Most Beautiful Baby Contest Winners

This was one of our busiest contests - with eleven entrants. Now, most of you know how much I love babies... and it is a big reason why I enjoy this contest each year. Yes, it also means we make money and raise a few dollars for a very good cause. But I really like the children, and enjoy spending time with them and their parents and having some fun.

So, you have to understand that there's a very good reason why Diana and I aren't judges. We get too close to the parents, the children, and their personalities. We would never be able to properly select a most beautiful baby without feeling like we are hurting someone's feelings.

As a result, we pass off the responsibility to persons who are not familiar with the kids or their parents. They choose their top three picks. All four judges said that it was a difficult choice. So from our standpoint, it was just that much more encouraging - we took great pictures of eleven beautiful babies.

So, without further adieu, here's how it played out. There were TWO honorable mentions. Taylor and Kristian. You can see their pictures in earlier blog entries.

The third place winner (yes, I enjoy the suspense of counting backward to number one) was Santanna. I'm sure grandma was terribly excited by the news.

Our second place winner was Liliana. Cute girls always seem to do well in this contest. I think it was the curls - and that incredible personality.

And now (drum roll please), our first place winner is Tristin. This really wasn't much of a surprise to me, simply because he was in a great mood throughout his sitting, he had a ton of personality and was just the easiest and quickest of the eleven sittings.

We want to thank all the parents, grandparents and kids for their participation. We also want to offer our thanks to this year's sponsors and judges. We hope to see everyone back next year!

Tristin

And speaking of personalities, little Tristin (referred to as T-Bone by his father) never stopped smiling, often laughed out loud and might have had more fun than I did. He was so cooperative and happy that we were done with the sitting in record time. And that was with three outfit changes! Wow.

Chloe

Devotees to my blog will remember Chloe from last year's Most Beautiful Baby contest. She was a great subject then, and was just as great to photograph this time. Pretty and fun, loving every minute in front of the camera, Chloe was one of my favorite subjects last year and again this year.

Liliana

From the moment Liliana (Lily) walked in the door, I felt like we had a very good sitting coming up. Sometimes my feelings aren't correct right away. She wasn't happy at first, but her grandmother had a trick up her sleeve - Liliana LOVES to do tricks. So, once we got her doing things like snapping her fingers and skipping, she was very into the sitting. A lovely girl who has a new expression every minute, there were a LOT of photos of Liliana.

Kristian

Here's another baby where we knew the mommy from her days in high school. In fact, she played softball on the same team as my daughters did. While I don't remember what field position she played, I remembered her smile and upbeat attitude... she always spoke of her grandmother.

So, seeing Kristian and knowing that his mommy was doing as well as she is was a happy note to the day. And Kristian is one happy little boy, which you can probably see.

Grace

We get spoiled sometimes with how well the baby's respond to us... most are all smiles within a few minutes. Grace was a bit more of a challenge, making us wait several minutes longer before flashing her first smile.

But once she did, she had a great time and we got some fun pictures of her.

Colton

We've known Colton's mom since she was in high school. So you can imagine how excited we were to meet her son. He was the life of the party, spending much of his time exploring everything in site.

Jaelynn

Yeah, I know... isn't that the most precious face! She was something else. So full of life and what a personality. Just prior to the end of the session, she pulls this boa around her neck and starts cheesing! A few shots later, she was done with the whole idea. It was time to go home!

Giulia

Once in awhile a classic face comes along in a child. Giulia's dark eyes and hair really bring out the beauty in her face. She spent most of her sitting looking at the camera and probably wondering where my face went. Not big on smiling, but that didn't make much of a difference to her mom.

Santanna

Many of you will remember this face. She's been gracing the Most Beautiful Baby Contest before. She's certainly one of the faces we remember, since we also see her at the holidays. Santanna had a great time again, spending most of her time posing (she has this down to a science now).

Damion and Taylor

Have you EVER had this much fun at a portrait sitting? I do, on a regular basis. Nobody knows quite what set Taylor and her younger brother Damion into this frenzy of laughter, but it took them awhile to get back to some semblance of sanity.



In the midst of all this, Damion ended up becoming our second entrant into the Most Beautiful Baby Contest. He and his sister were also being photographed as winners of the Cover Contest for Child Guide Magazine. Quite an impressive resume for one so young.

John Walker

The first baby we saw for the Most Beautiful Baby contest was this little man. Full of life and with plenty of purpose, John Walker spent the entire session trying to figure out why those lights kept flashing at him.

You may recognize JW from a session with his brothers and cousins in December when mom brought them in for a whole family picture of the grandchildren.

Cynthia and Daniel

Some of our favorite brides are the ones who seem to know exactly what they want, and want to make sure that everyone knows what they want. Cynthia was unique in that she provided all of her wedding vendors with a detailed schedule, a ceremony layout (color-coded) and a reception layout.

Up on the fourth floor of the Clarion in Shepherdstown, Cynthia was made up, dressed, veiled and powdered. Okay, maybe not powdered. Anyway, there were a lot of people making sure she looked her best.
The ceremony went well. I'm not sure how, but the couple was pronounced, and kissed before their rings were exchanged. Maybe there was a hiccup?

Formals are always a lot of fun. But when I started commenting on how cute a couple they were, they started getting mushy. It relaxed the mood a bit, and we got through formals in record time.
The first dance is often special for everyone. One of our favorite DJs brought along his colored light shows, and I took advantage of them to add a little color to this shot.

Cynthia and Daniel were going to wait to honeymoon.

Cathy

So Cathy calls us and says she wants to create a nice Valentine's Day present for her husband. She wants some nice boudoir shots and Diana tells her about our portrait albums. So she schedules a sitting. And of course, she says to call her cell phone because this is a secret for her husband.



On the day of the sitting, she comes in... hesitates a moment and says "my husband came with me." Apparently her husband works in construction, and got sent home early due to weather. As she's getting ready to come over to the studio, he came home. So now she's trying to find a good excuse for why she's not at work, she finally caved in and told him. He didn't believe her, so she brought him along.



He was with her throughout the sitting. I think he had a good time, too.

All of our boudoir sessions are private. Diana helps out with all of them, and everyone has told us how much fun they have. Not surprising, really... we're fun people!

Bethany's Engaged!

Bethany and Matt are getting married in July. Of course, they want to tell everyone in their home towns. Ergo, an engagement portrait. The weather was too bad to go outside, but this ended up being their favorite.