This is a special post for us here at Shawn Grimes Photography. We don’t often post personal things here on the site, but this is very much a situation that warrants being presented here.

Each year for Christmas presents for his family, Shawn creates a full 12-month calendar of images taken of all of the “kids” in his family. This is the third year we have done this for his grandmother, mom, and aunts, and each year goes over better than the last. We take a full day sometime in November, usually, and make sure that all of the cousins are here in the studio or on location wherever we choose. Then we take a few hours and photograph every frame we need for the calendar. We like to do individual images of each person, family groups, and birthday combinations for each month. We also do a few whole group photos, which are always fun. The women in his family prefer for every one to be matching, so they usually buy the outfits for everyone and it works out perfectly.

We really wanted to share this here on the site to show you all a little more into our personal life and to give you some ideas for something you may want to come in with your family for.

Please enjoy these images of Shawn’s gorgeous family and you can probably look forward to seeing more next Christmas.

We had the immense pleasure of photographing these two adorable twins, Joey and Natalie, along with their Mom and Dad.

This beautiful brother and sister duo were right around 2 years old when they came in for their session and, once they warmed up to us, could not have been more fun. It was so great to see the two of them interact with one another and with Mom and Dad.

Seriously…how cute are they?!?!?

This family is so good looking and we had such a wonderful time working with them.

We were very pleased to be able to photograph these three handsome guys on October 11. Please meet Sammie, Marek, and Austin…

This was a very special session for this family, Grandma (or Ya-Ya as she is affectionately known by her grandsons) and her three children, and the three boys, were all present for this session. Marek and his Mommy were visiting from Japan, where they live, and the family wanted to use the visit as an opportunity to capture these boys playing together and enjoying each others company. The family knew that they wanted an outdoor session, so we met them at the beautiful Annie’s Playground in Fallston. It made the perfect setting and backdrop for a playful and completely enjoyable photo session.

Austin, 6 years old, was a perfect model and a total ham for the camera. He came prepared with his own poses and a willing attitude. He was so helpful in getting his little cousins to go along with our ideas and had a good time running around the playground looking for new places to pose!

The next oldest grandson is little Marek, he is 16 months old and traveled with his mom all the way from Japan for this session…well for a family wedding, but still!

And the youngest grandson is Sammie. This little guy made some of the cutest faces! He was a little too young to take part in all of the playing, since he’s only 11 months old, but I still think he enjoyed the fresh air and the little bit of playing he was able to do.

These three little guys were a lot of fun. They each had so much personality and were all so different! This is a beautiful family and we were very happy to be able to capture a few sweet moments between Ya-Ya and her grandboys!

Here are a few of the art pieces that we created for this wonderful family.

More portraits from the session can be seen in the video slide show we put together:

Dan and Jess are both clients we have had the pleasure of photographing in the past. Dan is a personal trainer specializing in kettle bell training and Shawn photographed him leading a class for Dan’s website and promotional materials. We met his wife, Jess, when we first opened the Aberdeen studio. She came in to have some photos taken of her working with the kettle bells.

For this session, we were able to see them in a completely different capacity…parents and a family. Jess is pregnant with their second child and came in to the Aberdeen studio for maternity portraits. They also brought along another family member we had yet to meet, little miss Andrea, their almost two-year-old daughter. She is a total sweetheart, lots of smiles and very active. As active as she was, we managed to get her to cooperate a little more when we introduced the Smarties candies! She also loved the blocks we had, so much in fact, that this photo was completely unplanned, but completely captures Andrea’s wonderful little spirit and gentleness.

Eventually, Andrea wanted to be in every picture that we were taking. She is so photogenic and was such a joy to photograph.

This family is so incredibly fun and easy to work with. It really doesn’t feel like you are working when you get to spend time with people who are as easy-going as Jess and Dan. The three of them are a beautiful little family and baby number 2 will, no doubt, be a great addition to this family and loved tremendously.

Jess and Dan radiate happiness and pride as they await the arrival of their new baby. And it was an honor for us to be able to capture this in their maternity photos.

As a way to spark interest for Andrea in being in more of the pictures toward the end of the session, we brought out some fun things and let her play a little. These were the results.

Dan, Jess, Andrea, and Baby are a family we look forward to working more with in the future. And we are definitely looking forward to meeting Baby sometime early this fall!

Here is a quick video I put together of their session:

The Books visited the studio on July 5th for photographs of their family and children. The Books have three children – Trey – 9 years old, Allie – 5 years old, and Tyson – 5 months old, and they are a gorgeous family!

All three of these children have wonderful personalities. Tyson is one of the happiest babies we have ever met and just full of smiles and bounces and joy. Usually, we have to tell everyone else in the photo, “Keep your smiles going, and look at the camera, so that when the baby smiles, we can take the picture right away”; but that was definitely not the case with this little guy, he constantly smiled from the minute he walked in the door.

Allie is such a sweet young lady. Very energetic and full of life, and yet sweet and quite at the same time. She had lots of wonderful stories to tell us about her friends and going to Kindergarten and she was a joy to have in the studio.

