It’s a family tradition for us every year to visit the pumpkin patch before Halloween and pick out a pumpkin! This year was special because Zachary is old enough to understand dressing up for Halloween and choosing a pumpkin! We told him we were going to go to the pumpkin patch, I bought him an e-book for the iPad about a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch, and he just couldn’t wait! We picked out a great pumpkin and had a wonderful time – can’t wait to carve it tomorrow and display it over the weekend!

Here are some of my favorite images that I photographed at our pumpkin patch trip. We went to Bedner’s Farm in Boynton Beach. It was a lot of fun!

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I absolutely love photographing children, but realized that I haven’t done a proper photo session with my own son, Zachary, in quite a while! It was definitely time. He’s going to be three years old (!!!) in a little over a month (how did that happen?!) and he is quite a little kid now, not a baby anymore. I had to capture him at this adorable and fun stage in his life.

I took him to one of my favorite quiet little parks in Coral Springs, Orchid Park, where I’ve been shooting for about five years now. It has a great nature trail that isn’t good for younger toddlers, but is great for a walkaround with your nearly-three-year-old. Lots of weird bugs, interesting trees, and beautiful light.

Here are some of my favorite images that I captured of my sweet little boy. Huge thanks to my wonderful BFF Amy (who is Zachary’s godmother) for helping me out and being my assistant during the shoot.

Summertime in Florida contradicts the nickname “Sunshine State” – in actuality I think California probably gets more sunshine than we do, but I always say there’s absolutely nothing more wonderful than the sound of a Florida rainstorm. I think my native Floridian friends will agree with me. Regardless of the sunny OR rainy weather, it’s typically more muggy, hot and humid… though I still love it. :) This is what the sky has looked like every afternoon in the past couple weeks.

The rain is a great thing, since our poor state is in a drought right now and in dire need of rain… though the wet weather has thwarted most of my plans for playing outside with Zachary at the park in the afternoons.

Still, he finds joy in puddle jumping, just as I did as a child. And now, as his mom, I find even more joy in capturing the happiness that even these small moments can bring him.

We manage to have fun despite the wet season here in South Florida, finding joy in the sunshine or even the puddles of rain….

All images were processed with my own collection of custom Lightroom presets.

Shoot what makes you happy, even if it’s just your purple shoes next to a seafoam green fire hydrant. :)

A fun outtake from a portrait session last year. ;)

The summer months are typically a bit slower for me, and I don’t shoot as much outdoors since it’s sooooooooo hot outside that it’s too hard to spend any length of time outdoors doing a shoot!

Because of this, July and August are typically my “down time”, but I am surprised by the fact that it’s only June and it’s already super hot out! I took Zachary to his first day of summer camp this morning and couldn’t believe how hot it was at just 9am!

Since I’m not shooting as much over the summer, I like to spend time with family, catch up on albums, and also work on personal projects. This summer I’m working on Zachary’s baby books from each year of his life. I have been embarrassed that as a photographer who designs albums each month for my clients, that I couldn’t take time to work on an album for my own son! This year, I made it my New Year’s Resolution to take charge of this project and complete Zachary’s books from his first & second years of life, and get a head start on the current year so that after he turns 3, I can begin working on the next book easily and not get behind on the project. I’m so pleased that I managed to finish the first book! It only took me six months to begin to tackle this project, and I’m hoping that I can finish the second book and get started on the third before my little guy turns 3 in November! I ordered my first book last week from one of my favorite album companies and cannot wait to see how it turns out!

As I go through my photos, I thought I would take some time to share some personal images this summer so you can see what I’ve been up to! :) I’m going to try to share a couple of personal shots each week – I have quite a few great shots from the past year that I have just been too busy to post!

Here are some shots from a recent visit to Monkey Jungle in Miami. Zachary really enjoyed seeing the monkeys, birds, plants, flowers, and more! We even saw a Mommy Monkey and Baby Monkey (pictured below).

If you have a 2 year old, I’d recommend visiting. It is a long drive from Broward County, but we had a great time!

Having family portraits taken is so important! We had our first official family portrait session done when I was pregnant with Zachary in 2008 (my friend and awesome 2nd shooter, Jessica, took my maternity pictures). Then, when we visited San Diego in 2009, we had pictures taken when Zachary was 10 months old, by my friend Hillary.

In March 2011, I asked my friend Alicia from Cordele Photography to do a shoot with us now that Zachary is two! Our photo session was done at the Fontainebleu, one of the most historic & iconic Miami Beach hotels.

I absolutely love the images and the first one posted here on my blog is now hanging in our home as a beautiful canvas gallery wrap! It’s so much fun to see our happy faces every day in our living room. :)

These are three of my favorite shots, however you can see my top 10 posted on my personal blog by clicking here! :)

Thanks again, Alicia, for the fantastic, fun photo session!

I have felt shocked and horrified every time I look at YouTube, turn on the TV, or even just talk about the tragedy in Japan with my friends and family. It is unfathomable to imagine that kind of devastation taking place.

