Cakes

Last May I had the opportunity to photograph some wedding cakes for The Cakewalk Shop. (See the pictures at {this} link). Well I just had the chance to do it again. I just love the new designs the owner Tamara has come up with. Some truly stunning cakes! Of course the hardest part of this session was smelling all that yummy frosting and not being able to lean over and take a lick ...





Gorgeous, right?

Mystery.

Can anyone explain this? How does chocolate disappear so fast?

Featured!

Remember my home office makeover?

It's been featured twice ...

Today over at the Savvy Photographer. Go and check it out {here}!

A few weeks over at the Office Stylist, seen {here}. How exciting!

LOVE ... these valentines of mine ...

Happy Valentine's Day!

I Heart Faces: RED

I have far too many favorite pictures from my recent v-day shoot I did with my kiddos ... all of them featuring lots of RED, which is the theme for this week's I Heart Faces challenge ... but I kept coming back to this one of my little girl. There's something about it that just makes me want to scoop her right up and shower her with kisses. See so many more pictures from this shoot {at this link}!

Brilliant.

Driving home from a photo shoot. Unbelievable sky. Grabbed my camera while waiting for the light to turn green and rolled down the window. Who knew colors could be that brilliant?



Just for fun, I was curious what one of these pictures would look like in black and white. So fascinating how completely different elements come out when stripped of all that brilliant color. Maybe I do have a little hidden Ansel Adams in me just wanting to sneak out every now and then ...

Acquired.

I have had a little too much fun going prop shopping lately. I'm quite excited about some of my latest finds:

Like this cute red suitcase ... and that bright yellow chair ...

and this fun glittery crown... I can totally imagine my daughter carrying this around in a photo shoot ...

... and this vintage desk. My parents had one of these in our playroom when I was young and I've wanted to steal it from their house ever since I launched my photography business. Turns out I don't have to sneak it out of their home in the cover of night because I found my own at goodwill for only $19. I already have a great idea of how I can use this in some pics of my oldest son. SO fun!

And speaking of props, I had a few people leave comments with some questions, so I figured this post is as good as any to answer them!

"I LOVE the headbands. Especially the orange and brown one, and the teal one... ok, and the lime green one! Care to share where you got them??? :)"

Happy to share! Most of my headbands come from an etsy shop called briar.claire. And hopefully you recognized the one from Vintage Rose Wraps. Love both of those stores. The quality and prices are great.

"Where did you get a CD of white noise? Does it help?"

YES, it helps! I made a CD myself of a free white noise download I found online. Just did a quickie google search until I found one.

Where did you get that awesome flooring?

THIS awesome flooring?

I LOVE it! It's from PepperLu. Just watch out, you'll want to buy everything in the store once you start looking...

Now excuse me as I feel the bug to visit some more thrift stores coming on ...

Anne

On my recent trip to California, I was so excited that I was able to stop in and see my sister and her new baby Anne. This little girl definitely did NOT want her picture taken that day, so I count it a real blessing that I was able to capture a few sweet moments for my sister. Congratulations again, she is beautiful!

Mine on Monday: Disneyland

Well it was a no-brainer what today's "Mine on Monday" post should be: pictures from our trip to Disneyland! It's already been almost two weeks since we have been back and I'm still in denial that the vacation is over. We had such a fabulous time. We had near 80-degree temps almost every day, I got to spend a week with my mom and my sister and my husband and kids in one of the happiest places on earth, we created memories, went on so many fun rides (Toy Story Mania was far too much fun), saw some spectacular shows, and completely and totally exhausted ourselves by the end of the week. EXACTLY what a Disney vacation should be like :). My little guy summed it up perfectly when he said,

"Disneyland is my favorite holiday!"

I also made a video slideshow of some of these favorites (okay, and several more). Watching it already makes me feel quite nostalgic. Is it okay to be homesick for Disneyland?



I recognize that the video is a little small on my blog. If you want to see it bigger, just follow {this} link:

(I made this video using Animoto. SO much fun and so easy. If you want to check them out for yourself, just click {here}!

Elise

This baby was sooo sweet. I just loved everything about taking her picture. Of course I also feel a special bond with her and her mom, as our families now "match": three boys, followed by one lucky little girl!









Thanks for spending the morning with me, Elise ~ you are an angel!

Behind the Scenes

Since we're on the subject of what's in my house ... at least we were with {yesterday's} post ... time to finally answer a question from my recent Q&A. Actually, I had two requests {one pretty please with sugar on top} for the same thing ~ some pull-back shots and behind the scenes of my indoor studio. Of course I laughed, because at this point I am just making do with what I have, which is an open living room, a big window, and some speedlights and an umbrella. But I have big long-term plans. In fact, I just ordered the real deal: a huge 4x6 softbox, a big super silver reflector and some studio lights. Scary but fun. Next job is to clear out the garage to make room for all of it!

But for NOW, here's what it looks like the day of a studio shoot inside my home. This particular one was for a newborn shoot, so you can see all the extra things I pulled out to make it comfortable for the baby:

Here's a straight on shot of my shooting area ~ a portable backdrop stand, backdrop, and flooring. These were taken after the shoot, so everything is a bit messed up and thrown around:

A couple of more angles ... the biggest downside of setting up in my living room is cleaning it all up afterwards!

All of my props are stored in the garage right now, in the area that will eventually be the dedicated studio space. I'm so excited to start getting this space ready! I guess I better get going on it, now that the lights are on the way ...

Tomorrow the beautiful newborn that caused me to pull out ALL this stuff will be on the blog!

In my house: update

Quite a while ago I wrote {this post} and showed how I had displayed some of the pictures in my home. Well it's time for an update! We've changed a few things around and it's time to show it off.

My cool collage of 8x8 pictures was replaced with these long shelves and canvases in my dining room. Shown are four 11x14s, one 11x16, and one 16x24. My husband and I made the shelves together, thanks to a great tutorial that we found {here}.


Here's a close-up of one of the canvases. I decided not to stretch the image around the canvas and instead added a digital border:

Throughout my house I now have several frames from The Organic Bloom that I just LOVE. {Congrats again to the lucky duck that won a free one in my giveaway!) I'm so excited to be able to sell these to my clients. You don't have to wait for a photo session or an image presentation appointment to buy one of these, either. Just email me at wishfulthinkingphotography@gmail.com if you would like my pricing sheet for frames.

This one is a 12x12 frame matted to an 8x8 picture, and it is on a wall right as you come in my front door:

This one is huge and beautiful and my absolute favorite. I get excited whenever I look at it. It is above my piano in my living room. The frame is 24x36 and I matted it for a 20x30 picture.

Up in my boys' room I now have these three 8x8 frames on their wall:

and in the little lady's room I have this 8x8 twin stack frame right above her crib:


Okay, not ALL the new pics are with Organic Bloom frames ... I have these prints up in my little girl's room too:

It is always so much fun hanging up new art on my walls. My mind's already buzzing on where I want to display pictures next ... I have plenty of space left upstairs in the hallway that's just waiting!