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!!!

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!!

Look who’s 5 months old already! This littlest UT fan here. Little “J” was all smiles on Saturday which made my job easy!! Enjoy your sneak peek, beautiful “E” family!

PS. I’m intentionally not posting any “family” portraits since some of my blog readers will be getting these families’ holiday cards in the mail and I don’t want to ruin the surprise! The family portraits are very cute though!!!

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 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 might remember little “J” from my blog a few months ago. He just turned six years old! His cousins were in town to celebrate his birthday and I got together with them for a portrait session before they headed off to his birthday party! I am a little late posting this sneak peek, so I put together a blog storyboard to show off a few more sneak peeks than usual! Such an cuuuute looking bunch of kids!

Last weekend I spent part of the morning with this beautiful family out in Lakeway. Little “C” took a while to warm up to the idea of me following him around with a camera but I was able to coax a few smiles out of him towards the end of the session. He’s a gorgeous boy even while looking serious! His little brother, baby “C” is just as cute as can be. I hope you enjoy your sneak peek, “O” family!!!

Last weekend I got to spend the morning with these two little beautiful happy little girls. We found an amazing location full of gorgeous flower gardens, little bridges, gazebos and even a lily pad pond! It was a fun morning and as you can tell from the photos below, these little girls are gooorgeous! Enjoy your sneak peek, “O” family!!

I thought this one was cute, the very last photo I took that day. Little sister was definitely over my camera!