Rich, Heather and Alana’s Blog

Sweet Baby Alana,

Today you are one year old.

One hundred generic statements are coursing through my mind, because each one, in it’s own silly way, encapsulates the way I am feeling today. Among them, the most prominent is “How did the time fly by so quickly?” Everyone told me to cherish your baby days because the time would inevitably speed by and you would never be this little again.

Well, as much as I followed their advice and cherished this first year of your life, I’m still not quite ready to let it go. 

One year ago today, your daddy and I welcomed you into this crazy world with excitement, wonder, a little anxiety, a lot of expectation - and on my part, a good deal of pain

We wondered what life would be like now that we’d gone from a family of two to a family of three. We wondered what would change, what would remain the same. We wondered what you would look like, who you would resemble. We wondered what personality you’d display for us, and what would make you happy, sad, angry, and excited.

And this past year we have stood by and watched as all of our unanswered questions transpired into deep, exciting, fresh knowledge for us.

We have fallen in love with you.

We have embraced your little God-given personality and all of your passion. We could not be more smitten with you, sweet pea. You are a gift from God, and we are so thrilled that he has chosen us to be the ones to spend a lifetime with you.

Today you are only one year old. But it’s been a year FULL of learning, growing, loving, and becoming a new, redefined family. We are praying for many, many more years to enjoy you, little ‘Lana. We want to be here for you no matter what life brings your way. We want to encourage, protect, nurture and teach you.

Happy, happy FIRST birthday, sweetie. We love you more than words can say.

Love,
Mommy

And in honor of Alana’s birthday today, I wanted to post my very first photo shoot outing with Rich. He took me out with the intention of working on some particular skills I’d been learning, and we had a blast. I am so excited to be learning under him, and our first session went very well…albeit overwhelming.

While I have so much to learn, this time we only worked on backfocusing and utilizing the light (rather than figting against it) and I worked on my stance while using the 70-200 mm lens…which is SO heavy and can easily leave your sore and hurting the next day if you don’t learn how to hold it properly. I worked just a bit on zooming but didn’t do too much in that realm. I also tried to focus a bit on composition, but again, didn’t want to get too overwhelmed on my first official outing! I’ve had lessons before on depth of field, so it was fun to actually put my knowledge into practice with an aperture of 2.8.

Here are our favorites, and please check out the slideshow below for more! Rich and I alternated taking shots of each other with Alana (so it will be obvious who took each photo), while the shots of Alana by herself were all taken by me.

This following sequence was taken by Rich…it was Alana’s very first time in a swing, and you’ll see how much it terrified her!

 

And so, here is the slideshow of my first photoshoot! Turn up your speakers and enjoy!