2016 Vintage Christmas Tree Lot Mini Sessions

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What: Vintage Christmas Tree Lot Mini Sessions

Where: Gertz Garden Center, Cincinnati

When: Saturday Nov 12th & Sunday Nov 13th

Cost: $175 ($50 deposit due when reserving your time)

What: This years theme will be a Vintage Christmas Tree Lot Sale. String Lights, fresh cut trees Christmas trees, vintage car filled with presents and a Christmas tree on top!

Details: Sessions will be 15 minutes with a minimum of 10 digital final images, delivered via an online gallery will full printing rights.

Session lots are for immediate families only. (if you are wanting a larger family sessions, please book two consecutive slots). Babies must be sitting or being held by a family member.

Deposit is non refundable!!!

Sessions are rain or shine!

Images will be delivered within 10 business days of the session date!

Please check out our Pinterest board filled with inspiration for our set, styling and wardrobe! HERE

Beau's Newborn session

I photographed this little guy in his Momma's belly just last month on a very hot day at California Woods! The session went so easy and even though his parents said "they were awkward" in front of the camera, they really did an amazing job (I think they secretly practiced before our session).

A few weeks later and I get an email to tell me Beau has arrived and to set up a Newborn Session. I absolutely love repeat clients! And especially clients who choose me to capture these very important milestones in their life.

I love everything about Beau's Newborn session. He was super sleepy and really let me do anything with him! I am so proud of these images as I love the simplicity of them! Baby's without much frill around them... just baby on a white sheet. Believe me it is harder than it sounds haha But this is my favorite type of Newborn session.

Too bad this will be probably my last session with this little cutie as Mom and Dad are moving to Chicago in a few weeks!

If you would like to book your Newborn or Family Session with Sonja B Photography, please contact me at sonja.mcgill@yahoo.com

Thank you!

Benjamin's Cake Smash Session - Cincinnati Photographer

I photographed Benjamin's Newborn Pictures right before I moved into my new downtown studio and I photographed him again for my Vintage Camper Christmas Minis and now again for his One Year Photos.

We met up early morning at Ault Park and it was perfect weather for his session.

Benjamin did an amazing job and probably would have finished the entire cake! I think it's fair to say he loved his cake for his cake smash session.

His little outfit was adorable as well!

Day 10 McGill's Go Up North - Saranac Lake, Adirondacks

Day 10 we woke up to perfect weather! Sunshine but still very comfortable temps (I think the high was about 85 that day). I love peaking out of the tent in the morning when everything is quiet and still.

Our tent is a 4 person tent and surprisingly pretty roomy (for our standards). The boys each sleep on a side. Scot and I, in the middle and Finn always on my side. Our bags are at the bottom of Finns feet. Finn is pretty bad about sleeping IN his sleeping bag. I have to repeatably check on him and make sure he is warm enough and stuff him back in his sleeping bag.

We didn't bring a cooler with us to the campsite. It was just too big to take in the kayak and really the only thing we needed to keep cool would have been milk. Scot and I learned to drink our coffee black and we actually liked it. Not enough to drink it always black, but we know now that we can survive with black coffee.

Again, we had to get creative with our daily numbers... here is Finn helping me out with the 10!

Today was a bit of a sad day, we were leaving our amazing campsite. We were all a little sad as we could have stayed here for another few days! Before we packed up we took a family picture.

The kids did a great job helping us pack up and we actually had to leave them behind at the campsite to do one kayak trip without them. It was just easier to get everything back to the car. But no worries they were absolutely fine and ended up enjoying the freedom they had for 30 minutes.

One last picture before we left the campsite! We had to be off by 11am, which made it a little hectic morning.

Even though we had to leave the campsite at 11am, we still had the kayaks till 1pm. The boys decided that they would kayak alone together. I knew it wasn't going to work out but let them try anyways.

It kinda went like this... 20 paddle strokes, 2 minutes break, 10 paddle strokes, 5 minute break, 5 paddle strokes, 10 minute break... you are getting the point! We didn't get far! We switched kayaks and paddled for a little bit longer.

Once back at the car, we took the time to really clean the car out and organize our camping equipment since we won't be needing it anymore. We threw away a bunch of old food, organized clean and dirty clothes. The timing was perfect as soon as we finished the car, the kayaking rental company was already there to pick up the kayaks.

We drove to our next destination and our shortest drive on the trip... 20 minutes to Lake Placid. We found our hotel and checked in and left soon again to explore Lake Placid.

Our first stop was the 1980 Olympic Ice Hockey rink. The hockey rink where the Miracle on Ice took place. It was pretty cool walking around there and you could feel the energy in this place. Even the boys thought it was pretty amazing and like always had 1000 questions for us.

