My good friend added a new little bundle to her family! We did a quick little shoot for her and got some cute ones!

Have you been wanting to get GORGEOUS pictures of your kid(s) or family?! Now is your chance!

I am giving away a FREE photo session, Digital CD and a 16×20 print [an $800 value] to ONE lucky winner and  you DON’T want to miss out on this!

The RULES:

* This contest will be held on FACEBOOK on Melissa’s Fan page. Instructions on how to win will be sent via email

* For kids or families [limit 6 people]

* Entries MUST be from families living in Utah county

* Send ONE picture of the person(s) who you want to win the photo session to m@melissadavisphotography.com. Include the name(s) of the person(s) who will be photographed

* Entries are due July 29th August 7th, at 5:00 pm

Can’t wait to see who enters! If you want to become a fan of Melissa Davis Photography on Facebook, click HERE!

[the fine print: This contest is for new clients only. If you are a photographer or someone in your immediate family is a photographer, you are not eligible]

Wow, it’s been a while! HI to anyone out there who still visits my blog!  This was my first session since February! I love it and I miss it. It’s hard being in Utah with the market so saturated with photographers and I was REALLY happy and excited to get a call from the mom of this sweet baby girl! First, I love babies, so to get to go photograph one is just so fun for me. Second, it is so fun to see families oodle over their new babies, grand babies and GREAT grand babies! Such a great thing all around. Thank you, Audrey, and your fun family for letting me come today and be apart of your day!

This was my first session of 2010 and it was a GREAT one. I really really love these clients, they are just the nicest people you’d ever want to meet and I just felt like I was hanging out at a friends house taking pictures! It was so fun and it doesn’t hurt that these little ones are just the cutest ever!

So here he is…my cute, small, adorable, sweet little new nephew, Scooter. The other day I went to my sister’s to get pictures (a week + after he was born because I had sick kids) and I pulled out my camera to realize that I had forgotten my battery! man! So I went back today. He’s a dream. He’s happy with he’s awake and you can throw marshmallows at him when he’s asleep because he sleeps so soundly! I love new babies and I love them even more when they are my nephew and I get to hold him any time I want!!

This is my sweet, beautiful, new, tiny, cute nephew, Scoooter! I had been planning for months to come and photograph his birth and be there as my little sister welcomed a new baby boy into her family. She was induced this morning and I was keeping track of how far a long she was. I got a text around 1:00 that she dilated to a 4, so I decided to drop my daughter off at a friends and head to Murray so I’d be there with enough time to spare. I hoped in the car and headed North. I decided to make a QUICK stop at Kid to Kid (and it was quick, I was there for 5 minutes TOPS) and then headed to SL. I got a text that she was at an 8 and thought “oh my gosh, that was fast!” and around 7200 South I got a call from my sister saying I’d better get there quick! I was literally 2 exits away (10 minutes) from the hospital. I made it to labor and delivery JUST as she was delivering and they wouldn’t let me in the room! I couldn’t believe it…how heart breaking! Not only was I bummed I wouldn’t be there to take pictures (says the photographer in me), but if you have ever witnessed a birth, you know how AWESOME and AMAZING it is! To have this new body come into the world is simply a miracle and so beautiful! And although I missed it, you bet you’ll be seeing MANY more pictures of this little guy! He’s now my new “model” for newborn pictures! (be prepared Mind…I need to practice lol)! Love you guys!

I didn’t get any questions last week, but I did this week, so HI THERE…here I am today! (OH my gosh you guys! I saved this to publish and never came back to do it! SORRY!!)

1. How do position your newborns to get great shots? Well first of all, you need TIME!! to be able to do newborn shots. I spend at least 3-4 hours at my clients homes when I do a newborn shoot. All newborns are different, but if you get to photograph them, try and do it with in the first 7-10 days of life. The SOONER the better. I always bring a handful of warm blankets, a heating pad and then make sure there is white noise going on. Tell moms before hand to turn up the heat (you might sweat, but when the baby is in his/her birthday suit, it’s much better to have it WARM!). Make sure mom feeds and changes baby before you come. Lot of little steps to set up for a good newborn shoot. As far a positioning the newborns, I still have a lot to learn! Most of the newborns I’ve shot have been not liked me trying to position them, so I’ll just let them do what they want. If you can spend the time to get the baby out like a log, it works a lot better. Okay, so I’m not sure that even answered your question! LOL.

2. How many shots do you generally take when you do a shoot? Um, it depends. I used to over shoot. I just shot, shot, shot, shot until I was for SURE there MUST be something good on there. The funny thing is, that just takes more time to weed through and then you’re tossing so many! Now, with a normal family or child session (not extended family, because there’s more to shoot), I’ll take some where around 60 shots. Another thing is, now I’ll really try and wait for a shot rather than just shoot and hope it turns out. Id rather have to toss an image because of closed eyes or “user mistakes” than tossing just because I took to many!

3. Do you have a studio set-up? & if so, what equipment do you suggest using? Nope, I don’t have a studio set up. I am fully natural light, so when I go into someone’s home, I use my surrounding or if it’s a newborn session (which it is 90% of the time when I go into a home), I will find the biggest window and use my blankets to drape over a couch or pillow or whatever my client has there to work with. One day I would like to have some lights and studio stuff I could bring on location for darker days, but for now, just natural light

Alright! Caught up! Keep them coming and remember you can find all the Q&A’s up top!

Oh this little one was a cutie pie! Almost three months old and such a personality. I love this age, they make all these silly faces and just look like they are really starting to take notice of everything around them. Mom found me from Give Away Today and I’m so happy she did, her and her hubby were so fun to hang out with! We went to Gardner Village and I love that place. I used to live 5 minutes from there and I was excited when mom said she would like to go there for pictures. So many fun and cute back grounds. Thank you guys for letting me take pictures of your cutie pie baby girl!

Ok these ones crack me up! While mom was getting a new outfit or something, dad picked her and had her in his hand like this. I was like “WAIT, do that again!” and I think these are my faves of the bunch because her looks are just too cute for words! In one she had little bubbles coming out of her mouth…who doesn’t like baby bubbles?!!

This next one is so sweet me. In one you can just see her little lip starting to quiver because she wasn’t sure if she was happy or sad with all the picture taking. She recovered pretty quickly and gave me a sweet little smile!

So, on Saturday I got the chance to take pictures for this family. My friend Susan came with me because it was up in Timber Lakes and I was for sure I’d get lost (plus, she was great getting the little ones to look over at me!). Sure enough, we did get lost, but not too bad, so it turned out just great. The family was staying up there for a little vacation and it was gorgeous there! I think the best thing about what I do is meeting new people. I really love to watch families interact and just get to be around people I’ve never met before! I seem to have some of the best clients in the world! Thank you guys so much for letting me take your pictures and for being a great family to shoot.

This is the little newborn of my husbands good friend from work. This was the first time meeting his wife and she was really awesome! So an awesome friend + awesome wife = awesome, sweet, cute, perfect, cuddly, newborn baby boy! [plus any chance I get to hold a newborn baby...I'm there!].Thank you guys so much for letting me come over and take pictures of him!

I’ve got to say, whenever a newborn makes this face with their little hand up by their chin,
I think they are very smart and trying to teach us a little somethin’ somethin’ lol….so cute!!!!!