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Katy’s already given birth to her little one — a much anticipated arrival since he was very much wanted and planned for … but here’s a few images from her maternity session to reminisce with …

Knowing how very much this little one was wanted, I couldn’t resist manipulating the late afternoon sun to create a little starburst of sunlight shining down upon Katy!

… and of course, one more bump pic to wrap up with!

Congrats Katy & Austin!

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Due in August, September, or October 2010? Want to capture this wonderful time in your life before your little one arrives?

Join CMP on Saturday, July 24th (location TBA) for The Bump Maternity Minis! Only a limited number of minis will be booked early in the am to beat the Texas summer heat …

Book CMP’s limited time maternity value collection and the session fee is waived! For more details and to book your Bump session, call 903.477.9069 or email christina [at] christinamccall [dot] com!

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For the record, this is the longest amount of time off (excluding holiday breaks when I worked at the juco level) I’ve taken since I went to work full-time — its a very much needed break, especially now that I not only work part-time, but also have a photography business! Please forgive me if I’m just more than a tad bit excited to be ‘running away from East Texas’ as I’ve put it to several coworkers and friends lately!

Anyway, rambling aside, Christina McCall Photography (formerly Reflections of Life Photography) will be closed — yes, closed!!! — from 5 pm on Thursday, June 11, 2009 until Monday, June 29, 2009. I will be on the road well away from the state of Texas for 99% of this time period and my cell service will be sporadic, at best. I will have internet access for part of the trip in the late evenings, so if you need to reach me during those two weeks — don’t call, email (or fill this form out that’ll make its way to my inbox also)! I will try my best to respond as I am able to, but there will be at least three (3) days in which I will have no telephone or internet access. Yeah, the withdrawals are already starting … so please, to be on the safe side, allow up to five (5) days for a response until I return home.

All orders received while I’m gone will be placed upon my return. If you’re wanting to schedule a mini session or regular session at our ‘re-grand opening’ rates, shoot me an email with the date/time you’re interested in (for mini sessions), or the date and time of day (early morning, late afternoon) for regular sessions (Saturday or Sunday only for all sessions!). I’ll reply back as soon as I have the opportunity and send (via email) the info packet/payment invoice to you. Appointments will not be confirmed until both the contract (to be sent via email) and retainer fee are received.

While I’m gone, and on the nights I have internet access, I will be posting images and tidbits from my trip for all of you to vicariously experience. And tied in with that will be a promotion of sorts — that’ll benefit several charities near and dear to me. More details about that will be posted separately in the early hours tomorrow … and hopefully tomorrow night I will have a few images from Day 1 of The Roadtrip posted as well!

PS … if you can’t see a control to start it, just click in the space above this line — despite coding it to show the controls in grey, they’re not showing up on all the slideshows properly!

Sidenote: As of June 1, 2009, Reflections of Life Photography was renamed Christina McCall Photography. We apologize for any confusion this may cause.

Since Robby had class on Good Friday, Amanda — mom to my favorite little person, Miss B — stepped in to assist me with Tracy’s session. In addition to some prop toting and backdrop holding, she also captured the majority of the session as well. I had a hard time picking out my favorites from her batch, in fact, I have five different edits of the last image featured of her’s! Enjoy!

This is the one I was referring to at the beginning of the entry — Amanda’s view

The (nearly) behind the scenes shot:

And my angle on this same pose:

Both versions of this pose are the ‘artsy’ versions — I used some textures from Ash Imagery’s texture set on each one.

Check back later for Larry’s slideshow debut …

Sidenote: As of June 1, 2009, Reflections of Life Photography was renamed Christina McCall Photography. We apologize for any confusion this may cause.

Yesterday, when I posted Tracy’s sneak peek on Facebook for her and all of our coworkers to see, one of them left the comment “Sexy, serious mama!”, so I thought I’d continue with that ‘trend’ …

Sidenote: As of June 1, 2009, Reflections of Life Photography was renamed Christina McCall Photography. We apologize for any confusion this may cause.

Decided to change it up and post a black & white image today. As much as I love this image in color, I love how much more dramatic it comes across in b/w, especially with the backdrop we used …

Sidenote: As of June 1, 2009, Reflections of Life Photography was renamed Christina McCall Photography. We apologize for any confusion this may cause.

