Sweet Seven-year-old ~ Parma Children's Photographer

Okay, maybe I'm a little biased because she's mine, but I think this girl is pretty sweet! We had such a fun time the other night with a photo session dedicated solely to capturing her and all her uniqueness. (She was nice enough to let little sis tag along and jump into a few shots too.) My M is a great big sister, kind, creative, sensitive and simply a beautiful gift from God. She is wise beyond her years. I see her blossoming into a wonderful young lady. It seems she is growing up way to fast for this mama. Fortunately, she's not too old to enjoy doodling with the sidewalk chalk and hasn't started rolling her eyes at me yet, so I guess we're okay so far. I love you Mackenzie! Thanks for being you! You make our family special! Enjoy being seven!! 

 

"Chalk" I Heart Faces Photo Challenge ~ Idaho Children's Photographer

 

I just love sidewalk chalk and so do my kids. You can catch me every now and then doodling out on our patio with them. Last night I took our oldest out for her 7-year-old photo session. We got some really fun images of her drawing and playing with chalk. Imagine my surprise and delight when I saw that this week's I Heart Faces Photo Challenge was "Chalk." I couldn't have planned it more perfectly! I just love this little moment I captured while she was drawing. Go check out the other fun entries this week. And stop by here again as I'll have even more of my little seven-year-old sweetheart.

Happy Birthday Miss M ~ Getting personal

Last weekend we celebrated our oldest's 7th birthday! I really have a hard time typing that. I truly cannot believe I am mother to a seven-year-old first grader. I remember when she was born and thinking wow, I can't even imagine what it will be like when she goes to school. And here we are!! We had a wonderful time celebrating her special day. After school on Friday, she got to have Mom all to herself as little sister and brother went to stay with the grandparents. I find the older she gets the more she craves Mommy time, and I do too. It gets harder to get that one-on-one time that is so important for each of our kiddos. We baked two kinds of cupcakes (for a total of four), made three different frostings and organized all the sprinkles and toppings you could imagine. She was having a Cupcake Decorating Party with seven friends from school on Saturday. I have to admit I'm usually the box cake kind of girl. I have never had the best of luck with homemade cake. It usually turns out too dry or too dense. But, I found a fun little blog and e-mailed the gal. She gave me some great tips and sent me some recipes to try. We made yellow, fresh strawberry and chocolate. Then, as a surprise for MJ, I baked some Orange Creamsicle ones after she went to bed. I think they ended up being my favorite. I just used the yellow recipe and adapted it with some orange juice and orange extract. I think next time I'll use some zest too, but they had plenty of orange flavor. I put whipped cream/cream cheese frosting with them. Yummo! I think they all turned out great. I used buttermilk in the recipes and I think it was part of the difference. We made vanilla buttercream for the strawberry and yellow cupcakes and used chocolate buttercream for the chocolate ones.

MJ invited seven friends (only 6 could make it), and they each decorated seven cupcakes (one to eat at the party and six to take home). Before the cupcake decorating began they each decorated a cake box and thought about what name they would give their bakery if they owned one. They came up with some pretty cute ideas. They each received an apron to wear and take home, then the decorating began! They had a blast choosing which flavor of cake, which frosting and which of the many toppings to finish it off. We had sprinkles of every color, colored spray (kind of like spray paint for icing), chocolate chips, toffee bits, crushed Oreos, gummy worms and colored fondant. I think most of them tried to put a little of everything on each cupcake! I think they enjoyed being able to be creative though. They opened presents after that then enjoyed a little pizza picnic in the backyard for lunch. The rest of the time they played outside and in MJ's room. At the end of the party, they each enjoyed one of their cupcake masterpieces!

Later that evening, we had Josh's family over for a bbq and more birthday fun. It was also the BSU vs. Wyoming game. I finished decorating the rest of the cupcakes after all the friends had left the party, and made some blue and orange ones to celebrate the game.

 

All in all, I think MJ enjoyed her birthday weekend. Sunday was quite relaxing. After going to church, we came home, played outside and watched a movie together. It was nice to just hanging out as a family. Happy Birthday Sweetie! You are such a joy to us and we love you very much!

Fall Family Portrait Time ~ Idaho Family Photographer

I just love fall. It's one of my favorite seasons. The crisp cool mornings and warm afternoons have been wonderful. It's definitely layering weather, as it seems to change as the day goes on. I've noticed the leaves are changing now too. School and football season (Go Wildcats!) are in full swing. Our girls are playing soccer this year, so it's been fun to watch them also.

I also love fall because of all the wonderful clients I get to meet and photograph! One of the questions I get from families is what do we wear?! I found these guides to give you some suggestions. I always tell my families to think of your outfits as one big outfit that needs to coordinate together. No need to be totally matchy-matchy, but pick a simple color palette and spread it around to each member of the family. A couple of these examples only have girls' clothing, but you can see how you can take the suggestions and apply it to all members of the family. Also, don't get caught up in the particular style of clothing. Skinny jeans not your thing? Mine neither. So go with a little bootcut or flair. Or put on a jean skirt and some colorful tights. Whatever you love! These are just some ideas to get you inspired. You want to be comfortable and look fabulous for capturing this special time in your family's life! Happy Fall!

