It brings me such JOY to know that this PRECIOUS Baby is my namesake.  And her mother’s too.  :D  I love her sweet mother, she is like the little sister that I never had and she says that I am like her Big Sis too.  So sweet.  I thank God upon every remembrance of these two.  LOVE them!!!  Here are some of my favorite images from their recent visit.  

Isn’t Mommy beautiful?  Love, LOVE those freckles!!!

Chillin’!!!!

Not Chillin’!!!  Every baby needs a serious crying shot.  Poor baby………

NOW BUTT HAPPY!!!!  O- I wish that I could pat that bottom.

LOVE YOU SWEET  BABY LANA!!!!!!!

I am so happy that Baby Lana and Mommy are here to see us.  It is wonderful.  I have loved Mommy for years.  She is a dear friend that I absolutely adore.  Smart, beautiful, sweet, caring and most importantly, a Godly woman.  I admire her in so many areas of her life.  Michele is the best wife & mother, taking the blessings that God has given her cherishes and nurtures them.  She also takes amazing care of herself too.  I am praying that some of her healthy lifestyle rubs off on me while she is here.  Michele also is a sharp, SHARP business woman with amazing talents to lead and educate.  Stellar is the word that comes to mind but falls so short of describing her to you all.  And now Lana….  I LOVE her too.  I look forward to watching her grow and loving her more.  Isn’t she beautiful?!?!?!

What an adventure it was to photograph these gorgeous kids. FULL of personality and a little mischief. I left with a bruise or two but I have to say it was MORE than well worth it. I got one of my all time favorites at this session. I love how the twinkle was in their eyes as they were planning their next surprise. Come to find out they were trying to get each of the other to KISS me. HOW SWEET is that? I REALLY LOVE how this image turned out. I KNOW that Mother will too. I think that it belongs as a HUGE framed canvas for their home, but which do they choose, black and white or color. I typically am all about COLOR but their Mother loves Black and White. I have a hard time letting color go but I do have to admit that I do love the Black and White one too. What do you think?

Here is another example. Color or Black and White? Hard to decide, right? But one very easy conclusion to draw is that this little girl is AN ABSOLUTE DOLL!!!!!!!!

I love this series.  So sweet.

AND in Color!!!

AND HOW HANDSOME IS HE????????????

AND a BIG HAM!!!  What a FUN little guy!  The last image in this series = BRUISE for me.  LOL  Not on purpose, I am SURE!!!

He is a seriously Cute KUNG FU MASTER.

ANOTHER Bruise……….  But look at how much fun he was having. 

Such an ANGELIC smile.  Such a sweet face and little girl.

I LOVE having sessions in the clients home.  They are surrounded with their LIFE.

And the kids are sooooo much more comfortable being in their environment.  They are relaxed and are able to let their little personalities emerge.  And that is MAGIC!!!

I had to add this one because I did this just for this little guy.  When he was in his Kung Fu character, he continuously said, “Want some of this!?!?!”.  I know that this one will be his FAVORITE!!!!

And she is PRINCESS everything. Such a Girly Girl. I think that she will especially like that I caught her magic wand in action.

Beautiful…..

I Love the color!!!  Or Black and White????  HOW about BOTH!!! 

Thanks to the “B” Family and especially these two CUTIE PIES!!!!!  I had a great time and look forward to future sessions.

HUGS and LOVE,

Shara Lana

A man was exploring caves by the Seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn’t look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.

He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock . Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!

Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.

Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!

It’s like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn’t look like much from the outside.. It isn’t always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.

We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.

There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them.

Duke Gardens is such a beautiful place. I met this lovely family there for a Family Portrait Session. It was the first time any of us had visited and we were all very impressed. Simply Gorgeous. And admission is FREE! Great family outing.