Playing at DECS Childcare | Acworth Preschool Portrait Photography

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OK... Now that it's finished, I have to admit, I was sooooo nervous about this "Session"!

Shhh... honestly, I get nervous before every session!

(Yes, even awesome repeat clients like Miss C - 

whose 6 Month portraits you will get a sneak peek at in a few days, by the way!) 

But this was no ordinary session... I had committed to photograph over 50 kids in 1 day! Was I CraZy?? I was the sick-to-my-stomach, couldn't-eat-dinner-or-breakfast, almost literally shaking all over kind of nervous!! I had no idea how we were going to pull this off, but their amazing Super-Director (& my sweet friend), Julie Reynolds, kept assuring me it would work out fine.  And then, my incredible sister, Alex Knight offered to come long to help! Suddenly, I thought, maybe we CAN do this!!

Guess what?...

It was soooooooo much FUN!!!

I could not believe how well it went! Julie had each kid & class scheduled, and Alex was there to think (and almost breathe!) for me! So I just got to play with some really Cool Kids & go crazy shooting! IT WAS AWESOME!!!

We took a group of about 4-5 kids and brought them out to the front of the school where we had a bench set up with Spring flowers and took some shots there while we told jokes and talked about the kids' favorite toys, movies, or shows. Then we photographed them in front of the columns, (or trees later on - the sun got too bright in front of the school!) THEN, we went to the playground!! And I just followed them with my camera as they'd yell "Look at me!" and "Take a picture of me!!"

Overall, it was such a great experience! And I learned so much from this as my first "school portraits" shoot. As nervous as I was, I'm glad I went through with it. It was the best-learn-as-you go experience ever. My wonderful photography mentor & friend Joy Wilson told me that the best way to learn photography was just to shoot, shoot, shoot, as much as you can. That's why I accepted the job. Never learn if you never try, right? Yep, Joy was right, again! (as with everything she's taught me about photography ;) Did I make some mistakes? Yep. And those families are being compensated. But did I get it right, some, too? I think so. This adorable family was happy with their proofs.... take a look:

So I guess the moral of this story is to Go For It! Whatever your dream, aspiration or goals, just GO FOR IT! You'll never succeed f you never try. And failing is part of the learning process. (I'm toying with the idea of posting some of my "fails". Because I learn SO much more from those than I do the "right" ones. Let me know what you think...) But if I had let fear hold me back (because when she first asked me, I really did tell her "I have to think about it!" and I almost told her I just could not do it.)  But then I would have missed out on meeting these 3  A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E   BOYS! and all the rest of the precious kids at DECS Childcare!!!  And I would still be without all the amazing stuff I learned while on the shoot that no text book or lecture could ever have taught me. I'm grateful my husband encouraged me to do it, and I'm grateful for Julie taking a chance on me and allowing me to do it. 

Hope you enjoyed this little peek into our Picture Day! There may be more to come... (depending on parents' ok)  Till then...

GO CHASE YOUR DREAMS.... and remember to FOCUS ON MOMENTS during the ride!

Season of Fun, Busy & New Happenings!

What a busy season we're in! My baby girl turned 4, my youngest is about to turn the big ONE! Plus we recently moved... and my new house has a WONDERFUL room I can turn unto a studio! Can't wait!

AND... coming up in a couple weeks, Dulce Light Photography gets to experience TWO new firsts!!!

1. We have the opportunity to photograph TRIPLETS!! Three tiny, brand new baby girls!!! Oh the sweet cuddliness, It's going to be wonderful! They are in the NICU right now, so if you will, say a little prayer for them that they get to come home soon and they will all be healthy and thriving!
   
2. We have the honor of photographing precious daycare children for their seasonal school & class portraits! I am very excited, as this will be a great experience and great exposure for Dulce Light Photography! I am busy creating their fliers, order forms and brainstorming poses for them. If you are a parent of one of these sweet children checking out our website for the first time, WELCOME! You will see detailed information about your pricing by clicking the School Portraits link above.  Let me know if you have any other questions or comments about your child's upcoming picture day =)  

I also have a few ideas in the works for the blog... I am thinking of doing a "learning photography" and "editing photos" series, since I have learned soooo much, partly due to other photog friends' generosity and I have been getting a lot of requests from other budding photographers for help. I figure typing it all out and providing picture examples will help me solidify my knowledge and help "pay it forward" to those of you who desire to learn more! If there is something specific you are struggling with, let me know! I will make sure to address those questions first!

