. I will admit now, and I haven't even told my friends yet, that I was somewhat worried about the trip for a few reasons. I was concerned because of the expectations that my good friend Vickie and I had for the trip. 3 years ago(almost to the day) we took the same trip with a very different group. It was our first girls weekend and it was wonderful. Everything was fun and exciting and new and since we all three knew each other very well, it was relaxed and comfortable. So I was thinking to myself for 2 weeks before the trip....is it unrealistic to expect this trip to be just as wonderful? Are we setting ourselves up for disappointment? With 4 very different women with different personalities, backgrounds, and stories....will we all get along? What if there is a conflict that ruins the whole weekend for someone? I voiced my concerns to some good close friends of mine who promptly advised me to shut up and stop worrying. So I did and of course, they were absolutely right that there was nothing to worry about. This trip was very different than the first one, of course, but it wasn't any less magical and refreshing(although, I have to admit that driving home incredibly sunburned and somewhat hung over from a late night didn't made me feel very "fresh").

So we'll start the story with the words written on mine and Tiffany's bedroom wall....

(Picture by Tiffany Dacy)

Vickie, Tiffany and I arrived on the island around 5:30 on Friday night. We wasted no time opening a bottle of wine(Btw, if you own a beach house, always make sure you have a decent cork screw...Mermaid cottages, you're welcome for the new cork screw that we bought and left at the house). We settled in and...all got on facebook. Then Jackie rolled into town around 9:30 and we....all got on facebook together.

Yea! FUN! I'm not being sarcastic, it was a FUN night. It's been a long time since I have just been able to sit around on my computer without kids constantly interrupting me. This was the first time that Tiffany and I had met Jackie, and Tiffany and Vickie had only met that morning when we picked her up. I found it absolutely incredible that 5 minutes after the four of us were together for the first time, we all felt like a group of friends who had known each other all of our lives. Conversation flowed effortlessly and we laughed and talked until the wee hours of the morning about life, love, music, and everything else.

The beach was awesome the next day. Thanks in part to...umm...

Yeah. We did eventually put some bottles of water and ice in that thing. Which made it very "FUN!" to carry from the parking lot to the beach. After settling on a spot, we spent the rest of the day enjoying the sun, sand, water, and each others company.

And the white girls got sunburned. Jackie's all tan and stuff, but the rest of us came away from the beach very...crispy.

Check out my upper leg, yo!

I know, you are thinking "how does that even happen?" Well, combine the cooler picture with a bottle of spray on spf 15....it's not advanced mathematics.

Later that evening, after showers and some naps, we stuffed our faces at Fannie's on the beach...

(Pictures at Fannie's compliments of Tiffany Dacy)

Vickie had oysters for the first time, which we documented well but I love her too much to post those pictures, so enjoy this loverly picture of a weird bug thing that Jackie and Vickie ate and Tiffany took a picture of...

(another Tiffany picture, it's really awesome to take another photographer on vacy with me so I don't have to take so many pictures!)

After Fannies, we went to a karaoke bar. And you are insane if you think I would ever post any of THOSE pictures on my blog....or anywhere else for that matter. And I am not going to talk about it either, other than to say that I saw my first bar fight. That was"FUN!" too.

So back to driving home sunburned and tired, trying to stay awake...I was missing my family. I was ready to be back home. And ready to get back to reality. But coming home from a vacation or even just a weekend away is always very bittersweet for me. Those special times away are suddenly just a little time capsule now filled with memories and pictures and the smell of sunscreen that you can detect when you open your bag to unpack the day after you get back, and the grains of sand in the floorboard of the car that remain for weeks. Although I know it all happened, and I have proof, vacations always seem like a really great dream to me when I get back. This one was a good one and I was a little sad to see it end, but so thankful for it. I really needed it and I hope we can do it again next year...and hopefully we can find a nicer bar next time ;-)

Vickie, Jackie, and Tiffany....It was epic, girls. Thanks for being awesome! It was FUN!

You know your a big fat sucker of a mom when....you have to write crap like this

2011-09-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

I was going to title this post "You know she's growing up when....(that was the title) .....Instead of just being whiny and clingy when she's sick, she gets HERSELF a glass of ice water and willingly goes to lay down her bed alone in an effort to get some rest before our trip tomorrow. (that was going to be the opening sentence). But then, no sooner did I think up this doting blog in admiration of my 7 year old did she start whining and while lying in her bed she was suddenly barking out requests, which was fine for a little while. But when I heard "Hey Mama, I'm getting a little low on ice water" I had just about enough of that. See this is why I am not nice to my kids, if I show them any amount of kindness, they milk it for all it's worth. Grrr.

We are all set to pack up the fam and drive 4 1/2 hours to spend the weekend visiting with our friends in Tennessee. Cate is beyond excited about our trip. It's going to be an awesome 2 night trip with some of our very best friends and ALL of their kids(there are a lot of kids between them all) on the farm with a big "hoedown" party tomorrow with a great bluegrass band. She's been counting down the days for over a month. And now she has a cold. It's nothing bad, and she hasn't ran a fever at all. Just a head cold. If it were one of the boys(you know, the kids we have that don't understand regular washing of hands or picking up a random cup to drink out of) I would just have to stay home with them. But I know Cate and she has set her mind to mending herself before 9am tomorrow morning(departure time! well, that's what Seth said. So in "Seth time" that really means 11am or noon). Now, Cate has a head cold, but has had it for days and hasn't missed a beat. She's been to school, been sleeping/eating fine. Lord knows she's been eating fine. You know people warned me about how much the boys will eat when they get Cate age but if they eat more than she does now, we'll be living in a van down by the river for financial ruin. But in general, she's been fine aside from a scratchy throat and runny nose, she's been fine. I honestly think it was just allergies. But man, I feel for her....I thought she was sick and was so attentive and soft spoken, keeping her supplied in ice water and whatever else she needed.

After 1 1/2 hours of laying her bed being treated like a queen, watching looney tunes on my old laptop she was suddenly feeling right as rain as soon as I stopped waiting on her hand and foot. Miraculous recovery, don't you think?

Yeah. Welcome to my world.

We are off to Tennessee tomorrow, God willing. Prayers for traveling mercies for our family(and brother-in-law and sister-in-laws family as they travel to Florida on Sunday) are much appreciated!

Simon & Liam

2011-08-27T05:58:00.000-07:00

While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see. ~Dorothea Lange

I love all 3 of my kids equally and in different ways, for different reasons and I connect with all differently. One of my favorite things to sit back and just observe is how my boys play together. When I was pregnant with Liam, after we found out he was a boy, I was nervous about having two boys so close together. I assumed they would hate each other and fight constantly for 18-20 years and then they'd be best friends. Never in a million years did I expect then to form this bond that they have now at ages 4 & 3.

I really love having kids. I think a lot of people are under the misconception that if you complain about the stuff that comes along with kids, then you must not enjoy them. It's just like having a job that you love and worked hard to get, but there are some things that could be better, like if the commute wasn't so long, and maybe if your office was a little bigger, and if you could get a raise, that would be icing on the cake but all in all you love your job even though you complain about the few things that you really dislike about it? Does that make sense? Meh, I love having kids and watching the boys together is probably on my top 10 list of things that I LOVE about being a mother. They fight, they argue, they make messes, they make BIG messes, and they get on my nerves...a lot. But there is no place in the world I would rather be right now than at home with my boys at this time in their lives. Next year, Simon will be in school and Liam will be the only one left :-) So this school year is really very important for me to document because it's their last year at home all day together. I think they are off to a great start to making the most of this time together.

This last one here...this might possibly be one of the most important images that I have ever shot. I shot it yesterday amid raging PMS and out of pure frustration that I really couldn't get motivated to do anything else other than take a few pictures of the boys playing outside in the sprinkler. So even if I didn't accomplish one other thing yesterday that amounted to anything...I got this picture and I am happy with it.

That's my rambling for Saturday morning, have a great weekend everyone!

Amanda + Andrew

2011-08-26T05:13:00.000-07:00

It's been a few weeks since I was able to really write anything. Sometimes, things just get so unorganized in your life that you cannot possibly make sense of anything in your head long enough to write about something that anyone else would want to read. So i just didn't write anything and once I stopped trying to write something everyday, I actually didn't feel anxious about being a slacker.

I did want to get this blog post up this week(and surprise, it took me till Friday to do it). I have had probably 2 or 3 weddings that I have shot over the past 3 1/2 years that I got sort of "wrapped up" in and was actually kind of sad when it was all over. I think it happens when we have several sessions before the wedding and there is a lot of communication going on between me and the bride. But I do get emotionally involved sometimes against my better judgement and come time to ship the pictures off, I feel a little sad. Cause it's all over, you know? No? Yeah, it's a photographer thing.

