This is only half the family!  Mike and Nancy’s two sons were 2 weeks shy of leaving:

The one on the left, was leaving for military duty, and the tall one, was leaving to serve a 2 mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

This was their last chance for Family Pictures.

Missy and her dad

Nancy

Part of the photo shoot was dedicated to Missy:  It was her 16th birthday, so this was a little present to her, from her parents!

She did a great job looking absolutely fabulous for the lens.

This is one of my favorites.

I love Converse!

Missy: You are such a delightful young woman.  It was so fun photographing you and your family.   I hope your 16th birthday is one you will always remember!

Thanks for letting me be a part of your special day!

Gotta share a little bit of what goes on behind the scenes!

You guys were great!

I first met up with her just minutes before our shoot.

I had no idea what she looked like, what her personality was like. But she sounded happy!

We talked briefly on the phone, about 4 days prior to the shoot.

(Man, she’s gorgeous!)

She contacted me through a friend, who I had previously photographed.

We met in the park, and right away, I knew we were going to have a great time!

She was all smiles!

She plays instruments, is in a photography class at school, and participates in drama.

This girl does it all!

This belt was a perfect touch, don’t you think?

I knew if I asked her to do something, she’d do it.

Exhibit A:

“Hannah, now jump!”

She did not disappoint!

She’s so beautiful and that made my job of capturing her beauty and personality very easy!

She was so kind, and easy going.

I love these pants she wore:

Are they not awesome? I love cords!

Even though her face is missing from this photo, it turned out to be one of my most favorites.

It piques my curiosity. It makes me wonder what this girl is all about.

Hannah: you have an incredible personality, beautiful hair, a mature demeanor and a very fun wardrobe!

When we were in the park, shooting these images on the swing, there were a handful of people who piped in,

“Hey Hannah!”

I say,

“Hannah, you’re so popular, everyone knows you!”

She humbly says,

“Well, I live here!”

(DUH Vanessa!)

Apparently she is the town babysitter too!

Hannah:  I had so much fun getting to know you through my lens and appreciate all you brought to the photo shoot:

Playfulness

Smiles

and a lot of love!

You did an awesome job and I wish you the best of luck during your last year of high school!

May your future be bright where ever you go.

Hannah: Class of 2010

Every October, Ariane  gathers her family together for Fall family portraits.

As I look back over the past three years, I can’t believe how much their children have grown up.

I love that Josie is now in the pictures, as opposed to being in her mom’s belly for last years pictures.

She’s an absolute doll!

Noah is almost three now and he is just a little fire cracker!

Most of my time shooting is focused on Noah, and convincing him to stay put, and even  making big promises of treats afterwords.

The dialog goes something like this:

“Noah, put the truck down, look over here….Noah…take your fingers out of your mouth buddy!

Wait, get back here you little turkey…”  as he takes off.

He’s usually defiant during these photo shoots, but we always  end up with one great shot that mom and dad love.

Because when he wants to cooperate, he’s a knock out!

Clayton has mastered the lens.  He knows what to do, whenever I have my camera in his face.

Because I love and adore this little 5 year old, I just want to squeeze his cheeks when I see pictures of him like this:

It’s usually with a lot of grunting and whining and complaining that Justin agrees to having his picture taken.

He must really love his family, because I know that’s the only reason he does this.  It means a lot to Ariane.

But he does so well doing it, don’t ya think?

Justin is one lucky chap!  That’s a gorgeous wife he has!

Justin and Ariane, thank you, once again for asking me to take these pictures.  It’s always a pleasure and honor.

I will miss you next year, when our paths will divide us, but the love will last forever.

I understand these two love birds have known each other since grade school.

Macy is an avid reader and a helpful big sister!

Tate is the only boy but he’s a good boy.

Talking to Nora is like talking to your girlfriend.  She’s so chatty and always has something to say, I just love it!

While mom and dad were getting ready, I took some time with these kids taking some sibling shots.

