I got back late last night from WPPI in Las Vegas!  It is a Photography conference where you take in as much info as possible and apply it to your business!  I definitely learned some great stuff over the past 2 days and I can't wait for wedding season to begin so I can put it into practice.  I did find some great vendors that I'm going to start using.  I found an amazing album company. I can't wait to order my studio sample so my clients can see how awesome their wedding albums could be! I also found the company that is going to build my new blog!  I did just switch to this blog, but it's just not what I was wanting!  I also learned some valuable shooting techniques, posing, post production workflow, lighting techniques, marketing strategies and all sorts of other stuff!  Can't wait to do a shoot with my new found knowledge!  I met up with 3 other photographers in Las Vegas (Shannon, Miranda, and Lindsay).  We had so much fun!  I think we all will stay longer next year!  But you know... we had to get back to our husbands and babies!!  

On a side note, my iPhone was STOLEN in the Las Vegas airport.  I have now had no means of communication for nearly 24 hours (except email and twitter.. which doesn't count).  It's amazing how much I rely on my phone all day long.  Hopefully I'll get a phone soon!

Miranda and myself!

Me with Shannon & Lindsay!

Listening to my all time favorite photographer... Jessica Claire!  

Front row!! Listening to the top 10 secrets to wedding success by JB and DeEtte Salle (Best Wedding Photographers in Dallas 4 years in a row). 

The Sallees

OK.. now on to the picture of all 4 of us!  I'm not too great at using the self timer on my camera and I couldn't get it to work right!  So here is a great shot of me trying to get to the other girls in time to get the shot!  This picture is completely blurry... but we needed to post it!

And this time I ran fast enough to make the picture!

A few months ago I shot Stacy's maternity portraits.  She had to be one of the absolute cutest pregnant girls I've ever seen!  I seriously think I was much bigger than her when I was prego and I only had one baby growing!  So first things first... this was my very first twin newborn shoot.  I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous because I know how hard it is for 1 baby to fall asleep, pose, look cute, get my lighting right and then take that perfect picture.  This actually was our second try at these pictures.  The first time we just couldn't get them to both fall asleep at the same time.  My good friend, Shannon, told me to use a blow dryer to get them to fall asleep.  We pulled out the blow dryer and I think the sound lulled them to sleep!  Success!! I started snapping pictures like a crazy women because I wasn't sure how long I would have until one wiggled and would wake the other one up!  They were asleep for nearly 45 minutes and we were even able to move them around!  I have a much greater respect for newborn photographers that are somehow able to pose these little babies in all kinds of crazy position and get a perfect shot!

Oh.. and on a side note... I'm going to a Wedding Photographers Conference tomorrow! I'm so excited! I hope to learn all kinds of things during the workshops! I'm meeting 3 other wonderful photographers there (Shannon, Miranda, and Lindsay)! I'll post pictures when I get back!

I think my "newborn thing" is to put the babies on a cute bed in their house!! I'm all about it these days and this one is soooo cute!

Love those flowers... If I ever have a little girl my child will probably wear a flower or a bow everyday!  Poor girl!

It has been extremely cold for the past... oh... 5 months and little Brady has yet to experience the sunshine!  Well today it got into the 60's and the 3 of us went out and enjoyed the sun!  We took a little walk to my parent's new house they're building (just a 10 minute walk from our house).  What an incredibly gorgeous day!  Thanks daddy for getting some pics of the 2 of us!

This hat was actually Ryan's as a baby! It's still a little big on Brady, but I think he'll grow into it this summer!

Brady loves those BIG kisses!

Have you ever seen anything sweeter than this?? I think not!  Shot these two adorable little girls today!! Can't wait to show you the rest!

So I like to take pictures of Brady! I don't do it enough... but I do enjoy it when I do!  Brady was laughing laughing last week and I thought it was so cute!  Hopefully you can see that in these pictures!

Brady love his Jumperoo!  If you are a mother... you need this!  Lately he has been jumping him self to sleep!  I guess he gets worn out in there and needs a quick nap!

Some of you may remember me taking maternity and newborn pictures of Jamie and her sweet baby Parker.  Well Parker is a big boy now and growing growing!  He's sitting up and laughing and smiling!  He was a perfect subject for me to work with!

I put Brady down for a nap today and about 20 minutes later I hear him laughing and giggling and having a party in his crib!  This is how I found him when I went to check on him!! I think he was trying to reach out for his toys that were all the way across the room! Crazy kid!!

I love his little face smashed up against the bar!