Anyway, Amanda was one of those brides that I had gotten quite attached to. She is an absolute doll and I thoroughly enjoyed working with her and Andrew during this process. Now, here I was getting all attached and after the wedding, they up and moved to Louisiana. Ugh!

I had a blast at this wedding, and I have had a blast getting to know Amanda and Andrew as well. Good luck y'all! Give us a call when you come to town sometime!

Og

2011-08-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

We talked about Og a lot around here. The kids love him to pieces and he manages to steal the hearts of everyone that he shines those big blue eyes and flashes that sweet little grin at. Og is our nephew. Well, not really. You know how sometimes friends are so close that your kids call them "Aunt" or "Uncle" so & so because the relationship is too personal to call them "Mr. and/or Mrs. So&So's last name"? And you go with Aunt or Uncle as an honorary title of respect and affection because it still allows the kids to feel playful and have fun around said friend while still showing them respect? It's kind of like that. Only...they aren't just friends. Seth's 1st cousins, Adam and his wife(my bff) Jessica and Aaron and his wife Teresa are cousins, obviously...they are all family, but it's more than that. We are all friends, very good and close friends. Adam and Jess' kids have been calling us Aunt April and Uncle Seth all of their lives and like wise our kids call them Aunt and Uncle and have always referred to Aaron as "Uncle Aaron" as well. Aaron married Teresa in the spring of 2010(you might remember their wedding...or Aaron's hair, anyway) and joyously welcomed their first child, baby Og, into the world in February of this year--yeah, they didn't waste time! About a month ago, Aaron and Teresa moved back to Georgia from Tennessee and we were...THRILLED. To think of the kids having yet another awesome cousin to grow up with made our hearts leap with joy and knowing that we'd get to see A & T a lot was icing on the cake. So Og is our nephew and I'm Auntie April and our kids love baby Oggie and Aunt Teresa and Uncle Aaron. So we naturally talk about him a lot.

Now, remember two posts back when I blabbed on and on about how much I love baby names? Well, once people get past the obscurity of Og's name I think he will find life very easy. How many kids with 2 letter names do you know? Probably not many and the ones that you do know, I bet they have an initial name(such a A.J. which could be "short" for a lot of things.) But Og's name is just Og. O-G. He'll never have trouble spelling his name, or wonder if the voice saying "Og!" in public is talking to him or not. However, people are still very curious about his name. Do you know I have actually had people ask me "How do you spell that?" ????? Huh? It's Og. Which part is confusing you? "What's it stand for? What's it's short for? How did they 'come up with' that name?" By the end of his first year, there will be no question about his short name that his parents haven't heard. But if you only knew his awesome and cool parents, you would agree...no name more "normal" would have suited him. And to answer the question that I have gotten "Is that a real name" Yes. Yes it is. Og is a biblical name. He was a giant who was an Amorite king. He was killed by Moses(you heard of that name right?). Og is the shortest name in the bible. So there ya go, don't ask me about his name. Just absorb his cuteness and believe me when I say that although his last name is not Ingram, he has Ingram blood in him. He will never care that his name is not "normal" or well-known. He'll make it his own, and I think, he already has.

So now that we have that name thing out of the way....just look at these squishy cheekies!!!!!!

The last few pictures are of Og in his baptismal suit. He was baptized in June but we took a few special ones of him while he still fits in this outfit because Teresa's mom hand-made it. Oh yes, she did.

One of my favorite baby quotes to go with the next picture:

If you were to open up a baby's head - and I am not for a moment suggesting that you should - you would find nothing but an enormous drool gland. ~Dave Barry

paint it....brown

2011-07-31T18:01:00.000-07:00

A while back, Seth and I bought a fence. Literally, we purchased a disassembled fence from craigslist the day after our then 2 year old decided to go take a stroll across the 2 lane, but busy, highway that is within spitting distance of our front door. Now, we immediately put it...under the pole shed and had the best intentions of getting it up just as soon as we had a chance. A month or 2 later, we had finished putting it up. And by we, of course I mean Seth. I think I may have brought him a few glasses of ice water and helped assemble one section for about 10 minutes. I'm usually really good for moral support and bringing out ice water. And taking pictures of other people actually working. We all have our little roles.

The summer flew by really quickly. The first half of the summer we were crazy busy and getting ready for Seth's brother's wedding. After the wedding, in early July, we felt an overwhelming urge to just REST but you know how that goes. It's the same effect as booking a week long vacation on the beach, your 7 days are up and you can't believe it went by so quickly. What did you do with those days? Oh you rested. That's it. Time flies when you are...not stressed.

Recently, Seth did stain the road facing side of the fence a few weeks ago(it actually took a couple a weeks). Tonight, he finished up. Looks lovely, I love it. I'm so happy with it. So glad it's not hovering over his head anymore. And I am greatly looking forward to a fun and fantastic rest of the summer. Our 7 year old, Cate, starts 2nd grade tomorrow. And my self-imposed vacation from shooting is almost up. I start back to shooting on Saturday(It's Katie's bridal session!!! Yea!!!). I have enjoyed my break, have enjoyed taking time to enjoy the last few weeks of Cate's summer with her and the boys. Now, starting tomorrow, it will be back into the get up early and get going routine. Ugh. Wish me luck, friends, wish me luck.

(September 2009-The house when we decided to buy it)

(November 2010)

(In the snow January 2011)

(After planting Green Giant's March 2011)

(April 2011)

Today, July 31st 2011

Slade

2011-07-31T16:13:00.000-07:00

I love naming babies. In fact, pouring over baby name books and websites is probably one of my favorite parts of being pregnant. I always loved coming up with hundreds of combinations of awesome names, writing them down in list, handing them to Seth and watching him go "Meh, I don't like those." --Yeah, naming babies was...fuuu-uuun. Nowadays, when we tell people our kids names we are used to getting a response of some kind. Sometimes people say "wow, cool names!" and some people say "Oh. where did you come up with 'Liam'?" and still some people have said "Oh, I prefer non-traditional, unique names...this is my daughter....Ahbeagayele. It's pronounced 'Abigail'...the last e is silent" Oh, I see.

Our kids names are fairly traditional, Catherine(Cate), Simon, and Liam. But we still think they are very cool. Anyway, I like names and I like "cool" names. I have never heard this name before, but fell instantly in LOVE: Slade.

Little Slade is 7 months old and cute as a button. He's chunky and happy and has fuzzy blonde hair and big purdy blue eyes and this jolly little grin. I just cannot get past his name, it's so.cool. I want to have another boy and name him Slade. Yeah, Seth's not going for it. The other baby, that is. I don't really want another either, honestly, but looking at this cute little feller with such a COOL name...it's hard to NOT want to do it just one more time :-)

Unfortunately, it was 200° outside on the day of Slade's session. Ok, maybe not that bad, but it felt that way. We had to cut it short because babies don't like to feel like their flesh is melting off their bones. Neither do moms and photographers.

Thanks for being so awesome little Slade :-)

Bringing Middle Earth to Cave Spring, Ga

2011-07-26T12:50:00.000-07:00

You probably already know this...but we do a costume theme every Halloween. Now, we really don't get into Halloween very much with decorating and we certainly do not go into ghosts and ghouls and goblins(although we could this year with the Middle Earth theme). We like to do fun, creative themes that we can pull together from things we already have or can obtain without resorting to going out and buying overpriced and cheaply made costumes from wal-mart. Not that I care if the halloween costumes hold together for more than 4 hours, but let's just be honest...I want kick ass pictures of awesome costumes that WE put together and that didn't cost us an arm and a leg. I LOVE doing this but our theme last year really kicked it up a notch. Everyone seemed to really enjoy last years Alice in Wonderland theme.

Well, our family enjoys it anyway and my relatives are always excited to see the kids in their costumes and what all we have come up with. My poor blog followers get sick of hearing about it, I am sure. Sorry y'all, it's just too much fun to not blog about! Since last years theme was such a big hit, thanks to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and all the renewed interest in the story and it's characters, we wanted to do something similar in coolness and obscurity as far as Halloween costumes go. I haven't seen many hobbits running around in the past few years...well, nevermind. i have never seen it even at the height of the trilogy's popularity a few years back following the movies. My kids love all 3 movies(no, they do not scare them). And the boys behave like hobbits anyway, eat 6 meals a day, have big feet, are lazy and laid back, don't like controversy, and they don't like hair cuts. They are perfect hobbits. Liam will be Frodo, and Simon will be Samwise. Cate decided to be Eowyn(I really wanted her to be Arwen so I'd have an excuse to buy one of those evenstar necklaces).

This is the beginning of Liam's "Frodo" costume. I will also be making or finding a cloak and a sting(frodo's sword). No idea whether I am going to paste fake hair on their feet or draw it on with a marker. And how in the world I am going to make an eowyn costume is beyond me. We may just buy one like we did with Simon's hat from last year(last year, his hat was the only piece of the costumes that we actually bought--Thanks Bryn & Erin for grabbing it for us at the Disney store!). I cannot wait to have more time to work on the costumes and accessories. I just gotta get my darling clients taken care of first! Wish me luck!