This has to be one of my favorite pictures from the shoot.  I love they way Macy is connecting with tate and how Nora is leaning on her older sister.

They are perfect.

This is a family with spunk and women out number the men, in this household!

Adele, the baby, is the newest addition to this family.  She arrived in march.

Two handsome guys!

I do love the Vermont backdrop for these family portraits in color!  It’s classic.  This is what the entire state looks like!  Green rolling hills, little rivers, red barns.  It’s quiet and perfect.

Macy, again, and she’s just so sweet.   Her siblings are lucky to have her!

This little guy was a smooth operator!  He was just so cool and collected for his time in front of the camera.

Is Nora not the cutest thing ever? I wish I could insert a voice clip, so you can hear her talk.  It would make you smile.  She’s the best!

Adele, just 6 months old,  froze during the evening shoot!  But she never cried and she did a great job.  What a little trooper!

Dustin and Melissa, thank you for letting me photograph your beautiful family!  I just love ya’ll so much and look forward to another night of caramel popcorn, Zinke Style!

- White Christmas

Meet Kathy & Elaine.

When they were little, their parents bought them a new Dalmatian puppy.

Well, Kathy and Elaine are no longer little, and neither is their puppy!

But, when they got their puppy, they had photos taken, that looked just like this:

We had a ball, trying to recreate what happened about 9 years ago.

Getting this Dalmatian to hold still was more than a challenge, it was nearly impossible.  I just told the girls to keep their eyes on me, while I did everything I could to capture the dog’s attention.

Enough of the dog, these women are just gorgeous!  They have a a Peruvian mother, and a Caucasian father, and the combination is so exotic and beautiful!

They’re pretty much best friends!

Kathy and Elaine:

I love you so much!  You’ve brought so much joy to my life, as I have been living in Vermont.  Thank you!

I will always remember you!

I long anticipated shooting this wedding.
I was so nervous because it was my first wedding.
But I was confident I could give these two love birds images that would last all the days of their lives
I was thrilled to be a part of their day!

Bride preparing

Getting zipped up

Beautiful, huh?!

The cello and violin was beautiful!

Here comes the bride...

The veil caught the breezy air and took flight for a moment...

A very small and intimate wedding for family…

Ring exchange

Caroline has a lovely silhouette!

I got choked up when Scott started getting teary eyed when exchanged lovely words to his beautiful bride.

Caroline’s eyes swelled up in tears, as she looked into his eyes.

I just think they’re such a beautiful couple!

Kisses are like candy.

He held her, hugged her and kissed her all day.

He even came prepared with a tissue!

Their cake was so simple and lovely!

These cupcakes were huge and incredibly sweet!

Scott’s younger sister had an amazing little hair piece made of black leaves/feathers.

I adored it and could not stop starring at it!  So, she gets a spot on this post!

The lovely bride & groom

Each lady who attended the ceremony had a lovely fan sitting on her chair.

The fans were put to use when the heat became unbearable!

A lovely and important detail by the wedding planner!

The bride being fanned by her new husband.

I think the bride’s grandmother is just adorable!

These two love birds did a lot of this all afternoon!

I highly encourage kissing!  I don’t think we kiss the ones we love, enough.

(My hubby is probably wishin’ I would tone it down a little!  Not on my life!)

Obviously, I was enamored by their kisses..I didn’t want to miss one on film!

I have so many favorites from their wedding, is was hard to narrow it down for this post…so I didn’t!

There were endless moments like these

Just a few more kisses.  They do it so well, don’t ya think!?

One of my most favs!

Her hair was pure perfection!  I just love the rose and the softness of it all.  A perfect detail for a perfect day!

The wedding took place right near Lake Champlain…

Right as the wedding ended, it started to rain.

As the photographer, it couldn’t have been more perfect timing to wrap it up!

Scott & Caroline,

Thank you for choosing me to shoot your wedding.

I was flattered and honored to be your photographer!

Thank you for giving me incredible images to capture on film.

