1 Year Old Portraits by Norah Levine in Austin and Santa Fe

When I receive an inquiry about creating 1 year old portraits I'm always excited... This is certainly a fun age to photograph, as little girls and boys are just starting to express their own personalities. I love their actions and reactions, their giggles and uninhibited exclamations of emotion. With this fresh, young energy there are also challenges with photographing 1 year olds. I'd say the single most difficult aspect is that they are usually incredibly mobile and never seem to hold still! This makes for a very active session for both myself and the parents. The session I'm sharing today was especially fun. The parents were such kind people and really wanted me to capture their daughter's beautiful personality in her 1 year portraits. We started indoors in her room and then moved the session outdoors for a more natural setting. I spent a lot of time in the crouched position for this session! This "little wonder" had a tremendous sense of curiosity. I just LOVE her big brown eyes and expression.

Sometimes I play more of an active participation in creating portraits, while at other times I play the role of observer. It is this change in perspective that allows me to present a variety of images to the parents. In some of the images from this session I wanted to show how tiny this little girl was in comparison to her parents. I enjoyed capturing images of this family walking hand in hand with their shadows extending before them- two long shadows and one short!  I am so glad they had me capture this special time in their lives as their little girl is growing so quickly!

Norah Levine is an Austin children portrait photographer and pet photographer. She photographs in homes and on location. She also travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico frequently for sessions. Please view her website for more details www.norahlevinephotography.com

Old English Sheepdog Portraits

Meet my new friends–Addy, a loving, sensitive and sweet Old English Sheepdog, and Ellen, Addy's kind-hearted owner and friend. Together they make a fantastic duo. They're close, close companions to one another and it was quite obvious from the moment I met them on the day of their portrait session that these two are a special pair.  I enjoyed our time together very much and just fell in love with Addy's long, beautiful hair that covered her dark brown eyes and her panting pink tongue. It was heart warming to photograph Addy and Ellen together because their strong connection to one another really showed through in the imagery. We worked both indoors and outdoors with natural light and studio lighting and I am excited to have made two new friends. I custom designed an amazing album filled with all of Ellen's favorite images from the session and she was thrilled with it. She also ordered a large fine art canvas of her and Addy together for her wall. I'm so excited that she'll have these images with her dog to treasure for many years to come.

Norah Levine is an Austin children portrait photographer and pet photographer. She photographs in homes and on location. She also travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico frequently for sessions. Please view her website for more details www.norahlevinephotography.com

Summer family portraits

Summer time is an excellent opportunity to spend extra time with your loved ones. It certainly feels like summer here in Austin with so many 100 degree days in a row!  Fortunately, when I photographed this adorable family in Santa Fe it was an incredibly gorgeous day... a perfect day for family portraits. I received a call from Anna, a professional portrait photographer located in Flagstaff, Arizona, who would be visiting Santa Fe with her family and she was inquiring about my capturing her family's portrait while they were in town. Of course I was very excited and extremely flattered by this request as Anna is an amazing photographer in her own right. But we photographers need portraits too! (That tripod thing gets a little old after a while!)

Anna and I talked about her family—her husband and their two children. Anna explained to me that her family was very casual and that she would love for the portraits to convey that energy. During our brain storming about the session we thought that bubbles would be visually interesting to incorporate into the images and would also provide a fun activity for the children. Since Anna's family was visiting from out of town it was not possible for me to photograph them at their home. This worked just fine, but it took a little more planning in terms of finding the best locations. I wanted the locations to have beautiful light, aesthetically pleasing surroundings and to offer a comfortable place for the family to interact with one another. We spent the first part of the session on the grounds of their hotel which I had scouted days earlier. I found a big tree that seemed welcoming and I felt like the grassy area around it would make for a perfect place to let the children play comfortably.

We spent the afternoon playing, photographing and blowing bubbles in the pristine Santa Fe sunshine. The bubbles ended up working out well. The only issue is that they're a little (okay, a lot) messy! It was worth it though. I wanted to capture Anna's family as if they were not even aware of my camera. I loved the way this family interacted with one another and how they really just went with the "flow" of things. Not every moment was perfect and that was part of the beauty of these images for me. With such a free-flowing style session I had to photograph quite a bit and there was a little more of the unexpected, which I enjoyed.