So there it is. Coming to Cave Spring, October 31st, 2011: Middle Earth.

File that under "Pictures you will hate me for in 10 years"

2011-07-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

I think my job is done here for the day.

Let me tell you about me...

2011-07-21T04:30:00.000-07:00

I typically am not a big fan of photography blogs that are all pictures. I don't care for the ones that are too wordy with never enough pictures. I don't like when photographers keep their personal lives all to themselves and I don't like when they only ever talk about themselves. I think to keep a successful photography blog, you have to have a healthy balance of everything. I...umm...have obviously not been doing that over the past few months(ok, the past year). I am so far behind on blogging sessions and weddings that I almost feel guilty about posting about me. I mean...you know me. It's so hard for me to talk about how I think and feel about stuff.(That's a joke, btw, if you don't me. I pretty much dominate all conversations and talk about me and my family constantly in real life).

I have been noticing a few newcomers to the blog lately. I love it! I had pretty much given up the blog to being read only by my sister-in-law and 3 other friends of mine. Occasionally some loyal clients will stop in. So to see new faces posting comments makes my poor little heart sing! So for those of you who don't know me very well, I will give you the run down. My name is April Ingram.

(hi, nice to meetcha, I don't wear make-up on weekdays, sorry)

and I live in Cave Spring, Ga with my amazing husband, Seth,

and our 3 crazy kids, Cate(7), Simon(4) and Liam(3)

(They're very "special" kids)

we have a sweet kitty cat, Anges

(what? This IS my happy face!)

and we also have a rabbit named Max but I don't have a picture of him right now and I am not going to run outside to go take one. That's just be silly. Just a stupid rabbit. Not really part of the family or anything. Uuughherrrr. ok fine. Be right back...

Ok...This is Max(and yes, I did just run outside to take this. You're welcome.)

I have been shooting since March of 2008, so I am still just a baby photographer even though I recently upgraded from my trusty old rebel...

...... to my new 7D. *In loooo-ooove*

I love my family and my job and my life, but I am habitual whiner and griper. Our family is typical, 3 kids, 2 pets, a mortgage, anal-rentetive husband who would love for his artist wife to not be such a messy slob but he loves her anyway(I leave a little trail through the toys and mess from the back door to my office chair so he can come straight inside after work and give me a kiss). We moved from our hometown of Cedartown in late 2009 and dragged our family ALLLLL the way to Cave Spring(which is a full 8 miles away from Cedartown) and since that time we have spent the majority of our free time doing something or another to our little old house and practicing being not bored. Seriously, 3 kids, a cat, and a rabbit...we don't know bored.

That's me in a nutshell. Oh and I love comments. I think comments are just awesome. They make me happy. Not joking, comment...anytime you want!

Brinkley is....7 months old? How'd that happen?

2011-07-20T05:41:00.000-07:00

The last time I had the pleasure of photographing Brinkley she was but a tiny little ball of fat and cuteness. And now...well...she's still a ball of fat and cuteness, she's just not so little anymore. This kid grew up in the blink of an eye. So crazy how other people kids get so big so fast. These days Brinkley is a live wire who wants to be every where, do everything, and see everything. She wants the whole world....in her mouth.

Slow down Binkey!!!

And Brinkley doesn't just model for me...she has her own modeling page! Check her out in all her cuteness!! Follow the link below..

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brinkleys-Modeling-Page/119274451490059

Ingram's got a new sister :-)

2011-07-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of my 6 readers knew this...but...we had a pretty big weekend, weekend before last :-) For the first time in over 3 years, I was actually at a wedding where I was not the photographer. I cannot begin to tell you how lovely it was to be able to be a part of the big day instead of working. It was wonderful. I got to dress up, I had my hair done by a professional hair dresser, I got my make up all done, I wore a cute little black dress and pretty silver heels. I stood at the front of the church witnessing a wedding rather than documenting it. I danced at the reception and drank my share of lemonade-rum punch. I glad handed and chatted with people I had not seem in a long time without worrying about what I was missing. I had fun at a wedding in a way that I never get to do.

All of the photography was left up to Jason Wilkes and his beautiful wife, Chelsey. I was happy and confident leaving the entire documenting of the day up to these talented and wonderful photographers. It was...so.much.fun! Just knowing that I could enjoy myself and celebrate with everyone else in the family was a joy and such a rare one. I love shooting weddings, but to be a part of one after so long was truly a blessed and wonderful thing. Congratulations to my darling brother-in-law and precious new sister-in-law. And a million thank you's to Jason and Chelsey Wilkes, who were such wonderful photographers, documenters of the day, and so much fun to be around.

Please go take a look at Jason's blog and don't forget to check out the gallery of Jon and Lisa's wedding at the end of the post. (and leave a comment, that really means a lot to the photographers, I should know!)
http://www.ohsnapshotphotography.com/blog/?p=1469

Yes, that's me. with my daughter seemingly biting my arm. She was just being silly. It's now my facebook profile pic. Love it!

Thank you Jason and Chelsey! Thank you to everyone who came! Thank you to everyone who joined us in this most special and wonderful celebration that meant so much to our family! Congratulations Jon and Lisa! we love you so much and are proud and happy to have you in our family, Lisa!

Amanda's bridals at 655 West

2011-07-07T05:07:00.000-07:00

Here are some things that I love: Discovering new venues, evening light, sun flare, pink, wedding dresses, vintage couches, and Amanda. So throwing all of these fabulous things that make me happy into one evening with my camera? Yeah. Makes for a happy April.

Again, one of the last sessions I shot with my old rebel and largely my old processing style but I had to share them because Amanda is just.so.dang.beautiful!

This picture has a story....well. I mean. Never mind it doesn't have a story. Andrew(Amanda's then Fiance, now husband) just wanted a picture of her with his gun.

Daniel + Leah: Part 2

2011-07-07T04:46:00.000-07:00

The night of Leah and Daniel's reception was probably the most fun I have ever had shooting. The reception wasn't boring at all, never a dull moment. It also helped that it took place at the beautiful Dekalb County Courthouse in downtown Decatur. I always get excited about a cool reception venue, probably because I have seen so many bad ones. This might have been the coolest reception I have ever shot though. Wait...there was that one with the...no, never mind. Yep, best reception ever. And Leah's mom made sure that my assistant and I ate and had a beer or two. And they put us up in a hotel room for a night. And a bush caught on fire. Yep, best reception ever.

(yes, I am fully aware that this is terribly off centered, but thanks for paying attention)

Stop flashing me!

Somehow, that was way more pictures than I anticipated posting. Oh and btw, I did actually write this blog on Tuesday evening but couldn't post it like I said I would due to some issues uploading the pictures Tuesday evening and yesterday morning. (but it was absolutely NOT due to the fact that I just didn't feel like fighting with photobucket and flickr.)

Daniel + Leah: Part One

2011-07-05T05:06:00.000-07:00

I have been delaying blogging this amazing wedding for weeks and the only reason was because I just couldn't find a way to compress so much...muchness...into one blog post. So I decide to break it up into two separate days like it really was and that will give me more freedom to post more pictures :-) Ain't I smart?

Leah and Daniel had a very interesting wedding weekend. They were married on Friday night in Cedartown and had a small dinner afterward at a local country club and then had their big reception in Decatur the next evening. When Leah was telling me about how the weekend would go, I was a little...confused but it all made sense as it was unfolding. It was a very fun, unique, and laid back experience which could not have suited Leah and Daniel's personalities any better. Best.Wedding.Ever.

To be continued.....probably later today.

Annabelle turned 1!!

2011-07-01T06:08:00.000-07:00

Slowly but surely, I am inching toward catching up on my blogging. I have to admit that my primary purpose for working toward catching up was so that I could blog this session without feeling like I was showing any favoritism. Then again, I think everyone already knows that I favor little Annabelle a great deal :-)

Annabelle turned 1 in May(she shares a birthday with my son Liam), but we just got around to doing her one year pictures this month. I adore getting to work with kids throughout their first year because they change so much between each session. It's really spectacular to watch them grow up in front of your lens.

Anyway, I drove down to Villa Rica for this session that we did at A Place to Share. Since I have been driving away from my little one traffic light town so often lately for photo shoots, Seth bought me a GPS system about a month or so ago. we affectionately call it Jeeves. He takes me right where I need to go, even if he does add a few minutes here and there to my trips. Still, I wish that the voice options were a little more fun. I mean, you have got Daniel and Emily(the british voices) but it gets boring after a while. It'd be so awesome if there was like a R2D2 option and whenever you needed to turn he'd just beep at you. And when you make a wrong turn and he's "recalculating" he starts slipping out and beeping like crazy. Or maybe celebrities like Lewis Black or Wallace Shawn, or maybe even Patrick Warburton. Wouldn't that be awesome? Someone...get on that, please. I would love nothing more than for Vizzini to tell me to make a u-turn when possible. "You didn't turn? Inconceivable!" So anyway, that's my bright idea for the day. Here's Annabelle in all of her awesome cuteness...enjoy!

