Don't Miss the Little Things ~ Boise Children's Photographer

It was such a pleasure to capture this little sweetheart! He's grown so much since his newborn session. Looking forward to seeing him again at one-year-old!

 

They grow so fast! Let me capture all the details of your little one for you.

Call today to schedule your "Essence" mini session for ages 3 months and up.
Booking for October and November 2012.

One of the fun products offered for mini sessions is this adorable accordion album. They are 3X3 squares with a magnetic closure and frosted plastic cover. Up to 10 images can be displayed in them. Perfect to carry in your bag/purse or give as a gift.
Ask for more details when you call to book your "Essence" Session!

If this post receives 20 or more comments,
this little guy's family receives a complimentary 5X7 gift print! Leave them some love!

Portrait Products ~ Gallery Wrapped Canvas ~ Idaho Portrait Photographer

What better way to share your images from

Maggie Malson Photography than with beautiful wall art!

If you have been thinking about a canvas or canvas cluster for your wall, now is the perfect time to order some ART of your children or family for your home! Here are some samples. Call or email me today and we can design a gallery for your home!

30"X40" canvas

We can take all your favorite images from your session and create a beautiful wall gallery.

 Canvas Art Panels-One image is split into three separate gallery wrapped canvas panels.

Boise Lifestyle Photographer | Glimpses Week 22

This is one of those images that is really a snapshot, and yet sooooooo much more. It really tells quite a story--maybe not to anyone else, but definitely to this sappy mama. At first glance, you see the big sister reading to little sister. I love, by the way, the enthusiastic expression of MJ reading. I can almost hear her. She uses a lot of inflection in her voice and is quite fun to listen to.

Looking deeper though, this image captures other details that may seem insignificant, but do matter and will fade from my memory over time. I see the cup and the Gatorade bottle on the top of the bed. E didn't like the pain medicine she had to take so I let her follow it with the flavored stuff. She really likes drinking water out of the new horse cup she received from Nana for her recent birthday. She's sucking those middle fingers; a habit I hope we can break her of soon, but still such a part of who she is right now. She twirls her hair too. Next to E is her favorite baby monkey. When I was expecting little brother, she went with me shopping one day, and spotted that monkey in the store. I let her carry it around while I tried some maternity clothes on, and then, of course, couldn't resist when she asked to take it home. She also has her favorite monkey blanket given to her by her Aunt Michelle for Christmas. Finally, there in the right-hand corner of the image is another detail, a small one to some and not too obvious as the image is in black and white, but it sums up the story here. E had an accident at gymnastics and broke her tibia. She's in a cast from her toes to her thigh. She's handling it all really well, considering. Her purple and pink cast is quite the sight to see; she resembles the Cheshire cat a little bit. :0) She even has bright pink toenail polish to match! MJ has been so helpful and compassionate through this whole thing. It's nice to see her showing so much concern for her little sister. This wasn't the plan we had to spend the first part of our summer, but we're rolling with it. And hopefully, she will be all healed by the end of the month. Until then, this little incident has caused us all to slow down. It's caused me to spend more time catching moments like this. And for that, I will be forever grateful.


To see more Glimpses, check them out at Chic Critique Forum


A few more details so I don't forget. We had recently moved little brother downstairs to a bigger boy room. He actually is in a bigger bed too. He's very excited about it. This room will be redecorated to be the nursery for baby sister. The timing was good because Little J had spent enough time in his room that he was perfectly fine with E needing to sleep in his old room/bed (thus the Cars sheets). It's right next to our room and I knew it would be best to have her close in case she needed us in the night. The first night was pretty rough on both of us. I ended up staying in the room with her. Even after she had her cast, she had a few nights where she woke up. But, now she's adapting well and we're all sleeping better. We had just gotten a tablet and J found some videos on it for her to watch. She spent the first few days in bed watching Angelina Ballerina, Thomas the Train and Bob the Builder, reading books, working on her letters and numbers, and napping. It's been a week and half since it happened and we've been able to venture outside a lot more to enjoy the warm weather. We just put her in the wagon and pull her around. The kids also spent the night with the grandparents last week and even slept in a tent. Good thing she's a kid; I don't think I'd handle a cast nearly as well. :0)

