Orange Crush {the crystal image photoblog}

{ beautiful baby girl }

Meet sweet little Ainsley. I was so excited when I was shooting her session—I love newborn sessions! I met mom when she was still pregnant with Ainsley and it means the world to me that Melissa was willing to wait for me to return from my honeymoon in order to get Ainsley in. Thank you Melissa! I hope the photos made it worth the wait. When I was editing them, they almost me cry with their simplistic beauty. To my readers—let me know what you think—share your comments below!

Ainsley at three weeks:

A few of mom and Ainsley:

And one with dad:

{ little pixie olivia }

With my being absent for a few weeks, I have many, many sessions to share. There have been children of all ages coming through the studio—just in time to still make it into the Baby & Child Portrait Contest. Want to get in the contest? Any regular session completed by June 10th is eligible. The contest is open to children ages 12 and under and features $20,000 in national prizes and around $600 in local prizes. All local entries will be on display at the studio during the month of July, so be sure to mark your calendars to drop by and vote!

Miss Olivia is just one of our cutie clients. She's almost two and she has gotten so big! 

If only I could bottle her enthusiasm!

{ crystal is no longer MIA }

I am back and it is officially time to quit neglecting my blog. I actually returned a little over a week ago and it has been a madhouse trying to get back into the swing of things here at the office. I don't think I've ever taken that much time off before (almost three weeks total!)—definitely not since I opened my own business in 2004. But, for those of you who don't know, I figured getting married definitely warranted the time off! 

While I was away the studio celebrated its five year anniversary! It's hard to believe I've been in business that long already—which also means that I've been back in Lawrence for two years. The business anniversary coincided with my actual wedding day—May 1st. So it will give me two great reasons to celebrate each year.

Since I was gone for the last few weeks of our Baby & Child Portrait Contest, I'm happy to announce that we've extended the contest deadline until June 10th. I've been shooting like crazy since my return but there is still time to get your little cuties in for some great shots—and a chance to win thousands of dollars in cash prizes. Call me today for details. 785.393.1958

Just to give you a little flavor for where I was and what I was doing during my time away, I'm including a few pictures.

The week of the wedding we were surrounded by the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains:

I can't take credit for this gorgeous sunrise shot—it was all my new hubby. My lazy butt was in bed. ;)

Then, in just a few hours, we went from the mountains to this:

Aaah, heaven. :) And yes, the water was really that blue!

I've got lots of new images to share from recent sessions, so keep checking back!