Amanda contacted me last week in a bit of a "photography crisis".  She needed a family portrait ASAP because her family is going to be featured in Peek a Boo magazine!  I was honored that she asked me to be their photographer, so we set up a time and I headed to their gorgeous home to do a family shoot! They adopted these 3 precious children from the Ukraine (at least I'm pretty sure it's the Ukraine)!  What a blessing!

Can you believe these were Ryan's boots when he was a little boy?  I can't wait for Brady to fit into them!  Ryan's mom is trying to find a photo of Ryan in them so I can replicate it with a photo of Brady!  So sweet!

Here are the rest of sweet Elle Louise's newborn photos!! I just love love all her hair! Kari Beth can already put real bows in her hair!

Probably my favorite newborn pic ever!!

The many faces of Elle!

You have no idea how long it took to get this one picture... it's never an easy task to get a newborn to fall asleep, with no clothes on, and then get them to "pose" just the way you want.  Ha!

Meet the Perry family.  Baby Asa is scheduled to make her grand entrance in April and Blaire wanted to capture some pictures of her family of 3 before they become a family of 4!  I think Eli is a year and half old!  Eli did great with the help of my incredible husband!  Ryan can make any child laugh or smile!  I wish I could hire him to go on all my children shoots!! Enjoy the photos!

So Handsome... Blaire kept saying that Eli looked like Miami Vice!! I just love little boy clothes!

I just adore Eli's expression in this photo.

I was able to have 2 Valentines this year!  Ryan was my perfect Valentine and Brady was my bonus Valentine!! Thanks Nanny for getting Brady his "Rock My Valentine" shirt!  

I'm looking at myself Mama!!!

Brady has discovered "himself" in the mirror of his excersaucer! It's super cute!  He'll stare at himself... then back away... then stare at himself... etc!!  It's so cute!! 

Here is the full post of my friend Blaire!  There's only a few "poses" because it was miserably cold outside!  We were outside 5 minutes (literally)!  Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Loving this picture!

Poor Girl!! I can't believe I made her sit it in the snow!  But like I always tell my clients... It will be soooo worth it!

So joyful... this picture really captures her sweet and fun spirit!

My sweet friend, Blaire, is due in April.  I am always humbled when people ask me to be their photographer, but I was truly humbled when  Blaire asked because she is a fellow photographer.   Blaire wanted a cute pic in the snow... so I tried to supply the need!  I can honestly say this is the FASTEST I've ever taken pictures in my life!  My time stamp on my camera started at 4:01pm and ended at 4:03pm.  We only did 2 "poses", but I tried to get as many angles as I could in those 2 minutes!  I'll be photographing Blaire whole family this weekend (weather pending).  Full post of this shoot tomorrow!

Here are the rest of Jennifer's portraits!  She was my model yesterday and I must say she was fabulous!  I love these types of shoots because it's super relaxed and there's no pressure on me to get what I think the bride wants.  I also only edit the few I post on my blog... which saves hours of editing on my part!  

Also, I would love to know what portraits are you favorite!  I'm always trying to learn and get better, and one way for me to do that is by knowing what clients want!  I'd love your help on this one!

So.... vote on your favorite!

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Meet my sweet friend Jennifer!  She was my model today!! I woke up this morning to the most beautiful snow I've seen in quite a while and just knew I had to capture some kind of portrait in it!  So... I sent a little text to Jennifer to see what she had going today and she was free!! Yeah!!  She pulled her gorgeous dress out of the closet (because she got married 2 years ago...and had a BABY between now and then), and zipped that thing up with no problem.  This is just a little teaser of what's to come!  Check back tomorrow for all the pictures!

I just got a new lens for the upcoming wedding season!! I'm awfully excited about it and it is going to make my up close, detail shots awesome! I've been playing with it today and decided to post some pics! Ryan took over the camera for a little bit... I must say he's getting very good at taking pictures! I would LOVE him to be my second shooter... but I think he would have more fun sitting in the dark all day!! Ha! I love him! Looking forward to showing you some pics with this new lens!

Also... for all you blog followers that are wondering when I'm going to get some new shoots posted, it won't be too long. Here in Arkansas it is either miserable cold, raining, snowing, or just plain nasty outside... which means no shoots :( But I have a few newborn shoots on the horizon, and one of them are of TWINS!! yeah!

Sweet Baby!

Oh there's my 2 men!

Ryan really is getting better!  Cute shot daddy!

Such a big kiss!! Brady loves kisses!

And now some cuteness of my little boy!

If you are in need of some frames... and I mean C-U-T-E frames, you need to let me know!  I just had Kevin and Amy Nalley make me all kinds of frames for my house (and business).  They are wonderful and BIG!  Kevin does an excellent job of painting/distressing the frames and they sell them at a very reasonable price.  I'm going to encourage all my brides to buy one of these frames for their bridal portrait!  This framed pic of Brady was not painted by Kevin... it was painted by myself (I'm not near as good as him).  I knew I wanted it painted solid brown, so I thought I could manage that one!  I think I'm going to have him make me 2 smaller frames to put on the sides of this one!  I'll try to post the one Kevin painted tomorrow! 

