Amanda Leigh Photography

Leo's 3 month portraits

2011-11-19T20:52:00.001-05:00

My little guy was still feeling photogenic after our Christmas pictures, so we kept going...

More Christmas Photos

2011-11-19T20:44:00.001-05:00

Took out the Christmas decorations and got my boys all dressed up yesterday!

Another of my munchkin...

2011-11-09T23:25:00.002-05:00

Some more from Saturday's shoot

2011-11-09T22:29:00.000-05:00

Here are some more from Saturday. My little one is having a growth spurt (which means lots of daytime sleeping & no night time sleeping) so I've actually had some time for editing.

This year's Christmas card picture...

2011-11-09T00:30:00.003-05:00

We got up extra early on Sunday morning to take our family Christmas picture before church on the bench that was dedicated to our daughter, Eliana.

A few shots from Saturday's shoot...

2011-11-08T15:52:00.005-05:00

The fall is my absolute favorite time to take photographs, the colors are just so beautiful! I photographed one of my former youth group kids & her siblings at an awesome park this weekend. We had a ball discovering new locations, and I loved photographing them. They were such naturals!
I've just started editing, but I couldn't wait to share!

Another great shoot with the G Family...

2011-10-26T13:59:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of photographing these 2 cuties again, almost a year later. They have really grown!

my new bundle of joy!!!!

2011-08-24T16:57:00.000-04:00

Here he is! There will be more photos when I can get feeding times, the older brother, and the sunlight to cooperate. Since it's my own kid, I can cut the session short and try again later if he's not in the mood for photos. This is why I always tell mothers, "it's fine, do whatever you need to do for the baby, we can take a break, I don't mind waiting."

My Crazy Boy

2011-06-18T01:10:00.000-04:00

This is now his only expression for photos:

which I suppose is better than this:

Back at the park...

2011-04-30T18:48:00.000-04:00

Caught some great shots of my son's best buddies

2010-12-27T21:00:00.005-05:00

I just love these images of my son's friends and their mom, such a photogenic family...

what a cute baby!

2010-12-18T17:51:00.008-05:00

I just had the opportunity to do another newborn session, and photograph the big sister too. How cute are these kids?!

Moose's latest photo shoot

2010-12-10T20:46:00.005-05:00

Here are the rest of the photographs from yesterday:

another new favorite photo of my son...

2010-12-09T17:15:00.002-05:00

I couldn't wait until I finished editting the session, I had to post it now. Straight out of the camera, all I had to do was burn the background. Oh, it's so wonderful when he looks at me AND smiles.

and the rest of that gorgeous baby's family...

2010-12-09T11:10:00.003-05:00

If you've been following me for any length of time, you'll notice that I've never shot a large group. But I'm always up for a new challenge & learning new facets of photography, so when my friend asked me to shoot the entire extended family, I jumped right in. And look, we even got her 2 year old to smile! (He was pretty mad that I lied to him about seeing construction vehicles in my camera lens if he looked hard enough.)

lookout, baby fever!

2010-12-09T10:56:00.004-05:00

Also over Thanksgiving weekend, I had the privilege of seeing another friend from high school and meeting new members of her family. She just had the most precious baby girl, and I asked if I could photograph her. It was my first newborn session since my daughter went to be with Jesus, so I don't know what I was thinking, (other than "oh my gosh this baby is so gorgeous, I just have to photograph her!") but God gave me the strength to not only get through, but thouroughly enjoy the session. I almost cried happy tears as I picked her up to soothe & reposition her. This shoot was such a blessing for me. I hope you enjoy the photographs of this beautiful little girl as much as I enjoyed taking them.

One last outdoor shoot before it gets too cold...

2010-12-08T23:48:00.004-05:00

Thanksgiving weekend I met up with a friend I haven't seen since high school to meet & photograph her family. My last outdoor photoshoot of the year. They were brave, because it was pretty cold! The girls were such good sports...we hiked the whole nature trail and stopped several times to ditch the coats for pictures.

some more silly smiles...

