Milla C. Photography Blog »

Claire Poppert is a precious 3-month old that I had the pleasure of photographing while visiting Washington D.C. last weekend. Her mom and dad, Kate and Dave, are related to Eva and John, whose wedding we photographed last December. And, we were thrilled when they asked us to come out to photograph their little one.

This session was such a pleasure for me. Not only was Claire sweet and pleasant the whole time. Okay, okay… almost the whole time. We did have a few small fits! :) But also, her sweet mama made all sorts of delicious cookies and cake bars for us to take home. I mean, amazing!

Here are a few favorites from their session. Thanks again, guys. Enjoy!

Recently, Brad and I have started including a full set of professional printed proofs with every wedding and portrait package. And, we just received the new Milla C. Photography proof boxes for delivering these proofs to our clients!

Aren’t they awesome? I absolutely love them and can’t wait to start sending them out.

Why do we include proofs with our wedding and portrait packages?

Good question! :)

First, we love having photos in-hand and we want our clients to hold actual physical photos instead of only viewing them on a computer screen. It’s hard to see the big picture of your wedding day when you’re viewing photos one-by-one on a small screen, and because of issues with monitor calibration, the photos will look slightly different on every computer screen! You can read my posts about monitor calibration here!

Also, we want you to ENJOY your photos by putting them in frames, passing them out to family and friends, sticking them in thank-you cards, etc.

Finally, we include professional proofs with every package because we want our clients to see the difference between professional prints and consumer prints. Seriously, folks, there is NO comparison! Our professional prints are completed with a lustre coating that protects them over time. And, the colors are bright and vibrant without being over-saturated, as they often are when ordered from consumer labs. We have rave reviews about the quality of our professional prints, and I want everyone to have some in-hand!

This week’s challenge at I heart faces is HANDS, and though this isn’t a close-up photo of hands, I chose this photo of the Caruso family because I love how they are using their hands to show love and affection.  Very, very sweet.

This weekend while we were in Washington D.C., I had the privilege of photographing 3-month old Claire Poppert. I was just going through the photos from the shoot and just had to post a little preview of this sweet little girl working on her thumb. And, one little smile to go with it. :)

Adorable.

More to come soon of this precious little girl!

I want to warn you ahead of time.

For readers who like me are currently stuck under 2 feet of snow, you should view this post with great caution, as the following things could cause the tears to start flowing:

1. SUN sun sun and more sun
2. Adorable sling-back flats with bare toes
3. a warm park complete with a river and throwing rocks

But, for those of you who are brave enough to keep reading, I want to show you another session from our photography workshop that I described here.

This wonderful family is the Sawyers, some friends of ours who kindly volunteered to bring their kids out to play in the dirt a little so we could practice shooting energetic children in a bright lighting situation!

Here are a few favorites from their session:

This week’s theme at I Heart Faces is “I wanna dance!” One of my favorite dancing photos is of my cousins at the beach in December. They were becoming unhappy taking photos, and I said, “show me your favorite dance moves!!”

This is what happened. So cute!

Photographing children can be one of the most difficult jobs for a photographer because, unlike adults, children are always on the move and rarely want to slow down for photos.

However, photographing children can also be one of the most rewarding if you’re willing to PLAY with them and capture natural, fun moments. And that’s why last November, when my uncle was in town for a mini-photography workshop, I asked for volunteers for family photo shoots to so he could practice the art of holding a session while also running around the park, playing duck-duck-goose, riding on swings, etc.

We had such a wonderful response from friends who were willing to come out for photos, and I have three sessions that I haven’t posted yet because I was waiting for Christmas to be over (so I wouldn’t spoil any surprises). But, I am very excited to post them now!

Without further ado… the Rhoades! Up next, the Sawyers and Koerbers!

The Rhoades are some of our best friends in Pittsburgh, and when I sent an email asking for photo volunteers, Dave responded that Ali (his wife) was out of town and that he would love to surprise her with some photos of the boys! So, without further ado, the Rhoades boys!

