It is always a challenge and a rewarding experience to photograph fellow wedding and portrait photographer friends with their family!

Stacey is a dear friend with a sweet husband and an adorable daughter, as you can see.

Stacey and I were photographing a wedding together.  We took a few minutes while all guests were dining to take advantage of her family being guests at this particular wedding.

We found the perfect light.  It just could not be any easier!

Daughters and Dads are so special, and these two are NO exception!

I love to take series of photographs to attempt to tell a story, by adding another dimension that the viewer might not have the opportunity to witness.

It was a wedding after all, why not celebrate mom and dad’s love….it is amazing how delighted children by genuine love especially when it is shared by their own mom and dad….no better sense of family, right?

Thanks Stacey and Paul for letting me be with you for that few minutes together!

Family Portraiture!  Good times.  I love to work with children and families in natural settings.  The family and I choose a location that will be fun for the kids to go on an adventure or we pick a favorite family location which is sentimental.  It is our hope to make our portrait session a fun experience for everyone.  What better way to get great expressions!?  Young children become bored easily and are quick to discover that we are up to taking pictures of them, but breaking the session up and walking and playing make it easier to capture natural expressions and childlike mannerisms specific to them.  It helps to distract them a bit.

Here are some of my favorite images from a recent session in our favorite location.

I wish I would have taken more images of my children when they were young, together, hugging each other, because now as they have grown I see more of the wrestling and less affectionate personal expressions with each other. It is a joy for me to get to record images of young children holding each other while they are still young and less competitive.  These two little boys are simply a delight.

and the rest of my favorite images from this family portrait session in Raleigh

Thank you for sharing your family with us!

OMG!  April 30, 2010 was one exciting day for several adults, teens and children.  It was Black Belt Exam day at Lee Brothers in Raleigh.  Woo HOO!

There were some amazing people who showed Master Lee and all of us their crazy skills and mad talent with martial arts. I have to say I was most proud of Emily, my 10 year old daughter.

I have posted my favorite action images from this testing for your viewing and/or purchase.   A portion of  your purchases will go back to Lee Brothers for the Sidekick Foundation and the Teacher’s Fund in order to show our gratitiude and give back to our local community.

click this link to view and order images

Here is one of my favorite action shots of Maria!  She was fabulous and strong and admirable and amazing!  She passed her 2nd Dahn Black Belt….wow!  Congratulations everyone.  You have worked hard and it showed!

Families are so much fun to work with!

We at Sue Rakes Photography are doing something new and exciting with families.  We are finding locations our clients wish to have presented in their wall portraits hanging above their fireplace or anywhere else in their home to celebrate FAMILY!  This lovely family chose our very own Stone Falls location which thrilled me to death!  We all spent about one and half hours playing near the creek, walking on the trail next to the lake and discovering little creatures along the way.  Fall color and leaves add to the experience for everyone.

I want to make sessions with families fun!  I want the kids to remember the experience, not just the picture-taking part.  I want to see these wonderful little souls again and play with them…..it would kill me to think that they dreaded going to sit in front of the photographer again.  ug.  We get much more natural and memorable expressions this way, out of the studio and back into nature.  If you know me at all, you know this works well for me and everyone around me.

Thank yous go out to Jennifer.  Thank you for sharing your beautiful family with me once again!   You guys are the best!

My Kickin' Kids!

Here is an image done by a Marial Arts Photography group taken from several individual images taken of my children. They each got to chose the weapon of their choice. I love this composite of them. I am wildly proud of each of them for all of their hard work!

It has become important to me to see people’s actions and weigh those more importantly than their words.  I want to teach my children values and take personal responsibility for themselves and their actions.  How will they learn to do this other than by watching the adults around them model these values?

In line with these directives I have actively begun to seek out organizations I can offer my skills and talents to, to better help their tremendous efforts in our community. This makes me feel good as a person, helps me achieve a main goal in giving back to my community locally, and serves my desire to be a strong role model for my own children.

On April 17, I donated a Family Portrait Session and a Complimentary 11×14 portrait (a $420.00 Value) to a Silent Auction for Casino Night, a fund raiser for the Community Music School of Raleigh. It was held in the Capital Bank Building lobby. The bank is on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh. See the websites below for more information about the school and the Casino Night fundraiser. This Silent Auction raises money for children who cannot otherwise afford music lessons locally. It was a great night and many scholarships were awarded due to the generous support of local vendors and auction participants.

Websites:

http://www.bachnroll.org

http://www.CommunityMusicSchoolofRaleigh.org

Please let me know if you know anyone who needs me to partcipate in their Silent or Live Auctions, ok?