Simple to do. Just 6×9 photos with narrow borders (added in Photoshop), Scotch tape and a boldly colored wall. Viola! Pretty photo wall. Done.

1. You have two possible votes on any image. One LIKE the photo, two COMMENT on the photo.

2. Go to this page  and find your favorites.

3. Be sure to share our contest with your family and friends so they can vote, too!  *This contest is anonymous unless the child’s parents choose to tag themselves or share. Please do not identify the children without their permission.

4. Don’t forget to “Like” Anna Mayer Photography on Facebook and follow the action. We love our fans! Note, if you already “like” Images by Anna, we have discontinued that page. Anna Mayer Photo is the page to “Like”.

5. If you would like to be entered in the drawing for a complimentary session, when you leave a comment on your favorite, note “We’d love a session with Anna.” or similar and we’ll know you’re interested.

6. Votes will be tallied on Saturday, after 11:59 pm. You can keep on “Liking” but  they just won’t be counted in the contest.

Happy voting!

*My sweet neice. This photo doesn’t qualify, since they already get a pretty sweet deal on sessions and, well, they’re family. But I had to share.

Note: There are a couple of families with more than one image submitted. If more than one of their images is in the top 12, only one image will be submitted. Any “Likes” or comments that are removed after voting will not be counted.

I’ve been doing this job since 2002. When I started (with film) being a photographer was a pretty awesome and novel thing. I was the only photographer that most people I met knew of. My grandfather and great-grandfather were both photographers; the kind that learned their craft over many years and in an old-fashioned darkroom. I was proud of my job. I worked for many years, read a hundred books, spent thousands of dollars on film and took classes to learn my craft. Things have changed. In the last five years it seems that rather than hearing “Oh, you’re a professional photographer? That’s so cool!” when I meet someone, I hear “Oh, my sister, cousin, grandma, neighbor and wife are all professional photographers.”  Neat-o. Not. Of course, what someone considers a professional in the world of photography is 100% subjective and skill and quality run the gamut. None-the-less, I am not going to lie, it gets me down. I don’t want to be just another fill-in-the-blank-blah.

As I dug through my old files (I had to find the 2007 session on a DVD, ha! Now that is old) and hard-drives something happened for me. I had just captured this family in November, so their faces were fresh in my mind. What I saw in those old photos nearly made me cry. I saw a young husband and wife holding their new little son; a family that had just been born.  I saw joy as their second son was kissed and snuggled by his toddler brother. I saw a tired but happy couple, arms filled with busy, active, growing boys that could barely be contained.  I saw them all gather around a tiny baby girl as this young family expanded to five.  I saw the happiness and the wonder of that first baby boy, now nearly five years old, as he jumped so high on the bed, the so-grown-up little brother with a great smile and soft kisses for his baby sister, the only girl, nearly walking now, looking so much like each of her brothers in turn. As I drew those photos together into a gallery a few thoughts filled my heart:

1.  I am given an amazing privilege to be invited into the lives of families. I mean, really; wow.

2. No one else, no other photographer, no matter how expensive or cheap or talented or not, would have captured that family in the same way. No one else could  have captured that family with my eye and my heart and my style.

3. People who take the time and spend the money to get their family photographed regularly end up with an amazing collection that is priceless in every way. A designer couch will be junk in five years (especially with kids). A collection of amazing photos will bring you joy throughout your lifetime. They are the lucky. . . ahem, wise . . . ones!

4. Life with kids is fleeting. Really. Look at these photos; just “last week” they held their first baby and now he’s registering for Kindergarten! I know it is hard for these clients of mine, deep in the trenches of parenthood, to grasp how fast it goes when they have one, two, three (or four or five) children hanging off them, monopolizing their time, their money, the real estate in the family bed. It is my hope, none-the-less, that they will somehow remember to savor it, if just a little, and to soak it all up as best they can.

5. Perhaps the photos I capture will help them do that. Maybe I am making a difference with my photographs, my eye and my heart. I think I am, actually.

