Little miss Zoe was everything I love about that six to eight month age range in babies — she was warm, playful, smiley, interactive, and oh-so-interested in that goofy lady behind the camera making lots of noises and faces! And speaking of faces, this little gal had a few funny ones of her own up her sleeve. The one on the right below is one of my very favorites. I mean, seriously, what a sweetie! I just wanted to take her home with me for a few extra snuggles! It only seemed fitting to feature this little lovebug on Valentine’s Day (Happy Valentine’s Day!).

Our “Best of B&B 2012″ contest has come to a close, and we’re excited to share our top images with you!
We’ve tallied all the votes and comments and we’re happy to announce that Bump & Bambino’s top image of 2011, by popular demand with 157 valid likes/comments (only one like or comment per person is eligible), is this portrait of six-day-old Kellan nestled in his father’s firefighting helmet. No doubt, it’s a gorgeous and touching image! Congrats to Kellan and his family for winning the Best of B&B 2011 title, along with a $200 gift certificate for use at our studio!

It’s hard enough for us to nominate just one image from each session for this contest, so we are definitely grateful for the many folks who weighed in on their favorites. We could never pick just one favorite! We’d like to give a shout-out to the many new fans who joined our Facebook page during this giveaway. If you’re local and have little ones, we hope to meet you in the studio soon!

While Kellan snagged top honors, we’re happy to also crown three runner-ups: Karlie and Kacie with 131 likes/comments, Jackie and Miguel’s maternity portrait with 68, and six-day-old Jax in our owl hat and bird’s nest with 66. They each will receive a $75, $50, and $25 gift certificate, respectively. Congrats to all of you!

Thanks so much to all of our fans, new and old, who participated and made this contest a success. We hope that you will continue to keep an eye on our new work throughout the year!

Meet little Zachary, an absolute gentleman-in-the-making who visited our studio at just six days old. He was quite content to snooze for me, no matter which way we curled his tiny body! For this session, I really focused on keeping it simple, and I love all the emotion that came through especially in the family shots.

This last one is a special one, showing Zach snuggled up under the amazing blanket that his mama knit for him (see its first appearance in their maternity session). What a beautiful gift for his legacy! I love incorporating props and clothing that are bound to have a personal and lasting connection to a family’s heritage. Thanks, Eadie, for bringing this in!

It’s back! We’re kicking off our second annual Bump & Bambino “Best Of” giveaway with our 2011 nominees. Voting’s on now, so cast your vote and help us name our winners! We’ve hand-picked a favorite image from each of our 2011 maternity, baby and child portrait sessions and pulled them together on our Facebook page in one big, fat, kick-ass album. Visit the Best of B&B – 2011 gallery now to see this fun retrospective collection!

You don’t have to be a client to vote, so spread the word to family and friends and you’ll up the chances of your child’s photo reigning supreme. If you’re a client, tag yourself in the image(s) to make it even easier for family and friends to find. Voting starts now and runs through 9pm (PST) on Thursday, February 9th. You’ve got one week to nab the most votes! We’ll announce the winner here on February 10th.

You and your friends can cast a vote by giving a photo a “like,” by posting a comment underneath the photo on our Best of B&B 2011 gallery, or by posting a comment on this blog post. Only one comment or like per person, per image, will count. The image that receives the most eligible “like” ratings and comments will earn the “Best of B&B 2011″ title — along with a $200 gift certificate for the baby’s parents! This can be redeemed for a new portrait session, products, or even a gift certificate that can be saved for a later date or passed along. We also have some giveaways for other top images: a $75 gift certificate for the first runner-up, a $50 gift certificate for the second runner-up, and a $25 gift certificate for the third runner-up!

You can vote for as many photos as you’d like. So take a look and spread the word — get those family and friends voting! This is a hot giveaway, and it only comes once a year. Which photo will come out on top?

I’m counting down the days until I get to meet Jackie and Miguel’s little junior, due next week! In the meantime, I’m excited to share some of my favorite images from their recent maternity portrait session. Jackie arrived with a ton of her own ideas, which is always good for flexing my creative muscle a bit. This was my first “in a frame” portrait and it’s been a lot of fun exploring other ways to use this prop in several sessions since.