On a side note... I'm on the search for a couple who would be a "mock" bride/groom for a shoot!  The girl would need some version of a wedding dress (modern vintage would be great)! If you're interested.. email me (rachelblackwell@me.com).  

Saturday morning we packed our warm clothes and headed to Cave Springs for a day of sledding with Brady's cousins!  Brady successfully made it down his first hill on a sled (with mommy & daddy's help of course).  We met up with Ryan's sister and her 4 children!  It was quite a fun day!  I'm typically never in any pictures, but Alicia was gracious enough to take over the camera so I could go play in the snow!  

About to take Brady on his first sledding adventure!  

This was the sledding crew!

A little sledding family!

Capturing the moment!

Alicia and her 4 kiddos!

Now onto some sledding action!

We ended the day with making a snowman (actually Alicia and her dad did the bulk of the work).  Ryan and the kids decided they would create a fortress to protect them during a snowball fight.  

Now that is one good looking snowman!

Overall it was a successful sledding day!  I hope Brady gets to experience this when he's a little older (and can remember it). 

Today it has snowed like 6-8 inches... and I am about to go crazy all cooped up in the house!  I've played a lot of "Words with Friends", watched many NCIS and Criminal Minds re-runs, watched a movie, cleaned out our guest room, rearranged many picture frames in my house and started re-upholstering our dining room chairs.. AND... I'm still going crazy!  Ryan and I decided we would look up how to make ice cream out of snow!  We found a recipe and it was delicious!  Let me know if you want the recipe all you who live in NWA! 

The Ingredients!

Mixing the snow into the milk, sugar & vanilla!

Bon Appetit!!!

Cheers!!

My little man is 6 months old!  I am finally caught up with all my photo shoots, so I decided to take a few pics of him (which I really need to get better at). I took pictures of him in this blue hat a few months ago, but I lost it and I was super sad about it.  BUT... I just happened to find it at the Children's Place in Branson this weekend!  Yeah!! So we had to take some pics of him in it again!  I also put him in this super cute basket!  Some of you may remember seeing him in it when he was 2 weeks old (I added that one to this post as well)!  I think I'm going to frame them together.  Hope you enjoy them!

Here he is in the same basket at 2 weeks!

I met Josh's mom over email a few months ago when she contacted me to do her sons' Senior portraits!  We had to reschedule multiple times because of the freezing cold temps the past few months!  

I have officially decided that I need a studio... the only problem is I don't exactly enjoy studio photography.  I've had to reschedule so so many shoots because of this awful weather lately (which is why we've had a dry spell with my blogging).  BUT... get excited all my faithful blog followers, I've rescheduled all my shoots for February and March and I'll have all kinds of shoots to post!  Ok, on with Josh's pictures!

Josh definitely had the blue steel, manly look going on!  He's graduating from Harber in the Spring and hopes to play football in College! 

We found some trash barrels behind an old building... so of course I took the opportunity to put them in a picture!

Josh's mom pointed out this wire fence next to this old house!  I thought it was a great idea and it turned out pretty good!

Trying out some new textures in Photoshop!

I love this picture!  I know he's not looking, but I still like it!

I went out and shot Josh's senior portraits yesterday!  It was absolutely gorgeous outside and the lighting at 4:30 was amazing!  Here's a little sneak peek of his shoot!  More to come soon!

Here's the rest of Caitlin and Bradley's wedding day!  The bridesmaids/groomsmen were such a blast to photograph all day and they were willing to do any and everything I asked.  This was a great wedding to kick off the 2010 wedding year!  I can't wait for all my other brides' big day!  Looking forward to it!

Here are our beautiful girls. . .

... and our very handsome men!

Check out how many of these girls have blue eyes!!

This is by far my favorite groomsmen shot of the day!  I told them to do their best karate kid move in the air. . . oh how they delivered! 

This image is so sweet to me!  Caitlin's dad had just helped her put on her blushing veil, everyone had already left the bridal suite for the ceremony and this is how she was right before she began her walk down the aisle!  Love it!  Thanks Miranda for capturing this moment!

The Ceremony!

First Dance!

Off to their honeymoon!!  Thanks Bradley and Caitlin for allowing me to capture such an important day!  