One of  Tracy’s requests for her maternity session was to include soon to be big sister Miss M into a portion of the session …

… shortly after this image was taken, Miss M not only helped in setting up the next ‘setup’ for the session, but she also picked some blooms that she gave each one of us (obviously the one pictured wasn’t one of them!). If you ask me, I think she’s gonna make a pretty awesome big sister

Sidenote: As of June 1, 2009, Reflections of Life Photography was renamed Christina McCall Photography. We apologize for any confusion this may cause.

Last Friday morning, despite the slight chill and breeze in the air, Tracy and Miss M met up with with me and a couple other coworkers (aka temporary assistants!) for her maternity session. The last week or so we were all hoping Miss L would hold out for not only Tracy’s maternity portraits but a move as well! Now that both are done with, Miss L can now make her grand entrance a bit sooner than her due date *hint hint hint* — thus today’s sneak peek pick …

Sidenote: As of June 1, 2009, Reflections of Life Photography was renamed Christina McCall Photography. We apologize for any confusion this may cause.

After a week of server moving, template quirks, and a revamped portfolio section that will (hopefully) be live on the site by the middle of next week, I’m finally able to post again!

Recently I was contacted by a new directory site catering to expectant and new mothers requesting us to join their maternity and baby photography directory on their site, which has a variety of great information as well as  a forum and informative articles. Our directory listing went live earlier this week. Afterwards, I shared the site information with both Miss B’s and Noah’s moms. Yesterday afternoon, Noah’s mom — Melody, the expectant mother currently featured in the banner above — left reviews for both her and Noah’s sessions. With her permission, she’s allowing me to share them here as well so potential clients can receive an insight to what a session with Christina McCall Photography (formerly Reflections of Life Photography) is like …

With that, here’s Melody’s point of view from her maternity session …

I was one hot mamma!

Christina did a fabulous shoot for me when I was 8 months along. I had never been on a “maternity” shoot and really had no idea what to expect. Christina made it all so easy and more importantly FUN! She and her assistant drove me all over the city to some really cool places to shoot pics. I was leaning against funky brick walls, walking down railroad tracks, posing on park benches and having a wonderful time being such a ham! She is so creative and knows all of the best places to go to take pics. And did I mention this gal takes LOTS of photos?! At first, I thought she was a taking a lot of pictures, but I was so glad when I got the proofs. With there being so many photos, there were definitely some I fell in LOVE with. And not only were the pics great, I actually looked good in them. When you are 8 months pregnant, you are past the point of feeling “cute”, so kudos to Christina for finding my best angles and smile and capturing it at the right moment.

If you are debating on whether or not to get maternity portraits, GET THEM! I didn’t with my first baby, and I regret it. I have enjoyed going back and looking at the pictures she took. It kinda’ makes me want to be pregnant again!

… and her point of view from Noah’s portrait session back in January …

Fussy Baby – Beautiful Pics

Christina and her assistant Robby came to our house to do a photo session for our baby who was 8 months at the time. Our baby, Noah, is a happy baby, but is the very solemn and observant type. He does break out in crazy laughter and giggles on occasion but is usually just silently watching every little thing going on. The day Christina and Robby came to our house, he was not feeling well and was not in a particularly great mood. I had almost called Christina and canceled our appointment that morning.

She and Robby showed up with tons of cute backdrops and the most adorable props for the photos. I got Noah’s outfits lined up, and we began. There were myself, my husband, Christina and Robby all in my son’s room with him trying to get him to smile. It was crazy madness, and Noah just sat there staring at all of us as if we were from another planet. After an hour, I was beginning to melt and thought there was no way that these pics would be any good. Christina, however, didn’t seem phased and she just kept on taking pics as if Noah was the most cooperative baby she had ever shot. She was cool, calm and completely unaffected by Noah’s not smiling, constant fussing and repeated crawling away from the backgrounds she had set up for him. I was impressed at her composure.

Well when I got the proofs a few days later, I almost fell out of my chair. They were PHENOMENAL!!! There were smiles captured that I never saw and photos that captured his curious face, his mischievous face and his sweet, solemn face. I would much rather have photos of all his different sides than of him smiling in every photo. Christina and Robby captured the real Noah, and what initially seemed to be a failure photo session turned out to be the best photo session he has ever had. I am using Reflections of Life Photography for all of our family’s portraiture needs in the future. ROLP rocks!!!!

Thanks so much for your kind words Melody! Both Robby and I look forward to capturing your entire family for the years to come

And — to make up for the lack of photos this week — here’s a behind the scenes shot from Melody’s maternity session and the final image:

Sidenote: As of June 1, 2009, Reflections of Life Photography was renamed Christina McCall Photography. We apologize for any confusion this may cause.