Trey is the oldest of the Book children and is a very good big brother to his siblings. He was very helpful during the shoot with holding Tyson or modeling what we needed done. He even did a lot of things he didn’t think were very cool, all for the sake of the photo! Allie and Tyson are very lucky that they have such an awesome and fun older brother to look up to!

Mom and Dad are very lucky to have such a delightful trio of children. They have a beautiful family and are all so much fun! We were very fortunate to meet this charming family and have the privilege of taking their photos.  Don’t miss the video of their session at the end of the post.

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Akira was a new client for us. We met her lovely Mom and Dad, Sonia and Lee, through Shawn’s mom, she and Sonia work at the same high school. This little cutie didn’t really take to us very well, she wasn’t pleased about her foreign surroundings and let us know it. We tried many tricks, including a milk break, but this little one could not be fooled. Regardless of her distaste with us and what we were trying to accomplish, we were able to get some great photos of her by herself and also with her lovely parents.

After a little milk break, Akira did fall asleep for a small bit of time and we were able to capture some really wonderful photos during this time, like this gem.

She really is such a beautiful baby. The red hue of her hair is gorgeous and those little features of her face, how peaceful!

Akira is really lucky to have such loving, caring parents. Mom and Dad were great throughout the entire session. It was a challenge for them I am sure, given how unhappy little Akira seemed to be while she was here visiting the studio. They were endlessly patient and tried everything they could think of to make Akira a little more comfortable. It really was nice to see cooperative parenting happening right before your eyes. These three make such a wonderful new family.

Little Miss Akira wasn’t thrilled with us, but was absolutely delighted to be put back into her car seat to get ready to leave the studio. So happy, in fact, that Mom and Dad decided to pull her back out to see if we could get some more photos of this happy baby, but, again, we could not trick this little one! She was having nothing more to do with the studio and our shenanigans. So Miss Akira, we hope that we might be able to have you back in the studio one day in the future, maybe when we are more entertaining to you!

Here is a collage I put together for their package:

Sami is one of our repeat clients and the camera just loves her! On this particular day, Sami arrived at the studio with her Mom and Dad in a yucky little mood. A poor stuffed pig was bearing the brunt of Sami’s dissatisfaction when she first entered the studio. We were worried that this would mean that the little darling would be uncooperative at best. Boy, were we wrong! Despite the mood she had when she showed up, this was possibly our best session with Sami to date.

Sami was so cooperative throughout the entire afternoon and charmed us over and over again with that delightful smile. We were able to keep her interest with a variety of props and things she hasn’t gotten to play with in the studio before. Perhaps Sami’s favorite props were the beaded necklaces, as she wanted to wear these in every scene! We were hesitant about the tutu, afraid that it would bother her or she wouldn’t like it being in her way. But, no way! She seemed to love getting ‘all dolled up’ to have her picture taken. She’s such a girlie girl!

This little girl is such a ball of joy and regardless of how much we doubted whether or not we would get to see that joy on this day, she spent most of the session just beaming! We wanted to make the most of her change in mood and try as many scenes with her as she would allow. This scene was one that we had wanted to try with Sami for a while and was a big hit with Kady a few weeks ago. I don’t know what it is about rubber ducks and bubbles, but Sami loved working in this scene as much as Kady did! (That tub must be way more comfortable than it looks!)

We were also able to use our new patriotic props and scenery with Sami just in time for the 4th of July. This photo is just too cute: the little pouty lip, the puffed out belly, jewels in tow, proud to be an American baby!

Again, she loved those necklaces and did not want to put them down! She will definitely be ready to celebrate on the 4th!

One of the scenes that Andrew and Nicole (Sami’s Dad and Mom) requested was a crabbing scene. Andrew’s father is a Maryland Waterman and crabber. This is often an undertaking for the whole family, painting and preparing pots to be put in the Bay, caring for the boat, and often the actual crabbing. We were able to find some great props to use for this scene including the net and a few good crabs. Andrew and Nicole provided the bushel basket and Sami’s custom-made onesie. No, friends, this is not supposed to look like blood! The red paint is sort of an inside joke among the family. Every year when it is time to paint the crab pots, with red paint, those helping wear almost as much paint on their clothing as they put on the pots. Andrew and Nicole figured it was about time that Sami donned her own red paint stained clothing just like the rest of them! I have a feeling this photo will be a family treasure for many, many years to come!

By the end of the session, we couldn’t believe how many scenes we were able to accomplish with Sami. She is always such a joy to work with and that smile can always melt the hearts of anyone in the room with her. We look forward to more sessions with Sami and her wonderful Mom and Dad, Nicole and Andrew, in the near future.

Here is the video from our day with Sami…

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Aaron, Xavier, Ezra, Serapine and Niobe, aka Carla and Glenn’s Crew, cam over to our Aberdeen home studio for some quick family portraits during our model search weekend.  The five kids were an absolute breeze to work with because they are all well mannered and they look after each other.  It’s great to see them taking care of one another but still enjoying themselves.

