For my niece Lauren

Loooogan's toooooes :)

So where'd the other kid go?

With the overload of Logan pictures on the blog these days, I often wonder if early followers of this blog, those that were here when pictures of Dylan littered my posts, wonder where Dylan has gone. I assure you that Dylan is just as loved as he always has been. In fact, his sweet smiles and mischevious ways light up my every day.

However, as anyone with a two year old can attest, cooperative isn't a word often used to describe toddlers. And as a result of his frequent exposure to my camera Dylan is even less cooperative for pictures than most toddlers. In fact, he has not looking and not smiling when there's a camera in my hands down to a science. It's a shame since he's really such a fun-loving, happy-go-lucky kid when there isn't a camera in my hands.

But for those that might be curious, here's what a "session" with Dylan looks like:

Looking, but not smiling...


Smiling (sort of), but not looking...

And of course, the classic not looking or smiling...

Lucky for him he's cute anyway. :)

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! :)

I hope everyone out there had a wonderful holiday!

I'm back from my holiday vacation and getting back into gear. If you had a session before Christmas, please be assured that I'm working hard to wrap up your gallery and send it to you. I'm running a couple days behind schedule but I should be completely caught up in the next couple of days. If you've emailed me, I'm working my way through the messages and will be back to you soon. And lastly, if you have an outstanding order, I have boxes due in from the lab today or tomorrow so you should hear from me about it very soon.

Have a happy, happy new year!

Happy Holidays

from my little stinkers to yours!

Amy Drouet Photography closes at noon today for the holidays. I'll be back online on Monday, December 29.

Sneak Peek: Frank + Asha [New Orleans Maternity Photographer]

We have a lovely morning for Frank and Asha's maternity portraits. At 35 weeks, Asha looks great and they swear they're ready for baby Isabella's entrance. We'll see... it won't be much longer now!

Sneak Peek: Parker

I met Parker and his parents on a mild afternoon down in the French Quarter. (I looooove French Quarter sessions!) And Parker made my job so easy. Not many one-year-olds are so cooperative. Or have such beautiful blue eyes and cotton-candy blond hair. But don't take my word for it... check out the handsome dude below.

New Promotion!

We are blessed here in New Orleans to have mild winters and enjoy the outdoors year round. And with all the adorable winter children's clothing available out there, I'd like to take advantage of it! So, my first promotion of 2009 will be the Winter Wonderful promotion!



Details are below. If you're interested in booking a session time for the promotion, email me at amydrouet@yahoo.com and be sure to put Winter Wonderful promotion in the subject line.

Holiday Closing

Just a quick note to let you all know that I'll be closed starting Tuesday, December 23, through Sunday, December 28, for the holidays. All inquiries sent during that time will be responded to when I return. Happy holidays!!

Sneak Peek: Lainie [Baton Rouge Baby Photographer]

Last weekend I met up with little miss Lainie and her friends for some photo fun. At 9 months old, not only is Lainie on the go, but she's also FAST! But before I knew it, my memory card was full and our session was done. C-A & S - I hope you enjoy your peek!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Well who da thunk it? After almost 6 years in New Orleans, I've finally seen my first snowfall here!

(For the record, it did snow in 2004, but I was out of town for it - go figure!)

This is why I got into photography...

To capture this...

Those pudgy cheeks. That sweet little smile. His beautiful blue eyes (that are just starting to change color.) I love photography. But boy oh boy, do I love this boy.

Sneak Peek: Baby Gabrielle

Welcome to the world Gabrielle! Little miss G's big sister Jeanne-Marie has been a past client so it's only fair that little sister got her first turn in front of the camera (although we snuck in a few shots of the big sister too of course!) We couldn't do Gabrielle's pictures until she was 2.5 weeks old since I was out of town for Thanksgiving during her first two weeks in the world and boy was she awake and alert! But we did finally get some sweet sleeping shots as well.

Outtakes: Baby Sibel

Every session it seems that I have a handful of outtakes that for one reason or another, I love. But because they don't fit the traditional idea of what a professional portrait should look like, they languish inside my computer and never see the light of day. Today I'm rebelling. I love outtakes. And I think you might too. So here are a couple of outtakes from my newborn session with little miss Sibel.

Mom's hand was both soothing the baby and holding her head in the position we wanted. Typically I wouldn't even have snapped it, but I loved the look of contentment that came over her face when she felt mom's magic touch.

Ha ha, not nearly as peaceful, but very, very real as any one who's ever had a newborn can testify. I love crying shots. Maybe I'm just mean, but the big drama that little babies can create both amazes and amuses me.

Let me know if you like seeing the outtakes and I'll try to make it a regular feature on the blog!

today I was *that* mom

You know, the one that you look at with pity or worse, condemnation, as her child does a charming reinactment of what it would look like if Lucifer inhabited the body of a two year old. The terrible twos? If so, God help me.

Imagine this... in the midst of a hectic day or running errands and delivering client orders, I stop at the grocery store. We had no food in the house so it was pretty much a necessity. Logan was fast asleep in his carrier - always a good omen. Dylan was sweet, funny, and angelic. I'm not even exaggerating. I scored one of those race car shopping carts so all was right in his world.

I made my way around the supermarket only being stopped by the occasional elderly shopper who either wanted to comment on my children's good looks and sunny dispositions (yay) or helpfully point out how I must have my hands full with two such young children (hmpht).

Finally, my cart was full and I was ready to check out. But as I'm waiting in line to check out, my angelic toddler is suddenly possessed by the ten demons of hell. Or something like that. He decides that he wants to stand up in the cart. My repeated warnings to sit on his bottom fell on purposefully deaf ears. In fact he decided it was wildly funny to to not only ignore my instructions but to try even harder to climb out. I suddenly had an unruly, disobedient beast on my hands. I was at a loss. I used my mean mommy voice. I threatened time out. I plunked him back in his seat repeatedly. I mean what else can you do?? I was not leaving the store without my groceries and actually enforcing a timeout right then and there wasn't an option.

I leaned over one final time to warn him and...

HE

PULLED

MY

HAIR.

Never have I been so close to losing my cool in public. Never have I been so embarrassed. I know what you think when you see scenes like this. I've thought them myself. "Thank God that's not my child." "My child will never act like that because I won't let him." "They must not discipline him at home." All I can say is that it CAN happen to you. I know that now. So if you happened to be at Winn-Dixie today, please don't judge me. I promise you we're good parents. We love our kids. We try to be consistent with them. Discipline them appropriately. Raise them to be polite and respectful. But some days I think we might as well give up now.

For what it's worth, he did go straight to timeout as soon as we got home.

Sneak Peek: Sibel

It must be the season for little girls... all of my recent newborns have been sweet little baby girls and Sibel was sweet as they come. Once we got her too sleep that is! This little one gave us a run for our money, but eventually she succumbed to sweet baby dreams. I processed these pictures a little differently from usual. A little bit softer. A bit more delicate. I think it suits her. :)

Sneak Peek: Camille + Family

Camille and her parents were brave enough to meet me in the park on one of the chilliest days around here so far. We ventured far and wide to find some good (and warm!) spots for photos and ultimately were successful. C & P - I hope you enjoy the sneak peek!

Sneak Peek: Jack + Family

Jack, like most toddlers, is a bundle of energy! But he stopped for a few minutes to pose with his parents, tickle the lions, jump like a superhero, and count the acorns. See, taking pictures isn't so hard after all! T family - I hope you enjoy your sneak peek!

Speaking of my hunka chunka baby love...

Here he is!

Oh, so pudgy and pinchable... This is from my holiday card session with the two boys. More of that to come!

Sneak Peek: Baby Zack

You may remember this cutie from his newborn session. Well, Zack is four months old already (and still about half the size of mine hunka chunka baby!) Did I mention that Logan and Zack are destined to be hunting and fishing buddies for life? Yup, too bad for them, us parents have already decided it! That's what happens when friends have babies at the same time! Here are just a few of the pictures from our session:

He wasn't overly fond of tummy time...


but he did like laying on my furry rug...

And he reaaaaaally like chomping on his toes...

But mostly he liked playing with his momma...

Sneak Peek: C Family

I'll be honest with y'all - wrangling three small kids together for a photo ain't easy. But when they're this cute, I'd say the effort is worth it, wouldn't you? Mom is expecting #4 this spring, so I'm looking forward to an even greater adventure next year!

Sneak Peek: K's Maternity Session

Okay, so my sneak peeks are getting later and later... but at least they're not "post" peeks yet, right? Anyway, I had the opportunity to photograph K's adorable son Philip a year and a half ago when I was portfolio building and mentoring under the fab Lyndsay of Life in Motion Photography. Well now Philip is going to be a big brother so I had the pleasure of not only photographing him again, but also doing maternity portraits for his mom.

(I'll warn you now, she's skinny and beautiful so don't hate her too much, okay? ;))

Here are just a few of the pictures from our day at the park...

And the soon-to-be big brother (and yes, his eyes really are THAT amazing):

Doesn't he look like an ad for Junior GQ?