i love the mclean family. they're a young, hip, beautiful family and any photographer's dream: they're up for anything and pretty much let me have my way with them during sessions.

this past weekend was our 4th session together and was my favorite so far. i found a cool new place to shoot in baltimore and it might just be my default session location from now on.

thanks, jenn, jason, owen and hudson!

another new baby and another great family yesterday: suzi, gregg and avery.

first things first. suzi has a 3-month-old and when i commented on how fantastic she looks, she shyly confided that she weighs less now than she did before she had the baby. it's a good thing she was so nice because otherwise i'd have to REALLY dislike her. a lot.

but we had fun and avery was another easy going baby despite having a cold the past few days.

here's your sneak peek, suzi!

got to photograph another yummy newborn today: 8-week-old zach who was hands down the most chill newborn i've ever photographed. he barely made a peep and wasn't the least bit fussy. it was a great session made even better by the fact that amy and chris were a lot of fun to hang out with. i really do have the best clients :)

a sneak peak from today. check out the photo of amy's perfectly manicured toes (with a daisy!). when i had an 8-week-old? i barely had the energy to eat, let alone get a pedicure. mad props, amy :)

had a session with the silberglitt family yesterday and i had so. much. fun. with them. really, all my clients are fun and i like hanging out with them, but the silberglitts were fantastic. i started proofing the photos yesterday and noticed that in about 90% of them, claudia is laughing ~ and that's really how it was. they were just a fun, easygoing family - even with a 4-year-old and 3-month-old twin boys. if it was me? i'd be in a straight jacket. no way i'd be able to get everyone dressed and out the door AND have fun at a photo session. claudia and mike rock :)

here's a sneak peek of claudia, mike, cameron and itty bitty ryan and aaron:

i've been battling a bad cold the past few days (and an injured back from falling down the stairs. ugh.) so i've had to reschedule a few client sessions. since i don't have any client sneek peaks to share, i'm posting a collage of kate. nothing fancy...just a moment in time i wanted to capture last week. i know one day i'll miss her dancing around the house in her nightgown and flip flops.

(fyi to clients - you can order a collage of your own with images from your session. ask me how!)

i did a family session last weekend for the kohen family who won a free session at charity event i donated to last year. i don't do a lot of extended family sessions so i was a little unsure going into this one. i shouldn't have been. the entire family was fun and laughed and was extremely good natured about shooting in the backyard when it was like cold minus 10 degrees outside.

and a cool coincidence ~ marshall (who won the session) has a sister who is a rabbi. turns out she was one of the rabbis on the bet din when i converted back in november. small (cool) world.

just a few photos from our trip to the beach this weekend.

we were walking on the boardwalk in rehobeth when i saw these numbers on the wall and yelled over to kate, "'quick! jump in front of the five!.

'why mommy?'

'because you're FIVE."

"oh. yeah."

the ones of jack? oh my. he was climbing up some stairs on the playground and had made it to the top. just as he was about to climb on to the platform, he lost his footing and fell about 10 feet down. landed flat on his back. thank god the playground was covered in mulch and not concrete.

over the past few months, several clients have asked me if i offer birth announcements. i always had to tell them no because i've never found any that i would want to use myself. but now! i finally found some that are modern, fresh, and just plain adorable. check 'em out below! (the grey areas are where the photos will be)

the colors, fonts and wording can be customized but the shape, size and layout remains the same.

(contact me for pricing)

another repeat client. i photographed matt and rebekah when their daughter, sydney, was born. they just had a beautiful baby boy last week (samuel!) and i got the chance to photograph the new family of four. i even braved northern virginia rush hour traffic on the beltway to do this session :)

a sneek peak from their session:

got to photograph a yummy newborn today: 3-week-old jessica. her mom is a teacher at my kids' preschool and her daughter and my daughter have been in the same class for a few years.

i was so excited for this session but jessica had other ideas :) the poor thing was having tummy issues and only wanted to be held by mom. i'm hoping her mom will want to come back to give it another try!

thanks, T!

megan and finley came to my new studio yesterday and brought along megan's sister, maureen, maureen's daughters mackenzie and madison, and her neice, shannon. they wanted to take some photos of all the girls to give to their parents as a wedding anniversary present which i thought was so sweet! so megan and maureen, here is just a tiny sneek peak to tide you over until the slideshow is ready. i had a blast with you guys - thanks!

i recently came across what is now my favorite web tool ever: google reader. it lets you enter in the URLs of your favorite blogs and then shows you each time the blog is updated. it saves you from having to click through a bunch of saved bookmarks to see if your favorite blogs have been updated.

the only catch is you have to create a (free!) google account but trust me, it's TOTALLY worth it. the first image i've posted is a screen shot of what my google reader looks like. the second image shows one of the coolest features of google reader: it suggest other blogs you might like based on the ones you've already subscribed to.

so check it out! and be sure to add http://aephoto.bigfolioblog.com to your subscription list!

i was cleaning up my hard drive this afternoon and found a folder of photos that i took last summer at the beach. i played around with a few of them and found a few that i liked. they make me hungry for hot summer days and ice cream after dinner...

a photographer on a forum i'm a member of had this idea and it intrigued me enough to try it here.

so the photo below is a before and after from a newborn session i did back in august. the photo on the left is sooc (straight out of camera) and the photo on the right is the edited version. i use photoshop to edit my photos - a mix of actions and playing with curves and levels. some of my very favorite actions are from kevin kubota and lifeartdesigns (scroll down the page to the post about color workflow actions).

want to see before and after of your own photos? send me an email (kristin@annaelliottphoto) with a full resolution image and the subject line 'before and after'. i'll play with your photo and post it on my blog along with comments on what i did to the photo.