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Journaling, photo taking and storytelling have always been a part of me and who I am. I hope to catch up some of our personal scrapbooks now that we're finding more activities to keep our hands busy since E can't run around yet. I know I've been sharing a lot more personal work on my blog lately, but instead of apologizing for it, I'll embrace it. My children have always been my inspiration and the little details I pick up when photographing them translates perfectly to when I photograph clients. I can capture the moments and details that happen in between all the other images we're taking. I'm also putting the final touches on my new blog (yay!!!) and am waiting to share some client sessions and albums in the new format. So until then, enjoy another glimpse into our lives...

My Thinker ~ Glimpses Week 20 | Idaho Children Lifestyle Photographer

 

She looks older here, too old for me, really. But behind that serious look is a heart of gold, a big toothy grin and a girl I love more and more every day. I saw some great light in our living room, so I grabbed her for a little impromptu lighting practice. Love playing with light and shadows! I have plenty of her smiling too, but this one just strikes me. She's my thinker.

For more Glimpses, check out Chic Critique Forum

First Communion | Idaho Lifestyle Photography

 

A few weeks ago our oldest reached another milestone in her life; she received her First Holy Communion. She had been preparing to receive this special sacrament all year along with the rest of her second grade religious education class. And, she was very excited for her big day! They had two wonderful teachers who not only shared their knowledge with them, but also helped them grow in their faith walk. Faith is certainly a very personal matter, but as Christians, Jesus calls us to fellowship with Him and others. First and most of all, we are called to love God and love others. It's not always easy, but something we are called to do every single day. It makes life so much easier when we remember this commandment too. 

We were fortunate that my parents were able to make a trip out for this special occasion. And my sister and youngest niece also made a surprise trip out as well. She is Mackenzie's godmother. It was great having family here to help us celebrate. 

Mackenzie wore the dress my mom made for me when I made my First Communion so that was extra special. She also wore my head piece and corsage as well. I just had some extra flowers and ribbons added to the wreath to make it her own. 

Congratulations to our sweet girl! May you always carry the love of Jesus in your heart and share it with others. We love you! 

Sweet and Spunky Six-year-old | Idaho Children Photographer

Our sweet little E turned six earlier this month. What can I say, this girl makes me smile! She just finished Kindergarten and is headed to Pre-First. She is kind and loving, always giving people hugs. She's both independent and hesitant at the same time. Once she's comfortable in a situation, she's all energy and charges right ahead. But, if things are new and different, she hangs back for awhile analyzing the scene. She's a great big sister to Little J and adores her big sister M. She loves to sing and dance. She's a great runner too!

When you have more than one child, it's neat to see how each really have their own personalities. I want to help her shine in whatever way I can. She's our sunshine and we love her so much!

Glimpses Week 19 | Boise Lifestyle Photographer

 

Daddy: "Little J, do you want to watch a movie with Daddy and eat popcorn?"

Little J: (Jumping up and down with fists clenched, grinning ear to ear-his really excited reaction.) "Yeah, Daddy!"

Daddy: "What do you want to watch?"

Little J: "Bob the Builder!" (He doesn't get to watch it much as it only comes on as we're headed out the door for church on Sunday mornings.)

Me: (Thinking to myself) I have the sweetest boys ever. Not going to miss this moment!

For more Glimpses, check out Chic Critique Forum.

Schedule Update ~ Idaho Lifestyle Portrait Photographer | Babies, Children, Teens and Families

Hey folks, I know it's been awhile, but I have so many things in the works right now, it's hard to decide what to share yet, and what can wait. Stay with me though; some exciting changes to Maggie Malson Photography are coming!

