Malcolm | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NC NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

Sweet little 11-day-old Malcolm was such a pleasure to have in my newborn studio last week. He started off his session very bright-eyed, but didn’t stay that way for long! He was such a sweet baby and I adored meeting his family. Here are a few shots from his session!

Melissa is currently booking for Raleigh maternity photography, Raleigh newborn photography and Raleigh child photo sessions in the Raleigh Durham Wake Forest, North Carolina area. Be sure to contact her early to reserve your space!

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Malcolm Newborn Sneak Peek | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

11-day-old Malcolm and his family joined me in my studio on Saturday for their newborn session. Here is one sneak peek photo for them!

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Baby Diana | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHY

I have this AMAZING group of women in my life. We started a group back in 2010 because of our mutual love of photography, and we still get together regularly after all this time. Between dinners and photographing subjects and gift swaps at Christmas, these girls are SO special to me and I’m thankful to call them my friends! Last weekend I had them all to my studio and we photographed a newborn baby girl who was just 10 days old. Sweet little Diana!

Here are a couple of photos of us in action in my studio. These were taken by my good friend Morgan Henderson who is a fabulous Raleigh Durham wedding and family photographer.

And of course I have to share a couple of our resulting shots from that day. Diana was so very tiny and precious!

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Chelsey | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST MATERNITY PHOTOGRAPHER

I’m just sharing a sneak peek for Chelsey and Kris from their stunning maternity session. Lots more of this fabulous-ness to come soon! 🙂

Melissa is currently booking for maternity, newborn and child photo sessions in the Raleigh Durham Wake Forest, NC area. Be sure to contact her early to reserve your space!

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2012 Year In Review | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NEWBORN BABY CHILD PHOTOGRAPHER

Each year I try to set aside some time to create a compilation of my favorite photos from each session I had that year. It was really fun to go back through and remember my favorites! I picked one photo from each family I met this year — there are sessions I’ve promised not to share, for privacy reasons, but the ones you see below are all of my favorites from those I blogged about this year. I owe a big thank you to each of the families I met this year – you’ve all been so amazing to share your lives with me, and I’m blessed to call you my friends. I watched quite a few of your babies grow up this year, and it was an honor!

Coming up in 2013, I plan to get caught up on my blogging from all my fall sessions, and I have an extremely packed calendar for January, so I’m eager to get some new sweet babies on this blog! Happy New Year, everyone!

Melissa is currently booking for maternity, newborn and child photo sessions in the Raleigh Durham Wake Forest, NC area. Be sure to contact her early to reserve your space!

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Printing Your Portraits | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NEWBORN AND BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

I wanted to share some information on the importance of printing your portraits from a recommended photo lab. Below is a side by side comparison of different print labs. You can easily see that the professional printing lab most closely matches the original (top) image and can therefore be hung in your home and viewed as it was intended by the photographer. The “cheap” labs don’t even come close. In fact, the Kodak Easyshare photo on the bottom right sorta makes me shudder. It’s awful. The colors are bad in all of them, the shadows are bad. Just all around BAD.

For my clients who have purchased digital files from me – I highly, highly recommend printing those files through a site called mpix.com. Their lab is extremely close to professional quality. Otherwise, you’re not doing your portraits any justice! Thanks for listening! 🙂

*images provided by photographybycarlise – a big thank you!

Melissa is currently booking into 2013 for maternity, newborn and child photo sessions in the Raleigh Durham Wake Forest, NC area. Be sure to contact her early to reserve your space!

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Beau | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST CHILD NEWBORN AND BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

Oh, the sweet, cute little Beau…. where do I even start? He is SIX MONTHS OLD now — I saw him for his newborn photos back in June. That post is HERE. I just adore his beautiful family, and was so happy to get them all in Beau’s 6-month photos — even big brother Palmer let us include him! 🙂 They are both so, so cute!! Here’s a peek at their session!

Melissa is currently booking into 2013 for maternity, newborn and child photo sessions in the Raleigh Durham Wake Forest, NC area. Be sure to contact her early to reserve your space!

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Baby Ethan | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

Meet sweet baby boy Ethan. He was an absolute JOY to photograph. Ethan is blessed to have an awesome big brother and two adoring parents, along with amazingly generous extended relatives that I had the pleasure to speak with — he was definitely born into a loving family! I am completely smitten with this little guy. 🙂

Melissa is currently booking into 2013 for maternity, newborn and child photo sessions in the Raleigh Durham Wake Forest, NC area. Be sure to contact her early to reserve your space!

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Lorelei | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

Oh, how I LOVED this session. First of all, I haven’t photographed a single baby with the name Lorelei. EVER. But, why in the world not?!? I just LOVE IT!!!! There needs to be more Lorelei’s in this world. And second of all, Lorelei’s sweet Mommy brought along HER mom from Louisiana to the session, so we had three generations in the studio. And lastly, 7-day-old Lorelei gave me the biggest smiles I’ve EVER seen on a newborn. Thanks for totally making my day, Lorelei! You’re so sweet and wonderful!

Just a scheduling note: I’m completely booked up for the remainder of 2012 for family and child photo sessions. I do have a (very) few openings for maternity and newborn sessions for 2012. I already have many 2013 due dates on the calendar, so PLEASE contact me early to reserve your space, because I hate to turn people away!

Wesley and Harrison | Twins | RALEIGH WAKE FOREST NEWBORN BABY PHOTOGRAPHER

Sweet little twin boys, Wesley and Harrison, met me a few weeks ago in the studio for their newborn portraits. They are just so precious and perfect!! There’s really something special about a set of twins, something so fascinating and amazing to me. It’s always a delight for me to be able to photograph twins. Wesley and Harrison are participating in my Baby’s First Year Plan, so I’m thrilled to get to watch them grow during their first year!

Melissa is currently booking into early 2013 for maternity, newborn and child photo sessions in the Raleigh Durham Wake Forest, NC area. Be sure to contact her early to reserve your space!

Contact Melissa for a Session | View Melissa’s Portfolio | Follow Melissa on Facebook