Champaign and Urbana wedding photographer | Holly Birch Photography » Babies

Fall sale & inaugural video-slideshow!

admin — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:26:12 +0000

The leaves are definitely changing around here, even though it’s still in the 80s this week. You know what that means? Perfect weather for fall portraits! There’s a sale going on over on my Facebook fan page, so head over there, “like” Holly Birch Photography, and take advantage of the discount on portrait sessions. Also, take a look at this video I made this week of sweet newborn Joslyn, just 8 days old. I had a great time making this video, and I’m really happy with how the actual video clips within the slideshow turned out. Plus I loved the editing of it! What do you think? I’d love to hear from my readers and see if something like this would be of interest to you if you were or are a client. Thanks for looking!!

Untitled from Holly Smith on Vimeo.

Baby Joey + Wedding Special

admin — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 02:59:31 +0000

My new niece arrived today at 4:44pm! Her name is Joslyn (Joey) Marie Elizabeth Smith and she weighed 6 lbs 2 oz and was 20 in long. I got to watch the whole thing, and welcomed her into the world with lots of photos for her parents to remember this special day forever. In honor of Joey’s birth, I am going to take $100 off any 2012 wedding package booked by this Saturday, October 1! And here’s one of my favorite photos from the day — the happy family, mom Toni, dad Brandon and baby Joey.

Our baby boy | Newborn photography session

admin — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:34:43 +0000

Aaron and I are proud to introduce our sweet baby boy, Maximus Xavier! He arrived on April 23 at 12:38pm and weighed 5 lbs. 8 oz. and was 19 3/4 inches long. I am on maternity leave through June 1, but will do my best to reply to emails and phone messages as quickly as possible. Thanks for your patience!! And please leave me a comment if you’d like… I love comments!

My little mouth breather.

He was not as excited about this one as I was!

My maternity shoot

admin — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 20:22:10 +0000

My friend Stacey (Stacey Rainer Photography) did my maternity photos this weekend, and we had a great time! I’m going to return the favor for Stacey in a few months. I also have to thank her daughter Emily for coming along and helping us out. She’s a great assistant!

We started out at the iHotel, where they graciously allowed us to shoot for almost two hours. I love the decor there so much and I’d love to do a boudoir session there sometime (hint, hint to my current and future clients!).

This one is my absolute favorite from the session:

Smitty baby!

I can’t believe I’m posting this one:

Go BEARS! (This one’s for the husband.)

I also have a couple of bare-belly shots that I decided not to post here, but if anyone’s interested in seeing, you can email me and I will link you to them!

Also, this post will serve as the official update that I am now on photography maternity leave! I am still working some, but trying to take it easy until Baby Smitty makes his appearance. If you call or email, I will try to get back to you as soon as possible, but please keep in mind that it might take me a few days to get back to you. I will be back to work again officially on June 1 (though I have two weddings in May!). Thanks so much for your understanding!

Miriam, Cora & Walker | children’s photographer

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:55:50 +0000

I got to visit my friend Stephani and Joel a couple weekends ago, just about 8 days after their new baby Walker was born. Good thing we moved my visit from the weekend before like we originally planned! Walker was welcomed home by big sisters Miriam and Cora. You may remember them from their session last winter.
Daddy’s hands with Walker’s tiny little feet:

I was the first person to say that he looks more like Cora and Miriam. Time will tell, I suppose!

I did not Photoshop her eyes in this photo. They are just that gorgeous. I just wish she wasn’t giving me that goofy grin!

She seems so pensive here. I wonder what she’s thinking about…

They’re going to have so much fun growing up together–all three of them.

And a personal update… I am now at 20 weeks in my pregnancy! A reminder to those looking to schedule sessions next spring, I will be on photography maternity leave from March 28 through May 7 (and some days after that too, but will be working part-time).

Max at 6 months | Savoy child photographer

admin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:06:18 +0000

I can’t believe that little Max is already 6 months old! He was born on April 30 and you can see his newborn session back in this post. His big sister Lydia is soon to be 3, so we also snapped a few pictures of her. She was cracking me up with all the faces, so of course I had to make a little storyboard!

He wasn’t too crazy about the tub at first but they we let him chew on the rubber ducky for a bit and he was content once again.

A little different color treatment here:

While Max was getting changed, Lydia and I took advantage of the nice weather for a few minutes to get a few more shots of her.

Max’s mom wasn’t really needing any Christmas pictures per se, but I asked if I could use Max as a test subject for a couple shots. This supposed baby Santa hat fits NO baby’s head, so I’m in the market for a new one!

Jeanne + Taz | Urbana maternity session

admin — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 02:12:26 +0000

Meet Jeanne and Taz! And now you’ll have to wait about 2 months until their bouncing baby girl arrives! She will be making an appearance on the blog then too. I can’t wait! I had a great time hanging out with Jeanne, Taz and Jeanne’s mom Sharon at the Arboretum and the Japan House off Lincoln Ave. in Urbana. Taz left today (Sunday) for his job with the U.S. Navy and will be flown back by the Red Cross when Jeanne goes into labor. That is crazy to me, but awesome that the military and Red Cross do that for their families. Enjoy the rest of my favorites from this session!

I think Taz is going to be a great daddy:

Jeanne has one of the cutest pregnant bellies I have ever seen. We did photos of both sides, but the one with the tattoo turned out to be my favorite.

Maternity photography | University of Illinois Arboretum

admin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:34:07 +0000

Here’s a sneak peek of yesterday’s maternity session. I can’t wait to meet baby girl in November!!

Baby Max sneak peek

admin — Fri, 08 May 2009 02:34:57 +0000

Can’t wait to post the rest of these for Mama to see! He was so cooperative and alert, even when we wanted him to nod off to sleep.