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Baby Colored Chicks and Kids | Studio Photo Shoot

March 31, 2010 By Laura 8 Comments

What a fun shoot this was in my in-home studio, with my own kids and our newly-hatched baby colored chicks!

For those of you visiting this section of the blog first, this post is a continuation of a science project we did, which is detailed over in the Home Schooling section of this blog, when we incubated, colored and hatched baby chicks! Now you can see how nice my kids clean up, from their jammies and morning bed-heads, too! 🙂

Even though we weren’t keeping them, the kids did name the chicks.

Left to Right: the brown rooster, “De Colores” (anyone familiar with that term?). The green chick is “Ca$h”. (I loved that name.) The Yellow chick is “Sunshine”. The Pink chick is “Lipstick”.

{A} with her chick, Sunshine…..

(“Dirty Pants.” lol)

{S} with his chick, Ca$h…..

Are you ready for a good laugh??………..

{S} had a sense something just happened in his hand. The expression on his face…..it makes us laugh hysterically every time I see it. Even all these years later!!

(Give me a moment. Recovering here. O.K.)

{J} with his rooster, De Colores.

2 cool dudes. Check out their stance. I loved this one too!

{O} with her chick, Lipstick…..

She wanted few more photos, in her beautiful Easter dress….

The End.

DISCLAIMER: There were no chicks harmed in this photo shoot with small children! Nor was there any hard to the chicks in coloring them. The chicks stayed with us for about 1-2 weeks, as we watched them lose their colored fuzz, and grow in their regular feathers. We said a long goodbye, and then they went to a farm, to live happily every after.

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A Christmas Story | A Custom Christmas Photo Shoot and Card Design | Photography

March 16, 2010 By Laura 5 Comments

Here we are at 2007, for my very first time working with them. My theme, all revolved around the girls, of course, and a beautiful book, called A Christmas Story. The subject of my past couple posts in this photography section, has been on my annual Christmas photo shoots with these 2 beautiful little girls. I first shared my most recent shoot with you of them (2009), then shared 2008‘s.

The girls were only 2 and 4 years old at the time, so I figured it was quite possible, I’d be working my tail off.

And I was only half wrong, and only for a little while. Imagine that.

Here is Big Sister (A), who was quite co-operative from the get-go. And she has been for every photo shoot, ever since. She’s so wonderful to work with. A little lady from head to toe.
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laura-lee-richard-photography-a-christmas-story Here is Little Sister (A), who was ‘another story’, but only for a little while. She looks like she might be sleeping, doesn’t she? But no. She started off throwing a little fit, not wanting to sit on the bench with her sister. Just plopped face down on the couch. Mom was mortified. I was smitten with her already, and took a photo. Little Sister (A) had only met me once before, so she yet didn’t know that I always win in the end! She’d find out though. We were going to develop a wonderful working relationship with each other. I had faith.

Each time we have worked with each other since, she has only been a bit more work than her older sister – but then she remembers all of the fun we end up having. It’s o.k. anyway, because in the end, she always pays me in GOLD!

At one point, mom was beside herself with frustration, so I sent her to the kitchen to hide, and told her to stay in there. I needed to take complete control, which happens sometimes. She didn’t have the faith that I did, yet. (I have to say, Mom was so cute hiding in there too, if you saw her, ducking and everything.)

See? Tantrum over. The dimples alone were worth her fuss!!

I got her over to the bench, with a little helpful coaxing from her Big Sister too!…

…..who was showing and sharing the story with her. With lots expression, which I loved! CLICK!

And then the real magic started to happen…..

Real moments.

Sweet moments. And maybe Christmas Secrets.

Christmas Kisses. Between sisters, who really love each other.

I got lots of beautiful photos, as they shared and enjoyed this book, A Christmas Story, together.

There were so many beautiful shots in the end. But as always, mom had to narrow them down to the ones she wanted me to work with for their Christmas card, and the ones she wanted to order as prints.

Once I had the photos I could design with, my plan was to design a beautiful tri-fold card, with warm, rich tones. If you do not understand what a tri-fold card is, I tried to take just a couple of photos to help you comprehend the structure of it. Closed, it’s a 5×5 square, and it opens twice, with 2 flaps. There is photos and something to see on all sides.

Here it is standing on a table.

