» Families

Fall mini-sessions

Beth Valentine — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:53:01 +0000

Fall mini sessions are booking! Here is a sneak peek of some sessions from this weekend. Looking forward to more before the weather gets too cold!

Part 2…another fun family

Beth Valentine — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 03:04:16 +0000

This is the family of a photographer friend of mine. She has such a fun, wonderful family, and I was so excited to photograph them as they passed through middle Tennessee. Hope to see you again soon Carla!

Part 1 of a busy day!

Beth Valentine — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:57:31 +0000

The Young family asked me to them with some of their extended family today. With 3 little boys we were all VERY busy, but what a fun group. I hope you all like them!

Sometimes the stars align…

Beth Valentine — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:41:20 +0000

Last weekend my daughter came home from college for the long weekend. I decided to take advantage of this time, and try to get some pictures of my 3 children together. With her not being home all the time now, I figured I better try while I can, because I know how these things can go.

Now, you have to understand, that just because I can take beautiful pictures of other people’s children, that doesn’t mean it always works in my family. Please refer to my November 2007 post of trying to get pictures for Christmas cards to see what I mean.

I set my expectations low, planning on the fact that my son would say he was going to cooperate, then change his mind.

Well, the stars aligned, and God smiled down, and I got my pictures. Not only one day, but TWO!!

Since it was such a momentous occasion, I just had to share with you all.

But first, as you can see, it still never exactly goes smoothly…

A great family at the end of the day

Beth Valentine — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:39:21 +0000

I have photographed this little guy and his mom and dad a couple of times, but this time he had visitors and everyone got into the game. It was a fun session, finding creative ways to get him to cooperate with the pictures. I hope everyone has a safe trip back home.

A very fun, very LARGE family from today

Beth Valentine — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:53:47 +0000

This morning I had the pleasure of photographing a wonderful family celebrating their parent’s 50th anniversary. They totaled 16, but were so easy to work with in the oppressive heat this morning. Everyone was as ready to get out of the heat as I was because we squeezed a LOT of photography in one hour!

Thank you all for being such a great group, and once again…Happy Anniversary!

A family from tonight

Beth Valentine — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 04:10:49 +0000

I have to say, having twins people often say to me “I don’t know how you do it”. Well, I take my hat off to this mom! 4 kids 5 and under, including a set of 9mo old twins. I REALLY don’t know how they do it. But, they were such a fun family, and dad hung in there without griping even with the HIGH humidity heat.

Thank you Liz and Scott for allowing me to photograph your family!

Jennifer and Nataly

Beth Valentine — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 18:20:45 +0000

I had the distinct pleasure of photographing a very special person, and her new daughter. Jennifer was Robbie’s pre-k teacher last year, and he still adores her and talks about her. Jennifer recently adopted her beautiful daughter Nataly, and today we went out in a misty, very wet morning and did their first official pictures together. We had a lot of fun, even if we did get a little wet. Nataly is such a pleasure and full of giggles, just like her Mami

It’s never easy when it’s my own kids!

Beth Valentine — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:25:05 +0000

So many of you have said “I can’t believe you got ANY good images from our session!” And I’m always glad that you are surprised and pleased with your images.

I can tell you though, it isn’t always easy, and the hardest children I have to shoot are usually my own. It is called Photographer’s Child Syndrome, and almost any photographer you ask will tell you that it is hardest to take pictures of your own family.

Now, last year I had a photographer friend of mine do our family pictures and the kids were really pretty well behaved. Well, Robbie in particular as he always seems to be the problem for me.

Well, whenever *I* try to take his picture it becomes a HUGE battle of wills. And no one ends up winning truth be told.

So I had struck a deal with the boy. Just a few pictures, then play after. Life will be good. Should have known he would renig! As soon as we got to the park it was trouble. Actually it started at home with an argument over clothing choices. Off to a bad start (he had agreed to let me pick his shirt too. I should have known better)

We get there and I start with the girls so I can get my camera settings set. They are usually pretty cooperative.

Then I try to get him in the picture

Then the girls decided they should join in too

So, of course no amounts of threats or counting would work, so home we went, which just escalated the tantrum.

After much more fussing, and a serious meeting of the minds so to speak between my son and I, we tried again.

Of course it quickly went downhill from there LOL

As it turns out I did get some images to use for our cards, and it will be in classic Valentine style LOL. I won’t share just yet. I’ll post the card closer to Christmas.

Good friends are hard to find…

Beth Valentine — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 01:37:20 +0000

But so great to keep, even from a long distance.

My girlfriend Diane decided that she could either pay a huge session fee to get the special first birthday pictures she wanted of her son, or she could fly me home to Orlando to do them for her. So, she bought me a plane ticket and off I went. I had a wonderful weekend hanging out with my friends and enjoying their beautiful little boy (even if he was cutting molars this weekend).

FYI, this little guy is the baby in the far right picture at the top.

Thank you guys! I loved being with you again, and hope to see you again soon (sometime before May!)