Last week I wrote about the greatest lessons my collector Micki has learned from motherhood.

This week I want to talk a little bit about her portraits, and how I captured the individuality of her children.

So the first portrait I did was of Frances, and she is what I would definitely call a girl-girl.

She's very sweet and delicate, but she's also got a little sassy-ness in there. When I first met her she had just gotten done with a yoga class:)

And she just looked like a little angel in her dress with her beautiful blue eyes, so I really sought to capture that delicate part of her personality.

I did that by keeping the colors in the background muted. In real life the staircase is a lot darker, but I didn't want that to overwhelm her so I kept it light. 

She's holding a white gardenia to symbolize her delicacy. Her expression is really soft, not super-smiley, just natural. 

And then for Henry's I went in a totally different direction because he's a different child.

He's a little boy full of life, very rascal-y. He has has lots of energy, and was running around the whole time I was trying to take his picture. I could hardly get him to sit still for one second! It was like as soon as he saw the camera he was off. 

I loved this particular photo of him because it really captures that. He's very much in motion and about to go.

Theres also a confidence about him, like he's really sure of his world. He's happy and full of life, and I used the bold colors of the background to reflect that bold personality.

It brings out some of his best features too, like his black glossy hair, and then the red picks up the rose in his cheeks which I love.

And I just think the colors compliment each other wall and reflect who he is.

Because its my mission to help kids know they are loved and valued for who they truly, are and that means capturing their personalities and making them feel special.