One of my favorite things about my work is having the priviledge of photographing my families again:) I am always amazed at how much my little ones have grown and developed since the last time I saw them! The last time I saw these twins was about 14 months ago here, before they were completely mobile. This time around they gave me (and their parents) a good workout! They are also the proud big brother/sister to a little brother, who is now 2 months old. They love their baby brother so much! It was great to see you again, “H” family! Enjoy your sneak peeks!

Well, the votes have been counted (what an exhausting job!) and the official winners have been placed in the secret envelopes marked “1st”, “2nd”, and “3rd” place! (not really - but you can imagine it, right?) Thank you to everyone who voted for our beautiful nominees! And now for the good part!

{drum roll}

Our FIRST place winner and winner of the “Ella Bella 2009 Portrait of the Year” title with by far the MOST votes goes to #18! Congratulations! This family has won a 16×20 gallery wrapped canvas from their 2009 session!

Our SECOND place winner, with the next biggest vote count goes to #20! They will receive a gorgeous 11×14 mounted print with linen finish!

Our THIRD place winner, with the third highest vote count goes to #15! They will receive a beautiful 8×10 mounted print with an easel for display.

To all my Nominees!
I have a special surprise for all of our nominees too (including our winners) - each family nominated will receive a $50 Ella Bella Photography gift certificate credit that can be applied to your next session booked between March - August 2010! The gift certificate is not transferrable, so it may only be used by the families who were nominated for the 2009 Ella Bella Photography Portrait of the Year contest!

Congratulations to everyone!!!

Announcing Ella Bella Photography’s 2009 Portrait of the Year Awards!

It’s that time!! We picked out 20 of our favorite portraits from all of 2009 (narrowing down 100’s of photos to only 20 is so hard to do!) - there are so many more that we wanted to choose but alas, only the 20 portraits made the cut!) If you made the nominations list - Congratulations!

Now for the best part!! The 1st place prize winner will receive a 16×20 gallery wrapped canvas of a portrait of their choosing from their 2009 session. The 2nd place winner will receive a 11×14 mounted print with linen finish from their 2009 session. The 3rd place winner will receive a 8×10 mounted print from their 2009 session with a desk easel frame!

To Vote: All you have to do is leave a comment below with the number of your favorite image. We will do the contest until Sunday, February 7th at midnight and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, Feb 10th on this blog! The portrait with the most votes wins 1st place! 2nd place goes to the portait with the second most votes and so on! 3 prizes total - 1st, 2nd, 3rd place!

Spread the word! You can have as many of your friends and family vote, only one vote per person!! (Extra votes by the same person (tracked by IP address) will not count and may disqualify you so please don’t cheat!)

Now get voting!!

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

I was secretly jumping for joy when I saw my 4th family walking towards me at Mayfield park on Saturday. Big sister was wearing a beautiful Kaiya Eve pettiskirt in my new favorite color - purple. I knew it was going to be a magical mini session…

You might remember this baby girl too from earlier this year. One of my favorite things about my photography business is being asked to come back and photograph your children again - and seeing how much they have grown and changed. Enjoy your sneak peek, “S” family!!

My next sneak peek from the first Ella Bella Photography Holiday Mini Session Event is the “R” family! You might remember them from a blog post earlier this year! Little “E” just turned 2 years old and had a blast exploring Mayfield park. He is the most adorable little boy and such a joy to photograph! I hope you enjoy your sneak peeks!!

My first round of holiday mini sessions took place this weekend! It was sunny and beautiful out Saturday morning and the only thing we had to compete with was ALL the other photographers who had the same plans to decend on Mayfield park for family portraits! Craziness! We did a pretty good job of staying out of each others way, BUT cloning out the fuzzy photographer in the background has become a standard practice in my photo editing routine.

I was going to post all the sneak peeks of the event in one big blog post but I think I’ll give each family their own day - which means MORE sneak peeks to look at! Little Miss “A” was having her 4th birthday party the same day as the mini sessions! I brought along 3 red balloons to the event (so people could easily spot me amongst the sea of photographers) and I took some pictures of her with the balloons at the end of their session! Happy 4th Birthday! Enjoy your sneak peek! (Mom & Dad - I got great family portraits that you will see in your private gallery next week!)

Isn’t she cuuute??

Her baby brother is such a doll too!

This has to be one of my all-time favorite sibling portraits!

And one of her red balloons!

Meet the adorable “A” brothers, 4 years old, 2 years old and 3 weeks old! Their original photo session date had to be rescheduled twice due to rain and cold weather, but the 3rd times a charm! We had a fun time exploring Mayfield park, chasing peacocks, watching fish in the ponds and their dad even took the boys on a “bear hunt” while I got some cute portraits of their new baby brother. Within 10 minutes of leaving the park, it started pouring rain! We got out of there in the nick of time! Enjoy your sneak peek, “A” family! You are blessed!!

I met the “D” family at my favorite park for a family photo session and got a workout chasing around this adorable little man…

He was a big ball of happy energy (much like my own two little rascals!). I hope you enjoy your sneak peeks as much as I do!

I had so much fun this past weekend photographing this gorgeous family! With all the recent rains in Austin, Mayfield park is blooming again! It seriously looks like spring when you go there. I brought along my new parasols and my fun pettiskirts for these two beautiful little girls. Little Miss “E” turned into Mary Poppins when she was holding the parasol - even singing me all the songs from the movie! Ah, memories… I hope you enjoy your sneak peek, “J” family!!

You may have seen this little cutie on my blog earlier this year! Miss “C” is now 18 months old and has the sweetest curls in her hair! She still has those gorgeous brown eyes that are going to break some hearts one day! I managed to keep up with her at the park last week, after breaking my toe just 5 days before her photo session. (Even with a broken toe, I only rescheduled one photo session - I love my job so much I just can’t stay out of the game for long!) Enjoy your sneak peek, “S” family!