And here it came! I didn’t even mind getting out in gale winds and a downpour this morning.

If you’ve never seen the images I take at Bull Creek–you’ve gotta go look. It’s an amazing location. I even held a Nature Write In there with some fellow NaNoWriMo novelists last November that was featured on About.com.

The special is $95 and includes a portfolio of images that you get to keep. It runs from March 8-20 and April 18-20. There are so many options at Bull Creek–towering rocks, the creek itself, long sections of grass, and of course the waterfall.

Go look at the appointment schedule and find yourself a slot!

But the main thing was that Sandy had a Baby Plan I could live with.

See, many of you moms would come to me, upset at some other photographer you felt “locked in” with because you bought a plan. And I vowed never to let that happen to me. So I never offered a plan.

Then a funny thing happened–over and over you all asked for one with me!

I have whole-heartedly adopted Sandy’s version of the plan, which is flexible enough that you can drop by Sears if you just can’t make it in without feeling you lost something, but discounted enough that it’s worth your while to prepay.

Here’s the scoop! You can always learn more at the Baby Plan page on the web site.

The Baby Plan includes the following sittings, image, and discounts:

~ Three portrait sessions with Deanna at 3 months, 6 months and 1 year (regularly $65 each)
~ One 10×20 mounted composite image showcasing your three favorite poses from the year (regularly $110)
~ Free Madonna portrait sitting of mother and child if baby brought prior to six weeks ($65)
~ 1/2 Price Maternity Sitting Fee and 20% off Maternity Images
~ 50% off the Year of Baby Story Book and DVD (save $250)

$145

Maternity shoots vary so much between the serene peace-mama images and the silly kiss-the-belly (or even paint-the-belly) variety. They are all fun and lovely, and it’s up to Mom to decide how to portray her pregnancy memories.

Newborns are a whole different animal! Some moms will be in and out in half an hour, as their sleepy babies snooze right through. That is, however, only one out of ten moms.

The rest of you will be here close to two hours, soothing an unhappy infant who doesn’t want to be set down for anything! In those cases we tend to average, oh, two shots every twenty minutes. But always, a magical thing happens, and baby finally gets through a bout of hunger or upset tummy, and settles into a calm alert phase. 80% of your shots will be taken during that golden fifteen minutes. It always happens. We just have to be patient!

I’ve spent the last ten days working on the Story Book Albums. I’m halfway through a sample album for Elizabeth. Since I’ve finally gotten a handle on making the backgrounds, setting the text, creating new photo edges, and hammering out the custom cover specs, hopefully future ones will go a *little* faster. I’ll be putting up a gallery showing her entire book when I’m done. Along with the Babies and Bellies special, moms who come will get a coupon for 50% off the price of the story books.

The special runs through February and with the $65 sitting fee, you will get a free 8×10 and three baby book prints (you choose 4×5 or 5×7 size.) Saves you $78! The special is for pregnant mamas or babies up to six months. (No worries moms with older babies–your specials are coming up!) If you’re pregnant but this is the wrong time for you, or if you’ve been looking for a baby shower gift, you can buy a $65 Babies and Bellies gift certificate and still get the free prints any time between now and Sept. 30.

I can’t wait to photograph all these happy beginnings!

I received a gift certificate to A Better World for helping with National Novel Writing Month. Last night I logged in and was amazed at the enormous selection of used books, CDs, and DVDs you could get–many under $5, and free shipping in the US–eco shipping, they call, it, as they search for shipping methods that leave the smallest carbon footprint. You can also ship anywhere in the world for $3 per book. Each title you drop in your shopping cart will list the charity that benefits from your purchase.

For my $15 gift certificate I bought four books. I can’t recommend this site more highly for classic or out of print books.

Naturally, though, for living authors trying to make enough money to keep writing, I recommend you buy new copies to support them (or ask your library to purchase a copy for you and others to enjoy)–and the best case is if you can support a local independent book store.

I bought some Roald Dahl and a couple books blog readers had recommended, and a classic short story collection. Merry Christmas to me!