I am back today with more product photos to share.

Brad and I only have a few more wedding bookings open this year, so we have been turning our marketing efforts to 2011 and thinking about additional services and products that we’d like to offer our clients in the future. We have redesigned our wedding packages and have made many great updates to our album offerings as well as product packages that include cards, framed collections, and beautiful canvas prints. And, we have added a very exciting service: the Milla C. Photo Booth (more to come on that later!)!

To reflect these changes, we have created an new pricing pamphlet that we will be sending to prospective clients. Instead of sending pricing via email as we have done in the past, we will now be mailing these beautiful cards with all our pricing and package information for you to have in-hand!

So, if you are interested in more information about our wedding or portrait pricing, you will see a new box on our contact form asking for your full address.

Here are a few pictures of the new Milla C. Photography pricing pamphlets!

Over the next few days, I am going to post some photos of our packaging, pricing brochures, and albums that we have been working on over the cold, snowy winter months! We are very, very excited about everything, and I can’t wait to show you the facelift that our products have undergone recently.

These DVDs for high-resolution client images have been screenprinted by North Coast Interactive, and the beautiful tins were recommended to me by Caryn Azure and come from Effectuality. We will use these DVDs to send high-resolution images from weddings and portrait shoots, and we also will use them for making DVDs of our music slideshows!

Mary and Jay are talented photographers and wonderful friends who we have gotten to know over the past year. Mary and I met at a photographer’s lunch and then really hit it off after realizing that Brad and I attend the church that her church helped start in the city. We have so much in common, and we are so thankful for Jay and Mary both!!  And of course, we’re thankful for their dog Astin, too! :)

Anyway, Mary took some beautiful photos for us last month, so last week when the snow didn’t stop falling for days, we made a plan for her family to come out and get some snowy pictures!!

Here are a few favorites from our time together. Enjoy!!

Meet Sam, Meg, and Sean! Sam is a friend who contacted me about scheduling a session for her parents’ Christmas present. She and her siblings Meg and Sean hadn’t had pictures taken in a very long time!

Well, I was thrilled to photograph their family, and I was even MORE thrilled that it happened to snow 6 inches the day before our shoot! They were very brave to come out in the snow, and we had so much fun hanging out together. There is something very special about watching brothers and sisters who love each other and aren’t afraid to show affection! Love it!!

Here are a few favorites from the shoot.

I just got back from a very fun shoot in the snow with our friends Mary and Jay!  Here’s a preview of the fun to come… their awesome dog Astin!

While I was in Florida over the holidays, I was lucky enough to hold a mini-session for my cousins on St. Augustine beach! My dad (who is the source of my love of photography) also came along, and we took some sweet photos of Baylen, Collin, Brooklyn, and Addison on the beach!

Here are some favorites from the session!

Sweet Addison:

Playing hard!

The boys:

Sweet Brooklyn on the rocks:

Addison is too young for playing on the rocks!

All three doing their favorite dances:

And now good smiles:

I love you guys!!

This summer, Geni and her family had me out to take Maternity photos as they were expecting their second little girl.

Now, introducing Isabella! She was born November 3rd and is a beautiful, healthy, sweet little girl! And, I am lucky enough to be documenting this little girl’s first year in photos! Here are a few photos from our first session.

Thanks again Geni. It was a treat meeting Isabella, and I look forward to watching her grow.

Last month, while my uncle came to town for a photography business crash-course, I sent out a request for photo models for engagement and family sessions so he could have a sense of what it’s like to run a session – to give direction, to find locations, to encourage interaction, to deal with children, to keep everyone smiling! :) Well, Maggie and Tyler were some of our friends who responded as well as a few other families whose sessions I’ll post here soon!

Maggie and Tyler have been married since last summer but never had engagement photos done, so this was a perfect opportunity for us to practice!

Here are a few favorites from our session, taken by me and Uncle Ray (who is an amazing photographer!). Thanks again Maggie and Tyler! We so appreciate you both giving your time to us and your kisses to each other! We had a blast. :)