Jessica + Andrew

2011-06-30T04:42:00.000-07:00

= a really fun and carefree wedding!

Jess and Andrew were married in one of my favorite wedding venues...the old Baptist Church in Rolater Park here in my own little town of Cave Spring! You might remember it from Jenni & Johns wedding that I blogged last month. Gorgeous building, gorgeous weather, amazing couple....I love my job :-)

Jessica's Bridal Session

2011-06-23T05:54:00.000-07:00

I'm kind of going backward in my blogging right now to catch up so if you are a very recent client and wondering why I am not blogging about you...fear not. I'll get there eventually!

I really wish that more people would do a bridal session. I think a lot of people think it's kind of vain to want a session of just you in your wedding dress, but it really is a sanity saver on the wedding day because it eliminates that responsibility of having to "squeeze" in a few good shots of the bride. When you do it before hand, you have the opportunity to take your time, be creative, and have fun with it. I love it, I could do these every day of the week and twice on Saturday.

And when you have a bride as beautiful as Jessica? Yeah. Makes for a fun session. The day that I shot this session, I was actually in a considerable amount of pain. 2 days earlier, my 4 year old had accidentally punched me in the eye and scratched my cornea. It didn't help that it was a very bright and sunny day :-) So yeah, that was a lot of fun walking around with a tissue on my eye to soak up all the discharge from my oozy injured eye ball. Lovely!

Will's First Communion

2011-06-22T07:32:00.000-07:00

This set is way overdue to be talked about. I shot this back in May just days before my sweet nephew took his first communion. I shot these with my old rebel(it was a week before I got my 7D). It was the last session I shot with that camera, so it was kind of bittersweet(with more sweet than bitter, mind you)

My nephew, Will, is quite possibly one of the sweetest kids in the world and likewise one of my favorite people of all time. He always tells me when I look nice, he always notices when I cut my hair, and he doesn't try to squirm away from me when I grab him and give him a great big hug and kiss on the cheek. He's always been sweet, but in the past year he has blossomed from a little kid to a most handsome and gentlemanly young man. All of my nieces and nephews are growing up so fast and sometimes I don't take the time to reflect on their growth and development both physically and spiritually because I am focusing so much on my own kids. So when I get the opportunity to spend one on one time with them, like I got to do with Will, I am blown away by how awesome they are.

Will and I left all the other kids at Grandma's on a hot spring evening and headed to Rome to do some very special and commemorative portraits of him around our church, St. Mary's Catholic Church. It's a beautiful backdrop, but when I look at these pictures, I don't really see much of our spectacular church because I am so taken in by this big kid in front of my camera who was once my little bitty chubby nephew with a paci in his mouth(ok, now I am just tearing up, this is not good).

This first picture is Will in the fall of 2008, just 3 years ago. I cannot believe this this little kid...

....has grown into this handsome young man.

Unfortunately, I was not able to get any pictures of his actual first communion as I was in the back with my 3 rascals during the entire Mass :-( But I was there, and he did great!

Will, Uncle Seth and I are so incredibly proud of you, all of your accomplishments, and of the wonderful young man you are growing up to be. We feel so blessed to have you in our lives and we love you very much! Thank you for being you!

Katie + Ryan

2011-06-16T04:24:00.000-07:00

So, I don't know if all my readers live around here or not, but I'm gonna tell you something that you may or may not already know: It's hot outside. Now, I have noticed over the past 3 years a little pattern about my business. I have 2 busy seasons, and 2 slower seasons. The dead of winter is obviously my slowest season. But Summer doesn't necessarily get too busy either. Why, you ask? well, duh. It's hot. People don't like to sweat. Katie and Ryan obviously were not too concerned with the heat though because on this fine, albeit hot, summer evening, they came to Rome with their puppy, Allie, for their engagement session. I am super stoked about their wedding, coming up on December 31st. Yep, New Years Eve! I have PLANS for New Years Eve! So why, if the wedding isn't until December, did we do the session on such a hot day? I don't really know, but we did and we survived even if we all didn't...really...smell all that fantastic by the end of the session. I really gotta remember to put on Seth's deodorant before I go do sessions in heat like that, works so much better. And I should invest in those little battery operated hand fans to keep my clients from melting. I'll get on that. But yeah, Katie and Ryan....they were troopers. Thanks y'all! I can't wait to ring in the new year with ya!

I know the session was for Ryan and Katie, but how beautiful is Allie?

(the Rome Area History Museum behind Katie and Ryan in this picture is where the wedding reception will be held)

Baby Katherine

2011-06-15T21:04:00.001-07:00

I did this sweet this session a while back but I have been trying really hard to get a blog written about it for 2 weeks. I don't know why I got so lazy with this blog(or the other one for that matter). Anyway, Katherine was an wonderful model with a smashing personality which is quite rare in babies her age. When I got home after this session, I was so happy to sit down and look through them all. I knew they were going to be good, after all, she was beautiful and most cooperative. But it was one of those times when you just plug your card into your computer, walk away, come back later to check on it and you have the wind knocked out of you. I just never really anticipated falling in love with the these pictures so much. The session was really rushed because both myself and Katherine's mom had trouble finding the park, and it was hot, and we just didn't feel like we had much to work with. But there ya go, that's a kid for you, constantly reminding us grown-ups that they know what they are doing and we should listen to them more often. I mean seriously, look at this kid! Do you NEED anything other than a face like this to make a great photo session?

Family of 5: The Pinkard's

2011-05-20T05:05:00.000-07:00

I seriously cannot believe that I have let myself get SO far behind on my blogging AGAIN! Gracious, do y'all remember when I used to get a blog post up like the day after the session or less than a week after a wedding? What happened to me?!? Oh yeah...life! But don't get me wrong, in this business, you can never be too busy :-) I am like, grasping for something profound and sweet to say but this is one of the biggest reasons that I haven't been blogging. My creativity is all tapped out and I just don't have anything witty, funny, or even sappy to say these days. But, I have pictures and the blog must go on...

So...Hey, Baby Stuart is finally here! Actually, he's been here, for quite a while now. He doesn't even look like this anymore. But for my sake, let's transport ourselves back in time to the middle of April when Stuart was just a wittle bitty tiny fresh new baby with wrinkly hands and feet and those puffy eye lids that want to stay closed as much as possible. This is the 3rd time I have had the privilege of coming to David and Sheila's home and photographing them with their sweet kiddo's and furbaby, Cody. Watching Stuart's big sisters gush and love on him was an absolute treat. This is one of my favorite families, not only to photograph, but just to hang out with. David and Sheila are both so sweet and laid back and the kids are just so adorable :-) Thanks y'all!

Ohh, I found something "profound" to say! A lot of people would consider the following image a blooper, or not really something you'd want to hang on your wall. This is where the whole "The Pinkards are one of my favorite families" comes in. They just "get" me. I love pictures like this because it's so real. It's what life is for them right now(or was, a month ago). It's like the opposite of studio photography and that's what I strive for. I dunno, I lost my profoundness there, but you get the idea. I LOVE this picture

Jenni & John

2011-04-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

Jenni & John's wedding was an absolute joy to work. Shooting a wedding is always a joy for me but I have to admit that it is often times very exhausting and occasionally quite stressful. It can also be very lonely sometimes. You spend the majority of your day being the one who is hopefully as unseen and unnoticed as possible. Your job, after all, is to document, not to steal the show or assert your "power" over the rest of the wedding party. You are capturing the day, you are not apart of it. It's just part of the job and it's always worth it but on the rare occasion that you get to let loose a little have a good time along with everyone else...that's an occasion worth celebrating!

With a party and family as relaxed and welcoming as Jenni & John's, you just fit right in there no matter what your job is. I have rarely been able to experience such a warm welcome and I have to say...it was an amazing feeling to be apart of this day. To laugh along, to cry along, and to celebrate alongside such a precious group of people was truly an amazing experience.

Jenni and John are a couple that can have fun and let loose but at the same time, they are deeply connected emotionally to one another. It's so refreshing to see a couple so much in love :-) God bless you both in your marriage and thank you for allowing me and Tiffany to be a part of your beautiful and wonderful day!

Don't forget to check out Tiffany, my sweet and wonderful assistant for the season:
Tiffany Dacy Photography
and like her on facebook too!

Morgan and Megan Morris got Married!

2011-04-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

Tongue twister much? A little, yeah...

