Lifestyle session with Avery & Brett

I love to photograph kids. Especially kids who are shy and reserved at first, but then after awhile, they turn into your best friends in a matter of 5 minutes! Well, my recent session with Avery and Brett happened to have been that kind of shoot. I have to say this particular sweet brother and sister team melted my heart. Their mom, Cindy, happens to be a very dear and close friend of mine since childhood and this was the first time I met her kids. I recently visited my home town of Rochester, Michigan a couple of weeks ago {sorry I'm not Johnny on the spot with my blog updates!} and was contacted by Cindy to have me photograph her kids. Well, you can just imagine how thrilled I was to have this opportunity! 

We met at the park and quickly jumped into chatting and laughing about preparations to get there and so forth......well, we cut to the chase and I began photographing the very adorable Avery. Shortly after my, oh lets say, twentieth click, Avery put her hand in front of her face {like a stop sign} and said "ok, I'm done!" and walked to the play ground to pose for another shot. She was all about the camera. I would begin my sentence with "Hey sweetie, I got an idea, how about....." and it was like she read my mind! Poof. She would pose herself in the exact position and facial expressions I was looking for. And she isn't EVEN 4! I mean, really?! Really?! Melted my heart. 

Now, I turned behind me to see what Brett was doing and he was all about not getting his picture taken and was all about negotiating his 'if I'm really good' prize with his mom. So he proceeded to tell me all about the movies and video games he was hoping to get. Which, I think helped win him over cuz I was keeping up with this sweet 6 year old's Jedi lingo! {Thanks to my strong love for Star Wars when I was his age}!

I wanted Cindy to get in there with them too.....

Thank you Avery and Brett for warming my heart.....

Many adorable faces of Mercedes!

Well it's no secret that I'm not afraid to say how adorable my niece, Mercedes, is and how she happens to simply be one of the most beautiful young ladies I know. But I'm a little bias {*wink, wink*}. Every time I visit back home to Michigan, I get a chance to set up a photo shoot with her. Well, this past visit was a hairy one. She is one busy 14-year-old! Between soccer camps, family visits, sleepovers, and vacations, I was lucky to get the chance to photograph her one HOT afternoon at Cranbrook Institute of Science in Bloomfield Hills.

I picked her up from a sleep over at her friend's house and quickly realized she was locked out of her house, which meant she couldn't get a change of clothes. No worries. We just improvised and worked with what we had! We went to Cranbrook just after a massive down pour of rain and managed to find some really fun places to take pictures {in the 90+ degree heat!}. Mercedes was a real trouper and we, once again, had a wonderful time laughing together.