 

2010 Christmas/Holiday Cards ~ Idaho Family Photographer

I am so excited to share the Christmas/Holiday Card Templates for this season. I worked with my awesome designer friend, Deanna, at Accent Design, to come up with some traditional and contemporary designs. I gave her a few ideas and just let her run with them. I also worked with her on the redesign of my logo and branding. I knew exactly what I wanted for my logo, but also realized my time was better spent photographing and editing my client sessions. We work well as a team and it was great to know she understood my ideas and could expand on them. I encourage you to give her a call if you need any custom design or printing work done. I will continue to create all my custom designed albums and collages, which are signature products of Maggie Malson Photography, but it was time to bring in another creative mind who could help me get to where I wanted to go with my new look. And now for the templates...

These are full customizable with colors and images from your personal photography session. Custom cards will be flat, two-sided, 5X7 cards, with a pearl finish and include white envelopes. Cards are available in sets of 25. First set is $75, with each additional set $50. They are also available in the Holiday Portrait Special.

Booking update-I am completely full for September and October. Please contact me ASAP to schedule your portrait session for November or December!

Sunset Silhouette ~ Idaho Portrait Photographer

I was editing some more of the images from the wedding I photographed this summer in Kansas. And one of my favorites sites to visit, Go{4}Pro and Heather Ward are having a cool giveaway, so I thought I'd enter this image.

Headshot Special ~ Idaho Professional Photographer

Maggie Malson Photography is offering a Headshot Special this fall. Great for kids, teens and professionals!

Holiday Portrait Special-Save on portraits and help those in need

Just in time for the fall portrait season, I have a Holiday Portrait Special. This is a great opportunity to get an updated portrait of the family, or to capture some fun photos of the kiddos. Sessions are on location. Let's create fun, fresh and totally unique images of you and yours.


Holiday Portrait Special-$250 (sessions booked and held Sept 1-Dec. 10, 2010)
In order to help others during this holiday season, I will donate $25 from each session to Love, INC of the Tri-Counties.


Each package includes a custom portrait session with Maggie Malson Photography, the best 30 images in an online gallery, 10 percent off a la carte items and one of the following:
Image-One high resolution digital image with print release for use in Christmas/Holiday card
Card-50 custom designed Christmas/Holiday cards (5X7 flat, with envelopes)
Prints-One 8X10 and five gift prints (5X7 and smaller)
Wall Art-One 16X20 metallic print float wrap wall portrait


Contact me today to schedule your session as times/dates are limited.

Western Idaho Fair ~ Getting personal

Two weekends ago, our family showed Angus cattle at the Western Idaho Fair in Boise. We always have a great time visiting with family and fellow cattle enthusiasts. The kids also love the chance to help out with the show cattle, watering, feeding, leading heifers, running errands, etc. For those of you who didn't know, my husband and I live and work on a registered Angus and Hereford cattle operation owned by his family. We love the lifestyle we have--being able to raise our kids around animals, teaching them about agriculture, providing food and fiber for our country, taking care of the resources God has given us and realizing how much hard work and dedication it takes to run a family cattle operation. And even though it is a lot of work, we also have fun too. The fair is a great way for us to advertise our program, genetics and animals we raise. Our cattle are raised as the parent stock for cow-calf producers. We raise bulls to be used by commercial cattle producers to raise the beef consumers eat. We also sell show heifers for youth to show in 4-H, FFA and breed association shows, as well as purebred females for other registered herds. Just wanted to give you a glimpse of the other side of my family and what we do.

In fact, my start in photography was photographing livestock, mainly cattle and horses, and people, for the stories I wrote for livestock publications. I have always had a love of agriculture, growing up in a small town in Kansas and attending Kansas State University to major in agricultural communications. My experience in interviewing and writing stories, as well as photographing America's farmers and ranchers has given me great experience and prepared me for my role as a portrait photographer. I love asking questions, and getting to know people. We are all so unique and offer such different perspectives on life. I feel my interviewing skills help me when meeting new clients and getting to know them and to help them feel relaxed. Many of the people I've interviewed for stories have become friends. And that's what I love about my portrait clients as well. We get to know each other and become friends. That's one of the best parts about this work. Preserving memories, meeting new people and making new friends.

And as a lifestyle photographer, I am dedicated to capturing the details and little moments of life for other families as well as my own. So here is just a little glimpse of show day for us.





(I do apologize for some of these images as they were taken with my P&S. At times, I have to take off my photographer hat, put on the mom/wife/gofer hat and just grab the moments as they come in amongst keeping track of little ones, holding heifers or running back to the stall for a forgotten item.)

First Haircut ~ Getting personal

When we were in Kansas visiting family this summer, my aunt gave Little J is first haircut. His hair looked like it might have some curl to it, but everyone else thought it looked like a mullet. It was a little hard for me because I thought it was cute, and didn't want to let those baby curls go, but he looked so handsome afterwards-definitely more like a little boy and less like a baby. We had to bribe him a little with a sucker, but he sat quite still most of the time. Just wanted to capture another little milestone in my baby boy's life.