Charlotte NC and Fort Mill SC Photography | Children's Portrait Photographer Becca Bond | Newborn | Baby | Family Portraits

when my husband and i first moved to charlotte, we befriended this awesome couple.  chris and patrick both were interested in electronic music and fishing and ellie and i just hit it off where we never seemed to run out of things to talk about.   this was long before either of us had a baby, so we spent many late nights drinking wine, playing games, doting on our spoiled dogs, and being carefree young adults together.

life with children limited the time we’ve seen each other in the past few years, and i was thrilled that they chose me as their photographer to make little r’s one year baby portrait.  baby r could not have a more caring, perfect mommy and daddy.  they fill her life with happiness and love.  and she fills them too!  she is one lucky baby. and they are lucky parents….

big sis was filled with giggles and smiles for the camera and wanted to show me everything, including how high she could jump on her bed (sorry, mom!).  she was so sweet and even gave me a beautiful painting as i left her house in addition to the hugs!  what a wonderful way to begin my day!  little sister had classic ’second child’ syndrome…. super laid-back, go with the flow baby, a dream to photograph!  both sisters had bright blue eyes and heartfelt smiles and i just fell in love with them!  

So I take credit for the brilliant idea of having two headstrong toddlers decorate cookies with all kinds of sprinkles.  While I must admit it was a great photo opp, the mess was pretty bad!  One canister of sprinkles thrown onto the floor (by my Willow!) I am STILL finding tiny pink balls rolling around.  Not sure who ate more cookie dough- the girls or my dogs.  I’m pretty positive one of my dogs consumed at least 4 raw cookies.  This is life with kids.  It’s always exciting, even a little messy, but definitely yummy!

Dear New Babies…

I was so happy to have met you!  Your beautiful auntie found me and felt like I would be worthy of making your very first portraits, a very special thing indeed!  The day that I met you, you were surrounded by your great, big, loving, Italian family.  I photographed you on a cold winter day, but we had plenty of cuddles to keep you warm!  When one of you began to fuss, your big brother would help to soothe you.  He loves you so much and is going to teach you so much as you grow!  Your family all helped to care for you and I don’t think your auntie or your grandma wanted to put you down for a second.

Thank you for being so sweet, so new, and so perfectly *you*!  BOTH of you!

XOXO…. Becca

I can’t believe it’s 2010 already!  The past 10 years went by so quickly, it feels like it was just yesterday that we were all gonna party like it was 1999.

Reflecting back on 2009, I feel such intense gratitude.  Truly, I am living “the dream” that I have been chasing for so long.  Being a custom family photographer is the best (and only) job I could ever imagine doing. I sometimes cannot believe the amount of success that I’ve had in this past year.  I pour my heart and soul into my work, and the fact that I am able to stay consistently busy just makes me feel validated and really, really thankful.

I really want to thank *ALL* of my clients.  Thank you for inviting me into your lives, homes, and hearts to take on the important task of creating portraits of your family.  I know the importance of these images, they are more than pieces of art gracing your walls, they are going to be handed down for generations.  ”This is what I was like when I was little” your kids will tell THEIR kids and grandkids one day!  The joy that exudes in those moments where we are all playing and frolicking will forever be preserved as YOUR family! That is your beautiful, joyous, loving family.  What a wonderful way to be remembered!   Thank you for trusting me to make the pictures fantastic even when I ask you to do silly things.  Thank you for the amazing emails and sometimes tearful calls after you receive your galleries letting me know that you appreciate the work that I’ve done.  The feeling that you’ve given ME is just as intense and amazing.  Thank you for referring me to your friends and family, for thinking that highly of me as a professional as well as my photography.

I am so excited about this coming year!  I have some plans that will benefit all of my clients.  One thing that I am going to be working on in the new year is my service to you.  My resolution is to give each client individualized time with me, not just during your sessions, but during the ordering process as well.  The focus this past year was to build, build, build.  This year, the focus is going to be on quality of service.

Another exciting thing that is in place is the work on my wedding photography business with Alicia Williams.  We are called Love As Art, and are looking to book 6 weddings in 2010.  We already have 3 and it’s only January!  Weddings are intense and a lot of work on our end, but also extremely rewarding!  It is a different avenue, and one that was at first very intimidating to me.  I have since completely fallen in love with those falling in love

I wish everyone a joyful, healthy, and prosperous 2010!

XOXO

Everything nice, she surely is.  She had smiles for miles for the crazy photographer lady making noises at her,  and pulled out a whole lotta other expressions too for the camera.  Yep, she definitely liked having her picture taken!  She is a little model in the making!

It’s so hard to believe that these pictures were taken a few short days ago.  The weather has changed a lot since then and we are all in sweaters with the heat kicked on, making that fresh heat smell.  I love that smell.  It’s like the coziness of fall.  My amazing child photographer friend, Alicia, and I took our kids to the Cherry Place Farm in Rock Hill.  Being photo mommies, we of course brought our cameras in tow.  What a beautiful place!  They have animals and even let you feed them, a very talkative donkey, a corn maze, a hayride that takes you to a pumpkin patch, a pumpkin hospital where you can adopt and paint your pumpkin, a big table filled with corn kernels and sifters that provides hours of entertainment for toddlers and younger kids.  And tractors you could ride.  And a rocking chair.  The best thing about it is the owners are so lovely.  If any parents are looking for something fun to do this fall, I could not recommend this more!

With her bff, Olivia.  At least I want them to be BFF’s and I think Olivia’s mommy does too.  Willow just needs to learn to be nicer and gentler to her friends.

Willow’s rockin her rain boots with doggies on them.  She is obsessed with them and wanted to wear them to bed.  I think the doggies have something to do with that.

I swear that I fall in love with each family that I photograph.  This family is no exception.  I love the relationship of these brothers.  Their personalities are so different but they absolutely adore each other.  This is one lucky mother, look at how adorable these boys are!

They were one of those families that were up for anything I suggested.  I love those type of families!

And no family fun day would be complete without a little Dad abuse.  I actually got a little bit concerned for a second, especially when Dad said he couldn’t get up.  But he did, eventually.  

and then Mom made it all better

awww… I love it when people ask me for couple photos during a family session!  I love to see love!

When I met the older sister, she told me to call her Chrysanthemum.  I really don’t know why, it’s not her name or anything.  But what a cool name it would be, huh?  So I obliged.  These girls were a riot.  I had a really hard time narrowing down pictures of them simply because they were all packed full of personality.  These are kids the way that kids should be.  Silly, goofy, adorable, and just plain *fun*!

and I have to post this on my blog just because it cracks me up every time I look at it.  I asked the girls to show each other some love and this is what I get…