Here is the inside full spread, which is the card opened all of the way.

We’ll take a closer look now.

This is the front of the card, closed. For my client’s privacy, I have blurred out their family last name after ‘ from The’. But I can tell you, their last name has such a nice, upscale sound to it.

These were printed on pearl heavy card stock, with a UV coating. They look and feel so beautiful to hold.

This is how a tri-fold card looks when the front flap is opened, revealing two square panels. You first read the left, and just enjoy the photo on the right.

You read the rest of the greeting when it is fully opened. If there is anyone who cannot read it well here, it says,

“With the love that we send…….and from beginning to end…..May you have a Story Book Christmas!”

And then the family’s names, with the girl’s names blurred.

So continuing understanding the structure of a tri-fold card, here is what the whole card looks like as a full panel if you opened it up and flipped it over. On the left square, is the inside panel which is on the right when the reader opens the card. The center square is the back of the card, and the right is the front of the card. It can be a little confusing, I know. I go through a little panic mode, every time I assemble one of these before sending off for printing.

Here is the back of this card, that the family so graciously lets me go all out on. (My name is going to be on my creations, no matter what. But they really are so great about whatever I want to do.)

The card comes with square envelopes, and I prefer the linen ones, in keeping with the tasteful quality.

Mom was SO HAPPY with her cards, that she sent me an e-mail, and told me she took one to bed with her, so she could look at it again when she woke up during the night. Now my clients say a lot of very sweet things to me, and it always touches my heart, and drives me to keep working. But nothing any client has said to me about my work since, has touched me quite as deeply as that one.

Mom ordered LOTS of different prints, INCLUDING this one…..

laura-lee-richard-photography-a-christmas-story ….which she still talks about. She loves it, because it shows Little (A)’s personality.

Along with all of the above ones, here are just a few more of the ones she ordered….

This was ordered too, as a 10×20 ‘Storyboard’, as I call them.

I thought it was perfect as the ‘footer’ of this blog post. : )

I look forward to working with these girls again, come the end of the year. Until then, I’ll be sharing some more recent work now and then.

(sniff- sniff) < Do you smell something?>

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Creatures Great and Small | A Custom Christmas Photo Shoot and Card Design | Photography

January 28, 2010 By Laura 5 Comments

I promised I would share the 2 previous years of working with these 2 sweet little girls. I decided I would work backwards from the most recent that I already shared, so this post is the photo shoot and card designed for 2008. The theme I came up with was ‘Creatures Great and Small’, because we had a creatures great and small, and all beautiful, to work with!

The girls’ mom has a horse, and she has had him for many years, so I asked if we could do the Christmas photo shoot with him. She LOVED that idea, because she really wanted photos of her horse with her girls anyway. Incidentally, a couple of months after this photo shoot, our oldest daughter {A}, received horse riding lessons from us for Christmas at these stables, where my clients horse is boarded, and so happened to ride this very horse every time for her lessons. {A} was really excited about that, because she was assisting me at this photo shoot, and so was familiar with this horse already. His name is Wellington, and he is a BEAUTY!

Now, I didn’t really have a ‘theme’ going in my head yet, for the Christmas card itself, except that it would have photos of the girls and Wellington. But, I had faith in myself that I would come up with something. Somehow, I would MAKE it work. lol

Meet Wellington.

As usual for my work-style, I DID have visions in my head for the photos I wanted to take of the girls with the horse. But when I got to the stables and talked to Wellington’s ‘trainer’, I realized I was going to have to come up with other ideas, real quick. I wanted to take the horse and the girls out in the field, and put the girls on him, for one. But, she said she would only allow the girls on him if he was IN the stall. Bummer!! Then she said the girls really should wear helmets. LOL!! Ok…I’m all for safety, but really. That was going to kind of ruin my photos. I talked her out of that little bit. So….needless to say, all of the shooting was done in this DARK stall, with ‘dappled sun’ coming in through the windows, which always bugs me in portraits in most cases. (Like this one! lol)
Talk about feeling creatively challenged at every turn.

Just so you know….it is VERY hard for me to ‘let go of my visions’, once they are in my head. I can get downright, uummmm….ornery, about it. (No, really!). So….I was really feeling like my little dreams were crushed, but I had no time to pout. (Again…bummer!). I had to ‘make do’. I don’t like ‘making do’!

