Taylor Family Portraits

These guys are close to my heart (and many. many others' too, for sure!). I didn't know this at the time I took these, but they had not had professional family portraits done ever! Ever! But now they have beautiful, love-filled portraits for their home (and family!).

This was a super quick, slightly freezing photo sesh in their cute back yard. There was a lot of laughing, and beautiful smiles. Family portraits don't have to be a pain to plan for; they can be spontaneous and quickly thrown together.

How Professional Images Actually Help Your Memory

Professional portraits are considered an investment because while we are told our brains save everything we hear, see, read, feel, smell, taste… we have not yet mastered the skill to recall those things at will and with utmost clarity. Try remembering the details of a face you haven’t seen in years… can you do it?

Without high quality images, I wouldn’t remember the details in the baby blue eyes of my now 9 year old - whose eyes have incredibly turned a shade of gold and green. I just couldn’t! Without high quality images, I would hardly remember the mischievous grin,and twinkling eyes of my younger brother who passed away over 10 years ago at age 20.

Images keep long distant relationships alive, and connect us to people we may never see again in this life (or may have never even met). Images keep stories real and memories closer to our mind’s reach. I despair to think how many priceless, precious moments have been lost to oblivion because no one bothered to record anything referencing them. How much more do we cherish the images of our babies - once they’re grown? How much do we cherish images of the best times of our lives - when those times have long since passed?

It is far too easy to let time slip away thinking there is nothing significant about that birthday, that family get together, that random road trip, that whole year, or that Halloween costume. Or have you already experienced the pang of regret that you didn’t get pictures while she was still around or when you went to that one place that ended up meaning a lot to you…

“I wish someone had gotten a picture…” Have you ever thought that?

Now let’s get your pictures taken!

Playing with available light

I love playing with light and trying new things. This is 100% natural light from her bedroom window. Yep! I saw this light and had to have it. ;) Obviously it worked perfectly with some texturing too! I am super pleased with this image and can't wait to play with this technique more! 

Prom 2014

My first time doing Prom pictures! It was an adventure to say the least and it was pretty dang cold... and obviously we were lacking some sleeves. Kindly, the gentlemen offered their jackets to their dates. :) I do have more images, and I'll try to remember to resize them, throw a watermark on them and share them! I have a few other photo sessions I need to get caught up with!! 

(If you want to see more images, "like" Alicia States Photography on Facebook!)

Winter Pearls

We had a fun mini session up in the mountains - where we found some snow! It may not seem like it since you don't really notice it in these images, but the snow really created the feel of this session. And do you like the pearls? I love 'em! :) These are my favorite images of each of them. It was a really mini session since it was so dang cold! But obviously a success!

Portrait Party... aka Photo Partay!!

I am super behind on posting images from the past few sessions, but these girls are dying to see their pictures, so I'm "throwing" them up here! 

We laughed a lot as these girls worked the camera. :) Really, they're just naturally beautiful girls and getting incredible shots of them was easy peasy. 

My sister (the first one pictured) will be going back to Hawaii at the end of the month and wanted some fallish pictures before she leaves (haha pun not intended)! The colors weren't as brilliant as we had hoped, but obviously we got some good shots even if they don't scream Autumn! 

Honestly, so much fun!

Venture off the beaten path

These cute girls are my boys' favorite babysitters! We traded some baby sitting for a photo shoot, and sure had some fun last week. McKaida's cute headband matched beautifully with the spot we found, and she worked it! This was the first time Jorie took pictures with me and it took her a minute to warm up, but once she did, she rocked it! We will definitely be doing this again! I would love to do photo sessions in this same spot in each season... just sayin', girls...

I am in love with these images. We woke up bright and early (for a Saturday) complete with some Del Taco hashbrowns and caught some gorgeous morning light, in a spot we just happened upon. True Story. I heard the little brook and ventured off the beaten path to find this tiny clearing that was pure magic! The smells, the sounds, the light... We could have stayed there all day! ...but we filled up my SD card... so until next time!!

I will be back.

Enjoy.