Morgan and Megan's wedding lite the fuse on my Spring wedding season and I have to say, if every wedding season started off like this one, I would photograph weddings every day of the week and twice on Tuesday. Now I love me some weddings. I love everything about weddings. I love the chaos, I love the family drama(that's wrong, I know, but I get such a kick out of it), I love toddlers in fluffly white scratchy dresses having a complete meltdown half-way through the day, I love wedding gowns, and cool wedding shoes, and mama's and daddy's tearing up periodically throughout the day, and watching a bride text her soon-to-be husband to say "where the hell are you" and then 5 minutes later saying "I love him so much, I am so happy!!!", I love all the sweet little moments that happen in the back while everyone is getting ready, I love all the emotion and happiness that surrounds me all day. It might not pay that much right now and it might be hard and stressful at times but it's what I want to do because it's important. This is the first day of the rest of their lives and my JOB is to document it so that they always remember how happy they were on the day that they became one. For the next 40 or 50 years, my photographs are what they are going to pull out and show to their children and their grandchildren and they'll say "Look how happy we were! You now exist because of this day". That's my job. Is that fantastic or what?!?!

Megan and Morgan's wedding was nothing short of an absolute dream. They were beautiful, the weather was beautiful, their wedding was beautiful! When I pay a compliment, I mean it. Y'all were awesome! I loved your pictures so much that when I was uploading these photo's I thought "Wait, that can't be right, I can't put 24 pictures on the blog post. That's way too much." but I did and sadly, I had to take out some of my other favorites to make room for THESE favorites. Originally, I had 43 picked out.

I also have to give prop's to my AMAZING and wonderful assistant for this hectic and busy wedding season, Tiffany Dacy. She's has been so helpful and I am so lucky to have her help right now. If she wouldn't have been able to help me, I honestly don't know what I would have done because I don't think anyone else could have put up with me for this many weddings in such a short span of time. She has the patience of a saint and has saved my butt this season. Thanks girl! I am so happy that you landed a fancy new job in Atlanta, but I am sure gonna miss you having my back! Love ya!

(At Morgan and Megan's wedding, Tiffany and I both got sent home with a centerpiece from the reception! Nice!)

Annabelle at 10 months

2011-03-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start with this so I guess I will just start :-) I met baby Annabelle last fall when she was just a wee little thing. She didn't do much yet but you could already tell that there was this great big person inside of her just waiting to explode. She was a great little model, never cried the whole time expect when she got hungry once and when I insisted on putting her on her belly. She was beautiful. If you look at the top of my blog, you can see that already. That's Annebelle in the famous "green chair picture" that everyone ohhh'd and awww'd over. If it had only been for Annebelle that session would have been great. Lucky for me, it wasn't just Annabelle who made the session, not only great, but amazing and perfect. She had some help! Beverly and Eddie are two phenomenal parents. Not only are they beautiful and photogenic but they are fun and understand what I mean when I say "Don't look at me, just play with the baby and act natural". It's always so easy for them to look like they are completely in love with their family because they truly are. Annabelle is the light of their life but they also have a great deal of respect and love for each other as well. They are a team, a very good team dedicated to making sure that Annabelle is happy and always knows that she is loved and adored.

You can only imagine my delight at the chance to get to work with this precious family once again recently. Though it was much colder than we had anticipated and I hobbled around on my stupid sprained ankle(cause you know, it's my ankle that is stupid, not me) we had yet another fantastic session. This time we met halfway in Rockmart, Ga. I don't shoot in Rockmart much at all, it's not my home turf and to be honest I am not all that familiar with it though I grew up 15 miles away from it. The park downtown and the old depot was the only idea I had of a good shooting spot, but honestly, I wouldn't have mattered where I shot the session because no one is really paying attention to the background anyway when you have a family this amazing as your subject.

It was actually MUCH colder than we thought it would be, so Beverly wrapped Annabelle up in her coat to keep her warm towards the end!

And of course, mommy and daddy need some time every now and then too :-)

My apologies

2011-03-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

I have some apologizing to do here and I am not going to wait one more day to do it. I have been blogging since 2007 and I have always been fairly dedicated to it. I have had several blogs over the years. I started out blogging on myspace(*snort-laugh*). When I started my photography, I started a photography blog on blogger. Then I stopped blogging on myspace and started a personal blog on blogger. At one time, I had 3 different blogs. I like blogging, it's fun for me. Over the past year, however, I have started to blog less and less. There was a time when I would blog more than once a day(I think it was Bethany who referred to this crime as "April's sin" because I always made a point to mention how pathetic it seemed when a "busy" mom of 3 had time to blog more than once a day). Lately, however, it's been much less frequent. I typically blog on my family blog once a week now days and my photography blog much less frequent than that.

My photography blog was always a priority because it was essentially my website. When I look up other photographers, I don't want to wade through a flash website, I look for the blog and check out their work there. I like blogs, like I said. So I always tried to make sure that I blogged each and every session, every wedding, every party that I shoot. When I was in a slump and didn't have sessions to blog, I would go take pictures of my kids and blog about them on that blog because I felt like I needed to keep updated material there. Last fall was brutal for me. The whole year of 2010 was exhausting, we'd just moved into this old house and spent the entire year fixing it up and we never slowed down with our work and other projects either. I was very busy last fall with my photography. Photographers never complain about being busy. If you don't work, you don't get paid so regardless of how stressful it can be, you still love being busy because that pays the bills. This fall was a reminder of what it means to have a real "job" because when you are that busy, you just don't have time for much. By November, I was burnt out. I couldn't even think straight I was so stressed about getting everything edited and printed and given out to the proper people. I decided to take December off work aside from one wedding that I shot. And I did take it off. I didn't work on pictures much at all, maybe a dozen or so a week and I told my clients I was taking it off and of course, since they are awesome, they graciously allowed me to enjoy my holiday season guilt-free and that was a huge blessing to me and my family. After the holiday's were over, I thought I would have some down time to catch up on some stuff, but it actually never slowed down. I went back full force booking sessions and finishing up the editing that I had taken a break from during December. My blogging on this blog never recovered. I tried to stay on top of the sessions that I was working on but didn't make time to back-track. I really didn't think anyone would notice or care! I get so few comments here, I figured that my family were the only ones reading anyway! FAIL. I had a bride(from last season) call me yesterday afternoon to ask some questions and she did mention that I had never blogged about her wedding :-( Of course, she was very polite about it and not mean at all(I don't think she has a mean bone in her body). I felt like crap, though. It's been bothering me ever since. I had absolutely no idea that this mattered to her and I just feel like I have let her down. That's not a good feeling. Not at all.

I won't kid myself or anyone else by saying "blogging is hard work!" but in all honesty, I do put a lot more thought and effort into this blog than my personal blog. If I write something silly or uninteresting on that blog..no one is judging me and it doesn't really reflect on my ability to be a good photographer. Here, I have to actually put a lot of thought and personal emotion and energy into my ramblings and pictures. A lot of times, I will go through a spell where I am just totally uninspired to write. I don't want to and even if I did, I cannot make my brain think of something to say. When it's not there, I don't dare try to blog. If I am not sincere in what I am saying, then it's defeating the whole purpose of blogging. In total, I have 2 weddings, and 4 portrait sessions that I never blogged from 2010, one wedding blessing I never blogged from February of this year, and 1 portrait session from January of this year. That might be a record for me. Will I get around to them all? I doubt it.

I do want to make one thing very clear right now though: Just because I don't blog your session/wedding/event...absolutely, positively, and most emphatically does not mean that your pictures or my experience with you meant less to me than anyone else's.

I cherish each and every opportunity that I am given to expand my portfolio, gain experience, and have a good time meeting new people. To think that someone may have thought I had slighted them by not blogging about them is distressing to say the least. I never want anyone to feel that way. I will admit too that I slacked on more than the blogging front. These brides waited much longer than they should have and neither of them hounded me or got angry. They were both angels and ever so understanding about it.

So...this is my apology to everyone who worked with me in my fall/winter season who felt the effects of my burn out. I am so incredibly sorry. I am very grateful for all of the people who have trusted their memories to me and especially to those who have been so patient with me. You are all so special to me and I would not be where I am today without you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all of your support, love, patience, and understanding. It's people like you who push me to be a better photographer and a better person. Y'all rock!

Just two of my "non-blogged" sweeties

Rebecca & Jeremy(I don't know why I love this picture so much, they were just coming into the reception hall and both had this "whew, glad that's over with!" look on their faces!)

Erin & Brian(from October at St Peters Episcopal Church in Rome)

I don't do Bunnies

2011-02-23T14:44:00.000-08:00

See, I get this crap year after year. Honestly I have never had a single person email me personally to ask. They always get in touch with via "facebook messaging". I swear. It's enough to make my head explode.

Let me dissect this question: "Are you doing Easter pictures with live bunnies this year?"

Kay....so..