Ok….done complaining.

So here is one photo of a small handful of shots of the girls on Wellington’s bare back. It was not an easy shot, because the little one wasn’t comfortable, saying her sister was ‘smooshing’ her. lol. I was sure not to let the oldest one really put her weight on the little one, but….I wanted this shot, and I was going to get it!

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I took this shot with absolute purpose. You’ll see soon enough. ; ) lol.

Oh!! About the plan for clothing for this session. I had suggested the mom find winter capes and boots, for the girls. But she was unable to find any capes. She found these beautiful coats with matching hats though, and I was thrilled with them as an alternative!!

In the doorway of the stall. Which is 1 of a several stall in a row. These stalls are so cool.
You’ll see, it’s like a long house, with a farmer’s porch! I just love it.

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The little one, and Wellington, having a moment.

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And the oldest with him too. She has been around Wellington more, being the oldest.

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I really love this shot at the porch of the stall. Don’t they just look beautiful and classy!?

And look at these 2 beautiful faces. Such gorgeous brown eyes.

As I said, the mom chooses all of the photos to be used on the card, and then orders those in prints along with lots of others from the photo shoots. This shot above isn’t the close-up shot of them together that she used for the card, but I chose it for this post because I just love the little ones expression, again. She cracks me up.

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Here is a better look at the style of the outdoor stalls. I just love the old feel to it all, with the porch with worn spindles, and gorgeous old wood split-doors! Look at the rocking chairs off to the side. But back to the girls, you’ll notice that the little one doesn’t have her hat on anymore. Wellington kept nipping at it, and he pulled it off.! lol. She threw a little fit. So….Wellington got another peppermint candy to keep his mouth busy, and the little one got one, too. Both of the girls were doing a really good job, and I knew the photos were going to be great. As I said before, it just takes a little more time and patience with little ones sometimes.

Besides what you’ve seen here, there were other photos I took and the mom bought too, including some of the boarding owner’s Clydesdale horse, Baron. My client bought photos of him too, to give as a gift to the owner.

I was so excited to get the photos edited, and show them to the mom–who was over the moon again! Once she chose which ones she wanted me to work with, I got to work on the card – and here is how it came out. She LOVED that also. And so did I! I blurred out the names, per usual.

These cards were 5×7, and were printed on a beautiful linen stock. And I did think of appropriate text for the card – which for me, is the fun of the creative process.
**Again – Please ignore the necessary watermark, for the web. Naturally they were not part of the card or images.

FRONT of the card.

They opened up vertically, so this is the INSIDE SPREAD.

The BACK of the card…..which I thought was a riot.

Again, I love that this client let’s me have so much fun on the back of cards. She lets me do whatever I want with everything, and naturally, I can really get along with someone like that!

Huge photo print order. Huge Christmas card order. Happy client. Happy photographer/designer.

The next session I show with this family, will be the very first time we worked together, 2007.

Hope you are enjoying this series. : )

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A Sweet Christmas | A Custom Christmas Photo Shoot and Card Design | Photography

January 11, 2010 By Laura 6 Comments

I am pretty behind in sharing our recent photography work. I apologize about that. I hope this special post helps make up for it. I wanted to show you an adorable photo shoot I did with two beautiful little girls, we themed A Sweet Christmas.

I have done a photo shoot for Christmas with these sweet little girls every year, for the past 3 years. When their mom first contacted me for our first consultation in 2007, I was ecstatic. I knew the last name, because the husband has an established business in town. So I was interested to find out what she was looking for.

We clicked immediately, and have been the best collaborative team, every since. She has excellent taste, and a real appreciation for creative, custom and quality work. I would offer nothing less, and I have pretty high standards for my own work. ; ) What she really wants every year, is photos of her girls, and a one-of-a-kind Christmas card, using them. She has a real flair for style, and is not a fan of the ‘traditional Christmas elements’, like everything red & green, etc. (Neither am I.) Although they do go to my church, so they are not that far from traditional Christmas. ; ) So anyway, it is one of my big creative gigs I take on every year, because the mom/my client leaves the whole planning up to me, from beginning to end!