We moved to a second location— a park area and a nearby colorful mural which made for a fun background. In the park we found a sweet grassy area to hang out as the sun set behind the horizon.

Yet another truly genuine and amazing family that I am grateful to have met and photographed.

Happy start of Summer! May you truly enjoy many moments with your loved-ones.

Texas sunshine equine portraits

It was a toasty Texas afternoon in a town nearby Austin, Texas, where I had the opportunity to photograph two horses- Rolex and Ezra with their owner, Elise. I have a tremendous respect and admiration for horses. They have an exquisite beauty and elegance different from any other animal and are of course, incredibly powerful. These horses were no exception. While I am not a rider or horse owner myself, I enjoy spending time with horses and absolutely appreciate their beauty and strength. I have a strong admiration for the connection between horse and rider and I love to create images that show this bond. As with dogs, cats and other pets, I am most interested in creating imagery of animals as pets, companions and friends, rather than focusing on the proper alignment and body positioning as is necessary when photographing show animals. I appreciate eventing imagery and show quality animals, but my interest is photographing animals as pets and family members...Show animals or otherwise.

The location for this session was gorgeous. I hauled my camera bag to an open field nearby the stables where the horses were boarding. The simplicity of the tall grasses, the story that the live oak trees seem to whisper, and the pastel blue sky above make for a perfect backdrop for these portraits.

I photographed Elise with both of her horses separately. I noticed the playful connection between Ezra and Elise and true bond between the two. Rolex seemed more regal and proud and I think this shows in the images. Both relationships were tender and genuine and I was glad to capture the uniqueness of both partnerships.

I photographed Elise and Rolex as silhouettes as the sun faded and marked the end of a very special afternoon.

Feels fresh like a newborn baby, Austin, Texas.

I'm pleased to present Nicolette, a delicate newborn baby here in Austin,  just 18 days old in these photographs. Looking at these images puts me right back to the moment I captured them. Tiny figures, tiny toes, wispy eyelashes and the fresh scent of a baby just gives me goose bumps. Photographing Nicolette was such a pure joy.  Just 18 days old! Normally I recommend photographing newborns no older than 10 days, but circumstances didn't allow for that to happen with Nicolette. The reason for photographing newborns earlier than 10 days is that they are able to fall into a very deep sleep, allowing me to photograph them and pose them without waking them. In the very first days, babies still have a strong tendency to curl their legs in, which is really sweet for photographs. Like all the photographing I love to do, patience is a key element to success and I was very pleased with the way the results of the session. It is an honor to be able to work with families during this exciting time in their lives. We had to wait for the baby to fall deep enough asleep for me to be able to photograph her. This took some time, but eventually she fell into in a deep slumber and allowed me to work with her in a few adorable poses. Nicolette's mother had purchased some precious newborn hats that she wanted her new little girl to wear for her session. (Etsy.com) For this session I used studio lighting equipment, which I set up in their home as mom was finishing the baby's feeding. Sometimes I use natural light, but for this session I chose studio lighting as my tool.  I photographed Nicolette in her home. It was convenient and comforting for the parents to not have to worry about packing up the baby and bringing her to a studio. We spent time in the comfort of their home amongst all of the things they needed for the baby and I think this was of tremendous value to the parents.

There is something extremely peaceful about photographing newborns. Sure, there are not so peaceful moments– like when the baby is unsettled, or when they have an accident (hey-that's par for the course and it doesn't bother me at ALL!) As a photographer, a peaceful demeanor is a must in this situation especially, despite the possible hic-ups. In order to soothe the baby I have to be calm and have a relaxed energy. The more calm I am, the more the baby can feel that energy during these session. And since the mother is always associated with food, it usually works best if I handle the baby for the posing as mom watches from a short distance as she keeps an eye on her new baby. It is important to me that everyone is comfortable, safe, and happy during these sessions. Nicolette's parents are delighted to have these high quality images to artfully treasure this important stage in their baby's life.

Thank you, Erin and Kyle for allowing me to create and share these images of  your amazing baby girl. Here's to an incredible first year!