Thank you all for your love & support!!!  I am only here because of you!!

Beautiful Dancers

I LOOOVED This photo shoot!!! These dancers were so beautiful and having so much fun, it was infectious! I had never shot a recital before, and getting the hang of changing shutter speeds as the lighting changed in the middle of the action was quite tricky, but I learned a lot!

Here is a sneak peek, ladies, Hope you enjoy!!

Modeling and Professional Headshots

This was an especially fun shoot! This is our good friend Brian, and was honored and thrilled when he decided to have me shoot his new headshots! I had studied children's portraiture, and I knew shooting headshots for professional use was greatly different. So this gave me the opportunity to learn/practice shooting a new technique on someone I was comfortable and familiar with. We had so much fun being goofy, and I think that resulted in truly personal shots! Let me know what you think!

This was my favorite outfit. Then again, I am partial to green :)

We ended with a series we called "the many faces of Brian Wesley Turner"... there were seriously like a hundred different shots in this series! He cracked me up!!! These four tell it all :)






Can you tell we had fun?  As much as I love shooting children's portraits, I think I found another type of sessions that is just as fun!  Thanks Brian!

Help Us Spread the Word!!!

It's CONTEST TIME!!!


In effort to more effectively advertise our upcoming Fall Portrait Session with Miss Lala and the Arts @ West Cobb, we are offering our friends and family a prize for helping us spread the word!

The Prize?   A $25 Visa Gift Card!

Of course, the card can be used anywhere, including at here for even more off our already half-priced sessions!  ;)

The contest?   1. Post a comment here about your favorite childhood memory for one entry!!

Then for additional entries:

2. Mention our contest on your blog and/or Facebook account! Just be sure to link back to DulceLightPhotgraphy.com or 

@Dulce Light Photography on Facebook, then comment on here with a link to your post so we can keep track! 

(Typing @ in front of a facebook profile's name will link to them, notifying them of your comment.)

3. Follow our Blog and Like our Facebook Page! All followers and facebook friends receive an additional entry!!

Each entry will be compiled into a numbered list and a winner will be chosen using Randomizer.org on 

OCTOBER 22 (Date of the Fall session;).  Every entry gives you another chance to win and helps us get the word out 

even more about our fun Fall Portrait Session! 

We will be honored and thrilled to thank you for your help with the Visa Gift Card! 

The winner will be mentioned in a future post and notified via email.

We can't wait to hear all about your favorite childhood memories! It will be so fun! Thank you for supporting and helping Dulce Light Photography!!!

Accepting Baby Steps

Whew!! What a crazy few months it's been!  In the past several months we have moved, had 2 birthday parties, started a new job (hubby), gone on a way-overdue vacation and survived morning sickness with baby #4! Its almost gone, I can feel it! Or maybe I'm just being optimistic because I am soooo ready to get back to shooting!

This is a shot I was so excited to capture! The Lego Statues at Downtown Disney
fascinated me! And apparently the squirrels too!

The lighting on it was tricky though, because I was actually standing under an awning, and the
sun was on the other side of the statue. The first time I shot it, you couldn't see the squirrels at
all for the blow out of light around them. After adjusting for that using all that
I've learned so far ;) I shot this one. Seriously, if I can do it, SO CAN YOU!

In effort to shoot as many new pictures as I can (the more I shoot, the more I learn!) I have decided to create a new goal for myself: From now on, ALL the illustrations on my blog will be using MY OWN pictures! I hope to get creative and shoot some really artistic photos to use for this purpose :) I think my baby sister can help with this too, and it will be great fun working with her on it! Since I not only use this blog to showcase my portrait photography and blog about those stories as well as stories about my own life, I want to tie it all together with the one over-arching theme that seems to cross over into everything I do: Art. I love ALL Art: from paintings to photographs, music, dance, and theatre - it all fascinates me. It always has. This seems to be a common bond for many of us on a universal level. So this will be the common thread I hope you see throughout all the posts, both the professional and personal ones :)

On that note, I am getting really excited, and honestly humbled, by the direction my photography is taking. In December last year I wrote a post about desperately trying to hear God, and what He's calling me to do in life. I felt unfulfilled because I had not found that yet, and I was aching to be in the middle of His will. Some of you may relate to this, others may not. But I think all of us, regardless of beliefs, desire to feel a sense of accomplishment. When we do something we love, we feel it with our entire being, and we effect others in a positive way. When we don't, we dread every second of it and effect others in a negative way.

