You might remember in my very first post that I give nicknames to things, people, places - everything. A few of my favorites:
TK - The Kid
This was the nickname I gave to one of my best friends' unborn baby since we didn't know the gender.
Clara Mae Shannon
Another nickname for one of my best friends' unborn baby girl. She will always be Clara Mae Shannon to me!
Tommy Thompson
My Mr., AKA The Big One. When we started dating we didn't want anyone to know. The guys at work could tell something was up and started asking questions... put on the spot I had to come up with a fake name and fast. Alas... Tommy Thompson. They saw right through it.
So from here forward The Big One will be referred to as Tommy Thompson.
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I wish there were more pictures of my family and me over the years so Tommy Thompson and I made a commitment to get family photos taken every year and the Fall seems to be the perfect time to do so. It's my favorite time of year, the farm looks gorgeous with bright colors (actually all year) and Christmas is right around the corner (can you say slam dunk for gifts and Christmas cards?!?).
So this last weekend we invited my good friend Patrick to the farm to take family pictures. I met Patrick years ago at a friends wedding in Deadwood, South Dakota - lucky for me he lives in Ft. Collins. I love the way he worked with the bride and groom, directed the wedding party, captured amazing candid moments - not to mention the pictures were fabulous. I hired him almost immediately to take photos of all the events I directed at my old job and always enjoyed his work. And I always found it hard to just pick a few...
Sunday morning I woke up bright and early for our 9 am shoot (Patrick - what were we thinking???), laid two outfits out for each of us and made myself a ginormous mimosa. The little one and I had gone shopping the day before and picked out his two outfits - the first was a 'nice' outfit, nice jeans, button down shirt - just like his Dad. The second I told him to pick out his favorite outfit in the world. Never mind the shirt he picked out was a CU shirt (Gahhh! Yep - I said it. We're working on it...) I love the idea of a family picture each year of us in our 'nice' outfit and in the clothes we love most at that moment in time. Once everyone was in their 'nice' outfit the little one helped Tommy Thompson gather props. Most photo shoot props include flowers, maybe a blanket, a pile of leaves. In our house they are guns. I distinctly remember yelling for them to not forget my favorites... the gold one (obviously) and the mega. Tommy knows me well and already had them pulled.
As soon as Patrick arrived Sweet Lucy and I walked him around the farm and discussed the best places to shoot, my favorite spots and what it was we were looking for - and the props. Tommy Thompson makes the farm look like a park so there were more options than not. Of course I picked the one spot he had just moved all the 'junk' to... the rusted oil drum, the rotting wood - Perfect! I so appreciate Patrick's demeanor and willingness to listen to what we wanted yet give direction. (Let's face it - I'm no model...)
Within minutes he was snapping photos, we were laughing - he even got Sweet Lucy to look AND smile at the camera! It felt like just another day on the farm with an old friend. After wrapping up the 'nice' outfit pictures with our rendition of American Gothic we had a race to see who could change into their favorite outfit the fastest. The last one had to make pancakes... wouldn't you know I lost. We wrapped up our shoot in our comfy clothes playing on the lawn which is how we wrap up nearly every weekend. It was a perfect start to our Sunday and our family photo tradition.
We got the pictures back yesterday and I could not be happier with them. Patrick captured everything and more that I had hoped for. If I could move him into the basement to take pictures of us everyday I would. Now for the hard part... which ones do I keep? Hardest. Job. Yet.
Thanks again Patrick! If you're in the market for a fabulous photographer check his work out at PhoCo .
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