So, after today, I am going to stop caring about how many “professional” photographers there are in the world, in my town, on my street, and I am going to remember that there are a whole lot of beautiful families that have allowed me (and will continue to) to be the one to help them remember and that I am doing something great, one photo, one amazing gallery of joy, and one family, at a time.

*Recently one blogging mom with three young kids hanging off of her wrote in her article in the Huffington Post; Parents titled Don’t Carpe Diem about how annoying it is to hear from older mothers that she should “Enjoy every moment because it’s over before you know it.”  While I totally get what she is saying, I am one of those people who wants to shout it out  to all parents with young kids (with one modification: Savor the special moments, because, let’s be real, I don’t really savor the memory of being vomited on or my six month old throwing four jars of baby food on the supermarket floor just to see what would happen or my two and three year olds drawing a race track from one end of the hall to the other with a sharpie. Wait . . .  that’s not true, now that it’s all over I actually do kind of savor those memories . Darn, I’m an old lady with her hand on her heart!

Isn’t my boy just so handsome?  I always new he was going to be one handsome man, but he turned out to be a man with a good heart. He’s funny, sweet, a great friend and a wonderful big brother. He is a brilliant engineering student and an amazing photographer. He has a bright future ahead of him and I cannot wait to see who he becomes. Happy Birthday, Ty-guy!

As we get deeper into fall, my schedule is going predictably crazy. Photoshoots galore! So fun. I have sessions with all of my awesome clients here in Milwaukee and I am just finishing up a week of shooting like crazy in San Jose, CA. Wish me luck!

Don’t you just want to go hang out with this little family?

So these photos hold a special meaning to me. My childhood played out by a new generation, splashing on the beach, swimming in the warm, fresh water. Ahhhhh . . . The Lake.

Funny story about Minnesotan’s habit of dropping everything on a hot summer day. When we moved from the Iron Range to the San Jose area in January of 2001, I was so delighted by all that January sun. Each day Isaiah and I would “drop everything” and head out into the beautiful sunshine. We didn’t have a lake to enjoy, but we played at the park, went to Happy Hallow, took leisurely walks. It was delightful. After a week, and then two, and then a month, my laundry was really piling up, the dust was taking over my home and everything was in a real mess. I realized, then, that I wasn’t in Minnesota anymore. In California I would have to clean my house, even in the sunshine, because, well, it was apparently here to stay.

Now, I am off to California for a week of family photo sessions. Being a children’s photographer means that in October, November and December, you pretty much go wild taking photo. Fall is our busiest season and it is just so fun! I love what I do, so of course, I love getting to do it for so many families. Fun fun fun!

When I learned of  this month’s blog carousel theme I knew in an instant which images I wanted to share. My glorious golden images of Wisconsin in Autumn. Last weekend my husband and I took a rare Sunday off from church and home projects and MBA studies and catching up on work  and instead, took a day trip to Door County. We packed up the kids plus the teenager’s sweet girl-friend, Mary, without whom I knew my teenager would wilt and whine about hiking and apple picking and general family-togetherness (hint to parents of yet-to-be-teens, this is an effective strategy for good behavior). We left early in the morning and came back late in the night and we had an amazing time.

My husband and I have lived in many beautiful places. When we met, we both lived in west-central Minnesota where the snow is deep and the sunsets are spectacular. In our early years of marriage we lived in the Minnesota Iron Range, where reclaimed mine-pits turn to majestic lakes with red, yellow and orange cliffs and “mountains” as it’s shores. Just a short drive north is the Boundary Waters Recreational Area, a nearly untouched natural wonder of lakes and rivers and virgin forests or south to the largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Superior, the most glorious body of water I’ve ever seen.For nearly a decade we lived in the San Francisco bay area where the Pacific ocean’s shores, highway 1, redwood groves and lush green valleys surrounded us as we lived our lives. Now, just two miles from our front door is Lake Michigan, a lake so beautiful it takes my breath away, and just a three hour drive north is Door County, a beautiful upper Midwest vacation destination that, although we’ve been here more than two years, we’d never seen.