So I began searching for what my calling might be. I felt so lost because my passions lead in so many different directions. However, little did I realize that God was going to lead me there! It was just going to take a series of tiny little baby steps.  Now, as I look back at just the past 10 months, I can see God's fingerprints on everything that has happened! Which only makes me SOOOO excited about the steps to come. But let me back up and explain:

• The update on that post mentions about how in the short months between the original post and the updates, I met so many photographers willing and excited to help me and I had learned so much it was overwhelming (in a very good way!)
• One of those photographers took me on as a mentor and walked me through so much! She even invited me to help her on a newborn shoot.
• One of the other photographers, a great friend from high-school I was able to reconnect with, has been an endless source of information, patiently answering all my questions and offering all the advice she can think of. Then SHE invited me to a family portrait session with her! It was such a great learning experience!!
• Then I started practicing on family and friends, and their response was greater than I ever expected coming from my first few "professional" shoots. (I've been shooting since I was 13, but never under the intention of doing it professionally until now.)
• Suddenly I had people asking me to book session after session! All in a matter of 8 or so months!! I honestly never dreamed of it going so well. The only thing I can say is that God has been behind it all. There is no other explanation. 
• Then I had the idea (out of "nowhere" ... ahem... so like God) to join forces with my good friend Santa Claus for a special portrait event. I was unsure if he would be able to attend though, seeing as he gets incredibly busy this time of year! However, he loved the idea and was willing to make room in his schedule to come down and join us! All I had to do was find a location to host us...
• Then, tada! It the idea for the perfect place to host Santa for portraits falls into my lap: Miss LaLa's Treehouse, now called The Arts @ West Cobb! They are all about ALL THE ARTS!!! How fitting!!! 

When I called them, they loved the idea! And so now, I have a great opportunity to join forces with a company who is not only willing to host us for Christmas but would also like to host us for a Halloween/Fall portrait session and see why else our paths might have Purposely crossed! I meet with her tomorrow so I will be sure to let you know the details we work out. But all I can say is that I could never have imagined all these baby steps were even possible, let alone that I would be walking them.

Why am I sharing all this with you??

We all have dreams. Some of you dream about photography like me! (I hope to "pay it forward" and help you as others have helped me! Email me for more info!) The rest of you long after a myriad of other dreams. One of my goals with this blog is to inspire you to dream them, and do whatever it takes to follow them. Even if it takes itty bitty almost invisible baby steps. You never know where you will be a year from now if you do. But if you never try, you'll never reach it. God plants those dreams in our hearts! He wants SO MUCH MORE FOR US than we can ever imagine! 

My Inspirations

There they are. My inspirations. R, K, and C. 

One of my goals as I study photography and grow in my new chosen career is to take beautiful portraits of my own kids. So this was one of my first attempts in April. As I learn more, I will try again and again and hopefully, each one will be better than the last. They are the reason I started this venture to begin with! 


My heart was broken over and over again when I would take them as infants to have their portraits made and the photographer would either limit how many "shots" I could keep or how many poses I could order, and they would not let me keep the rest of the pictures they took of MY KIDS! I could not comprehend why I couldn't just have a CD of all the images. Of course, I knew about copyright and their need to make money, after all, it is business and they need to feed their family. But why couldn't a compromise be made? Something that benefited everyone?


This is what got me started thinking about starting my own portrait business. However, I was going to do it differently. Somehow I would find a way to give parents the CD of their entire shoot, and still be compensated for my time and effort. 


Then I found out that my friend from high school became a photographer. Not only is she a successful wedding and family photographer, but included in her pricing is a CD she gives to her clients of all their images and her photography business is flourishing!!! 

That was the day I started this venture. With her help as well as several other photographers in my area (Marietta / Kennesaw / Acworth, Georgia) and online, I am on my way to having my own photography business! I have a ways to go, but one day I will take a portrait of my kids that makes their mom cry. That will be the day I know I've made it ;) Oh, I'll never stop learning! But that day will be a special one in this lifelong journey of learning photography.

Baby Portraits Through New Eyes

I am always so honored and thrilled when I get invited into a family's home to take pictures of their precious children! It has been such an exciting time learning, practicing and building my portfolio! This was no exception!