We usually meet in the fall for a consult, and by then I’ve usually brainstormed an idea, and she is always thrilled with it! I pitch to her what I have envisioned. She gets anything we need for the photo shoot, such as particular clothing for the girls, etc. Once the photo shoot is done, I allow her so many photos to choose for me to work with, and then I completely custom design their whole Christmas card. She always places a big order for not only the Christmas cards I designed, but lots of prints of the photos I took. So all of my efforts are well worth it, in the end.

It’s a really FUN project for me, because she not only gives me SO much creative freedom, from planning the photo-shoot that involves where we will shoot, what the girls will wear, and the kind of shots I want, to designing the whole card. But also because she APPRECIATES all of it so much! She gets SO excited when her cards, envelopes and photos are in. Giddy, even. It’s really nice to have someone appreciate your creativity on that level. And I love seeing and working with the girls and their mom, every year.

This year, our 3rd working together (2009), was the first year I planned their photo-shoot in my studio. I had such ‘visions’ in my head, and even had a general idea of how I wanted to design the card, all before our consult took place, and photographed the girls. So I was thrilled that once again, the mom was on board with my idea. The theme this year, was candy/sweets; a sweet Christmas. I had the mom looking for big swirly pops, but all she ended up finding was these marshmallow pops, which ended up being so much fun!

Just to let you know, I never use the names of children I work with on the net. Or last names. And I apologize for the watermark I have to splash across the images, but it’s important when putting images on the internet. So, just try to block out the watermark and see the image for what it is. Naturally, the watermarks across the middle are not really part of the image.

So first I’ll show you the images my client chose to work with, and then I’ll show you the card I designed for her.

Here are the girls, on my ‘swing’ in my studio, in their white nighties their mom bought just for this shoot.
They are 4 years old and 6 years old now.

This is the oldest girl. She is so polite, very co-operative, and such a darling.
She has grown so much in the past 3 years, and is quite the little lady now.

Her little sister, is a real spit-fire! What a doll, huh? She gave me a run for my money the first year I worked with her, when she was 2 years old!! But I don’t quit easily, and it sure paid off that first year. I know how to work with kids, if I do say so myself. Sometimes, it just takes time and patience, all of which I needed that first year. But when I want the shots, I’m going to get them. ; ) This year, now that the girls are that much older, they were both a dream to work with.

I love this photo, and I love the memory of taking it. Her and I were belting out the song, ‘Party in the U.S.A.’. It was hilarious, because you know how kids think certain words in a song are something other than they really are? Because that’s what they think they are hearing?? Well, we were singing, and she’s telling me, “No no….that’s not how it goes. It goes like this….“. <She sings.> I was cracking up. Her mom was shocked I knew the song so well. lol

I took lots of shots, most especially because I was having so much fun taking them, and being with these girls. So it was really hard to narrow down what we had, and choose what we were going to use for the card. There were several we just HAD to use. So once we figured that out, I got to designing the card, that was in my head.

I started with designing ‘digital paper’, or a background to work with.
I was definitely stuck on using pink this year. I also knew I wanted to incorporate candy in the design.

So I ended up sketching out candy/sweets on paper, and refining the drawings with a sharp black marker pen. Then I scanned them into my computer, and made them into digital brushes, to be able to work with them.

Here is the front of the card . . . .

This is how the front of the card came out. It’s 5×7, with the fold at the top.

It opens up to this . . . .

This is the spread inside, when opened. As you can see, I was determined to use several photos!! Check out the middle photo–I thought it was so funny!! Their expressions are a hoot! I really wanted to use the photos that showed their fun side, and personalities the most, because in the past, the cards I had done were very different from each other, but both very classic in style. Here, I did blur their last family name, and the girls’ names, on the card for privacy sake on the internet. But I loved the little piece of candy I put in between each name along the bottom of the card.

And the back of the card, is sometimes my favorite part . . . .

I always do something fun on the back, for this client. The mom is also really nice about letting me brand myself/my work on the back of their cards, however I want to. All of my work is branded, but I go a little bigger on these, because I can, and because I’m so happy with them in the end. Another thing to note about this card in particular, is that although these images above are the images I sent to have the card printed, the actual card was printed in PEARL paper, with UV gloss. (Unlike how flat in color they look here. ) So, the entire card printed, has a real pretty pearl shimmer to it, when it’s in your hand, and then has a glossy coat over it. They feel so nice too! They were simply GORGEOUS. And for some reason, they actually smell sweet! Which is a nice and appropriate touch, for this design in particular.

