This is our 9th year straight going to Johnson Farm for our tree. We love Farmer Rob and his family run tree farm nestled in the Santa Cruz mountains just 15 minutes from our home. The grounds there are just GORGEOUS. The kids start talking about going up there at the start of the school year because they know they will be going there for a school field trip (I posted a blog post about Ellie's school field trip up there a couple months ago) and then again for our tree. We just love it up there. We take our time, sip hot cocoa and play.
And, being the multi tasker that I am, I had Ellie wear two Courtney Courtney dresses that I needed to photograph her in since I KNEW I would be taking pictures on our outing anyways so might as well, right!? :)
Ellie was having a hard time concentrating on being a model (who can blame her when there is so much playing to be had) and I certainly didn't want her to feel like she was "working" on our little adventure so I didn't ask her to pose too much and just caught her when she was in the right light and the right moment to grab a shot here and there. She's been "over posing" lately. A symptom, I'm sure, of having been my commercial shoot model nonstop this past year and so I am finding that it's getting harder to get her "real" smile and natural body movements out of her as she is snapping into "model mode" and I'm not too thrilled about that. I don't want that for her. I want her to be herself. SO I am trying to undo that tendency by interacting with her more and making her laugh and just being silly rather than having her strike pose after pose (even though she likes to do that for the most part, it make ME uncomfortable). I just wanted her to be a kid and have fun. And that's exactly what she did. :)
I even grabbed a couple of Gavin although he really is in a NO PHOTO mood these days so I'm not imposing it on him. I let him tell me when he wants a picture taken.
We started off by just wandering around checking out all the white tagged (ok for cutting) trees and reading off the silly names Farmer Rob has assigned to each tree.
Here Ellie is wearing a new style of "neck tie" dress by Courtney Courtney which is just ADORABLE. I love this dress. Ellie loves this dress. It is just soooooooo cute!
A quick note about Gavin, my self professed future veterinarian, when we got there he went straight to the dogs and started taking the "stickies" out of their fur. He was grooming them and checking them over to make sure they didn't have anything stuck in their skin/fur. He was meticulous and gentle in his approach. The dogs went right to him and let him do his thing. The shop owner kept calling him Dr. Doolittle. That boy is just so sweet.
The tree we ended up choosing: "Dory"
This adorable flower hairclip was a gift from Rosalind at Grace Designs. I LOVE everything in her Etsy shop. Go check it out!
Bringing out the 'tude!
Gavin working on the tree.
Showing me his "muscles".....
Such hard work....
resting after all that exertion...
And this next shot is a technical mess. It is out of focus. It has terrible composition. The lighting is off. A technical disaster. I would normally never keep a picture like this. It was a spontaneous moment I wasn't ready for and was just walking behind them and I lifted the camera with just enough time to catch the tail end of it. But the moment is so sweet and tender that I couldn't bring myself to delete the image even though it is a hot mess....
I absolutely ADORE her smirk in this one. So coy and playful.
That girl's profile is quite possibly my favorite thing to photograph. Everything about the lines of her face and her little button nose makes me smile. Sigh.
I so love this series which will end up being a triptych on my office wall as soon as I get my act together.
I have no idea what was going on here but this picture is just so Ellie.
At this point we were running out of light and I remembered I had the other Courtney dress in the car so I ran back and we did a quick shoot with the second dress!! This has a fun flare at the bottom that is a new Courtney style as well! I'm shooting everything at 1600 ISO at this point, eeeek. :)
This is her "I'm having a chocolate fix it would behoove you to leave me alone" look. I know better than to get between a girl - of mine no less - and her chocolate....
These are two HAPPY, HAPPY kids. :)