2010-11-25T21:47:00.004-05:00

More from my new favorite park...

2010-11-19T15:10:00.001-05:00

addicted to the color pop!

2010-11-18T01:09:00.003-05:00

I've picked up 2 new color pop techniques recently, so I went out in search of beautiful colors to exaggerate!

First is quite possibly my favorite picture of my son (this week):

Just look at all the colors reflecting in the water:

Love this silly grin:

Don't worry, I still love black & white...

The A Family

2010-11-17T15:20:00.005-05:00

I had a lot of fun photographing some friends from church on Sunday. The kids were so cooperative. I thought it would be difficult capturing 4 smiling faces at once, but it worked!

Stacy & Bill

2010-11-16T13:04:00.004-05:00

I had the opportunity this weekend to photograph our good friends Stacy & Bill, such a lovely couple...

more self potraits

2010-11-10T17:06:00.003-05:00

bored? perfect your self-portrait skills!

2010-11-09T22:42:00.002-05:00

The Christmas card photos in the post below were quite frustrating. Not just because my 3 year old wasn't cooperating, but because it's just hard to compose a photo from in front of the camera. So I practiced today. I have other photos I need to edit before I continue with the self portraits, so I'll just post one for now, but I had a break through with the skin softening, and just worked on all my techniques & was quite happy with the finished product, despite the head (and toe) chop...like I said, hard to compose from the other side of the camera!

Finished our Christmas Card Shoot...

2010-11-06T14:16:00.001-04:00

Self-taken Family Photos

2010-11-05T23:16:00.002-04:00

It's really fall now...

2010-11-04T01:11:00.003-04:00

Moose's "DeeDee Sweater"

2010-10-30T00:03:00.004-04:00

It finally got cold enough to get some pictures of my little man in the sweater my mom made him for his birthday, also known as his "DeeDee sweater"...

I'm kind of on a black & white kick lately...

This is his mischevious "I refuse to look at you" look...

smiles & silliness

2010-10-13T23:21:00.001-04:00

the angel i'd been waiting the last 9 months to photograph just grew her wings

2010-08-03T22:45:00.003-04:00

WARNING, REALLY SAD POST, IMAGES MAY BE UNCOMFORTABLE TO VIEW...

For the past 9 months, my family had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of our precious baby girl, Eliana Marie. My pregnancy was perfect, and my labor, after starting and stopping for almost 2 whole weeks, picked up quickly & went beautifully. Everything was fine, and her heartbeat was strong, until just as I was pushing her out, she started moving all over, and they couldn't find her heartbeat. She had aspirated meconium, and her cord was so tight around her neck that she never took a breath.

I had dreamed of the photos I would take of my precious angel, and when I finally got the chance to photograph her, my eyes were so clouded with tears I couldn't see to focus or get the proper settings. Here are the only images I've taken of my baby girl...

Please keep our family in your thoughts & prayers.

my smiley guy

2010-07-05T22:19:00.003-04:00

A quick father's day shoot...

2010-06-25T22:59:00.004-04:00

just long enough to catch a few genuine smiles...

a mini session with my little guy

2010-01-23T14:22:00.003-05:00

we went out to play football today, but first snapped a couple shots out back...he's finally getting old enough to enjoy having his picture taken & actually smiles & looks at the camera...fewer genuine smiles (it's the fake "say cheese" look), but more eye contact, so that's a good thing.

Don't ask me why football requires a baseball glove, i couldn't tell you.

yes, he's up to something!

Christmas card picture adventure...

2009-11-20T16:27:00.003-05:00

You wouldn't know from all the smiles, but we had an uncooperative photo day.
please vote for your fave in the comments, I need to pick one for our Christmas cards. thanks!

When your child does not cooperate, offer brownies. It helps, but sometimes they end up jumping up & down & then you're left with cropped heads:

1.

another good bribe is allowing a favorite toy- although sometimes the child refuses to hold it low enough to keep it out of the picture...

