One of the first things I get asked after a session is booked, is “What should we wear!” Usually I point them in the direction of pinterest and tell them to start searching for style boards within that season. Sometimes it works out really well, and other times it leaves my clients dazed and confused. I’ve actually had clients show up with quite a few outfits in their car and ask me what they think. Instead of wasting time looking through clothing during a session, I try my very best to let them know what I think would work best for what they’re trying to achieve in their images. The decision to create my own style boards was out of pure frustration because I couldn’t find what I wanted to for my clients to look at. I wanted to put my own sense of style into it, and I wanted it to be branded with my logo, and some of my wording on it to let them know what I was thinking while I put the board together.

Tonight, I decided to look at Baby Gap, Gap Kids, Gap, and Banana Republic. All of these stores are linked together so when you look at them on the Internet, you can flip through each store. They’re also connected to Old Navy, Pepperlime, and Athleta. It’s such a user friendly website and I urge you to go check it out. What I liked about these stores is that I could make boards for babies, little kids, maternity AND engagement without having to do TOO much searching. The cloths are stylish and up to date, fun and funky, and simply adorable. Basically, I’m in love! Also, these things won’t break the bank. They’re perfectly affordable and will make your portraits look like you’ve had a professional stylist!

So without any more delay, check them out! Tell me what you think and if you like a store, and you want me to make some boards with my suggestions, please let me know! I will be more than happy to do so!

Enjoy!

xoxo,
Lauren
Bokeh Love Photography

Stacy and Jeff had a very special engagement session. Stacy was the winner of my Pin it to Win it – Free Engagement Session Giveaway that I held on Pinterest! I had a huge amount of people trying to win this session and she was the special one that was randomly chosen. I am so happy I had this oppourtunity to meet both Stacy and Jeff. They are so in love, and seriously a gorgeous couple! We met down by the Ocean City fishing pier, and I was basically blown away at how TALL this pier was! I was also shocked that I had never been here. Growing up in South Jersey you would think I would know about how awesome this place is.

After we were done by the pier, we went down to the jetty. It was a perfect day and I am so happy with how these turned out!

Thank you both for trusting me to capture this moment for you and I hope you love these images as much as I do!

xoxo,
Lauren
Bokeh Love Photography

Oh, Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day is that one-day that we get to reflect on how amazing we are! We created LIFE! We raise these children, and never get a break. We get up, get them ready for school, feed them, feed ourselves if we are lucky, change their diapers, help them brush their teeth, drop them off at school, get to work, pick them up from school, feel them dinner, play with them, love them, talk to them, listen to them, brush their teeth, get them in bed, hope they stay in bed, then lull them to sleep when they get out of bed… and finally, we are aloud to, we try to go to sleep, just to get up and do it all over again! (Ya know, or how ever your schedule is). I love being a Mom. I love that I am able to stay home and be a Mom. I love that I am able to work from home, and be there where they need me, whenever they need me, whatever TIME they need me. I love it, and I wouldn’t and couldn’t change it, ever.

I take beautiful photos of children, all the time. I take pictures on the beach, in a park, in the woods, in people’s backyard, and even at the zoo and on playgrounds! I make these beautiful images for everyone (and trust me I LOVE doing it) but It’s so difficult to get pictures of my own kids! “The Shoemakers kids have no shoes?” Yep, that’s me. It takes so much time to get my kids ready, get them to behave, get them to stop crying, hitting each other, yelling at each other, and stand still long enough for me to snap a few photos. Well, until I learned how to use my camera of course. It’s still difficult but now, I know how to set my camera correctly, to not get a hand of blur, or a jumping child’s face in motion. It really did just one day click in my head, “oh. Duh. THATS what I’m doing wrong?” Yes. That simple. (And Yes, I shoot FULL manual, no modes for me, I control exactly how I want my pictures to turn out, because my camera is just a tool, and I am the artist that drives it).

Anyway, Today I set out to get pictures of my babies. You won’t believe the location. It’s gorgeous; it’s lush, overgrown and fun. It’s my parent’s backyard. The place I grew up. It was a lot more maintained back then, but I love that you can’t see the fence, and there is all of this earthy green everywhere. It’s really neat and makes for amazing photos! I tell everyone not to worry what the background in a photo looks like, because it’s really focused on the person IN the photo, and not the background. The background is just extra anyway. It’s for fun, and it’s just for color. So after my parent’s backyard, I went to the campground, because seriously, the campground has the BEST scenery. There is this amazing strip of dirt called the landing. It’s great, it takes you out by the river, which is fabulous for photos – and how lucky we were that it was high tide! Like, super high tide!

So, Happy Mothers Day to me! I succeeded and got AMAZING photos of my babies. Their Daddy is definitely going to be happy and I’m just so proud. By the time we got home, the baby was knocked out, and our big girl, well, she thought she deserved an Oreo, so we had some Oreo’s together before she got tucked into her warm bed.

Love these photos SO MUCH – check them out!

XOXO,
Lauren
Bokeh Love Photography

My husband is pretty amazing. He doesn’t know much about my camera; actually he know’s NOTHING at all! He does operate my SnapBooth for weddings, however everything is already setup by me ahead of time and ready to go. He just stands there, to make sure nothing goes wrong , operates the touchscreen and he gets to talk to people all night long! It’s a great gig for him and he LOVES doing it. As far as my camera, he’s clueless. I own the D4, and its a fabulous camera. But if you’ve never shot on something like that before, well, it can be pretty intimidating! So, I basically gave him a mini mentoring session. I taught him a little bit about exposure, aperture, and ISO. I also explained what to focus on and why, and what the focus boxes look like, where to stand to make your subject look good (and feel good when they see their photos) and also about light! What to avoid and what to fall in love with!

He had a great time, and I honestly couldn’t believe how beautiful his photos came out. I mean, I wasn’t surprised, because I explained everything to him. For me though, getting in front of the camera is very scary. I take pictures of people ALL THE TIME, it’s what I do and I love it! But we all have these self images of ourselves that no one sees but us. The mirror is our own enemy. I see my self in the worst ways and I shouldnt. I’m a normal female though, and we all think this way. After seeing these photos, I realized I shouldn’t.

What I see when I look at these photos, is a professional photographer, a mother, a daughter, a granddaughter, and ever-changing girl who is getting older and wiser, a wife, a friend, and an all around positive person. I don’t see the person in the mirror thinking negative things. I don’t see the girl who can’t find anything to wear, and I don’t see anyone would I wouldn’t want to be. I love who I am, who I have become, and who I am going to be. I am proud, confident, and cannot wait to get more photos taken of me. It’s a mood booster AND a game changer.

I am so happy that my husband had fun doing this, and I hope he would like to do it again. I had a blast explaining to him why to do certain things and why not to do others. He’s such a good sport, and I love him so much for being so interested in what I enjoy doing. He is such a great support system. I am so happy I married him. What a good choice! So here they are, the images he took of me! I am very proud of them!

XOXO,
Lauren
Bokeh Love Photography

He also took two of our baby, and I just have to post these! She is such a ham!