May your lives together be filled with lot of kisses, hugs, and more kisses!

XOXO

~Vanessa

I followed him around, camera in hand, waiting for every moment to capture him.

He’s very active and interested in his surroundings.  His newly ironed, clean white shirt lasted about 10 minutes.  If mom and dad don’t care, I don’t care.

Whatever keeps the children happy!

Lark, was born about 7 weeks ago.  I think she’s got the cutest little nose I have ever seen!

She is so beautiful!

Sten let loose when we returned home; off with the clothes and down with the food! Cut up plum and tofu were his snacks.

I made no promises that this picture wouldn’t show up on my website.  I think he’s a sweet boy!

Lark is sweet too!

I inquired about the childrens’ names.  Sten is a family name and Lark, well, her mother loves birds.  I think it’s beautiful!

Dad is probably one of the most patient dads I have seen.  I just love Lark’s expression here!

Laurel, I had  a wonderful time photographing your family!

This is Brighton.  She has some of the most rockin’ hair I have seen.  I seriously love it!

What you can’t see is the back.  It’s about 4 inches longer.

And the color is beautiful!

This is Mitchell.  I don’t see Mitchell too often, but when I do, he looks like this:

Well, to break the smile, his lovely parents were dancin’ a jig behind me.  He wouldn’t have any of it.

We finally had a break in the stone face!  SUCCESS!  Way to go dad!

Meet Georgia.  She’s the new little sister.  She’s about 10 days young in this picture.

While mom was pacifying Georgia, we headed outside to capture some magic with Mitchell’s new Radio Flyer Wagon!

This was his recent birthday present, and he pulled it onto the grass with pride.

Can these two get ANY cuter together!?  They just adore each other (at least when the  photographer was there!)

Who’s to say they’re this sweet for their parents all the time?

Often time parents apologize for a fussy baby, that may hiccup, poop, barf or whatever, during our shoot.

Georgia managed to do all three for me!

It’s to be expected sometimes, and you just roll with it!

No apologies needed.  Ever!

I just adore babies!

I think this may be one of my favorites from the shoot.

Her mom is so gently and loving.

What a little miracle!

What is the best way to capture all the siblings in one shot?  That is a great question!

It’s sometimes more challenging than you could imagine!

(Unless you’re a mom your self, and you’ve attempted to capture all your children, looking their best, with their gorgeous smiles, all at once.  Ya, that’s pretty much impossible!!!)

I like the way these interactive moments turned out:

You know when you meet someone, you just adore?

And somehow you can’t help but love them for all their talents and charity, as they do it in such humility?

The mother of these children, she does it all!

cooks  incredible food, raises amazing children, has a heart worth her weight in gold.  She sews quilts, run marathons, holds a stressful stake calling, and MAKE LACE!

Ya, I said it. She makes LACE!

So this is Georgia’s blessing dress.  When Steph showed it to me, I about died!  It’s gorgeous!

The entire dress is trimmed with lace, that took her “hundreds of hours” to make.

She said it like it was no big deal. It’s called “tatting” and it’s a lost art.  Steph is keeping it alive!

I just watched this video on how to tat and I am almost in tears.

Tears of respect and admiration and patience.

She wasn’t kidding when she said it took her hundreds of hours to make this lace!

Steph, where did you find the time?

You are amazing!!!  So are your three sweet children!

He eats flowers. (Mom informs me he eats dirt and rocks too!)

He is the younger brother to Beth.

He’s one year old and very mobile!

Beth entertained him with books. (Which she had memorized from reading it so much.  It was so sweet to see her read to him!)

I love those two little teeth coming through.

Mom picked a great outfit for him: great colors, yet simple.

Dad was making him giggle.  Sometimes you need a circus to bring out their smiles.

Performers are highly encouraged during photo shoots!

Those eyes.  WOW!

Sam, you’re growing so big!

I hope those teeth come in soon!  You’re sure cute feeling for them!

Photographing children is my favorite!