Santa at Longfellow

One of the guys who works at our office has been dressing up as Santa and visiting local school kids for several years now.  Last year, he decided to ask a few people if they would be interested in helping out by purchasing some little toys and candy to give the kids.  Before he knew it, quite a lot of money was available for the cause, and several hundred kids each got a bag of goodies, including gloves, candy, toothbrushes, and toys.  Seeing how much it touched the children, he wanted to do it again this year.

Thanks to some generous people and businesses, Santa was again able to hand out goody bags for the kids at Longfellow this year.  Some of the kids were a little shy.

Some were definitely not.

But they all seemed very appreciative.

It's interesting to me that so many of us seem to be generous with our time and/or money, but it often takes one individual to get the ball rolling.  Perhaps we occasionally need that one person to remind us of all the other people living outside of our daily routines.  It's not that we don't want to help those in need, it's just that we're usually too busy trying to survive our own lives to notice the struggles of others.

It's good to get little reminders like that.  But it's also good to give them.  Hopefully we can take turns reminding each other, and not just during this time of year.


~~ Merry Christmas~~

Northern Montana Healthcare (NMHC) Clinic

CTA recently asked me to shoot an interior remodel project they completed for the Northern Montana Healthcare Clinic in Havre, Montana.  CTA's design team implemented a few unique elements into the remodel, including some form resin products and some custom carpeting.  The form resin light diffusers near the ceiling look amazing, and the willow stick panels are very cool as well.

Having grown up west of Havre, I spent quite a lot of time in this space waiting for Doctor Elliot (a good doctor and a very nice guy, but always late).  Even so, I'd never have recognized it now!

Great job, CTA - it looks fantastic!

Aiden and Kaleb

This weekend Scott and I had the privilege of taking pictures of a couple of great little guys!  They were welcomed into Great Falls, MT, 20 days ago!

Let me introduce you to Aiden!
  

He was an excellent little kiddo, completely cooperative!
 

Of course, I did say there were two. . .

Both so sweet and adorable!  Now let me introduce Kaleb!
 

He was as cooperative as his brother for this photo shoot and an absolute joy to work with!
 

Now to bring the father into the picture!

 And the mother!  Erin, you did a great job!!  You have two very beautiful, precious boys!

Family Portrait Time

Hey, this is Jamie blogging about our family pictures.  I wanted to let you know what a great husband I have!  I think one of most challenging things to do is take pictures of your own family.  Why is it that when you pull out the camera and dress the kids in somewhat matching outfits, that the kids decide to go into uncooperative mode? 

 I can help Scott pose other people's children, and he comes up with great pictures!  But, bring out my own children, and I can't get them to pose for anything!  So we end up with free-for-all pictures.  Now, I grew up with posed pictures, so I have always thought that that was the way it was to be done - I didn't know any different.  Now don't get me wrong, I think posed pictures are great and there is definitely a place for them (just no hope of filling the space in our house!)!  But really, who can pass up the true JOY in the above picture?  It doesn't need to be posed, it can be real, be that laughter or tears.

Speaking of tears. . .  This is our oldest child Nathan.  He is an absolutely wonderful, passionate, active child, unfortunately he has very light sensitive eyes.  We tried having him close his eyes before the picture, but as soon as he opened them he would scrunch up his face in a terrible, painful scowl.  If we were looking for a scary face shot, we could have had it with the first picture!  So, here is the picture that came out the best on this bright day.  But then, it catches his kind of serious side, so. . . Okay.
 

Now Acacia wasn't even fazed by the sun.  I took out her transition lenses (replaced them with her older lenses) though so that we could actually see her eyes.  She is a beautiful little girl and I love that Scott was able to catch her serious side. . .

Considering that this is what most of them looked like.  (This picture just gives me a huge smile!)  She is "supposed" to be smiling at her daddy behind the camera, instead she says, "Chee" as she turns her head and moves her arms into take-off position!  We are ready to fly!

The leaves turned out being the best part of the shoot.  They are bigger than the ones we have in our yard, yippee!  So here is Jaedon's version of the "Contemplation of a Leaf" or two.

 
But he is the one that has taught Acacia to be goofy, so of course we have a few of these pictures as well!  (By the way, this WAS his favorite picture!)

Getting a full family picture ended up being a challenge.  No, we aren't perfectly posed.  But really does it bother me?  No!  I'm okay.  At least you can see all of our faces, and our children's personalities shine through!  What could be better than that?

Okay, yeah, this one is pretty good!  Now, you know my children's true identities!!

Who needs a perfectly posed picture when you have pictures that make you grin?  :D

CMR vs. Flathead

As I said, I was asked to take photos of the CMR vs Flathead high school football game here in Great Falls on the 15th.  Here is a peek at what I was able to get!

Ryan's Football Game

I was asked to take photos of the CMR vs Flathead high school football game here in Great Falls on the 15th (photos of that game coming soon!).  Knowing that I wouldn't be allowed on the field, I decided to rent a lens I've heard good things about - the Canon 300mm F2.8/L IS - to give me a boost from the stands.  While this lens is certainly an attention grabber, rest assured it does its part to help capture great images.  Even though this was my first time using the hefty lens, and I'm sure there is ample room for improvement with more practice, I was very pleased with the results.

I need to give a shout out to my nephew Ryan, who was thoughtful enough to have a flag football game on the afternoon of the 15th so I could get a few exposures fired off to practice.  So, the shots of Ryan's game were truly my first with the lens.  Again, though, I'm pretty happy with how these turned out.  I just wish it'd been a little warmer.  Those little guys are pretty tough!

Cron Children

Jamie and I had a chance to shoot some cute kiddos this past Friday evening.  Thanks Keith & Christina, for letting us take little Ella's 1-year photos (and for letting Colton join in too).  Poor little Ella was at the end of her patience, so we didn't get some of the shots we wanted with both of them together, but the shots we did get turned out great.

Great Falls, Montana Children's Photographer