This is my favorite blog/wedding post day: The Bride & Groom!  The best part of shooting a wedding is the 10 minutes (sometimes less) that I get to spend photographing the bride & groom alone.  There's nothing like it!  It's pretty much the only time of day they have alone, and I just love to capture how in love they are with one another!  My time with Bradley & Caitlin was exceptionally short because I made them go outside in 15 degree weather and stand in the snow!  I think it made for some great pics... but I'll let you judge for yourself! 

Oh.. and my comments are working again!

Favorite shot of a groom I've ever taken!

And... this just might be my favorite shot of the day!

. . . but this ones a close second!  I just love how Caitlin's face is smashed up against his!  Bradley looks like he's loving it!

This one is super fun because he's holding her train, kissing her on the cheek, and we can see her shoes!  Doesn't get much better than that!

Details! Details! are so fun!  First off, let me just say that when our sweet Bride, Caitlin, woke up on her wedding day it was 1 degree outside with snow on the ground!  BUT... that just added to the wintery style wedding she designed!  The details were icicle covered and dreamy and she did an excellent job and coordinating the ceremony and reception.  I'll be posting some super cute pics of our bride and groom soon!  

These are from the ceremony. I love the ice covered wreaths that lined the center isle! 

Love this ring shot!

The lights at the ceremony were perfect for a winter wedding!

And.... I love that they put this on the NWA Mall sign!  I wonder how many people saw this! Ha! I wonder if Bradley and Caitlin even saw this!

Yesterday I shot Caitlin and Bradley's wedding.  I'm so thankful for my sis-in-law, Miranda, and my sister, Naomi for being my second shooters!  They rocked it all day and I can't wait to show you some of the photos the 3 of us took!  The whole day was perfect and the ceremony couldn't have been sweeter.  I'll be posting different pictures from their big day over the next few days!  But... to hold you over... here are Caitlin's Bridal pictures we took in early November!  She was so much fun to photograph and it just killed me not to be able to post these until her after she got married! Enjoy!!

This was my favorite shot of the day!  I actually ordered this portrait on metal.... and for all you brides out there who are getting a bridal shoot in the coming months, you should order some kind of portrait on metal because it is awesome!

I love this picture because you can see the detail of her ring as well as her earring.

This is the portrait she chose for her large bridal picture!  It was stunning framed and mounted at the reception (I'll be sure to share a photo of it)!

Another favorite!

The rest I just had to post... I tried to pick my favorites, but I couldn't make a decision so I posted all of the ones I loved! 

Meet Jennifer and Brenton!  I met them a few months ago when Jennifer contacted me to photograph her wedding in May.  She has such a sweet spirit and is going to be a beautiful bride.  Also... she has really white teeth!  I wish my teeth were as white as hers.  She'll have to tell me her secret to a bright white smile!  Of course... I'm never in any pictures, so it might not be that big of a deal!  We did this shoot earlier this week and I knew I would only last in the cold & snow 15-20 minutes.  So all these pictures were taken in literally 15-20 minutes.  Oh how I miss the California sun and the perfect weather of San Francisco.  My good friend and photographer, shannon, has no idea how good she has it.  Shannon, I am jealous of your weather and your incredible locations.  I guess thats the price I had to pay when I moved from SF (but I do love it in Arkansas). OK, enough rambling... on with the pictures! 

I thought I'd start with my favorite picture of the day!

They're going to be such a cute bride/groom!

This was actually our last shot of the day.  Such a sweet moment between the two of them!

Something about black & white pictures in the snow are awesome!

What would a snow shoot be without a little snow fight... I think Brenton was the one wanting to fight and Jennifer was too cold to even think about it.  

My little man is kinda sorta starting to sit up these days (like... I had daddy sit him up, move his hands and I snapped a picture before he fell over).  Ha, daddy thinks I'm crazy.  It sure did make for a cute photograph though!

Let me just start off this post by brining your attention to the snow on the ground in this photo. Yes... I am that crazy photographer who went out and did an engagement shoot in the 18 degree weather with a 5 degree wind chill. It took me nearly an hour to recover but it was SO worth it! I can't wait to show you the rest of the pics! More to come soon!

I wanted to post this picture because I thought it was fun and shows both Jennifer and Brenton's personality.  He is madly in love with her, can't get enough of her, and she adores him!  Oh I just love engagement shoots!

Here are the rest of Brittany & Shawn's engagement pics!  What a fun couple they were to photograph.  Brittany is absolutely gorgeous and they are both very photogenic... which makes my job so easy!  Enjoy their pics!

I did a mini-engagement shoot this afternoon (due to the super cold weather). It was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g outside, but I managed to snap a few super cute pics of this incredibly photogenic couple. I am such a baby when it comes to the cold weather, so I was surprised I even got the courage up to take the pics! More pics to come soon!