Nancy Hellsten's Photography Blog

Savannah and Hunter

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:39:32 GMT

These twins are over seven months old now, but it's fun to go back and see how tiny they were as newborns so here are a few more photographs from their session.

Sleepover

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 22:52:59 GMT

I wanted a photo of Ben with his cousins but couldn't get all three of them together at once (not to mention that I don't have 3 little beds and someone needed to have a hand on each baby so that they didn't fall off the bed). Instead, I took a photograph of each of them on different days and then pieced the pictures together to make this one. They don't match up perfectly since I didn't use a tripod, but I think it turned out pretty cute anyway. Dez was 2 weeks old. Ben was almost 3 months, and Landon was almost 4.5 months.

Little Miss Josie

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 04:35:46 GMT

I want to share some photos from little Josie's session at three months. Poor little girl was about to cut her first tooth, but she's still such a cutie even when she isn't feeling great. I was super pregnant when I took these photographs, and now my own baby is three months old. They grow up way too fast!

Senior Session with Blake

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:26:42 GMT

Last week I hung out with a really cool senior, Blake Heyrman. Here are a couple of the pictures that stood out as I was going through the photographs.

Haley is Expecting

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:49:44 GMT

I've been so busy with our boys that I haven't really kept up with blogging recently. Haley is due in just a couple of weeks though, and I wanted to go ahead and share a couple of her maternity photos so that I don't end up posting them along with the newborn pictures. Love you, HayHay!

Little Miss Harper Grace

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:46:53 GMT

I am so excited to share photos of this amazing little girl that I photographed yesterday. Although she was actually due today, little Harper Grace was born at 24 weeks gestation back in April. She weighed just 1lb 6oz at birth and was 11" long.

At long last, she is now home with her adoring parents Crystal and Matt and big sister Billie, and she weighs a whopping 5lb 4oz. She is the tiniest little princess but already has a lot of personality and spunk. She is amazingly strong for her size, and she is strong-willed with defnite preferences. She is only truly happy and peaceful when being held, but there's no shortage of eager arms willing to do just that. I'm sure that she has been able to not only survive but thrive because of her family's love and faith and all of the compassionate support and prayer that they receive from the many who know and love them. They are an amazing family that I have been priveleged to know since I first photographed their wedding back in 2007, and I am overjoyed for them to have this beautiful, little addition.

I normally like to photograph babies within ten days of birth, but that obviously wasn't possible with Harper. Although she is still smaller than most newborns, she was much more challenging to work with. She really made us work for the photos that we got, but that makes it even more rewarding.

Baby smiles are so sweet, but capturing them takes a bit of luck and a lot of patience. I actually had to edit two shots together to get each of the finished photographs below, but I love the results.

My Newest Niece

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:46:09 GMT

Congratulations to Sara and Dan on their beautiful, little girl who finally made her appearance yesterday after 39 hours of labor! Unfortunately, I don't know when I'll get to meet her since they live about 4,500 miles away in Sweden, but here are a few photographs that I took of little Emelie Madelaine while she was still inside her gorgeous momma's belly last month.

My First Nephew

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 06:23:43 GMT

We're having a mini baby boom in my family where both of my sisters and my sister-in-law were pregnant at the same time as me. My older sister lives out of town but happened to be visiting Knoxville when she went into labor and gave birth less than half an hour after arriving at the hospital. Little Landon weighed 8lb 5oz and was only a few hours old when I took these photographs at the hospital.

Charlie, Caleb, and Alayna

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:25:31 GMT

Here are a few more favorite photographs from my session with the triplets, including one of Alayna with her big sister Audrey. They were all three under 5lb when born at 34 weeks, and they did spend some time in the NICU. At this newborn session, they were just under a month old but still smaller than most full-term babies.

Baby Josie

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:19:34 GMT

As I finish up orders from some recent sessions, I'm going to add a few additional photos to the blog. Here are more favorites of precious Josie at 8 days old.

Hailey and Michael Engaged

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:19:48 GMT

Unfortunately, I was looking forward to several weddings this year that I had to pass on because of my pregnancy. Hailey and Michael are getting married at Holy Ghost Church next month, and I was very excited about getting to work with them. Her father was one of my favorite teachers in high school, and I really enjoyed photographing her sister Hannah's wedding in 2005. I also did Hailey's senior photos, and I know that she will be a gorgeous bride. I'm confident that my friends Matt and Erin Browne will do a fabulous job in my place though, and at least I did get to photograph their engagement session at the Knoxville Botanical Gardens.

They are such a super sweet couple, and I hope that they have a beautiful wedding and a very happy marriage!

Adorable Times Three

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 23:56:20 GMT

Meet Caleb, Alayna, and Charlie! I'm just processing the photographs from their newborn session last week and wanted to share this one on the triplets. Photographing three babies at the same time is as challenging as you would expect, but they were just oh so very cute.

Edited to add a couple more favorites. These three were actually really good at sleeping for me, but they were very particular about HOW they wanted to sleep. They resisted being on their stomachs or sides and didn't want anyone moving their heads or arms around. Apparently they were trained in the NICU to only sleep on their backs, and they liked having their arms up over their faces (maybe to block the light?). I couldn't have captured the photos that I did without the help and patience of their parents and older sister. These are three very loved babies!

Little Josephine Clair

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 21:54:15 GMT

Baby Josie is just a bundle of sweetness! Weighing in at almost 8.5lb, she was born with lots of adorable little baby chub and lots of hair! Here's a quick peek at a couple of my favorite photos from her newborn photography session this week.

On two separate occasions, I photographed her smiling when her Mom gave her a kiss. It's as if she could feel the love, and it just made her happy.

Savannah and Hunter

Mon, 23 May 2011 03:15:33 GMT

I just wanted to do a quick blog post to share a couple of photos from my twin session with Savannah and Hunter yesterday. They were just 5lb 11oz and 5lb 5oz when born and are still itty bitty a week later. Aren't they adorable?!

Thanks to Marcus for helping me finish sanding and painting the antique bunk bed.

I know that not everyone is a fan of the umbilical cord stump, but it is part of this brand-spanking-new stage of life and will be gone so very soon. I actually don't get very many photos showing it, but I thought this one was cute and shows a bit about their personalities. Hunter was so sweet, quiet, and relaxed the whole day while Savannah was a little more independent.

My Mothers Day 2011

Wed, 11 May 2011 06:25:47 GMT

For Mother's Day this year, I wanted to get some new photos of Hayden. He wore his Easter outfit and played around in our backyard. Then we took him to the park for a ride on the swings. He LOVES the swings!

I think he may look a little bit like his mommy. Here's a photograph of me when I was about one.