When I saw this outpouring of support called For Japan with Love from some well known wedding bloggers this morning, Utterly Engaged and Ever Ours, I felt like I had to participate. You’ll find my name (once they update their site) under Karen Lisa Artistic Photography.

Wishing all of my friends and clients a very happy 2011! I hope you all have lots of happiness and success this year!

Congratulations to any lucky bride or groom to be who announce an engagement on New Year’s! Don’t forget to get in touch with me about your wedding photography plans!

I’m really looking forward to lots of great new opportunities this year and meeting new clients and friends. I’m also looking forward to photographing my adorable son as much as possible! He gets cuter by the day.

Hope you enjoy this picture of my sweet boy having fun during our recent cold snap… more wedding images coming SOON! :)

Occasionally I blog about personal things here on my photography blog, but I’m not sure if many of my readers know that I have a personal blog, as well! It’s called Bright Autumn Sun, and I’ve been blogging there, at my own personal domain for many years, since I was a teenager, in fact! My blog is now more of a “mom blog” since I write a lot about my life especially with my son, Zachary, but I also do a lot of fun things on my blog to keep my readers entertained – like product reviews and giveaways of things that are of interest to moms or women in my age range.

This month, Zachary is turning 2. I can’t believe it! He’s gone from an adorable newborn baby to an adorable AND handsome little boy!

This year, my business is turning 5 years old! I started out shooting with my husband Adrian, just assisting him at first, then being his second shooter at weddings. Over five years we’ve transitioned between three names, starting as Ziemkowski Visions to The Wedding Couple and last October, I decided that it was time that I took over the company since I was the primary photographer and photo editor – so our company was renamed Karen Lisa Artistic Photography.

This job is very important to me, and I simply cannot imagine doing anything else. In my life, I’ve been a secretary, a technical editor, a vacation planner, a teacher… None of them were right. But this? It’s the only job I’ve ever had that has made me feel like what I’m doing has true value for those I’m doing it for. Shooting a great session or wedding makes me feel proud to have captured someone’s memories for generations, knowing one day their grandchildren will look at their photo album and see how they felt and what kind of person they were. It is a powerful and special feeling to be able to create images for people that will be important to their families for years to come!

In honor of my son turning 2, I want to take more pictures of my own family and document my life better. This second year of Zachary’s life has been a busy one, as he loves running around and in typical toddler fashion, doesn’t sit still very often. I feel that I haven’t taken as many photos as I should have, and that needs to change. I need to get better about documenting my own family to the best of my abilities.

And so do you. Capturing family memories is one of the greatest things that you can ever do for your children & future generations.

Whether that means doing it myself, or asking photographer friends to help out a few times a year for family photo shoots, I have a duty to capture my own family’s life and record it for ages to come. Especially this month that Zachary turns two, this month that we celebrate Thanksgiving and all that we are thankful for, this month that I remember how far I’ve come as a photographer and artist and person in five AMAZING years! This month, I  will get my camera out, for myself, and document as much as I can.

Do you have a camera? Any camera? It doesn’t matter if it’s a point and shoot… or a Digital SLR… or your iPhone. Even a polaroid will do, as long as you can scan your prints. Well, take a look at it/them, because I want you to use it every day this month. Join me in my Photo Fun Month challenge over at my personal blog, Bright Autumn Sun, where I’ll be photographing life as I see it, and blogging my images. I’ll be tweeting, too, using the hash tag #photofunmonth, and would be delighted if you’d join in the fun!

In addition to posting photos each and every day, I’m going to be hosting loads of amazing giveaways from fantastic vendors such as Modern Bird Studio, Black Rapid camera straps, 503 Workshops, Tiny Prints, and more. All of these giveaways will inspire you to get out and use your camera or do something more with your photos. And for those of you who are still learning how to shoot or just like to do it as a hobby to take pics of your children, there are even some resources I’ll be giving away that will help you do that better. SO many awesome things are happening on Bright Autumn Sun this month so please please come check it out – if not for the daily photo candy, at least for the giveaways ;)

I’ll be doing a weekly roundup of giveaways and fun stuff here on this blog, too, so those of you who don’t want to subscribe over there can still read about the fun going on, see great photos, and find out how to win awesome prizes!

And stay tuned for a Karen Lisa Artistic Photography giveaway later in November…. :)

You can click the button to visit Bright Autumn Sun and find out more!

We had such a fantastic time tonight celebrating Zachary’s second Halloween! My parents stopped by to see him in costume and take a photo of the three of us, and Zachary was so excited! He was dressed up as The Flash (since he moves quick as a flash – and how much do you love that fun photo edit that Adrian did in the first picture? I love the “flash movement”). Zachary also enjoyed tasting his first-ever lollipop. Even the rain couldn’t scare us away from having fun! We had an amazing evening trick-or-treating and Zachary truly was in amazement of this magical evening. It was great to see him being such a little boy. He is turning two next month and already is so grown up.

Hope you enjoy our family photos: