Baton Rouge Family Session

I say that with all seriousness! I truly had no idea that Livingston Frost was not the same as Livingston the actual parish which I just lumped up as Denham Springs. It's quite a humbling thing for this city gal to drive 20 miles outside of where she was supposedly going but that was the start to my shoot with these two darlings. 

This is there spot most time of the day, mom swinging baby. Basking in the country life. 

I know Kristina from Healing Place. We were involved in their ministry at the same time. This girl is a hoot! Need a boost in your day? Just go tell Kristina heyyyy :) She just had her first little one, Baby Hudson about 4 months back, and she is loving life as mommy. 

I was thrilled when she reached out to me for photographing her little Hudson. Also thrilled as I pulled up to her house in Livingston Frost. Not to be confused with Denham Springs in LIvingston Parish. I had driven about 10 miles from the highway passing nothing but fields of green and rustic landscapes. It was refreshing to see as far as the eye could see instead of stripe malls and Circle Ks.

To top off the refreshing drive Kristina had prepared breakfast for her and her mom and set aside some yummies for me. How she knew I loved green tea I will never know! There were peaches from a farm somewhere that her family knew and an egg frittata which I was not able get to. Talk about the best photoshoot ever!!

We started in the house that her grandfather had built some 100 years ago!! It was essentially a cabin of sorts that had been added onto to accommodate more family members. It was the most darling thing in the world with old iron fireplaces, doorknobs that outdated my parents age and original cypress wood flooring that creaked under foot. It had this perfect nook window and I pulled the curtains back and started shooting her and Baby Hudson with a stream of golden light pouring in! 

Grandmaw loves to take pictures and is usually the one behind the camera for capturing their family moments so I was happy to have captured a couple with her and her grandson in their favorite spot. 

And there is no such thing as newborn photography without that baby getting almost naked and capturing the pure essence of baby-ness. Mr. Hudson was all about it as well and made capturing his little personality very easy :) 

After we had gotten all we needed I couldn't help but to marvel out their bedroom door. To the right is a real smokehouse where they cure meats and such. And just ahead was an old pear tree that was hollowed out but still standing. It made me think I could get used to country life but then I packed up and drove back home into the city and remembered how much I adore being an arm's reach from LSU Lakes, favorite coffeeshops where I spend lots of my time and of course all of my favorite people. 

So I will leave country life in Livingston and settle for my cityslicker ways instead!

and we all lived Happily Ever After... 

Baton Rouge Wedding

As a wedding photographer in Baton Rouge it's quite rare to actually shoot an entire wedding and not realize you used to be best-neighborhood-buds with the groom from like 20+ years back! Upon delivering their images to them some 3 weeks AFTER their wedding, Adam- the groom- walks up to me and says, "I can't believe you are going to be at my wedding the whole night and not even say hello to me!!" 

I was floored! Who, the heck are you because yes I shot your whole wedding only knowing your first name! (See what happens when the wife does all the work!) Adam Reed!! I was floored! Oh my gosh!! I felt like a fool but as we stood there staring back at each other I could literally see the young buck that used to be tiny rail-like boy with hair long and always Justin Bieber flipped to the side. There he was! Some 25 years later, a huge gigantic man!!! 

And his darling Nicole just as out of words that we were! So back to their day! Funny enough it was at my husband's uncle's house. Nicole had seen his wife like my page on Facebook and that is how she got a hold of me! And all the small business people say AMEN for Facebook!

Nicole was beautiful in her darling lace dress that swept the floor topped off with a ribbon at the waist. It was just perfect for her. Very elegant, classy and simple. Her jewelry was topped off with beautiful heirloom ornaments and all her girls helped her with the finishing touches. 

The original idea was for a backyard wedding but with this lovely Louisiana weather it was quite possibly going to pour on us so we moved everything inside till the clouds passed. 

There's Adam!!!

The two becoming one brought two incredible families together and everyone was all smiles and tears upon saying I Do. There's something so strong and beautiful about that precious moment of agreement of forever, to have and hold and through sickness and health. 

We were able to sneak to the yard and take advantage of the no rainpour just yet :) 

And this is when we got the party started!! I will spare you all the hilarity that happens after kegs and bottles of dark, clear, liquid magic come busting out! Just know we all had a heck of a GREAT time! 

Baton Rouge Newborn Photography Session

Baby George in all his sweetness. 

Georgie is a fan of the sea and whales even more particularly. 

And Natty is a fan of little, tiny toes on little, tiny feets! 

For some reason this face just says it all. "Ok, mom. Photoshoot almost a wrap? I need some milk."

And this image right here has to be my favorite of all. Carolyn making motherhood look so flawless and easy. She is very smitten for her sweetheart, George Elliot.  

This I love though. Someone is feeling left out. 

Not for long though! 

Still plotting on how to get Baby George's spot :)

Home sweet home. Where life is best. 

The end. 

XOX, Natty

Baton Rouge hits Paris!!!

This city.

J'aime Paris de tout mon coeur!!! 

Oh my gosh, this city.

Paris is completely fabulous and unexplainably mesmerizing. I can not even name specifically what enamored me the most about this city. Beautiful, nearly ancient, H.U.G.E. With a lofty 10 million people floating around in every direction, speaking god knows how many languages, off to the next stop. The place just sort of scoops you up and carries you along. Like a leaf in the wind. 

From the light 70 degrees with a breeze to the endless most darling bakeries with their endless amounts of bright, delicate pastries to the perfect undersized $5 latte your mouth could taste. It was every little thing that I fell in love with. Being a tiny, little speck winding down road after road of beautifully erected Parisian buildings with their bright, boldly painted 300 hundred year old doors. The essence essentially takes you by the hand and wisps you away... everywhere we went and everywhere my eyes landed upon I fell completely in love. 

We did all the mandatory touristing with stops for croissants, eating the perfect french fries, taking the metro then hoping a bus then getting lost on the metro line and back onto a bus. We read the maps and we still got lost. But it didn't matter a bit to me because I WAS IN PARIS and that was all that mattered. I soon found out my husband didn't have quite the same affinity as I did and was kindly appeasing my every whim instead and less interested or enamored but that didn't matter either cause I WAS IN PARIS and I WAS IN LOVE. 

I have to say I am very thankful for the Parisians love for all things carbohydrates. I felt very at home in their endless street cafes dripping with glass cased delicacies and mouth watering deliciousness. And Nutella!! Don't forget the Nutella. I could have just eaten for three days and not at all cared cause you can walk twenty blocks to the next restaurant and have legitimately earned those next thousand calories. It was bliss. We ate lots of meals that contained French fries. When in Rome... or Paris, I mean. 

Did I mention that everything was tiny? Like Parisians must be half the size of most Americans because all the tables are TINY and all the elevators tiny, too. The cars, tiny. The beds, tiny. Showers, no space there. I suppose it's a European thing because when we traveled to Italy it was compact everywhere we stayed as well. Anyhow, it makes for some pretty interesting moments when your hubs who doubles as a rugby player squeezes in these tiny spaces. Below was the lovely elevator that made this quite a reality within our first hours there.

The first day was the Eiffel Tower and you would have been mistaken that it was the only thing to see in the entire city by the masses of people gathered under it's gigantic beams. We explored nonetheless. Ate french fries and stalked the owners of sweet furry Frenchies. Well, I stalked them. John Robert watched.

We did the boat tour of the city and chose the bottom deck to hear the history over the top for seeing it. Well that allowed for me to fall deeper into the Parisian Love Rabbit Hole. The Seine was magical and I would never have thought I would have gone nuts over any place in the world over a river but- check, done. 

The riverbank just screams romancing as it is strewn with cafes and walkers and onlookers and history. History everywhere you can possibly see. Nothing is under 100 years old unless you count the snack carts. You can't help but to fall into it's mystic ways and let the city keep carrying you away. 

Love was EVERYWHERE. Not just a little here or a little there. No. There were lovers absolutely everywhere. It was not uncommon to turn around and see couples holding bodies (not just hands) and be in the midst of hundreds or thousands yet no one was concerned in the least. They were all just madly in love and loving it. We saw weddings being done, lovers chasing each other, boyfriends holding girlfriends, and everything in between.  

I believe we stopped at about 27 or so of these gigantic doors. They were all over the city, on every building imaginable and they were magical. Everything about the architecture wooed me. It was massive and beautiful and endearing. I could have spent days just wondering the city and looking at one concrete building after the other. My travel photography little self was in pure heaven! 

John was less amused as you can see as I asked him to stand here or there and look this way or that way. This was the street corner in front of our darling hotel, the lovely Best Western, we went real American there. And just behind Johnny was the best, little Parisian bakery one could ever lay her eyes on. And we went there all three, almost four, days. 

And the Lourve. The reason for my trip. The apple of my eye. The beat in my heart. Oh, how I adored the apartments of Napoleon. How expansive the entire structure was, it just swallowed you up and spit you out on the opposite side of town. It was remarkable and lengthy and breathtaking and I would live in it's basements and wash windows if I could. 

Where Lisa resides. I was blown away at the masses that flocked to her. Unimaginable. I had to elbow my way to the front and then weasel through with my hand held above heads in front of me to even get this close. All for an 2'6 by 1'9... that's literally 30 inches by 21 inches. That's quite a masterpiece. And she wasn't even smiling! 

And the bike riding... My favorite thing to do in all the whole world. I wish Johnny Robert would have appeased me some more and let us rent some bikes to do some exploring but to no avail. Can you believe they had random bike racks with rental bikes throughout the city that you could use and return to other bike racks throughout the city?! My love for Paris grew at just that. Goodness. As I said, everything about the city was fantastic. And we honestly didn't meet one rude Parisian. Not one. 

The lock bridge was our next stop. Which there were three of not a just one. Hmmmmm. The city is actually deciding what to do with these infamous bridges that are causing massive riverbankment issues. At least they are pretty for now and covered with people's declaration of love for another. 

The open air markets. Swoon!!! Everywhere, might I add. Cheese, fresh meats, veggies from gardens!!! And we walked there because they were in every nook and cranny of the city. Goodness... I have to stop. If I think on it too long I get this deathly bitter jealousy.

Gypsies singing on street corners. Not so envious of this but it was quite charming. 

Men playing their instruments and hearts out for hours at a time. 

The meters, the street corners, the metro, the hundreds of languages all around you... The all of it!!! I can't take it. The whole dang city was magical!!!  I hate that it's an ocean away.

We got our share though. Indeed. 

But we did all that we could and saw all that we could see and I pray that one day I will be able to return and spend twice as much time and eat three times as much food and walk half a dozen more blocks than I ever did this time around... 

Loved the Museum De Orsey. An old train station that was converted into a museum gallery in the 18th century. It was fabulous and not so overwhelming as the Lourve. I saw Van Gogh's Water Lilies (or one of his many) so that made my little heart happy. 

And of course we finished off our last day with crepes and fries at the open air cafe behind the museum. And then a twenty block walk back to the hotel and then another 20 block walk to our dinner spot for the night. At 9pm, in 70 degrees of breeze. In the greatest city in the whole entire world. 

The end. 

Baton Rouge Engagement Session in Birmingham, AL

One of my Best said Yes!! 

Has anyone ever had to keep a secret for a really, really long time? I am usually lock and key for a good couple of days to weeks; but give me months to keep my mouth shut and there may or may not be an accidental slip of information here, a grin there, but not with this little love story...  

A dear friend of mine, Krystle, has been dating her sweet beau for quite some time and when Sid- we will call him Spartan Sid because he has quite an affinity for Spartan races- calls me up in March to tell me he is trying to think through "the big ask" I was elated to the point of wanting to shout it from the rooftops but secret keeper I became. 

First we thought it would be at the finish of a race they are doing in November but then I thought through getting loved ones there to celebrate with them and how no one really wants to race like these two do so we started to have to think of Plan B - which brings us to this past weekend. 

The agenda was a Missions Trip to Birmingham, Alabama with the team of people we all work with at New Beginnings Ministry at Healing Place Church. I was not able to take off a whole week, so John Robert and I drove up on the tail end of the trip under the alibi of not wanting to miss the big projects they had been building up to for the week :) 

It was all planned out... Perfect evening dinner in a park. Sid was going to be asked to say the blessing for the food and BAMMM, down on one knee and out comes the proposal. Perfecto, right!?!?

YES, of course it was!!! 

We even had our previous pastor there to help finish out the time with a prayer of blessing for the two lovebirds :)) Pure bliss and the surprise was kept FOR MONTHS.... Hallelujah!! 

So we ran off from the crowd and did a sweet little Engagement Session just to kick off their season of LOVE.