2.
just don't ask them if they know where the camera is (at least I could caption this "Merry Christmas to YOU!")...

the most beautiful baby girl i've ever photographed...

2009-11-16T23:18:00.003-05:00

just look at those eyelashes...

some fun at the park

2009-11-11T22:22:00.002-05:00

my little tree hugger :)

pajama time

2009-11-01T19:59:00.002-05:00

i've been sewing forever, now it's time to get back to photography...

2009-10-28T01:50:00.002-04:00

Random new favorites

2009-09-21T14:57:00.005-04:00

The "D" Family

2009-08-03T10:04:00.002-04:00

Aren't these just the cutest brothers ever?

The "C" Family

2009-07-30T11:53:00.002-04:00

Doesn't this smile just make you melt?

More flowers & my silly boy...

2009-07-30T11:40:00.004-04:00

the many faces of my two year old...

A good friend of mine who's also a photographer had this great idea to get your child to look at the camera- you just say "do you see an elephant in my camera?" well, this is what I got with that:

and this is how we have fun at Grandma's- sweeping the driveway...

and making faces at Poppop...

Flowers & Fun Outside

2009-07-28T23:04:00.004-04:00

These flower pictures are practically SOOC, all I did was resize & sharpen for web...maybe a vignette here & there.

And some of my little guy on his pre-bedtime walk...

Most amazing classic rock band ever, seriously!

2009-07-25T09:38:00.005-04:00

My son & I went to see our friend Mike (our awesome bass player from my previous post) play with his other band, Slym Pyckyns, at Yachtstock. They were absolutely amazing! They did an awesome rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama" and Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean"- and there are only 3 of them! These guys are sooooo talented. Always in photography mode, I brought along my good camera and took all these pictures while holding my wiggly 2 year old...

Fireworks

2009-07-10T20:18:00.004-04:00

My little guy was absolutely terrified...so I got a few pics while he was sitting with Daddy & then mommy duty trumped photography.

Didn't get any pics of the big finale, so I had to photoshop one up:

Quite possibly my fave photo of someone other than my child...

2009-07-09T08:59:00.004-04:00

My friend Mike, the most talented bass player since Paul McCartney. Seriously- come hear for yourself- our band is playing next Friday at The Vine bookstore in Springfield (details here- the vine website) I love this picture because it makes me feel like a real photographer, not just a mom with a camera- really makes me want to get into band photography...musicians are a lot more cooperative than your average 2 year old!

Random fun

2009-06-20T14:52:00.003-04:00

Sheep & Wool Gathering

2009-06-19T13:53:00.005-04:00

My mom is a big time knitter, so she took us to the sheep & wool gathering, which was a great oppurtunity to take photos.

help! there's a llama eating my hair!

my son wanted to join the band!

a beautiful day at the park

2009-06-03T15:57:00.004-04:00

and some yummy berries for lunch:

fun at the zoo!

2009-05-27T23:47:00.001-04:00

beautiful momma to be

2009-05-26T22:06:00.002-04:00

I had the pleasure of taking maternity portraits for my good friend Rita, who is due soon with her second little bundle of joy!

Cousins

2009-05-24T23:36:00.001-04:00

and 2 faves of my baby-

Prom!

2009-05-24T22:21:00.003-04:00

This is my beautiful niece Ashley. I can't believe she is all grown up & going to prom! I remember when her uncle & I were still just dating & we had a 10th birthday party for her at my apartment! Now she's graduating! WOW, I must be getting old :)

Here she is with a bunch of my other nieces & nephews. Apparently in Philly the entire family & all your friends come out to see you off for prom. I only remember my parents being there for mine. This was much more fun!

Hope you had a ball Ashley!!!!

Puppy Love

2009-05-15T08:30:00.002-04:00

New Tricycle

2009-05-09T00:49:00.002-04:00

pretty sure this is the best new toy ever-

and exploring the outside of an old building at the end of our block-

yes, I photograph adults too!