I'd love it if you could leave some comments and let me know what you enjoy most about the blog or you'd like to see more of in the future. Do I blog enough? Too much? Do you want to see more recent sessions? Before/After edits? Tips for future sessions? More personal stuff/less personal stuff? Talk to me friends; love hearing from you!

Scheduling Update:


Two "Your Story" album sessions and one "Essence" session available in June, July and August. I will not be accepting any sessions in September (more details to come) and will have limited availability this fall. If there is enough interest, I will be offering family mini-sessions for Christmas cards in October. Please leave comments if you would like to be contacted about the date for it. Thanks!

Don't wait until the last minute to think about capturing your child's milestone moments or your family's lifestyle and relationships. "Your Story" album sessions include an in-person consultation to discuss style, location, clothing and all the details that will make your session unique. These sessions result in a custom-designed, heirloom quality album telling "your story", as well as custom wall art created for your home. 

Here's a sample of a spread from a recent senior "Your Story" album. Oh how I love designing albums for clients!

Glimpses Week 16 ~ Flowers for Mama | Idaho Children Photographer

Children give us a gift we sometimes don't even know we need. The gift of innocence. The gift of seeing the world through fresh eyes. The gift of Dandelion flowers... 

I have to admit I'm not a big fan of Dandelions. In fact, they seem to have just exploded in our yard this spring. Boo! Hopefully the fertilizer application this weekend will help slow them down. :0)

However, I do love, love, love that my little guy got so excited the other day when we walked out in the yard and he saw all of them. "Flowers, mama! I pick you some flowers!," he exclaimed. Then he proceeded to run around the yard grabbing up fistfuls. I ran inside and grabbed the closest camera, my little P&S because his innocence and what he sees through his fresh eyes is exactly what I needed to remember, and capture...

To see more Glimpses, check out Chic Critique Forum.

Fields of Flowers | Idaho Children's Photographer

 

It's definitely spring here! Lovely warm days intertwined with cool, rainy ones. Everything is in bloom. And even though these little purple flowers are technically weeds, they can make a really pretty backdrop, especially with a lot of bokeh!

What is bokeh? 

"In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image," as defined by Wikipedia. It's the look when the image background looks all blurry and fuzzed out while the subject seems to pop out of the image.

Bokeh is achieved when you have a shallow depth of field. Without getting too technical, depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image. So for example, because I focused on her face (mainly the eyes) anything in front of that plane (in the foreground) and anything behind the plane of her face (background) will be out of focus. Some lens do this better than others, and the distance of the subject to the background also affects bokeh.

Bokeh is also affected by the aperture used. Aperture controls how much light is being let into the lens and hitting the film or in this case the digital sensor of the camera.

This was by no means an in-depth lesson, but hopefully you learned a little something. And if you have more questions about anything mentioned here or other basic camera questions, leave them in the comments and I'll answer them in another post.

Essence and "Your Story" sessions are both available now, so call today to book your appointment. I will have a limited fall schedule, so don't wait until the last minute to capture memories of your loved ones. Enjoy your weekend!

Wordless Wednesday (Name that Photo) | Idaho Children's Photographer

Glimpses ~ Week 15 | Idaho Lifestyle Photography

Pure joy...

I captured this moment of my girls while out location scouting the other night. It's funny how I struggle sometimes with photographing my own children-at least when trying to take one of all of them together. I love photographing kids, and can handle just about anything they throw at me. I can capture moments of them showing their true essence the parents don't even notice until they see the final images. But, I seem to put a lot more pressure on myself with my own because I go back and forth between wanting that "perfect" pose and then also capturing their true essence. I should know better by now because my style really is photojournalistic and storytelling in nature.