A. I don't do Easter pictures. I do portrait sessions. I am not in the habit of themes; Halloween, Christmas, Easter or the like. I do portraits. Of people. And that is what I am interested in and since it is my business I feel that I have the right to decide what type of portraits I will be shooting. I don't do "Easter pictures" as some would call it. If you want to bring their Easter Sunday outfits to the session and have me photograph them...awesome. But please, not baskets and eggs... which brings me to point B.

B. I am also not in the habit of entertaining or photographing, as it were, livestock, or fruit harvest, or Fir tree's. Perhaps I feel like, at this point, in our profession we all should have well outgrown the "props" stage aside from the occasional cool vintage chair which you plop in the middle of a field and lay a 1 week old baby on, and even that, if I might be so bold as to say, is getting old. No, I think a clean, crisp backdrop for our studio friends and anywhere we are told to show up for the rest of us is the age where are now in. I don't like props, I like people and people are the reason I am in this business in the first place. I find little personality in a piece of furniture, and therefore feel like photographing those things along side my clients is a waste of my time and theirs. Stuff is stuff. People have souls. Chew on that...Bunny lovers.

C. I have 3 children. Their ages are 7, 3, and 2. And I have a cat too. I have absolutely no interest what-so-ever in chasing a feral creature around a park after he or she tires of sitting in a kids lap. Nor do I feel like keeping this animal alive throughout the duration of my "easter pictures". No, I have great and wonderful photographer friends who are up to that challenge, but I am not among them. I will note that I actually had 3 animals die last year after keeping a bunny and 3 ducklings as a favor to one of those dear friends. Ask Denna, it was bad. Baaaaddd!!! I do not welcome added stress to my household. Not even for the sake of photography. There are good photographers for you, I can give you their number, they are GOOD, but I am not them!!!!

D. Do you say "live bunnies" because you expect dead ones? Please elaborate!

So, no, for the 3rd year in a row, I don't DO bunnies! Bunnies are evil, vile, nasty creatures...with big pointy teeth......you honestly want me to subject your kids to THIS!!!????!!! EEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!!

2011-02-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

I almost always ask a potential bride/wedding client to come to my house for a consultation. Typically, I work around my clients schedules because, being a stay at home mom, I am very flexible. My sweet and wonderful clients never complain about driving all the way to my house, which is in a little town called Cave Spring. It has one traffic light, 2 police offers, one police car, a dollar general store and it's basically 20 minutes from anywhere. We're out of the way. Still, I find it comforting to be at my house because going elsewhere would require me to load up my laptop, contracts, ect and if you know anything at all about me, you know that having it all together is not necessarily my biggest selling point. Here at home, I have everything I need and am sure to not forget anything and in the event that I do, I can get it(like a pen for signing contracts, or the contract itself). Usually how it works is that I ship my kids off with whoever will take them for a few hours so I can clean the house a little and get everything set up and ready before my potential new clients arrive for our appointment. However sometimes that plan, for lack of a better term...goes straight to hell and I am left scrambling to get things ready. And me and scrambling don't mesh well, to say the least.

I had an appointment today at 6:00pm. Which is always a great time of evening because my sweet husband is always home at least 20 minutes before that time. Today's plans were "scrambly" from the very start, but it would take me like 30 minutes to explain it all in person so typing it out would take even longer and since I like you, I will not subject you to that kind of torture. Let's just say...we were scrambling. I think around 4:50pm today I actually said, out loud, TO my children...very loudly and forcefully "I'M GONNA SELL YOU ALL ON CRAIGSLIST IF YOU DON'T SIT DOWN, BE QUIET, AND STOP MAKING MESSES!!!!!!!!!"

Then a took 3 shots of red wine and put myself in time out for 5 minutes on my bed. It helped, but didn't fix the problem which was, in fact, not my attitude but my kids not doing what I told them too and time itself not standing still for me so that I could catch up(all I asked for was like 30 minutes, is that so much?) Fast forward nearly one hour and I was feeling MUCH better. I had made some progress, printed the contracts out, got my laptop working(it hates me) when Seth pulled up...late. Of all days, he was late today. Not his fault, but really? I mean, really? Today? Late! Fantastic! Ohhh, but it gets better. As he walks in the door he yells "Your appointment is here!" Oh my gosh, are you kidding me? They came in through the back door that leads out to the carport. directly beside the back door is a garbage can with 3 poopy diapers inside and I could smell them as I opened the door to greet them(smelled the diapers, not my clients). Nice. As I stepped out to say hello, I catch a glimpse of something on the porch. I mean, really, WHAT could be a better way to say "hire me!" than a pile of freshly killed rodents on my porch. Yes, a pile. Thank you, thank you for nothing Agnes, you stupid feline.

On the bright side, I just booked a really cool wedding that it is going to be in a beautiful church just down the road from my house(in the town that is 20 minutes from everywhere). The bride is beautiful, the groom is handsome, the mother-of the-bride is delightful and fun(and also a photographer!), and I am stoked. Just insanely embarrassed and hoping that they all had stuffy noses and couldn't smell those dirty diapers.

And thankfully, THIS kid was asleep on the couch the whole time.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go hide under a rock for about a week.

Lucky me ;-)

2011-02-07T20:19:00.000-08:00

I have to brag about my life right now, for just a moment :-) 2011 is going to be the best year in the history of forever. And I want to tell you all about it.

2 weeks ago, I found out that my brother Jacob & his wife Constance were expecting another baby! I am so incredibly happy for them to welcome their second child into the world this fall. After a rough past 2 years of Jacob's deployment to Afghanistan and his readjustment period after his return home last March, things are finally falling into place and all is right with their world.

Yesterday, it was announced that I would also this year be getting a new sister-in-law :-) On the other side of my family, my brother-in-law Jonathan became engaged to his beautiful and wonderful girlfriend, Lisa. So in 2011 I will be gaining a new niece or nephew as well as a new sibling...and I just don't think that you can ask for much more fun that that.

Now I love weddings and anyone who knows me knows this since I say it so frequently. Actually, I chant it in a very "little engine that could" type of way "I lo-ve wed-dings, I lo-ve wed-dings, I lo-ve wed-dings, I lo-ve wed-dings". I am a portrait and wedding photographer, so weddings are just another part of my life. I "attend" about one a month or more. However, I have not been a guest or attendant at a wedding in 3 years. And let me tell you one thing, I am looking forward to NOT being the photographer at a wedding for once! Meh, but knowing my luck, they'll run off to Vegas and I will keep on with my long list of weddings that I didn't get to actually enjoy *sigh*. Meh, I get paid well, and most people even let me eat food and cake after I have been on my feet at their beck and call for 6-8 hours and sticking my fingers with 8 pricks of a straight needle to pin on boutonnieres because apparently, the photographer is the ONLY person in the WHOLE church who has ever done this before...I can't complain too much. I do love weddings, did I mention that I really do love weddings? I suspect I would love them more if I were not the photographer at every wedding I ever attended for the rest of my life, but you know...whatever. I might even be happy to go back to the "you are not important enough to be a bridesmaid but you can cut cake/serve punch" role.

I went off on a tangent didn't I? dag-nabbit. Well, here are some pictures. Regardless of where they get married and if I am or am not invited(I had better be), I love these two kids so much and I am SO incredibly happy for them!

Congrats Jon & Lisa!

Baby Jacob...again!

2011-02-04T07:03:00.000-08:00

Few children have captured my affection the way that baby Jacob has seemed to. I am completely enchanted with his little fellow and while everyone else seems to think it is his gorgeous blue eyes that do all of the talking, I dare say that there is much more to this little man than just those eyes. This was this second time I had the pleasure of photographing Jacob. There was something about him that first time that inspired me to go much farther than just making sure I wasn't chopping his head off(I did chop his head off, btw, it's kind of my thing). He's just one of those kids who's personality radiates from him and you can't help getting infected with it when you are around him.

It was pretty amazed at how much he'd grown since October, but I was blown away by his little personality has just exploded over the past few months! He's a really good sport too and that's a must when you work with me because if I ask you to stand on your head and do the hokey pokey...I expect you to do it and I won't shut up until you do.

The last time I photographed Jacob, I had a lot of people say things like "I love how you edited his eyes!" Ummm, I didn't/don't edit Jacob's eyes. They just look like that :-) I swear!

Baby Stuart is on the way!

2011-01-29T20:09:00.000-08:00

I first met my friend Sheila and her husband David 2 years ago when Seth and I were going through RCIA at our church. Sheila was working in the nursery and helped take care of our kids while we were in class every Wednesday night. At the time, my Liam and their Gracie were both tiny little infants. Now days, they are preparing to welcome not their second, but their third child into the world. That's right, they went from a family of 3 to a family of 5 in just 2 years. And they are always so cute and happy! Did I mention that they have a dog, too? Yeeeaaah. They are pretty amazing.