Despite living in beautiful places with all sorts of natural wonders to behold, we, like so many others, get busy with our lives and don’t always take the time to see what lies just past our own neighborhoods. We lived in the Iron Range for two and a half years but we never canoed the boundary waters. We’ve always regretted it. Regret is pointless, though, isn’t it? So we’ve decided to make it a point to get out and see what’s there. To know, with authority, why we live here, why, with no one telling us we must or even should, we chose Wisconsin as our home. That’s what we did and oh, it was good!

Our day trip is high on my list of my favorite days of my life. We packed a picnic and after enjoying it on the shores of Green Bay (an inlet of Lake Michigan, and yes, the body of water Lambeau Field is situated on ) we took an incredible hike down from the bluffs over the lake, to the shore and back up again. It was a tough hike, which I thought made it all the more fun. We laughed, we played, we explored. The fall colors were the best I’ve ever seen. It was glorious. Next, we drove to Egg Harbor where we enjoyed an ice cream cone at “The Chocolate Chicken” and then danced along to a live band at a harvest festival. From there we found a quaint apple orchard, the kind of place that had a one by two foot sign on their driveway that read “Apple Picking”, from there you drive right up to their house where a lazy dog greets you. A grandfather and elementary-aged grandsons lead you out to the back forty in a bouncing blue pickup. They hand you a sack and leave you alone on the honor system. It was perfect. We laughed some more, we tasted apples and collected them for our snacks. Since then they’ve become chunky cinnamon applesauce, pumpkin apple muffins and afternoon treats. Yum. Our delightful day ended at a restaurant overlooking the lake and a sunset the likes of which most of us see only once or twice in a lifetime. It was perfect.

As we drove home with all five kids in the backseat, fast asleep, I reached out and grabbed the hand of my husband of thirteen years and smiled contentedly. A perfect day. Not a perfect life, not perfect kids or a perfect marriage. Nothing like that exists, let’s be honest, and even within my “perfect day” there were moments that weren’t all sunshine and roses. Life is sometimes hard, it’s messy, it’s tiring and crazy. That is exactly why I believe that we should all take the time to have days like this one. Just walk away from the laundry, the school work, the never-ending list of to-dos, and bask in the glory of a golden forest, towering redwoods or spectacular reclaimed mines and, more importantly, the sunshine of your people, your family, the ones who make this crazy life all worthwhile.

Inspired yet? I hope so. Now, go! 

Now, head over to Baltimore baby and child photographer, Blaire Blanks’ site and see what awesome images she’s shared.

My friend Corey reminded me of this, one my favorite quotes from the bible  Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you HOPE and a future.”

So when I sat quietly for a few minutes to think about what might represent hope for me, the first thing I thought of was our big move to Wisconsin, our house, our new life. I actually couldn’t find a good photo of my house, can you believe that?  The reason that my house represents hope for me is that moving here was such a leap of faith. Brian and I knew what we wanted for our family. We wanted to have a home of our own with land and space and the freedom to paint the walls bright orange if we felt like it. We wanted an excellent education for our four children at some of the top schools in the nation. We wanted a neighborhood where kids could roam free on their bikes or sleep out in a tent on their own. We wanted to be near our family, because what is more important than that? Some of what we’d hoped for didn’t turn out the way I dreamed. But that’s okay. Because so many things happened that I hadn’t even thought of and most importantly, no matter what we gained or lost by packing up that minivan two years ago and leaving behind the home we had raised our family in, we still have each other. That’s really all that matters. Isn’t it?

One harvest from this seed of hope is my beautiful backyard garden. In California we were always renters. We couldn’t plant a garden like this. No way. So the satisfaction I have received from building my beautiful garden (out of a fence I tore down without asking anyone for permission ) has been immense. I tilled up the earth, I built the raised beds, I sowed the seeds, I waited with hope and anticipation and we now reap the delicious and nutritious rewards. I hoped for this better life and it was provided. Thank you, God.

Now, check out San Francisco’s Family Photographer Alpana Aras of Storybox Art  family and kids photography’s beautiful interpretation.