Well, this night there was no pressure. It was windier than all get out, and getting quite chilly. So, we hopped out of the car really fast, ran to a spot I wanted to try and I told them to get close. They were being silly and sweet all at the same time. I had no expectations except to see what kind of light I had. And because I was completely relaxed, I captured one of my girls that makes me smile and fills my heart with pure joy....

For more Glimpses, check out Chic Critique Forum. 

Glimpses Week 14 & Wordless Wednesday | Idaho Lifestyle Photographer

 

Chic Critique Forum "Glimpses"

Sunbrella ~ Five-year-old Session | Idaho Children's Photography

This was a super fun session with my spunky five-year-old. She's got lots of personality, which I'm sure you can tell by these images. I had picked up this umbrella quite awhile ago and was saving it for just the right session. She loved being able to twirl around play with it out in the sun. I love captured her just being herself. And the light that night was so lovely! Have to love yummy light!

I created a beautiful "Your Story" album for her to showcase the rest of the images, and I'll post some photos of it once it's finished.

Babies and children are my absolute favorite subjects. They are just so uninhibited, and my style of capturing them works perfectly with their personalities, whether they are outgoing and spunky, or quiet and reserved. Call me today to book a "Your Story" session of the special child in your life!

Happy Easter! | Idaho Lifestyle Photographer

 

"He is not here; he has been raised." Luke 24: 6.

 

Loving the first signs of spring!

 

 

Happy Easter from Maggie Malson Photography!

May the blessings of the Easter season continue with you all year long!

Glimpses Week 11 ~ Idaho Lifestyle Photography

 

It seems I do post quite a few images of my little guy. And this week I couldn't pick just one. He's such a part of my every day though, and he loves these blocks he received for Christmas and his birthday. I love that you can almost hear him making his little sounds as he plays. And he was so interested in playing, he didn't pay any attention to me. He's not going to always be this little, so I want to continue to preserve as much of his childhood as possible.

To check out other Glimpses, visit the Chic Critique Forum. 

Wordless Wednesday | Idaho Children's Photography

The Unseen Moments ~ Your Story Session | Idaho Lifestyle Photographer

For this session, I was inspired by my own every day moments spent with my children. Every time I sit in my rocking chair reading to my baby boy or mix up a batch of cookies with my girls, I think to myself, I really wish I had a photograph of this. I wish someone would document these really special moments for me, and then I could be in them too. I also knew there would be other families who felt the same way, and I wanted to share my eye and my perspective on capturing those every day, unseen moments with them.

I got to know Amber because we were both photographers in the same area. When I met her, she was someone I felt I'd known forever; she is easy to talk to, genuine and a true friend. Recently, she and her family found out they would be moving across the country, and I knew this was a session she would be thrilled to have done before they left. Her girls are the world to her, and we both realize how fast our children are growing up!

Knowing this would be completely relaxed and in their home, I told her to let the kids wear what they wanted (they all wore their pjs, which I loved!), and to just plan on doing some of things they do at home every day, like read books, snuggle on the bed and play. It was truly going to be capturing them having fun doing the mommy/daughter activities they do every day.

My style really is about storytelling. I use different angles, close-up detail shots, and pull-backs to create images that really work together to tell the story of my subject(s).

Even though the session was very laid back, I was still aware of my light sources and where the light was coming from. I also tried to keep my aperature low in order to create as much bokeh as I could to blur the background and make my subjects the true highlight of the image.

The baby is about 9 months and her big sister is almost 3. I knew I wouldn't be giving a lot of direction, but really trying to stay back and capture the natural interactions between them. In this particular session, I let Mom take the lead in engaging her children for the most part; whereas in other sessions I would interact more directly with the children.

 The very best images from each Your Story session are custom designed into a beautiful, heirloom quality, flushmount album. This session was so much fun to do. We all had fun, and Amber was overwhelmed by the story we captured of her and the girls. All the unseen, sometimes forgotten moments, are now preserved forever.

As always if this post receives 20 or more comments, this family will receive a free gift from me!