Introducing Baby Charlee | Atlanta Newborn Photographer

I had a wonderful day with this sweet girl and her family for a newborn session.  Baby Charlee is the granddaughter of a special friend of mine, and according to Bebe, this is my Denton's future wife, so I'm thrilled to be taking her pictures!  I've got to keep an eye on my boy's girl! 

Charlee is a petite little thing, and she was a great model.  She slept sweetly and allowed me to play with her for a long time.  Congrats Smythe family!

Mother's Day Fun | Charity Opportunity

I am so excited to announce that First Moments Photography will be pairing with First Choice Women's Center and Stephen's Exclusives to be offering "You are my Sunshine" minisessions for Mother's Day!  First Moments will be at Stephen's Exclusives Saturday, May 9th taking portraits.  100% of the $75 session fee with go to First Choice Women's Center here in LaGrange.  The sessions will be prebooked and held by your session fee, so call soon!  There will be collections available to purchase that day when you preview your portrait proofs.  It is a great day to get some Mother's Day shopping done and give back to a local charity!

You may wonder who can be in the portraits or who they are of.  Anyone!  Mom, Mom and kids, siblings, Dad and kids are all options.  I think moms are usually the ones taking the photos, and sometimes they neglect to get in them!  Especially professional ones.  There's no time like the present!  However, if you do want to surprise Mom, that is special too!

Call to book your appointment time that day, and please call or email me with any questions!

706-594-2204 (Mandy)
mandydaniel@bellsouth.net

Killmer Family | LaGrange Family Photographer

We had a beautiful afternoon for some family pictures with the Killmers!  A lot has happened since the last time I got to photograph this sweet family!  Last time we were celebrating Tori and Robbie’s wedding, and now, they have a sweet Parker to add!  Thank you guys for sharing your afternoon with me.  Enjoy your sneak peak.

Family Portrait Advice

I had the same conversation this weekend with two different mommas, so I thought it warranted a space on the website today.  (Still got some updating to do by the way, so keep snooping around and checking things out.)  One momma, (you know who you are!) talked about being disappointed in her most recent family pics.  She was hoping to get a good wall portrait and things just didn’t come together well, and the quality wasn’t what she had wanted, and it was the first portrait in over 7 years!  That’s a lot of pressure on one session!  The other has a church directory picture that she hates on her wall because it is all she has.  She also has had an adoption, a wedding, and a grand baby since then!  I have a feeling they are not the only ones, so I wanted to share.

I know I’m a photographer, so I am biased, but I have ALWAYS loved photographs and even when we were a young, working-part-time-one-income-poor family, yearly portraits were a priority.  I am going to share my family’s shots from the last 4 or so years.  Just a personal note:  My hair has been great, totally wind-blown, good color, bad color, and everything in between.  My weight has ranged from 135 to about 175.  Some of these pictures would look great with the decor of my home.  Some are opposite of my decorating style.  Here is my advice about Family Portraits:

• Give yourself the opportunity.  Take at least one family group shot a year.  Make use of it.  Use it as a Christmas Card, print it for a scrapbook, put it on the wall or a table, have an album.
• Relax.  Not every year will be suitable for a wall portrait.  There will be bad hair, cheesy grins, uncooperative kids, bad coloring, etc.  BUT, every once in a while.  Every couple years or so, you will get a winner, and if you’re taking them often enough, you’ll get the winners!
• Dress neutrally every other year.  Of course, if you have a favorite color, throw it in as an accent.  If one year you have calm neutrals, then the next year you can dress in something fun or trendy or themed.  There is not so much pressure for the perfect picture once every 5 to 10 years.
• Don’t try to be perfect.  Accept where  you are right now.   Next year will be different for you, the hubby, the kids.  Sometimes we look back and say, “Man, we had it together.”  And sometimes we say, “Whew!  Glad we got past that stage!”  It’s about the memories and moments, not how perfect we are.  

So, here we go.  Enjoy my walk down memory lane, but make your own!! (And First Moments would love to help you with that!)

Spring is here!  It is time for some spring cleaning in my house and on this website.  It has needed an update for ages, and this spring break has given me a chance to sit down with it.  I feel like a "rebirth" of First Moments Photography is looming, and I am very excited about some polishing and growth.  Thank you to all who have participated in this amazing journey with me.  I see a bright future for First Moments!  In honor of our spring cleaning, I will add a spring mini portrait from the Bradford pears.  Stay tuned!

One step in front of the other...Progress.