If anyone would like to see the previous years Christmas card (2007 & 2008) for this family, I’d be happy to dig those up and share them too!! As I said, the creative freedom this client gives me, makes it all such a joy for me. I’m looking forward to next year, already.

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{A}’s Haircut: Before, After, and Even the Middle!

August 9, 2009 By Laura 18 Comments

So here we are at the big reveal! {A}’s haircut, before and after! (I wonder who is already skipping the jabber and scrolling right to the bottom right now! lol) Patience, patience! (I test your patience, too, with my overdue posts…don’t I? ; ) Us girls just LOVE this stuff, though, don’t we?

I really AM going to get RIGHT to it! But I just wanted to mention, very quickly, that you can expect to see most photos in this section of the blog, watermarked with my logo. Especially the portrait type ones. It’s part of my work flow in posting portrait work on the web, and necessary for this new business blogging section, for all of the clients coming for whom I’ll be posting sneak peeks for here. (Awesome stuff coming up near the end of August or so.)

Ok, back to the intent here. On the way to salon, I had to take just a couple more before photos. In a ponytail, is how {A} most always wore her hair, every day. So we really needed photos of her with her hair pulled back as well. I loved it when she wore it down, and if I asked nicely, sometimes she would appease me. But a ponytail was the typical daily style. Just like this…

very-long-hair-haircut-7

Michael took one look at this photo, and first said, “JCPenney”. Which made me laugh out loud. Then he said, “Nice”. So every time I look at this photo now, I think of both of those things, in that order.

There’s the back.

And off we went to the salon.

Janine Cliffe is our family hairdresser, and has been for many, many years. She currently works for Shear Creations on Long Pond Road in Plymouth, MA. (No web site.) She was Michael’s stylist first, for several years, and I think became mine when she came to cut my hair when I was pregnant with the triplets! I was on complete bed rest, so listen to this: She cut my hair, with me lying down, on a full length reclined lawn chair, in our kitchen! It’s true! She passed that test, so I kept going to her. Then around the time that the triplets turned 1 year old and needed their first haircut, she instantly gained 3 new clients! It was then that we started hiring her to come to our home on a regular basis, and when she does, she does Michael’s hair, the triplets and sometimes gave {A} a trim. Most times I choose to go to the salon, though, because I am often having something else done besides a cut, and I want Janine comfortable with the bigger jobs.

Almost time for the cut! YIKES! It was bitter-sweet. It still is, actually. She has SO much hair, Janine divided it in 2 side by side ponytails, which I thought was a smart start.

No going back now!

“Oh-my-gosh.” (I think I said that 100 times when I was standing there, in between deep breathes.)

What an odd little photo. lol

After the razor chop, Janine cleaned it up nice with her scissors. I just didn’t take more photos then. I was busy, recovering.

That’s Janine (Cliffe) on the left. She’s so pretty. And the BIGGEST RED SOX, PATRIOTS and CELTICS FAN you will ever meet. I’m not even kidding. She’s very cool. She didn’t charge us for this special cut, either, which was SO nice. (Thanks again, Janine!!)

A little while later, after some shopping, and some of my favorite comfort soup <sniff, sniff>, Panera Bread Broccoli & Cheddar, we stopped on the way home and got some after shots

very-long-hair-haircut-9

How do you like it? Can you even believe the curl and waves now? I knew before the haircut that her new hair was growing in pretty curly, and figured some was weighed down. But I didn’t expect this! Michael has some crazy thick hair, and TONS of it, but he keeps it short and spiked. I think {A} must get her hair from her Daddy (As well as the crazy long monkey- toes, but that’s another story.). No one would believe how heavy her hair was. There was just SO much of it.

She gets her crazy eye color from my mother. Michael and I both have brown eyes. Mine are a medium golden brown, and Michael’s are more black-brown. I really loved how her hair came out. I think she’s a DOLL anyway!

Another bizarre, if not creepy, photo, I know. But here’s her hefty Locks For Love donation! 17 and 1/2 inches! And about 17 pounds too.

It would be weird to end with that photo….so here is the before and after, one more time, one right after the other.

very-long-hair-haircut-7

JC Penney!

very-long-hair-haircut-9

After.

Tell us what you think! And was this fun or what?!

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