This was a shoot that I actually did a couple of months ago, right after my friends were blessed with the birth of their daughter Ruby who entered their lives through adoption. It was beautiful to see the loving bond that already exists between Ruby and her parents, not to mention her proud big sister. This pretty girl was such fun to photograph – even when she was awake, she was posing for me! Thank you, M Family, for allowing me to capture some of these early moments as a family of four!
So, if you can remember back far enough, you will recall that my very first photo shoot on this blog was Baby Ellie at the Botanical Gardens. As symmetry would have it, I just got to photograph Baby Ellie again in what may very well be Sarah Sue Photography’s last photo shoot in St. Louis! Yes, I am moving and will soon be taking pictures in Texas rather than Missouri (so spread the word to your Houston-area friends!). I cannot think of a better final shoot here in the Lou than a beautiful family in a beautiful garden. This shoot just happened to take place on Ellie’s second birthday and… her little brother was able to join in as well! This was my first chance to meet Baby Calvin and he was every bit as sweet as his big sister.
Well, graduation is just around the corner. And I have to say that I was selfishly very excited that my friends Andrew and Melinda wanted to have their engagement session done at our school. It is such a gorgeous campus that holds beautiful memories for those of us that have been there for the last few years. It didn’t hurt that Andrew and Melinda were super fun to photograph – we did lots of laughing which (take note!) leads to lovely and natural smiles. I’m so excited for these two sweet friends to tie the knot!
A couple of weeks ago, I visited my sis-in-law, niece, and nephew in Indianapolis. We had planned to try for a little spring photo shoot but, wouldn’t you know it, the weather was anything but spring-like that weekend. We still tried but the boy-child was not a happy camper in the cold. Nevertheless we ended up with a few sweet shots. This little family is so precious to me. By far my favorite models 
Ya’ll, I love watching babies grow. And I love being given the opportunity to photograph babies as they get older. Remember baby Caroline from this post? That sweet little bundle is now a totally mobile 9-month-old! I met the D Family at Wash U and we had such fun watching Caroline strike a pose with the flowers and lovely campus buildings. Thanks, D Family, for giving me another chance to enjoy Caroline’s sweet smile
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You would never guess it to look at her but my beautiful friend Gina just became a grandmother… twice! These twin baby boys are precious, cuddly, and already loving one another. It was so fun to see them interact and even make identical gestures and facial expressions. Their sweet mama is quickly becoming a pro at caring for all the needs of a newborn – times two. It was beautiful to see the love that is being showered on these boys. Congratulations B Family!
So far, 2013 has been the year of the newborn photoshoot. I have had so much fun meeting precious little ones and capturing their cuteness on film. If all goes well, my next three posts will be newborn shoots. First up: the D Family and their new daughter. We did this shoot the day before Easter and this little one looked like the sweetest Easter decoration, cuddled up in her soft nest Enjoy!
Yes, this is a photography blog. And no, this post does not contain any photos. Allow me to explain myself. As I see it, this blog serves two purposes: to promote my business (yep, I’m a realist) and to share things that I find beautiful. This morning I sat and wrote in my journal about something beautiful. And because of that beauty (that lies very much in the subject matter rather than the writing), I have decided it is worth sharing here. My journal entry is as follows:
This morning I’m thinking about a movie that I randomly decided to watch the other day mainly because it was free on Amazon Prime. Babel – a title intending, I assume, to conjure up our human incapacity to communicate dating back to the Biblical tower. Oddly, though, it made me think about Jesus. (**Spoiler alert** – movie details to follow). The movie starts with two little boys living in a rural part of a North African country. Their father buys a rifle so that they can shoot jackals in order to protect their herd of sheep. The boys feel excited and powerful with the rifle, having been told that it could shoot 200 km. They decide to test it by shooting at a bus that is driving down in a valley. They feel disappointed because they see no effect from their powerful toy – no explosion, no screaming or running or leaping flames. The bus eventually stops, which is the most dramatic immediate result they see. The ultimate results, though, are devastating. This act eventually leads to the death of one of the boys, the near death of a tourist, and a deteriorating international relationship. Clearly, on the surface this has little to do with Jesus. Indeed the parallel is quite limited since the results of the boys’ actions were disastrous while the results of Jesus’s actions are glorious. But I love the example of something so huge, powerful, and far-reaching seeming at first to be so small, even insignificant. I have long thought that if I lived during the time of Jesus, I would probably not have recognized him as the Messiah. Unfortunately, I can so sympathize with the Pharisees who “knew” what they were looking for – a military and political leader who would guide the Israelites to victory over the Romans in true Old Testament style. Big, visible, immediate results. So Jesus’s ministry and message must have seemed not only off the mark but dangerous – “Don’t listen to the man who wants you to wait when we must fight, to trust when we must move, to love when we must conquer, and to continue to hope when the end should be here already!” They must have felt like those little boys, waiting and listening for the explosion; needing some sort of irrefutable evidence that something BIG was happening.
