Quarantine Birthday Party – Front Porch Session

Quarantine Birthday Party – Front Porch Session

What do you do when your Spring bluebonnet photos are cancelled due to Stay-at-Home orders during Covid-19 quarantine? You wait until it lifts for a front porch session that coincides with both of your kids birthdays.

Celebrating as a family with birthday cake, new trampoline and new puppy – I was able to document the togetherness in this Front Porch (and backyard) session.

Here’s to all the families making new sweet memories in these strange times.

1. How did you find working with Stephanie Friedman Photography?

We took family photos in the blue bonnets last spring with Stephanie, and they are my favorite pictures, so scheduling a porch photo session this spring was another way to capture precious memories of our growing kids even in these challenging times.

2. What was your favorite part of the photo session?

Even behind a mask and from six-feet away, Stephanie is magical with children. She put them at ease right away and had them smiling and posing like professional models.

3. What advice would you give to families planning a portrait session during Quarantine?

Plan the session, so you can share photos from the Covid-19 era with your grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Remember looking at all the Spanish flu images. We are living history right now. Wear your masks, but also make it fun by decorating your yard and porch. Show off all that landscaping work.

4. Anything else to add?

Only Stephanie can capture multiple photos where my entire family is smiling and looks good. She is a total pro!


See below for a sneak preview of some of my favorite images from this session:

Online Learning Resources for Kids

Online Learning Resources for Kids

The kids are at home for at least the next few weeks, and I’m so grateful that our school district sent out some resources and lesson plans over the weekend. I wanted to share some of the sites from that list as well as places my co-workers, friends and family have been sharing among ourselves.

If you have elementary age kids, I hope you find this list helpful:

Educational Sites

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – free learning activities and lessons, divided by grade bands

Scholastic – free learning activities and lessons, divided by grade bands

Thinkery – hands on Science activities

Duolingo – learn a new language

Tynker – coding for kids

Typing Club – free game to improve typing skills

Khan Academy – start with their online schedules for Parents – such a great resource

Pinna – ad-free audio streaming service, can get first 60 days free, a lot of our favorite podcasts are here

Filament Games – lots of options here, some geared more towards older kids

GoNoodle – our new PE class at home

National Geographic Kids – for the science/nature portion of the day

PBS Kids – games and activities

Prodigy – Math game

Skillshare – for art and creativity, free and paid class plans

NASA – more great S.T.E.M. activities for Gr. K- 4th

YouTube – when the parents need a break 😉 – but still lots of educational stuff on there as well

And through the school portal, we’ll be using:

May we all figure out our own Corona Curriculum. And if you have suggestions for other sites, please leave me a comment below. I’ve found this Facebook group has loads more specific resources – go check it out!

 

International School of Texas – School Branding Story

International School of Texas – School Branding Story

Last fall I was contacted by the International School of Texas to take branding photos for their website update.

Given my skill set:

  • 20+ years in the image department of an educational publisher (photo researcher, photographer, etc.)
  • 5 years volunteering as a photographer for my kids’ school events (Field Day, Class Parties, etc.)
  • 10+ years photographing kids and families

It was a perfect blending of my experience and interests.

Next, I went out to the school four times to photograph various classes, events and student groups. Now the International School of Texas has a fresh stock image library for mailers, brochures, social media and website updates.

Plus: check out their new website!

See below for a sampling of my favorite images: