Addilyn

Last week I had the extreme pleasure of photographing my friend's little girl, Addilyn.  As you can guess from the "3" on her shirt, she will soon be 3 years old.  Before this session I read all sorts of articles on photographing toddlers and I scoured Pinterest for pose ideas.  All of the articles cautioned me about expecting toddlers to pose (yeah like I didn't know that from trying to take pictures of my own toddler!) but this was not an issue with Addilyn at all.  She was a complete natural and was so happy to pose for the camera.  After we'd snap a few pictures in one location, she'd look at me or her mom and say "okay, what's next?"  So cute!
We took the pictures at U of I's Arboretum.  It is definitely one of my favorite places to do pictures.  When you're surrounded by beautiful gardens, it's nearly impossible not to get some good pictures.

Her mom was trying to get her to say "Being 3 rocks!"  I love how happy she looks here

At the last minute I thought to grab this "A" off the wall of my daughter's room- it turned out to be a cute prop!

I brought bubbles thinking we could get pictures of Addilyn popping them.  Those didn't come out but I got some great shots of her blowing the bubbles herself

I experimented with the sun in a few pictures- something I've never been brave enough to try before.  I really like the shafts of sunlight coming in through the bench

Addilyn did this one all on her own; no prompting from me!

Dandelions can be fun props too!

I went for a different perspective here.

I used the "Direct Positive" Lightroom Preset on this one; it really made the colors of her tutu pop

Isn't she just the sweetest?