I already knew I was going to have an absolute blast on this shoot because, well, I like these people a lot and they are really pretty people too, and let's just be honest, photographers LOVE pretty people. And of course, I did have a blast and had that whole "walking away with gold" feeling that I get sometimes and that's always fun :-)

So here they are for now and I cannot wait for little Stuart to make his appearance so I can get my hands on him! Thanks y'all, it was a blast as always! *muah!*

(If I had to hand pick a future wife for Liam, it's Gracie. I want my granbabies to look like this!)

Little Kendall Mary Faith is the most darling little thing. She looks like a real life baby doll!

LIFE

*love this*

today

2011-01-27T12:58:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I complained. Boo! No fun. Lately, and I have talked about this recently on my other blog, my life has gotten considerably easier. For example, this time last year I had 2 kids in diapers, one explosive and volatile little 6 year old, I was driving back and forth to Cedartown everyday to take and pick up Cate from school, both boys still needed naps, the house was never clean, dinner was hardly ever done by 7:30pm and if it was it stood a 50/50 chance of being burned and I usually ended up in tears at some point through the day. It was..umm..harder. Granted, it was probably a lot harder for me than it should have been but 2010 marked the last year of my "survival mode" years, as I now refer to them as. 2011 has gotten off to a smashing good start. I have a lot to look forward to this year, including a new niece or nephew which I found out about this week. These days, things are just easier. We can get to mass on time on Sunday's, we don't have to pack a diaper bag aside from one or two extra diapers and a few wipes, we only have one kid in diapers, and all three of the kids are getting along better than ever. I am able to stay on top of housework, I can get a shower without worrying about the boys going outside or setting the house on fire, and we can get Cate to bed before 9:30pm.

As I am looking back on all of my documenting of our family life, I notice a disturbing pattern. About 80% of what I captured was stress. I assume this was my way of coping with the chaos that was playing out before me day after day. If the kids were fighting, I took pictures of it and then blogged about it. If Simon poured an entire canister of sugar on the kitchen floor, I took a picture of it. If Liam was constantly opening the dishwasher and standing on the door to reach my beloved stemware, I took a picture of it. It's not exactly depressing that I did photograph these snapshots of our life in the "survival years" but that those snapshots essential sum them up. That's not to say that there wasn't love and fun in there as well, but the stress definitely overshadowed the fun and sweet moments.

Thankfully, things aren't like that anymore. The good days are more frequent than the bad ones. The boys are buddies just like we always hoped. And I am, for the first time in 2 years, fully enjoying my role as a stay at home mom. There is no greater feeling on earth than waking up and looking forward to the open day ahead of you to spend with the ones that you love and wondering how you can top the day before.

My Wallace family

2011-01-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

I assume by now you all are pretty familiar with Denna and Cam, right? I think I can call them "My" Wallace family now because they are sort of my guinea pigs. Denna is a fellow photographer and she trusts my madness for some reason and pretty much lets me have free reign when I photograph her and her family, which I have discovered is usually too frequent of an occurrence for Cam ;-)

My favorite thing about working with Denna & Cam is that I get to do it my way and they never complain. My goal with our most recent session was to document the early weeks of parenthood, the beginning of a family and a beautiful life, and the great amount of love and happiness filling this 2-bedroom apartment where Cam & Denna started their life together and have now welcomed their first child.

And my "shot of the day" for me anyway

Thanks y'all, I love you.

2010- The Learning Curve

2010-12-29T12:19:00.000-08:00

I think every artist, in whichever field they may be in, is always waiting for the moment or for the one piece of work that really defines them. I love waiting on mine. I like the anticipation of waiting for my defining work. I think if I ever get there, I might talk myself out of believing it. Then there is that struggle with myself...am I really an artist? Photography is an art, right? Who knows, and really who cares right now? I am just having fun and I figured out a while back that when I have fun...I like my work a lot more than when I am actually trying. Weird. Sometimes I have to try, but when I am actually having fun it just flows naturally and those are the times when I know for sure that this is my true calling and exactly where I am supposed to be. There will always be those days when I feel like my entire life should be on FAIL blog, but by and large I love my life and I love it a whole lot more when I just allow myself lighten up and just go with it and learn as much as possible along the way.

2010 was a strange year all the way around though. One of those coming of age years( I have a lot of those, it seems). There were some wake-up calls, some I feel like quittin' days, but mostly it was just one big long 365(ok 363, since it's not yet over) day learning curve. I learned to see things differently than I had before. I learned a lot about myself as well.

I learned that weddings are a lot like life. Crazy, unpredictable, fun, stressful, and you get out of it what you put into it.

(Bouquet toss from Allison & Adam's Wedding)

(Shirley, from Monroe & Sharron's wedding)

(Kerry & Candie)

I realized that I run through every emotion with my brides and at the end of the day I am both physically and emotionally drained. And I love it and am addicted to it. The anticipation of a wedding is like a junkie craving another fix.

(Brian & Erin)

(Teresa)

(Adam & Allison)

(Aaron & Teresa)

I learned that when it comes to love and happiness, we all speak the same language.

(Emilee's Baptism)

I learned what they mean when they say that eyes are the gateway to the soul...

(Will)

(Jessica & Andrew)

(Katie- from the McGee family)

(Baby Garrett)

I learned that somethings in life make more sense when they are a little out of focus..

(Baby Carson)

(Mollie Beth)

(Baby Jacob)

I learned that a young family all wrapped up in each other might be the closest thing to heaven on earth

(From Annabelle's portrait session)

(From Luke's 11 month portraits)

and that a older couple still in love after 50 years comes in close second..

(Sephord and Shirley's 50th wedding anniversary celebration)

I learned that the cry of a baby is just about the most beautiful sound in the world(as long at it is not between the hours of 1-5am)

(baby Rylee)

I learned that confidence is a woman's best accessory

(From Denna's Boudoir session- January)

and that a lot can change in less than a year

(Denna's Maternity session-October)

(Denna & Cam's first baby, little miss Brinkley-December)

and most importantly, I learned that sometimes you just have to lighten up and enjoy this crazy ride that we call life

Happy New Year, dear ones. May God bless you all as he has blessed me with such a wonderful and loving network of family, friends, and clients.Thank you all so much for all of your support and love and faith in me. I could never have had such a great year without you all :-)

Farewell, 2010.

Much love,
April Ingram-Signing off for the year.

ps. I also learned that after 3 years, I still cut people's heads off, so if that bothers you, you probably shouldn't hire me :-)

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T18:42:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from the Ingram family to yours :-) We had the first "white Christmas in like 70 years in Georgia today. It was amazing and beautiful and wonderful. What an awesome Christmas!

The Cape Family

2010-12-20T16:30:00.000-08:00

I love new families and I will tell you why: . Even though there are always bad days(or weeks), the newness of a young family is really something beautiful to witness. A young couple who are totally in love with their first child is so precious and the way that a baby looks at his mom and dad is inspiring. If you have kids, it brings you back to that moment in time when you yourself were a new parent and I think I feel this special connection with my clients who happen to be new parents and also parents of small children, whether they are new to it or not. I hope that this gives me an edge in capturing these little fleeting moments the way that my clients want to remember them.

I worked with little Garrett back in the summer. I remember being so excited about his session because it was the first time in months that I had gotten the pleasure of working with a baby this small. It was love at first sight! After that session, I secretly hoped that Brittney would bring him back to me sometime in the next year or so, but I had no idea that it would be just a few months later. I was thrilled to not only get another shot at little Garrett, but to get him with his mom and dad as well.

See ya in 2011!

2010-12-16T07:45:00.000-08:00

Well, would you just look at this? It's almost Christmas already! How did it get so late so soon? 2010 has been an amazingly wonderful year for me all across the board, but in my photography business it has been incredibly special for me. I want to give a special "thanks" to all of my 2010 clients, the new comers and the repeat...uhh..ers. Ahem.

I am hoping to get some blogging done soon. I have a couple of weddings and several portrait sessions that I still haven't blogged for lack of time and energy. Over the next few weeks I have certainly got a ton of stuff going on between Christmas and my daughter's 7th birthday and New Years and MY BIRTHDAY(January 4th, and I like things that sparkle and/or smell pretty, fyi). I am excited about this marathon but I have to admit, I am welcoming with open arms the dead, boring, slow season of post-Christmas winter. I hate winter, I hate being cold, and I hate the ugly winters Georgia dishes out, but if there is one thing I can say that I do like about those 2-3 months of the year...I get a break! I love my job, but everyone needs some down time here and there.

Unfortunately for you, that means that I like to take pictures of random things and blog about the nonsense floating around inside my head. Bummer.

Have a fantabulous Christmas, a blessed New Year, and I look forward to seeing what 2011 has in store for April Ingram Photography :-) God bless!