Norah Levine is an Austin children portrait photographer and pet photographer. She photographs in homes and on location. She also travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico frequently for sessions. Please view her website for more details www.norahlevinephotography.com

Pet Portrait Workshop this July 10-16 2011 at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops

I'm going to branch off from my last post about the importance of self-nurturing. What is it that you have a passion about? Cooking, building motor cycles, gardening, painting, collecting? Is your passion photography? Obviously my true love is creating images and this summer I have been asked to teach for the second time at the world renown Santa Fe Photographic Workshops where I will be sharing my passion and knowledge about creating pet portraits. I'll be teaching a fun packed course entitled "The Creative Pet Portrait" from July 10th to the 16th and there are still a few spaces available! If you've always wanted to learn more about creating portraits, pet portraits specifically, this is the perfect opportunity for self-nurturing. You cannot imagine how much self-nurturing occurs during these workshops. This course is designed to lead you through a process filled with many learning opportunities to connect with people and their pets in a way that truly lends itself to amazing imagery and helps you explore your passion.

Last year I was joined by 10 students who chose to invest in their self-nurturing for a one week photography workshop in Santa Fe. We focused on the interaction and approach for commissioned portraits of pets and their owners, tricks for getting the desired imagery and how to use these new skills in future endeavors. The daily assignments and activities were followed by group discussions and sharing. These discussions were incredibly inspiring and offered the ability to learn in a stress-free and supportive environment.  The students were supportive of one another and shared their struggles and triumphs and we collectively offered support and suggestions for improvement and trouble shooting. We were fortunate to have a variety of special guest speakers.  We discussed lighting, posing, styling on set, clients, interactions, photographing on location, creativity and so much more. By the end of the week everyone was exhausted. For me, this was a good thing to hear! It is my job as an instructor to provide students with as many opportunities as I possibly can during the course and to make it fun! How could we NOT have fun when working with animals?!!

I love teaching. I love to see the improvement of the students through the week of this course and witness the camaraderie that builds amongst the participants. I value the chance to communicate and share my experiences and love of photography with others. It is vastly rewarding to help students pursue their passion and goals.

The following is a link to the course description and details:

http://www.santafeworkshops.com/photography-workshops/workshop/743

I have put a tremendous amount of effort in the preparation for this course and I am so excited to have the opportunity to share my knowledge with a new group of participants from around the country! Whether your passion for photography is a new discovery or an old flame you're looking to reignite, I strongly encourage you to consider joining us!

Here are a couple of the students' reviews from the course:

"One of the Best Workshops I have ever taken."

"The hands-on shooting experiences combined with the discussions beforehand with Norah to prepare us and afterward with the class were invaluable. I can't think of a better way to learn..."

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

The Value of Self-Nurturing

We all have important roles and responsibilities in our lives that we maintain on a daily basis. For some that role is primarily in the home and for others it may extend beyond. Regardless of your type of role, it most likely involves giving a significant amount of your time and energy to other people. Sometimes you may be engaged in activities that seem to take away energy rather than restore it. While I agree there is a need for these types of commitments I urge you to consider for a moment what it would be like to participate in your role as "self-nurturer." Nurture |ˈnər ch ər| is defined as: "the process of caring for and encouraging the growth or development of someone or something." You and I probably nurture many people in our lives each day. My question is,  why should we leave ourselves out of this process?  I'll answer my own question: Uh, we shouldn't! Self-nourishment is vital to our roles as parents, sons and daughters, spouses and partners, siblings, teachers, professionals–everything. I'm not asking you to leave your roles and obligations behind and run free (although it sounds nice  for a couple of days, doesn't it?). I'm asking you to spend some time thinking about what it is that you feeds you. We're not talking marshmallows and almond butter here... I'm talking about what is it that makes you feel inspired and re-energized. What nourishes you beyond your daily roles? I know that if I pay attention to what nourishes and feeds me and I take action to do these things, even for a short time, I am able to better fulfill my daily roles as spouse, daughter, sister, mother to 5 furry children, household-maintainer, business owner, friend, artist and photographer. It is undoubtedly an effort to take time out of our lives and routines to spend time on ourselves, but it is imperative to growth and balance.

