When Kayla booked me as her photographer for my Bump to Baby photography package, she warned me that we probably wouldn't able to follow my "normal" timeline of maternity photography session between 30 and 34 weeks and newborn photography session about 7 days after baby's due date due to her past history of preeclampsia.
​She wasn't wrong.

Mom, Kayla, chose a gorgeous Chicaboo gown from my Client Closet in aqua for her Tarklin Bayou Preserve State Park Maternity photography session. We schedule her bump session for when she would be 30-weeks gestation and hoped.

The week after Kayla's Maternity session, she was officially put on hospital bed-rest in an attempt to keep her baby boy in as long as possible. The bed rest helped and about 3-weeks later, 6-weeks before his official "due-date" Jaxon decided it was time to join the world. After a little extra time in the hospital, Jaxon came home and I was able take his newborn portraits!

With a newborn photography session date of January 2nd (23 days before his due-date), Jaxon had the honor of being my first photography client of 2019. And this little peanut was a dream! It was very import to mom and dad that I capture plenty of family pictures as well as pictures of Jaxon with his doting big sister.

"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart." ~Elisabeth Foley

I don't know about you, but that quote rings very true to me. And I think it rings equally true for these clients! Extended family photography sessions aren't just for blood relatives - they're also for the family you chose for yourself. 
These ladies became friends in college, and now, over a decade later, they along with their significant others and children, gather together each year to celebrate their continued friendship. As someone who only sees her closest friends at most once a year, I was tickled that they wanted commemorate their vacation with a family photography session in front of their Gulf Shores condo.

We wrapped up the session with a picture of the four girls who started this whole thing.

I've been wanting to revamp my current Portrait Referral Program for quite some time, but I wasn't sure exactly what to offer. I wanted a new program that really reflects what my clients are looking for and would appreciate. Let's be honest, if the referral credit isn't worth it, you're not going to remember to make sure your friend lets me know YOU sent them my way.

The two most important things I want the updated referral program to do are
1.  benefit clients no matter what type of session they booked including birth photography and Watch Me Grow Baby Plans 
2. benefit my local Pensacola, Orange Beach, etc clients as well as my awesome vacation booking clients
I think this system will benefit everyone!

So, without further ado, my new and improved Client Referral Program:​

3 credits = 1 free 30 minute Mini Session with your choice of 5 digital images and print release (session must take place in Perdido Key or Southwest Pensacola)
5 credits = 1 free full Family, Newborn, or Maternity session of your choice (all normal session perks included)

The fine print:
*Your referral must be a new client of Finding Beauty in the Ordinary Photography and they must let me know that YOU referred them.
**Credits can accumulate over multiple years.
***You can choose to turn in your 5 credits into a gift card that you can give to someone. (Not available for 3 credit mini sessions.)

Please follow this link to sign up for your Christmas Mini Session Time Slot. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080f49afab2da5f85-christmas1
NOTE: Time slots are denoted either BEACH or PARK.
Make sure you pick the location you want. After I receive your requested time slot, I’ll email your contract as well as the invoice for your session fee to the email address you signed up with.
*The session fee MUST be paid within 24 hours of receipt or you will lose your time slot.*​

Finding Beauty in the Ordinary Photography offers Family Photography in northwest Florida that captures your family’s connections, emotions, and moments in a fun, natural way. Located in Pensacola and also offering maternity, newborn, and birth photography, service areas include but are not limited to Perdido Key, Gulf Breeze, Pensacola Beach, Navarre, Pace, Milton, and Cantonment in Florida and Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Foley, Fairhope, and Daphne in south Alabama. Family portrait sessions tend to book up to one month in advance, while maternity, birth, and newborn sessions should be booked early in the second trimester to ensure availability at the time of delivery. Amanda offers a full service experience including a pre-session consultation, exclusive access to her Maternity and Newborn wardrobe, an online proofing gallery to share and download your included high-resolution digital images, and an array of professional print, canvas, and album options. I can’t wait to hear from you and help create your own beautiful heirloom memories!
 
Pensacola Photographer | Pensacola Family Photographer | Northwest Florida Photographer | Pensacola Newborn Photographer| Gulf Shores Newborn Photographer |Pensacola Maternity Photographer | Pensacola Newborn Photography | Gulf Shores Maternity Photographer| Pensacola Birth Photographer | Pensacola Birth Photography| Orange Beach Family Photographer 

I have known the Moore family for years... in fact, I've known Mrs. Moore since we were toddlers! Therefore, you can imagine how happy I was to have the opportunity to capture their family portraits on the beach at the Gulf State Park when they came down for an Orange Beach, AL vacation.

The last time I saw these kiddos, that handsome young man was still a baby! Now he's old enough to request I not "photoshop" his hair, and that beautiful young lady is a teenager.

Of course, when having family pictures taken, a picture of JUST mom and dad is a must in my book! 

