We are so excited to announce the newest addition to the Tracy Autem & Lightly Photography Family. Gideon Matthew was born October 13 at 8:02 am . He weighed 9lbs and 3 oz and is 20.5 inches. I was so blessed to be there when Tracy and her husband got to hold their precious baby boy for the very first time and I wanted to share some of those images. Of course I couldn’t help but cry as I experienced their joy with them. We all truly are a family.

Sarah Rizy

Thanks to all our friends, vendors and Fort Worth people that came out and braved the rain on Saturday night to the Arts Goggle.  It was a treat to show off the progress on our new studio that we hope to be operating out of some time in November.  The Arts Goggle also gives myself and my staff a chance to share our fine art photography.  One thing that sets our company apart is that all members of my team have fine art photography degrees.  This means we all learned how to shoot on good old film cameras, played in the dark room, miss the smell of the chemicals deeply and love having a chance to truly play with a camera.  We find that putting forth a theme for our Arts Goggle shows works best and this year we displayed photos each of us captured in New Orleans last year using a film camera called a Holga.  This little “toy camera” as it is referred to by many has very little controls, takes 120 sized film, is plastic and comes in some super cute colors.  I first fell in love with the simplicity of this camera in college as it truly becomes all about composition and the unexpected.  You can shoot the camera as individual frames, you can easily expose each frame multiple times or you can shoot the negative as one long overlapping strip.  The later is my favorite and when I’m shooting it forces me to think about the last frame and how it could potentially interact with the next.  I wanted to share the work I displayed over the weekend, enjoy!

I’m at 25 weeks pregnant and thought you might be in need of an update!  Baby #2 is a BOY!  I am going to be surrounded by boys and my little Alex will have a baby brother to play with, wrestle and generally fight with but love with all his might.  We are pretty sure on the name but I am waiting to reveal that here just a bit longer.  We are working hard on his Owl themed room and I only have 3 more weddings to shoot before I officially become to BIG to run around for 8 hours taking pictures.  I will be accepting limited sessions during the morning hours due to the heat through the middle of September and will be returning the middle of November.  This fall Sarah Halferty, will be shooting all of our holiday portraits and I am SO very excited about it because she is good.  I mean, she shoots my family every year so you know you are in the best of hands.   A few impromptu pregnancy photos by Sarah Rizy and of course the telling sonogram photo, definitely a boy!

This October we will be welcoming a new little one to the Autem Family!  Alexander will be a big brother and a fabulous one at that.  He already practices with his Bob the Builder “baby” doll and loves to feed anything that moves.  We are so very excited about it and will of course be sharing photos of my growing belly and the little Neeboo (pronounced Knee – boo).  Alex was Weeboo so this baby has taken on the name Neeboo until we find out what they are later in May.  What do you think I will have???

Alex likes to hold and kiss the photo of his baby, when I brought it home and told him what it was he immediately kissed it.

LOVE this photo.  As happy as I know he will be to be a BIG brother other times he will feel like this.     I sympathize, JW and I are both the oldest siblings in our families.

At Lightly Photography, Inc. & Tracy Autem Photography we are super excited about this upcoming year.  This year Sarah Halferty will be joining Sarah Rizy and myself at the office as she completes her degree in photography and joins the studio as our full time album designer.  We have a really sweet and smart intern from TCU this spring that is going to totally bless our clients and us.  We have some BIG things coming up with the look of our blog, website and also our marketing materials (new and pretty is fun!)  Stay tuned this month if you are a client from last year for a contest looking back at 2010′s best images, it is going to be great!

As no post is complete with out an image here is my little man, Alex, totally enjoying his first birthday cake from Creme de la Creme Bakery.  He turned 1 in December and we had a Farm Party for him to celebrate, he is such a toddler now and it scares me.  I think in 2011 I may have some Alex made messes in my future.

A