After vising the hockey rink we decided to take a scenic drive. We drove over a bridge and saw a few people swimming in the river below us. We stopped and checked it out, only to discover one of the greatest swimming holes we have come across. It was pretty amazing. Two waterfalls, a deep swimming hole and a cliff to jump off. The boys were in heaven! I think this might have been their highlight of the trip!

Of course Finn, didn't take much prompting and he jumped from the cliff, which was about 30 feet high. Later Jake and then Scot jumped off as well. Just for the record, I didn't jump... A that's not really my thing anyways but B I was pretty accident prone on this trip anyways and really didn't want to test it.

We hang out for a really long time and only left when is was starting to get dark. We stopped in Lake Placid to get a eat pizza to eat at the hotel. The pizza was amazing and we all went to bed happy and full! This was our last big day on the trip. We are heading back home...

Day 9 McGill's Go Up North - Saranac Lake

Day 9! Probably my favorite day of the trip! We had to get creative with our daily numbers because I forgot a pen/ crayon/ marker at the car and that was a 20 minute paddle (one way) away from us.

About 3 minutes after waking up, Finn was already fishing again.

It was really chilly that morning and I forgot my long pants for the trip (which I didn't, I found them at home at the bottom of the suitcase). After trying to warm up by just being busy and making breakfast, I decided to crawl back in my sleeping bag and lay in the hammock. It didn't take long for my little snuggle buddy to find me and join me. We stayed like this for at least an hour!

Late morning, it warmed up a little (but the sun never really came out that day) and we decided to go for a little paddle across the lake from us and explore this little island. We first paddled over to the cliff where we watched people jump from the cliff the day before. Jake climbed up to the top to see if he would want to jump down later and the answer was : NO WAY!

While on the island we looked at our map and decided on a plan for later in the afternoon.

To make it easier for you I decided to show you with help of Photoshop where we were and where we decided to go. The blue arrow is where our campsite is located. The yellow circle is where we parked the car and the boat access to the lake. We decided to kayak to the lock system in the Saranac River this day (blue line). It took us about 2 hours (but we took our time with the kids) one way to get there.

We explored this little island for a little longer and in the back you can see our campsite (blue cross)

We paddled back to the campsite, and made a big lunch so we wouldn't get hungry on our adventure. First time in 10+ years that I had Spam and surprisingly we all loved it! Finn made us a big bottle of lemonade to take and he has perfected his way of mixing the powder with the water. Throw it up in the air as much as you can...

And off we went... the fist half of the trip was a little strenuous, crossing big bays with lots of wind and boats. But the second part of the trip went through the river and that was really peaceful and beautiful. Of course Finn had his fishing line out most of the way.

The lock happens really quickly after a bend and a boat was already waiting for us, so we joined them in the lock. We had to hold onto the rope and the locks closed and the water rushed in. It was pretty cool. The other side of the lock opened and we were in the Lower Lake. Pretty cool.

We decided not to go any further but to stop at the locks and have a break. The boys were allowed to operate the locks and that was really fun for them. They needed to use a lot of muscle power but they did a great job!

We took a lot of pictures there since it really was absolutely beautiful. The picture of Scot and I cracks me up... this is not how I usually pose and I am not sure what possessed me to pose like that haha I guess I was super happy!

There is a lock operator who lives at the locks all summer. She has her house (in the background in the last picture of this block), her little boat and her dog there. She opens and closes (and answers a million questions from our kids) the locks all day and writes down each boat and passenger that goes through. Really a cool job and I am a little tiny envious for it. But Scot says, I would get bored after two weeks.

Ok and the shoe saga continues... remember how I packed Toms and Flip Flops... well the Flip Flops decided to break on this trip. The Toms were back in the car (and really useless on this trip) and now this. I was barefoot for the next 24ish hours!

(I love the above picture of Scot and Jake so much). We went back through the locks to paddle back to our campsite. This time we switched off. I paddled with Jake and Scot with Finn. Jake and I had some pretty cool conversations and he had lots of his stories to tell me, plus he taught me some pretty cool Boy Scout camp songs.

After another 2 hours of paddling we finally arrived back at the campsite!

The boys went swimming again, while Scot and I fixed dinner.

I brought a flint and steel with us and this kept the boys pretty entertained trying to make a fire!

Soon after Finn fell asleep in the hammock and we were able to just relax at the campfire. He slept in there until about midnight when Scot and I carried him into the tent.

It was just a really peaceful day with my favorite things to do in life (camping and kayaking) with my favorite people.