Gabby & Wyatt

2010-12-04T04:57:00.000-08:00

Picture it: I am sitting in my van, buckling up and about to head home after an afternoon photo session at Georgia Highlands College on a beautiful fall day. I was pretty much on top of the world, I knew that I had gold sitting there on my CF card and I was itching to get home. I have felt that way many times, but usually when I have that feeling I am coming home from a photo session that was a piece of cake. Contrary to popular belief, my job is not really an easy one all the time. So much more goes into photography than setting your aperture and pressing a button. You see, when you are the one behind the lens, you have to know what to do. You have to direct and you have to make split second decisions that could either make a session a success or a colossal FAIL. I have done a lot of both. On this particular day, I had done it right and I was thankful. We pressed on and didn't give up and as a result, I was given the chance to capture some of my favorite photographs of my short career. Perhaps I should back up and start from the beginning though:

3 minutes after arriving for the session, 4 year old Gabby was playing with a small bottle of perfume that she found in the door of mom's car while mom was busy putting on little Wyatt's clothes and shoes. I saw it all happening in slow motion really. I thought about saying something, but then, before I knew it, "Spritz!" right.in.Gabby's.eyes. I cannot tell you how many times my kids have gotten their eye balls scalded by various things. Hair spray, windex, baby shampoo, yeah, you name it...they've done it...or at least attempted it. Or at the very least...thought about it. I had every bit of sympathy for little Gabby, and all the empathy in the world for Angelica, their mom. I have been in this spot so many times in my 7 years of mommyhood. Some days are better than others. Gabby wanted to be held and little Wyatt was not planning to soon let go of his paci and blankey. This went on for about 15 minutes, seriously cutting into our scheduled hour. Nothing we could say or do would comfort Gabby or prompt Wyatt to loose this paci and blankey. Things were not looking good at all. Then something happened. Angelica said "I don't know what to do". I remember thinking "Well, wait. That means...I have to know what to do...oh crap. I don't know what to do. What do I do? Think April, think. You are a professional photographer, you have been doing this for nearly 3 years, this is not the first time you have had a crisis. Think think think think THINK!!!!" While I was in the middle of my little "pep talk" with myself, something really amazing occurred. Wyatt let go of his blankey. Then, a few minutes later, he got rid of the paci. And it just sort of came to me that we were being mighty unfair to these kids and that maybe, just maybe, if we give them some room and some time, we could make something out of this. I never guess that "something" would turn out to be pure gold! I am totally in love with this session. Thanks y'all!

Poor Gabby :-(

This might be one of my favorite photo sequences of all time

"Umm, yeah, that's belongs to me"

"And I'll just be taking that back now, thaaaanks!"

Wyatt learned that pine cones are not the best snack in the world.

Chad, Becca, and Mollie Beth (but mostly just Mollie Beth)

2010-11-23T03:29:00.000-08:00

I gotta gotta show this kid off, it's killing me. I am breaking my own rule by not blogging in order. I have a few things I should blog this morning, but I honestly HAVE to show this kid off or I might explode. So you see it is a matter of some urgency.

This is the 3rd year in a row that I have had the pleasure and honor of photographing Mollie Beth(and her parents, whats-their-names...). I am in awe of the person that she is growing into. She is so beautiful and spirited. She is the stereotypical little fiery and feisty red head. She has charm and charisma and a sweet little southern drawl. She's just fantastic and I get excited every year that I get an email from Becca asking when we can book our session. Everyone remembers her and I cannot tell you how many time I have had email inquiries when people say things like "I read your blog and I LOVED those pictures of that little red haired girl!" and I immediately know they are talking about Mollie :-) She's a fan favorite apparently.

But enough chatter, here's our girl...Oh and yeah, Chad and Becca too :-)

We also had to do a few in one of her Christmas outfits :-)

What a precious family!

Thanks y'all! It was fun!

Absent with the blog is present with Photoshop...and sometimes my own family.

2010-11-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

I started blogging in 2006. I wish I could recall what the first thing I blogged about was. It was a hit, I remember that. At the time, myself and my sibling(in-laws) were joining "Myspace". You have to understand that as far as pop culture goes, we are typically at least 2 years behind everyone else. The year was 2006, technically it was still 2005. Constance, my brother's wifey, started the whole mess. "So Hey, are you on Myspace?" and I didn't know what it was. That night, New Years Eve of 2005. Hours away from 2006, I created a Myspace account on my mom's laptop in her living room. I remember Constance showing me her "layout" and it had champagne glasses and confetti falling on it. Awesome!!!

Within a year, I was a myspace blogger. I had about 30 people subscribe to my myspace blog and I thought I was...well...I was just cool. I was a blogger, yep. Rockin it on myspace. The scrapbooks and the blog all forged together to create what you now know as.......... "April Ingram-something-or another. You know, Seth's wife! That girl that takes pictures!" That's me! Ahhh, I bask in the light of my fame....Oh Ok. Fine. So I am not famous yet. I'm still just Seth's wife and no one yet takes me seriously as a photographer. What recognition do photographers get anyway? People just want to know "What kind of camera do you have, it takes such purdy piiiictures!" It's all ok, I have my "babies", My loyal clients who love me and trust me and keep coming back :-)

Anyway, I have been greatly slacking on the blog front. Can you believe that I have been sitting on a fabulous wedding and FIVE portrait sessions that I have not blogged yet? I am not kidding, I am so behind! I don't know why I am explaining it. Does anyone read this blog anymore except for Mandi and Joy? No matter, I have decided that I am going to let myself off the hook and just not worry about it! In 2 weeks time, I will have weeks upon weeks to catch up and spiffy up my blog for the upcoming 2011 year. It's going to be fun, but right now, I have more pressing matters. Brides await, and mommies are getting impatient! Please excuse my blog absence or irregularity over the next couple of weeks, but I will be sure to come back with a bang and lots of beautiful people to brag about.

I wish you all a great Thanksgiving. See you soon loves!

(well, you didn't think I was going to blog without at least one picture did you?)

Denna & Cam are having a baby!

2010-11-14T15:51:00.000-08:00

Can you believe that just a little over a year ago, these two kiddo's were tying the knot and now, they are about to have a baby?!? That's right, Baby Brinkley will be arriving in mere weeks and Cam & Denna are going to be parents! I cannot tell you lucky Brinkley is to have parents like Denna and Cam.

Love y'all very much and I cannot WAIT to get my hands on that sweet baby girl! Y'all are going to do great and she is going to be perfect :-) I am so happy for you two!

This man

2010-11-13T15:18:00.000-08:00

So there is this man...and I am totally in love with him and I think, and this is just me talkin, that he is the best fella on the face of the planet. You should think so too because he did us all a HUGE favor today and took the kiddo's out for many hours so that I could catch a break to work on pictures. He loves me, and he loves you too. I love you Seth!

This picture perfectly conveys how it is right now. Me, hugging him for all I am worth and thanking him profusely and him just standing there ever so humble with that "glad to help honey" look on his face. Yep, I LOVE this man! I could never, never in a million years, do this "job" of mine without this man behind me ~~kicking my ass~~ supporting me and encouraging me every step of the way. I am a very blessed lady.

(Picture By Aubrey Clemons-Stroup)

Thank you precious! You have no idea the stress that you have taken off my shoulders today by your random act of kindness. You are amazing.

Baby Carson

2010-11-11T05:16:00.000-08:00

So this is what stress does to me: On Halloween, a Sunday, we went to mass in the morning. Then our little family went to Cedartown for a nice Sunday dinner with my husbands family like any other Sunday. On the ride home, I remember thinking "Ahhh, Halloween is over now! Yeah! So glad we don't have any parties to attend tonight." We got home around 5:30pm and I poured a glass of red wine, kicked my shoes off and sat down at my computer. I got a text message from Jannah asking if we were supposed to meet at the Hearn Academy for baby Carson's photo session. I replied "Yep, 5:30, tomorrow at the Hearn Academy!" and her reply was "Oops, I was sure we settled on today! I have to work tomorrow!" I panicked. I checked my calendar and had baby Carson booked for the following Monday, but when I checked our emails...sure enough we had settled on Sunday! I said "I'll be there in 3 minutes!". I took a huge gulp of my wine, grabbed my bag, shoes, and keys and bolted out the door to head downtown to the park. I honestly don't know what I was thinking. But hopefully you'll believe me now when I tell you that I don't do stress well. And that I am really ditzy.

Thankfully, Jannah, Tyler, and Carson were all super cool about me being 25 minutes late for our session and they just laughed at me. I get that a lot...but it's ok. I'd much rather be laughed at than yelled at.

Apparently, Jannah and Tyler are 2 of the most laid back people ever and that definitely applies to their parenting style. Carson ate leaves the entire session. I am not exaggerating. Handful after handful, he ate leaves for nearly an hour. At one point, he gagged and Jannah, an RN, said "Oh honey, please don't make mommy have to put her infant CPR training to use..." and then she dug a few leaves out of his mouth and wipes them on her jeans and stepped back out of the shot without a word. Gotta love her! At least Carson got in his daily fiber...