So, I'll tell you a little bit about what I've done to feed myself. As I've mentioned, I grew up loving art and enjoyed painting and dance and in high school fell in love with photography. As the years have gone by I've been fortunate to focus on my photography and my business associated with it, but I realized I'd left painting and dance in the wings. I think I haven't spent much time painting or dancing because I've always convinced myself that it didn't have a "purpose" since I felt I needed to apply all of my time and energy to my photography business. I've come to realize and accept that there is indeed a "purpose" in my painting and dancing and that purpose goes beyond productivity in the practical sense and extends to the self-nurturing concept I mentioned above. My love for painting and dance never went anywhere. I'm happy to say that I've started to paint a little and that I'm taking a dance class. As I've given myself permission to feed myself with these passions I've realized how much of a hole I've had without them. The feeling of applying a spot of alizarin crimson on a canvas with a brush or a palette knife totally excites me. Reminding my body how to pirouette on the smooth dance floor brings me incredible joy (after the dizziness subsides). I strongly believe that this kind of self-nurtering is helping me in my photography, my business and my relationships.

In addition to inviting dance and painting out of the wings and back into my life I've started to enjoy some exercise outdoors. While I can't say I am a "runner" I've been heading out on jogs to enjoy a break from my computer screen. As this is my first spring in Austin, TX. I've really found loved taking notice of the nature and delicate changes. I found it relaxing to take some images with my camera phone during a run the other day...

Whether your passion is art, gardening, building, cooking, fishing, sports, boating, knitting, etc. I hope you can give yourself the permission to self-nurter and explore one of your passions. I've learned that it's not something that just happens, however, we have to schedule this time for ourselves and stick to it!

What do you dream about spending time doing for yourself?

"Back in Your Own Backyard" Austin Portrait Session Part 2

It is valuable for me to know as little about who I am photographing before I meet them. I want to know as much as I can about interests, loves and personalities before I photograph anyone. While it isn’t a recipe for guaranteed success in a session, it certainly helps to establish an initial connection. This connection is imperative to creating any portrait-whether this portrait is of a 6-year-old girl, a 10-year-old poodle, or a 78-year-old man. I’d love to share a little more from my session with the three siblings here in Austin, Texas. The mother from my previous posting, “Back in Your Own Backyard Part 1” wanted photographs that had a casual, playful feel. She wanted something that told the story of her children at this special time in their lives. She expressed that her daughter had recently lost her two front teeth and that she wanted to capture her adorable smile and lively character. She talked about her sweet boys and that her middle child didn’t like to be photographed very much, but that he was just such a darling child with tremendous personality. I asked about oldest and Sandra painted a lovely picture of a helpful and adoring boy who I was very excited to meet.

When I am choosing a time to photograph children it most often revolves around when the children are the happiest and have the most energy. Of course, lighting is a vital part to creating strong imagery, but it doesn’t matter how gorgeous the light is if you’ve got a miserable child in front of your lens. Sandra and I decided to schedule the session for the morning hours after the children had rested and been fed their breakfast. The light in the backyard was dappled-meaning that spots of light were coming in through the trees. This can be difficult light to work with, but not impossible. With three children, I had to find ways to keep them from having large spots of light on their faces and bodies especially while photographing them together as Sandra had wanted.  One of the ways to work in this light was that Sandra cheerfully stepped in as my assistant and held a light diffuser to help with the spotty light.

When I had walked around the backyard with Sandra a week earlier I visualized some areas where I had wanted to photograph the children together. I thought the hammock would be really fun but on the day of the session realized it was difficult to get the children to stay focused as they tipped and turned in the hammock. I tried sitting on it with two of the kids and agreed with them that it was hard! They had a good laugh at me then. The ground below the hammock was muddy and their feet were quickly a nice shade of dark brown. After one round of unsuccessfully cleaning I thought, “let’s just embrace this mud,” and I asked the children to lift up their legs in the hammock as I clicked my shutter.

During most of my sessions I start with a vision or a few ideas. That vision and those ideas change and morph organically during the actual session. This happens for several reasons. Sometimes there are aspects of a location I couldn’t have anticipated, the light changes, the weather changes, or a child or pet isn’t in the mood for being photographed a certain way or in a specific location. Although I sometimes think it would be fantastic if all of my plans and visions were easily realized (why not?), I’m most often thankful for the need to be adaptable because other opportunities and visions arise.