They didn’t know that Jesus’s way was infinitely better. That the effects of his actions – seen and unseen – were farther reaching than they could ever imagine. That Jesus’s intention was not to glorify Israel but to glorify his Father, so that all who know Him can bask in the glow of that glory. That he did not mean to conquer Rome but to conquer death. That He was paving the way toward the day when he himself will dry every tear from the eyes of his people.
Of course, there are parts of this plan that I don’t pretend to understand. More time waiting and hoping has meant more time for people to experience pain, betrayal, hunger, death. More time for us to struggle in a world marred by sin and brokenness. When I think about this reality, I want to shout “Lord Jesus, come quickly!” And yet, on a day like today I see that the snow has melted and small signs of spring are beginning to bud. And it makes me think – what a privilege to get to see this winter coming to a close. What a privilege it is to experience first-hand the depth of brokenness, the biting frost of winter, so that I can begin to understand how incredibly penetrating and life-giving is the warmth of Christ’s love. The tree outside covered with pink flowers is reminding me today that Christ died and he rose. In ways visible and invisible, he is making all things new. And when we are able to see the full story, I have confidence that we will look back on that Easter 2000 years ago and feel blown away, dazzled, overwhelmed by the gravity of that event. Happy Easter indeed.
I will never claim to be edgy. I go by Sarah Sue and love nothing better than taking pictures of babies and flowers. But… I think graffiti is beautiful. Legal/moral debates aside, there is something about color and creativity bursting out of the concrete jungle that I really love. So when I took a trip with a friend to New York City back in 2010, I found myself taking lots of photos of street art. But because I am so entirely un-edgy, I had no idea whether I was photographing anything artistically significant. Luckily, I have friends who are much more culturally attuned than I. And, as it turns out, I saw this:
If you saw the movie “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” you may recognize the entrance to the Mr. Brainwash show in the Meat Packing District. True street art or elaborate ruse? I have no idea. You can read about it here and here and decide for yourself. Either way, I’m happy that we wandered past.
Then there was this:
I took a picture of this subway entrance for the sole reason that I thought “elbowtoe” was an odd and therefore hilarious combination of body parts. As it turns out though, this guy is a street artist by the name of Brian Adam Douglas, a.k.a. Elbowtoe (read about him here).
So in retrospect, we saw some fun and interesting art on the streets of NYC. And with these new discoveries, I wonder what else I captured unwittingly. Anybody out there in the blogosphere have some info on the street art gems pictured below?
We had a snow day in St Louis on thursday! And that means I took a snowy walk through the Botanical Gardens on friday. What a beautiful morning! My friend and I managed to make it to the gardens while the snow was still fresh and undisturbed, making for pristine and peaceful landscapes. Although there are days when this Texas girl misses year-round warmth, beauty like this makes me truly appreciate the four seasons. I took these photos in the Japanese, Chinese, and Ottoman Gardens. Obviously I did not photograph myself, that photo credit goes to my friend Amber (thanks friend!).
