We have been so blessed with so many wonderful new friends and neighbors since our move this summer.  One of our favorite families not only has a son in the first grade with my oldest (and an amazing Mama who I adore) but two beautiful teenage girls who my sons have fallen head over heels for.

There is no substitute for great babysitters. Every Mama knows they are absolutely worth their weight in gold – and then some!  But the absolute best recommendation for me is when my boys start asking for “play dates” with those sitters!

You know they are good when the kids don’t know you are actually hiring them to be there!!

Senior Winter Portraits

These two girls are just beautiful young women – inside and out. And we are so happy that are quickly becoming part of our family.

My boys are awesome models ~ they truly are ~ but they are only 4 and 6 and their patience can only be expected to go so far!!  So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to photograph one of our amazing babysitters on this gorgeous snowy day.

And man oh man, did she rock it 😉

Oh what a lens!!

The Nikon 70-200mm 2.8 G VRII has been on my wish list for a long time and my amazing hubby surprised me with the new lens for Christmas.

As a family and children’s photographer I had felt like it was far too expensive to be worth the investment.  I kept envisioning using it for my kids sports ~ where it will be amazing to have such a fast zoom lens ~ but I wasn’t thinking about using it for portraits at all!  

Oh, was I wrong.  So very very wrong!  Yes, it is a big investment.  But it is worth.every.penny.

Prime vs Zoom

I am a huge fan of prime lenses – I have sworn by my 50mm 1.4 for years. And now rarely take my 35mm Sigma Art off my camera.  But just look at the compression in these photos! Eeek!

I was standing in almost the same place for all of these photos. But look at that gorgeous creamy bokeh (blurry background) when I zoomed all the way out to 200mm.  

And the SNOW!

Oh my!  Playing in the snow was so much fun! It was crazy cold that day. But we shot in my own backyard and kept her bundled up. The long zoom lens helped me out a ton! I was able to stand on my deck and get a variety of shots from one spot. And, most importantly, work quickly, but still provide that variety for her gallery of images.

Mom was standing by with hot chocolate and another coat, ready to whisk her indoors and warm us both up!! And it turned out to be excellent practice. The very next snow her Mom assisted me as I photographed as a Mama carrying twins in the snow and we used our ninja warming skills on her as well!

Now, I cannot wait to get out and really play with this lens this spring!!

PS This lens has continued to be a favorite for shooting teens and seniors! I loved using it in Charleston SC for this amazing Fashion Shoot.