Picture Perfect

As I see other people's awesome photos for weddings or family portraits or engagements, it makes me really sad that I either don't have the good fortune to be real life friends of an awesome photographer or that I'm not a multimillionarie who can afford to just hire someone to spend a few good hours with us here and there to take some awesome couple and family photographs. I mean, Ben and I haven't had professional photos taken together since our wedding, and the only photos I've gotten since then were my maternity portraits, so you can see my point here.

Bless her, dear Lilah has been in front of a professional's camera exactly ONE time, and that was only because the photographer who did my maternity portraits needed a stunt baby and offered me the session and one picture free if I let her use her to test some swaddling. But I do try my best to take some pictures of her monthly to keep up with her super rapid growth. For her 8 month photos, I really wanted to get some good pictures. Now that she's sitting up so well on her own and smiling a lot and doing all the things that are necessary for awesome photos, I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to take her to my favorite little park and wear some of her cute outfits that are going to waste just hanging in the closet waiting for a "special" occasion. (By the way, I've decided to stop saving cute outfits, too. I was inspired by my friend who takes her baby out in these vintage, handmade baby gowns on a daily basis. I would never do that. But now, I will!)

Anyway, here are a few of the best shots (some of you have already seen, I'm sure!); I just hope that Lilah doesn't wonder when she's older where her studio portraits are when she sees the albums of some of her friends. :-/



I tried so hard to get a real smile out of her, but it just wasn't happening.



"Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa men have named you; You're so like the lady with the mystic smile."



She did enjoy taste-testing the grass, though.



I had big plans for this little rock bridge. Big plans. Lilah, well, she had other plans.



All that good, big girl sitting up she does? Yeah, you can't prove it when she's digging in the grass, looking for snacks.



I think she was annoyed that I kept calling her name and interrupting her studies.



She finally let a smile slip...



And I caught the full on grin.

So that's that. I hope to do one more set of photos outside with her before it gets too cold. We'll see. For her one year portraits, I swear I'm going to spend a little money on her for pro-shots, though. I owe her that!