​Finding Beauty in the Ordinary Photography offers Family Photography in northwest Florida that captures your family’s connections, emotions, and moments in a fun, natural way. Located in Pensacola and also offering maternity, newborn, and birth photography, service areas include but are not limited to Perdido Key, Gulf Breeze, Pensacola Beach, Navarre, Pace, Milton, and Cantonment in Florida and Orange Beach, Gulf Shores, Foley, Fairhope, and Daphne in south Alabama. Family portrait sessions tend to book up to one month in advance, while maternity, birth, and newborn sessions should be booked early in the second trimester to ensure availability at the time of delivery. Amanda offers a full service experience including a pre-session consultation, exclusive access to her Maternity and Newborn wardrobe, an online proofing gallery to share and download your included high-resolution digital images, and an array of professional print, canvas, and album options. I can’t wait to hear from you and help create your own beautiful heirloom memories!
 
Pensacola Photographer | Pensacola Family Photographer | Northwest Florida Photographer | Pensacola Newborn Photographer| Gulf Shores Newborn Photographer |Pensacola Maternity Photographer | Pensacola Newborn Photography | Gulf Shores Maternity Photographer| Pensacola Birth Photographer | Pensacola Birth Photography| Orange Beach Family Photographer 

Hi mama! I see you there, cell phone in hand taking pictures of your child(ren). This post is for you. Even though I still want you to book me for your next Pensacola family portrait session, I want YOU to be able to capture all of those great everyday moments of your kiddos lives!
​What follows are 6 of my best, quick tips on how to take better pictures of your kids.

- with each other, with the environment, something

Your helper is there to get the kids to look at you, wrangle the one who tends to wander, quickly brush stray hairs out of someone's eyes, etc. Their most important job is to be your spotter! Safety is my number one priority and anytime I'm at all worried, I have one (or both) of the parents "spot" their child. The picture below is a perfect example of "what actually happened" vs. the final image.

You've gotten down on the ground with your kiddo. Now try taking a picture from above above your child looking down. This is a great way to showcase their face and their youth!

And one last thing. make sure you end up in some of those pictures too!

Spring, Summer, and Fall you can usually find me, an hour before sunset, on a beach somewhere between Pensacola Beach or Navarre, FL and Gulf Shores or Orange Beach, AL. Family portrait sessions on the white sandy beaches of the Gulf Coast are a thing of tradition for many both local and vacationers alike. But there's something else I'd like for you to remember when you're envisioning the perfect family portrait session -
let the children play...

Towards the end of family and child, after I've taken all of the more "traditional" or posed pictures, I often ask my clients to consider allowing their kids to get a little sandy and wet. More times than not I'm met with a look of shock and hesitation.
And, I don't push it. If you're not into it, I get it. Your kids (and you) are in nice (coordinated) outfits that you've spent a lot of time and energy assembling, and here I am asking you to let them not only get super sandy but wet too!
But consider it.
Let your children walk away from this session remembering how much FUN it was! (You might find that it ends up being your favorite part of the session as well.)

This session started off unlike any other.
In the 7 years since starting this little business of mine, not once has the husband been the one to hire my services - until Matt. When Matt and his family booked their Orange Beach, AL spring break beach vacation, he asked his condo manager for a photographer referral. Happily for me, I was that referral. After 7 years of ONLY ever being booked by women, it was awesome to hear how excited Matt was, not only about their vacation, but about booking their family portrait session on our lovely gulf beaches! He had actually proposed to Stacy on our these very sands about 6 years ago and this was their first trip back as well as their first family pictures in a couple of years.

As always, I made sure to get pictures of the kids - those are the ones that will definitely end up on the living room wall! But I also think it's super important to get a picture of mom and dad by themselves. As a parent myself, non-selfie pictures of my husband and I are few and far between and I know my clients are in the same boat!

Once all of the more posed pictures are out of the way, I just let everyone explore a bit while I capture the interactions. That's my favorite way to wrap up family sessions - and usually the family's favorite part as well.

The next time you head to the northwest Florida or south Alabama Gulf Coast, don't forget to book your sunset beach portrait session!

There's something extraordinarily special about documenting a family's first journey to parenthood. This is exactly why I offer "Watch Me Grow" baby plans - to offer an affordable option for my clients to have professional portraits taken during their pregnancy, when their little one is a newborn, and on through baby's first year.

Their son, Thales, was born at 40 weeks and 1 day, and from what I hear, Ana rocked that 14 hour labor. I had the absolute pleasure of taking his newborn portraits at their home in north Pensacola when he was 6 days old.

He was, and is, an absolute doll baby and completely rocked his session! 

These mamas were absolutely smitten with their new addition.

I'll leave you with what I think is the BEST thing about "Watch Me Grow" baby plans - continuity. If you look back, you'll see that the some quilt Ana is laying on in her maternity session was used as a basket stuffer for Thales' newborn session.

​I was also able to take a stylized approach at duplicating Ana's favorite picture from her maternity session during their newborn session. What a difference 4 weeks makes. The picture on the right was taken exactly 28 days after the one on the left.

The beautiful lady above is my mom's oldest sister, my Nanny. She's one of my favorite people in the whole world. And that handsome young man is her oldest grandson.

i also grabbed a few pictures of another cousin and his family - he and his wife are camera lovers like myself (no pressure, right).
That's Phantom photo-bombing in the background.