Hopefully these images remind you of the warmth, inhibition and play of childhood. Perhaps it reminds you of your own “backyard” and of the unique memories that were created there by you and your family.

I’m happy to share some of the images that arose from this unique trio of children as they expressed their distinctive personalities, in their own backyard.

"Back in Your Own Backyard" Austin Portrait Session Part 1

The lyrics to Billie Holiday’s song, “Back in Your Own Backyard” have been inspiration to me…

That bird with feathers of blue

Is waiting for you

Back in your own backyard

You’ll see your castles in Spain

Through your window pane

Back in your own backyard

Oh you can go to the East

Go to the West

Someday you’ll come

Weary at heart

Back where you started from

You’ll find your happiness lies

Right under your eyes

Back in your own backyard…

I have fond memories of playing in my own backyard with my siblings… Making forts out of junk in the woods, running through cornfields, cart wheeling, tire swinging, “treasure” hunting and cherry picking.  I tell people I grew up on a farm. It was a farm to me. There were gardens, pigs, a barn with barn cats and mice, hay bails and fields of corn nearby.  My mom tells me now that it wasn’t really a farm, but just a rented farmhouse. Okay, fine.  This is MY memory though and I’m stickin’ to it. I love this photo of me with my gramma in our backyard.

I recently photographed three children here in Austin, Texas and I’d love to share a little of my experience with you. Their parents have asked me to respect their privacy and not use any of their names and so I won't be using their names.  Mom (we’ll call her Sandra) contacted me after seeing an advertisement in the Austin Kid’s Directory, a great resource for children services in the Austin area. Sandra and her family had recently moved to Austin and was looking for a professional photographer to create unique portraits of her three children. I gladly met with Sandra at her home and discussed my ideas and her dreams about portraits of her children during a pre-consult appointment. One aspect of concern for Sandra was the location for the portraits. She expressed that the house was a rental for the family and that she wasn’t sure if this would be a good location. Sometimes clients are unsure if their home and surroundings are suitable for photographing and I am always glad to take a look during our pre-consult and provide my suggestions. After seeing the backyard and talking with her about what it was she wanted in her photographs I felt confident that this location would work and that the portraits created there would be meaningful to her and her family.

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Consider that the portraits that are going to be the most valuable to you are the ones that are created in a space that is personal to you at the time. There’s no need to wait until you’re settled in your dream home or have the yard and house perfect. I am always going to help create images that are beautiful and meaningful to you. So your child just gave himself a snazzy new hair cut… that could be the PERFECT time to create portraits, in my opinion, because you’ll never forget this time in his life!  Okay, maybe you should wait a week or so, but my point is that these images are for you and your loved-ones and they are a creative document of who you, your children and your pets are right at that moment in your lives. When you look back at these images years later when your children are grown or your beloved pet has perhaps passed on, you have these images to put you right back in that moment. This is something I absolutely love and cherish about photography. I have images of pets that have passed and when I look at images of them I can almost feel their fur between my fingers and hear their bark or purr. I’m thankful for the ability of photographs to trigger these sensations and memories of my loved-ones.

This backyard turned out to be a perfect location for creating portraits of Sandra’s three amazing children. These images will trigger the memories of these children playing with one another in the dappled sunlight with blades of grass tickling their toes...

The joys of refreshing a website

I've been working on refreshing my website....this "facelift" offers me the ability to share more images through improved navigation and organization, include more information, feature larger images, lots of good stuff. Let me just say that it has been quite the process. Even though I am not completely redoing my website, I've spent hours communicating with designers making changes and tweaking those changes. Now that the design is basically finished I have to decide which images to include in the site..easier said than done! Based on the image I just took of my dining room table I think I have a lot of work ahead of me. I have printed out thumbnail images and find it easier to play around with them on the table. This way I can rearrange images, toss the ones that don't "make the cut" and join potential partners with a piece of tape. Sure I could do this on the computer but there is something nice about having these little guys in my hands.  Once I uncross my eyes I'll see this as an overwhelming but exciting process. As long as the cats stay off my table I should be good to go.

I'm looking forward to sharing the new site with you soon!