I met this precious family at McDonald's a few weeks ago, and then we realized we attend the same church! Small world! They were so patient and kind with me while I figured out how to capture the best light, and I am so grateful! I left their house a bit concerned that I did not get many good shots. But again, just like my last maternity portrait session, after reviewing them later at home it was like I was seeing them with new eyes. Not perfect and much room for improvement, but better then I thought with my critical mind's eye. So I think the key for me is going to be allowing myself to see them with new eyes a little after the shoot.

New Eyes. It seems that's what I have now. I hate to interject this painful personal insight into such a happy photography experience, but it was so healing that I feel the need to share... It started with a comment my Aunt Renee said to me last week, that through all I've learned since my miscarriage, it's like God has given me New Eyes with which to photograph babies now. Now I see it's so true! Every little detail stands out to me so much more now, and this passion inside me burns deeply to try to capture their innocence, joy and love.

I hope I did that with this adorable baby. Baby B was wide awake and quite content! I love his cheeks and his bright eyes and.... well all of him!! I'm sure you will too!

S an K - hope you enjoy your preview, I loved every minute of shooting and editing these portraits for you! Thank you again for the opportunity to do these!  :D

Portfolio Building - AT LAST!!!..... Maternity Portraits

After studying for what feels like forever, I finally feel ready to begin my portfolio building! I have asked several friends to allow me to practice on them and was honored and thrilled to have some takers! In the first week I had two sessions already! One was for maternity portraits and the other for baby portraits. I'm so excited!

Here is the first session, my first maternity shoot. I learned so much just by actually shooting these pictures. Reading books and blogs can only do so much. I realized actually getting out there and shooting really is the best way to learn! In a previous post I wrote about conquering my fear; I was so nervous it almost kept me from doing this shoot. But I think the key was doing it despite the fear. My friend who is a photographer in Nashville told me that the more I shoot the more tricks I'll learn - and I see now why! Thank you  for your tips and encouragements Joy! When I looked through them after I got home I immediately noticed things I could have done and said differently to get better results, so I am so glad I went through with the shoot. On one hand I feel bad for my friend M that they aren't perfect like I wanted them to be, but I am grateful for the experience.

Thank you so much J & M for this opportunity! M, you are always beautiful and especially so when expecting! It was a joy to shoot these portraits, hope you enjoy them as much I enjoyed shooting them!

Cutting Grass and Conquering Fears

My youngest son, KT, loves to help. His favorite thing to help with is cutting the grass. One of the first phrases he said when he started talking was "Pawpaw cut grass?" He would say it as soon as he saw Pawpaw put on his straw hat... his grass-cutting hat! Then he would run and get his little lawn mower to help. He has continued this fascination now for almost 2 years!

So I was really excited when he sat still enough for me to shoot this picture! It truly captures a memorable moment. This is a shot I got one day when he was "taking a break" from helping Pawpaw. I loved how he was just looking out at the overgrown grass in the backyard. What was running through his little mind? He got quiet & pensive and just stared!  (Which if you know KT you know is RARE! The boy is hardly ever still!) But we attribute that to his passion. The boy is incredibly passionate, and he has no fear! He actually inspires me to act more on my passions.

For example, photography has long been a passion of mine, but fear has kept me from pursuing it. Fear also kept me from trying out for my high school musical and the school of music in college, but yay! Here I am years later finally pursuing a passion. Better late then never, huh?!  Yet, even now fear threatens to stop me: I had my first maternity portraits shoot this past Tuesday and boy was I ever nervous. My friend who was modeling was so patient and encouraging though so I was able to make it through the shoot. However, when I got home and viewed the pictures, I was disappointed in myself and the results I got.  They just didn't look how I pictured them in my head. I found myself thinking that maybe I should just stick to photographing my own kids and ditch this whole becoming-a-photographer thing.

But something has changed inside me... I want to keep going! A large part of that is the incredible amount of encouragement I am receiving from my sweet hubby and several great friends (one of whom IS a photographer!!). Another reason is that I see the whole world before my kids and I truly believe they can do anything God calls them to do, and would be heartbroken if they let fear stand in their way.  But how can I encourage them to conquer their fears & pursue their God-given passions if I don't do the same? So here I go... pushing through the fear. Soon you will see some of those maternity shots. I promise ; )