MY FAMILY AND THE FIELD [Jake & Monica Brown, Pensacola Photographers]

This session, MY session, embodies everything me.

How I live.

How I love.

How I work.

I had been trying to figure out how to have some family photos taken that would reflect who we are as a family as well as my style as a photographer. Since every photographer has their own style, the answer seemed to be [take them myself]. Easier said than done.

Then I passed this field one day. And it all clicked. I couldn't wait until the weekend to take my family out there and just photograph them [being]. The interaction between my children simply takes my breath away. God knew what he was doing when he made them and gave them to ME.

play play play. that is what we do all day.

Jake and Luke are quite the pair. Every day when Jake walks in the door, Luke goes running with arms wide open saying "da- deeeeeeee!"

ahhh. my people :)

You can't be in a field this large and not find at least one tiny lady bug.

nature lesson, kids!

my sweet boy

LOVE this image of me and the kids. LOVE it.

So glad Jake is a good photographer too.

Turns out I take my family photos with my camera set on top of our old trusty diaper bag.

so simple.

so us.

And for those of you that faithfully follow my blog [thank you!!!] you will have to humor me.

I am sending this link to my entire family so I felt I must include these again.

My very favorite of Reagan.

Oh, how she is FULL of joy :)

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I know it must seem I posted every image from the session, but not hardly.

If you would like to see the session in its entirety:

click here to go to the website

ENTER SITE

click the [client] tab

enter the password: myfamily (all run together and no caps)

Enjoy!

I do not reorder the images. I leave them in the order that I took them so that you can watch the magic unfold :)

Now that I think about it, this was the perfect post for EARTH DAY :)

delightfully,

Monica

PURPLE FLOWERS & MY SWEET GIRL [Monica Brown, Pensacola Photographer]

So THIS is the whole reason I went back to find the perfect field.

I passed this field of beautiful purple flowers while I was out last week and I just couldn't get these images out of my head. I knew Reagan would LOVE them. And I was right.

She was SO CAREFUL walking through them. It would have been a tragedy to step on even one.

I couldn't narrow my favorites down. I just love the progression. How she moves through the openness at her will. How she looks so happy and carefree.

I love that she chose her jewelry. A necklace she made last year at Summer Fun Week at church.

Can't you just HEAR her laughing :)

I think this is what being a KID is all about.

Being free to be you.

Being LOVED by your parents.

Being ADORED by your brother.

All I can wish as a parent is to provide my children with a happy and secure home in which they can grow and become who they are meant to be.

delightfully,

Monica

TUESDAYS [Monica Brown, Pensacola Photographer]

So this is how we spend our Tuesdays. We just play. That's it. Yesterday we were fortunate enough to have beautiful weather and wonderful friends join us!

Can you imagine? Boys. Climbing. Who would have guessed?

The boys held down the fort while the girls blew HUGE bubbles!

Hmmmmm. Looks like the bigger girls ganged up on the little girls....

Well hello there little [L]!

We had a blast! The kids played. The mommies talked. Fun was had by all :)

I love Tuesdays.

delightfully,

Monica

MARDI GRAS FUN [Monica Brown, Pensacola Photographer]

Here is just a sneak peek at a downtown session from last week. Little [L] went to her very first Mardi Gras and brought back some tasty souvenirs.

delightfully,

Monica

RUB A DUB :) [Monica Brown, Pensacola Photographer]

Don't you just LOVE everyday fun?

I do.

Nothing special except their expressions.

Happy Tuesday :)

delightfully,

Monica

WHAT WE'RE UP TO [Monica Brown, Stay at Home MOM]

**edited** Did anyone see Reagan the first time they looked at this photo? She sure is sneaky :)

As most of the US is under several feet of snow, we are eagerly awaiting our flurries :) It is too cold for my taste for the kids to play outside very long, so we made a day of just playing with our thousands of toys. AND we pretended we were monkeys.

TOTALLY against the rules to climb over the back of the couch, jump on the couch, etc. But they look so darn cute doing it I just had to get out the camera. Now I have encouraged it. Oops.

Hope your day is just as delightful ;)

Monica

THE DAY IT GOT EASY(ER) [Monica Brown, Pensacola Beach Photographer]

Exhale.