We did a few individual shots of everyone before we crammed them all together on a bench to get a group portrait.  I loved how a similar pose on all three boys presents three different personalities in the portraits. Take a look at this shot of just the boys. You can clearly see the different personalities in the boys.

Aaron, the oldest, was very interested in all the studio equipment and had lots of questions for me about how it all worked.  I love when kids take an interests in their surroundings so I was more than happy to answer all of his questions.  I hope they come back more and maybe I will even have him take a few photos of his siblings.  Aaron is very mature and is very intelligent.  When talking with him, you tend to forget that he’s still a young man.

Xavier had some great emotion in his photos.  First, he has a mohawk, which is so much fun! And it totally matches his personality.  He’s very much a straight shooter and he says what he’s thinking, which I love.  I love the complete honesty that comes from his lips and wish I could just spend the day with him and see the world as he sees it.

Ezra was full of giggles the entire day.  He had to wear his baseball shirt because he wanted me to know his team is named the Orioles just like our local pro team.  Ezra loved the funny sayings I had them say and would crack up giggling before he get the whole phrase out.  I loved his giggle, it just lit up the room.

The two youngest, Seraphine and Niobe, are both girls and I wanted to get some pictures of them together.  With so many big brothers, I think they share a special bond of being little girls.  Seraphine was quiet but listened to all the instructions we gave her.  She was a great listener and I loved the innocence she brought to the scenes.  Niobe was interested in just about everything except getting her picture taken   She loved the toys we had, she just didn’t love them on the paper backgrounds, she wanted to play with them on her terms   Luckily, her big sister was there to help us.

After the individual portraits, we got everyone together for some group portraits. First, I grabbed a picnic bench from outside and we crammed all five kids onto it for a “feet portrait”. Our feet portraits have become very popular and I think this is one of my favorites. I like the way all of the feet are staggered just like the kid’s ages.

For the final group shot, I had an idea pop into my head and I was frantically searching for some duct tape but to no avail. Luckily, Carla made a call to her husband who was able to find and deliver a roll to us. It is very convenient having them so close. I imagined a scene where Aaron was being over taken by his younger brothers and sisters, a la Gulliver’s travels. Everyone was on board, even though Aaron was a little apprehensive, I think he was afraid I was giving his siblings an idea to try at home, I know Mom was paying close attention

I had such a great time with this family. They are all great characters who have a really strong bond between them and I loved trying to get that to come across in their portraits. I recorded a video of their session and I’m happy to share it with you below…

Antwon and Tony came in to our home studio in Aberdeen as part of our model search program. From the moment they walked in, they were fun, polite, and charismatic. Since school had just ended, we talked about their summer plans. They were both excited to have a fun summer ahead of them.

Both boys are very good looking and just have a great look about them. They took direction so well and I was able to get a variety of test shots in a short period of time; I was very impressed.

Antwon was done getting his picture taken until I pulled out the crate. Then he jumped right up and wanted a picture done with the crate, he said it looked cool. Antwon had a great confidence about him and I love how he swaggered on and off set knowing how good he looked the whole time.

I am really looking forward to working with both of them again soon so I am sure you will see them around the website quite a bit.

Kyan and Kady came back for some birthday portraits. This time though, they came to the studio in Aberdeen, MD and we had a few surprises in store for them. I first went to their home for Christmas portraits last year and I was very excited to get an email saying that they wanted to come in for another session.

Kyan just turned 4 and Kady just turned 1. Their birthdays are actually only a few days apart and they have this great chemistry together. Kyan is very patient with her and he can make her laugh on command, it’s great! For the portrait above, we were trying to get Kyan and Kady to sit together but she was having nothing to do with it. Instead, she was running around Kyan and tapping him on the head, I think she was playing a game of Duck, Duck, Goose. It was really important to me to capture their interaction with each other. Kyan is a great big brother and Kady really adores him.

Kyan has great expressions. He has a great smile and is a great giggler. One of my favorite things to do with him is have him make serious faces and silly faces, he’s just so great at it.

I had a concept for this scene for a while now and finally had all the props to pull it off. Kady was a great model for it and she LOVED the bubbles. Her big brother was off to the side being a big help and manning the bubble machine.

Apparently, the bath was very comfortable

Mom said that she wanted to do a scene where Kady was getting to eat a birthday cake and was a complete mess. I think she nailed it (with a little help from Mom, watch the video below to see what I’m talking about). We had such a great time with this scene that we are currently working on a special cake smashing/eating session as a stand alone session or as an add-on to our Small Wonder program. More details to come.

It was great getting to work with Kyan and Kady again. Kady has grown so much since I saw her last in December. Back in December, she could barely situp on her own and now she’s walking all over. I love to see the progression of so many children coming through my studio. It’s important to capture those moments.

As I’ve done with many of my sessions, I made sure to record this one and I’m glad I did. While you watch the video, watch how many times Kady walks off the scene and Mom and Dad have to bring her back. Almost every time she walked off, she would give me “five” and slap my hand. It became a little game. Another fun thing to watch is the cake scene, you don’t generally see parents encouraging their kids to get messy