Jackie and Miguel haven’t yet decided on the name for their little boy, so the “hello my name is” sticker Jackie pasted on her baby bump — and Miguel’s quizzical expression — were very fitting! I love this little series.

And you’re never too young to have your own pair of (matching) Chucks!

When this little lady smiles at you, she sure looks like she’s got a secret! Little Lexi first visited our studio here at three months old (I’m a little behind; stay tuned for another session when she was five months old). I was thrilled right away to see what a happy little gal she is. This can be one of the toughest ages to photograph, because at three months a baby has long ago lost the sleepy, “bendable” characteristics of the newborn stage, but doesn’t yet have a large degree of muscle control nor, in some cases, the attention span for interacting with the camera. Luckily, although Lexi was still working on her tummy-time skills, she did a great job propping herself up just long enough to happily flirt with the camera!

After a little hiatus from our blog as we made our way through the busy holiday portrait season, I’m back! I’m now so far behind on blogging that it’s hard to know where to start, so I’ll just kick it off with one of my favorite families. The B family returned to the studio with their second child, little Hannah, when she was ten weeks old (scroll down to see images from this little gal’s newborn session!). Hannah shared so many smiles with me, and I loved to see flashes of her big brother in her features and expressions. Just for fun, I dug back in the archives and found a photo of big bro Caleb at the same age!

Wow, here we are at the end of yet another year! And what a year it has been. About this time last year, we welcomed our second boy into the family, bringing him home from the hospital on Christmas Day. And now he’s taking his first steps! We know that many of you have had similar whirlwind years, and we wish you and your families all the best in 2012 as your little ones continue to grow.

In addition to marking the end of our ninth year as professional photographers, today we also mark our ninth annual Christmas photo, featuring — as always — our golden retriever Bailey. She’s always been a good sport about modeling for us (see: 2010 and 2009), but this year, sharing the limelight with two little boys, she set a new standard in tolerance. I had the idea to turn Caleb and Isaac into reindeer pulling “Bailey Claus” on her sleigh, and Scott shot the photo in our studio while I made my usual funny sounds and silly faces (and, as a last resort, offered bribes) — keeping our clan in place just long enough to grab the shot. The antique sled, which has been in Scott’s family for decades, adds an extra bit of sentimentality to the photo.

While the shot above is our official Christmas photo, one of the photos we caught as the scene devolved into chaos was too much fun to leave out! Yep, my boys’ve got attitude! I may be in trouble in the years to come.

And we have one final treat for you. That’s right, we starred in our own Christmas music video! It took forever to choreograph, so we hope you enjoy it.

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, starring the Schoeggl family

Scott headed down to Lakewood last month to meet up with 15-month-old Brady and parents Lindsay and Dan (of DMT Construction) for their first official family portrait session. I know he was happy to meet a cheerful, smiley little boy with longer locks than our eldest has managed at twice the age!

The entire shoot was conducted at the family house, and there are a few advantages to doing this. First, Brady was comfortably in his element, with familiar surroundings and his toys all around. It can also be nice to have your home captured in photos, so that years from now when you look back at these photos, you can remember what life was like back then, as well as how cute the little guy was at 15 months! We even got cute shots of Brady “driving” his dad’s truck, snagging some kisses from his four-legged sibling, and cuddling with the family under Lindsay and Dan’s wedding arbor.

Check out those cuties above! On the left is the beautiful Miss Gabrielle on her second birthday! On the right is our oldest little guy Caleb, who tagged along with me for a morning in Point Defiance while Scott spent some time taking portraits of Gabrielle and her family. We couldn’t resist a cameo appearance by Caleb before getting down to business, and apparently Gabrielle couldn’t resist our little man, either! After the boys and I headed off to the playground, Scott got some adorable shots of Gabrielle with her parents Christine and Mike, who were our wedding photography clients in 2006. The family just moved back here from Cincinnati and we are so excited to have them back in town!