Today brought me such joy. I will do my best to describe it...

The kiddos (and me) have been sick this last week. Wiping noses and breathing treatments have abound. This morning Luke woke up at 5:20 coughing so we began the routine again. Up and at'em to get Reagan to preschool. Only a few minutes late today :) Then Luke and I ran errands to get lovelies for the impending guest room :) For all of you planning to head to my house for the beach this summer, you will have a nice guest room to relax in, instead of an air mattress. My dad is already excited. We headed back to get Reagan and then straight to the beach. Oh, what a wonderful day! It was beautiful and sunny. How I love Florida. We went and played at the beach in February...and had to take our jackets off. It was so peaceful. The sound of the wind, waves crashing and my children's laughter. I stopped and soaked it all in. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.

I. cannot.believe it. I asked her to look at me...and she did...with a smile! And a REAL one at that!

Really Mom? At the beach? Can't you JUST play????

LOVE this one. LOVE it.

Reagan is ALWAYS one step behind. Or on top. She doesn't realize how much taller she is how LONG her legs are..and all of a sudden she catches him. Wham. Down they both go. But not this time...









I can't help but fall in love with an image of BOTH of my kids. With that adoring look his eye. She is his favorite person. The winter sun, the shimmer on the water, the fish-eye distortion of the lens. This is going on the wall.

Gotta get this kid some sun glasses. He has my sensitivity to light, thus the watery eyes.

For those of you that know me well, you know I have been battling extreme fatigue. Naps have been necessary, not just nice. The last few days I have been able to not only stay awake all day, but not have my head laying on the table during dinner. A simple change in when I took my medication did it (and my kids now sleeping through the night). And the doctors had me prodded all summer trying to find something in my blood! I was too tired of to think of the easy fix myself. Geez. But all is starting to become "normal" in my life. Today was the first day I have not only had the energy to stay awake, but I got to play with my kids at the beach too.

I'll take it.

delightfully,

Monica

DOWN TIME [Monica Brown, Pensacola Photographer]

What a wonderful Christmas it was! I did my best to do nothing. Just enjoy my family. And it couldn't have been better.

We played outside as much as possible (with all of the rain over the break) and had a blast. The kids got a sandbox from Grandma and Grandpa :) I LOVE outdoor toys!

Reagan likes to bake sugar cakes in the sand.

And this is one of the few times Luke actually sits on his bottom to go down the slide. He can climb the ladder all by himself now and just can't wait to get down the slide...so he goes head first! I would have posted a pic of that, but with his hat on, you can't see his smiling face at all!

I am loving my new camera Santa brought. These photos are straight out of the box. No editing. Super sharp and vivid. LOVE. IT.

I'll try to get back to "work" one of these days and post some more photos, update my site etc. For now, gotta go play with the kids and their new toys!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

delightfully,

Monica

WHAT MATTERS MOST [Monica Brown, Pensacola Photographer]

I have been doing my BEST to SLOOOOOW DOOOOOOWN this Christmas Season.

I know. Everyone does...but ends up being "busy."

Have you ever stopped to think about just what it is that you are doing? How you are prioritizing things? People??? Well, I hadn't really. Until lately. I realized I was putting unimportant things, really, in front of other things and more importantly PEOPLE that mattered most. What a wake up call.

I'm not trying to be preachy here, except to myself, because I deserved it. I have to say, now that I have a better perspective, I have not been in front of this computer hardly at all. Just to get final client promises taken care of. And now to post some photos I took of the kiddos the other night in their cutie Christmas jammies :) I used my new Canon 5D Mark II (jaw dropping capabilities!!!). I am very thankful for a husband who is soooooo supportive of my "work." :) Thanks honey!!!

**these photos are totally unedited. Straight out of the box. LOVE this camera!

for you photogs - night, no flash, and ISO 4000! (again, jaw dropping!) Hardly any grain! My old camera doesn't even go this high, and is a total grainstorm at ISO 800.

Here are my JOYS

f 2.8 at 1/60 with ISO 4000!

Luuuuke! you messed up the bow!

I just can't believe how good these turned out with those settings! This is my new "point and shoot!"

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!!

delightfully,

Monica