a beautiful day in the neighborhood | champaign family photographer

Remember that song from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood? “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor – would you be mine? Could you be mine?”  Well, it was certainly a beautiful day for our family photography session last Saturday, and although this family isn’t technically my neighbor – I feel like I’ve gotten to know them as well as neighbors over the past three or so years! That’s one of the things I like best about my job – because I get to work and play with wonderful families like this several times a year, we develop a relationship — and that’s not something you find with franchise photographers…  I bring this up mainly because the mom of these lovely kiddos mentioned it on Saturday.  As we finished the session at their home (with a deliciously messy birthday cake! yum!), she showed me a snapshot they had taken at the photography place at the mall with the kids in their Halloween costumes — and she prefaced it by saying “You have completely spoiled me!  I can’t go anywhere else for pictures now!” … but I quickly reassured her that different types of photography serve different purposes.  No, the photo shop at the mall isn’t going to give you timeless images of your children; no, they aren’t going to capture the intimate relationships that make up your family; and no they aren’t going to create works of art that you want to display in your home for generations — that is the purpose of custom photography like Sweet Pea Photography.  However, when you want to document holidays like Halloween, or get a picture of your baby every month for grandma’s wallet, or if the cousins happen to come in town for the weekend and bring along their Cubs and Cardinals shirts — by all means, go take advantage of the photo place at the mall without feeling guilty, because THAT is why it exists!

Okay, back to this wonderful family — I hope you guys enjoy this sneak peek, and don’t forget to leave a comment!  After 25, I’ll gift them a free 5×7 print!