Christmas Photo Swap

 My friend, Amy, and I have been tossing around the idea of taking each other's Christmas photos for many years now, and tonight we came through!  It was a last minute arrangement, since Mark had a gig in the West Bottoms.  While he set up his equipment in the Hobbs Building and watched the kids, I followed Amy's family around for some shots.  All of these were within a block's radius--perfect urban landscape, little effort!  And what's not to love about Christmas photos done the first week of October? (I always like to have them done before Halloween--Christmas is crazy enough, and I like to soak it in!)

I can't decide which door I like better... blue, or red...

 Aren't they adorable?  And I love the pic of Frank and Amy kissing.  You can see in their boys' faces how much they love that their parents love each other. I realized by the end of the shoot that I had asked them to kiss, and kiss, and kiss... a lot. I think I owe them some chapstick.  Perhaps I'd better come up with a better repertoire of poses by next year, but hey--nothing wrong with wishing friends a Merry Kiss-mas!

This effect was a lot of fun.  And I think whoever painted that bench blue was brilliant. 

We couldn't get good photos of my family by the RR tracks or the bench because the sun was shining directly on it when we walked back by, and Amy's family couldn't get photos by the green garage door for the same reason.  It's amazing how quickly the light can change.

Amy took some amazing photos for us!  For someone who's not a photographer by trade, she takes a mean photo!  This originally had the whole family, but the kids had sour faces, so I panned in on me and my darling Hubsley.

I just discovered Picnik yesterday and LOVE it already!  This is a photo BEFORE editing (which is cool in itself, but I'm wild about intense color):

Here's the same photo AFTER editing the color (saturation, warmth) and rotating it a bit off-kilter.  I love the way the door goes from stark white to cream--amazing what an infusion of color can do!  (This is one reason I chose a Canon camera--I read and heard that it produces slightly warmer tones.)

Handsome. Charming. Boy.

Beautiful. Shining. Girl. We do eskimo kisses almost every night before bed.  Lorelei insists.  And I love that.

 Kisses.  Ewww, gross! 

And here's a sneak peek at what our Christmas photo will look like.  This isn't it, by the way, but it has some striking similarities--as does Mr. Claus to my dear husband.

Thanks, Amy, for the beautiful (and free) family photos!  We hope you love yours as much as we love ours! Cheers.