2009-05-04T14:01:00.003-04:00

Some pictures of my bandmates:

my husband (vocals, percussion)

Rita (vocals, percussion)

Tim (lead guitar, vocals, song arrangements)

Holly (vocals)

You saw my pictures in the last post. If you're curious, I'm rhythm guitar, vocals, and song writing. You can learn more about us at savedbygracemusic.blogspot.com

More of that famous sweater...and some more self portraits

2009-04-30T18:13:00.004-04:00

My band recently launched their website (see link on my sidebar) and I had to get portraits of everyone. Here are my self portraits:

and some more of Moose in his favorite sweater:

A new name & a new look!

2009-04-30T14:28:00.002-04:00

I have chosen a new name for my business, instead of Fashiondeeva Photography, I am now Amanda Leigh Photography. I will be making some minor changes to the site, basically providing more information.

Also, look for my work on my band's new website! http://savedbygracemusic.blogspot.com

self portraits & more

2009-03-31T22:56:00.000-04:00

this was taken with my point & shoot, but i just love it! i happened to have my camera with me when i dropped the little guy off in the nursery sunday, and he was playing peekaboo in the playhouse, so i just had to snap a pic:

this was taken with my 50mm 1.8 lens, i was just messing around taking pics of myself, and i couldn't get anymore of my face in the frame because i couldn't hold the camera any further away, but it is one of my fave pictures of myself ever:

Moose's new sweater

2009-03-24T21:17:00.000-04:00

yes, i know my son is super messy. ;)

fun with my new camera lens!

2009-01-06T23:20:00.000-05:00

I love my new lens, I get the best soft backgrounds with it!
And I'm on a black & white kick now. I guess the new camera just gives a better range of tones, so it makes for nice b&w conversions.

Christmas Cards for a good cause!

2008-11-29T14:48:00.000-05:00

If you are a digi-scrapper, please check out my other blog for some quickpage Christmas Cards to raise money for City Team Ministries:

http://fashiondeevasblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/christmas-cards-for-good-cause.html

Thanks & Happy Holidays!

(I'll be back later with more photos)

totally random!

2008-11-12T23:55:00.000-05:00

this is just a random mish-mosh of recent & not so recent pictures. some of Moose from this month, pictures from 3 different trips to Linvilla with some friends, and some from my honeymoon 4 years ago. yeah, random...

Wedding Pictures!

2008-09-06T16:30:00.000-04:00

My cousin got married last month & I got to do the pictures! Fun but busy!

what do you think of this texture effect? I'd appreciate some feedback, thanks:

I also made the mother of the groom's suit:

Newborn Portraits!

2008-08-24T23:24:00.001-04:00

More pictures of someone other than my son!

engagement portraits

2008-07-01T22:06:00.001-04:00

can you believe I took pictures of someone other than my son?

some new tricks

2008-06-27T14:44:00.000-04:00

I recently picked up some new photo enhancing tricks, so here are a couple shots from our recent vacation:

New Pics

2008-06-05T22:24:00.001-04:00

some more from the other day

2008-05-07T21:02:00.000-04:00

here's the painting effect-

more of my favorite- muted color-

my favorite shot from the other day-
an example of a border-

and another black & white-

trying out my new camera

2008-05-07T00:11:00.001-04:00

So my (early) mother's day gift was a new camera for this business I'm starting. I LOVE it!!! Moose & I went to the park to test it out today. He was not that cooperative, but I did get a few good shots.

testing out the macro mode-

refusing to look at the camera-

rocks are fun! (apparently they taste good too- ew!)

Dabbling in photography now.

2008-05-04T23:02:00.000-04:00

I have always loved photography. In fact, I wanted to major in photography in college, but silly me, I thought the supplies for fashion design would be cheaper & it would be easier to find a job as a fashion designer...HA HA HA! Well, now that doesn't matter, I'm a stay at home mom & I'm dabbling in both fields. I've recently really learned what photoshop is supposed to do (i.e. beyond laying out my digiscrap pages.) Here is some of my work.