I’d blown out lights, broken cameras, dropped flashes. I’d gone through monitors, backdrops, and umbrellas.

But the tickle monster remained.

I know, some kids didn’t like him. But they were rare. Most thrilled to his funny lambswool fuzzies. They giggled and grasped at him. I got smiles when we thought there could be none.

But he’s gone.

It’s my fault, totally. I left him hanging in a tree at Boulder Park during the snowman shoots. Left like an old shoe. He deserved better.

Except now I have a BETTER one! And he’s BLUE! Like Cookie Monster!

I LOVE my new tickle monster.

And so do babies!

(But I still feel bad for forgetting the old one.)

Come see him!

For those of you following the Ho Ho Ho prop debacle, boy, this has been the year for making difficult props. I swear next year I’m going to hop on to some photography online store and buy ready-made stuff. But probably by next November, I will have totally forgotten about my grapevine snowman craziness and the glitter explosions for Ho Ho Ho, and insist that yes, I will make my own things and not go with store-bought scenes.

Nobody hold me to that, though.

Here is Ho Ho Ho in all its glory. You can run it in color, or, as I also envisioned, take it in black and white with hand colored letters (and hats, if you went for hats!) I chose the black and white version as a sample card.

This year I also have new ornaments and a new textured style card–oh it’s beautiful!

Here are all your links to get straight to where you need to go in preparation for photographs.

See the new ornaments and another Ho Ho Ho sample, as well as all the holiday options.

Go straight to the holiday schedule to choose your appointment time. You can call or email me with your choice.

I can’t wait to see how your little ones have grown!

The fun part of October is to watch the seasons change, as always happens during this fall special. We start out in the 90s, families sweating in their long sleeves to make their holiday cards look right (even though we could very well be wearing shorts for Thanksgiving.) Then it always happens that just before the final weekend of the special, we get a cold snap. And today was it!

I’ll find out in the morning if I need to cancel my Tuesday shoots at the park due to rain–cross your fingers that the weather tidies up just a touch. We’ve had lots of rain this year, and hopefully that means a beautiful bluebonnet season again in the spring.

But here are lots of examples of some of the images I’ve taken so far at the special, some at people’s homes, some at Bull Creek, and others nearby in a neighborhood park.

Thanks to all the families who’ve been coming. We’ve really had a lot of fun with the shoots and phooey on Zilker–who needs the crowds, the hard time parking, and certainly the unexpected $50 fee to shoot there. Yes, it’s lovely, but so is most of Austin. We just live in a beautiful town.

This past weekend was delightful weather for outdoor shoots. At the park, a mom taught a daughter how to play soccer, a dad tried mightily to get a butterfly kite aloft, and many joggers stopped to stare at Not-Frosty, my Texas snowless snowman! They found him very amusing.

I still have two more weekends of the outdoor special for the reduced rate of $65. Visit the page with sample images and the schedule and see if there is a slot for you!

Just, well, not out of snow. 

With all the craziness going on in Austin with the various parks charging fees (Zilker $50 per session, Mayfield park’s fee is pending with the City Council but rumored to start in October–no one would confirm), I knew I’d have to find an alternative place for photographing my fall special.

And knowing we’d be losing the bridges and scenic byways of Zilker Botanical Gardens, I wanted to have some fun new things for your holiday cards (although he’s definitely optional!)

Not-Frosty took twelve hours and $100 worth of grapevine to make! But I love him, and when he isn’t on duty on photo shoots, he’ll take up residence on my porch.

I hope you like him too! The $65 sitting special runs through October. You can see the appointment schedule online.

I am always eager for the bluebonnets to arrive. Fields of flowers make any drive better, and since I am often on Loop 360, I get an eyeful every time I go anywhere.

Last night, though, after spending hours working on bluebonnet portraits shot during my special, I dreamed of lying in a field of them and they loomed, menacing, flying into my face.

I guess too much of any good thing can be traumatizing.