Elliott is such a happy and excited little guy! He has so many facial expressions. Ok I have to be honest here, this is my little guy, but if I do say so myself he is my favorite client to date! He is 18 months old in this session which was taken in the back alley of downtown Clintonville.

I loved being able to capture the joy he had as he was just starting to master running and he was proud of himself as we had him running to me from down the alley – I swear he thought he was so grown up just running by himself for 20-30 feet away from us.

Thanks to my assistant we grabbed one with me and him that might not be anything near traditional which is probably why I love it even more! He always moving his hands when he is trying to talk and since the first day of his life, he been wrinkling those eyebrows! I just love that that this photograph shows his little personality at this stage of his life! Also I am always trying to have moms (parent or loved grown ups) at their children sessions to jump in for a quick picture at their little ones session – and mostly they are not what they think is camera ready – but in my mind thats what makes that photograph even more real and more memorable. Sometimes as a mom I know we forget that maybe that picture is not even for us, but for the little person that calls us mom to look back and cherish long after we are not with them every single day. So if I am going to ask other parents to jump in for a impromptu photograph, I better be willing to also jump in, and trust me I wouldn’t call 5 year old sweatpants, a messy bun, and no makeup, camera ready. But the end result, it is literally a image captured that was real and exactly what he might even remember the day with, that is if 18 month olds could remember that young.

Know the secret to really making an 18 month old happy, purchase him a lollipop bigger than his head!