Tampa Baby Child Family Photographer - Jennifer Griffin

Unplugging for Mother’s Day – Central Florida Family Photographer

admin — Wed, 09 May 2012 18:32:33 +0000

I am the first to admit I can easily get distracted by technology, and sometimes at the cost of my family. I recall when I got my first iphone I had to check it every time it made that little sound letting me know I received a new email. There came a point when the fun and convenience of having my phone became an overwhelming distraction. It was not intentional, it just happened, I was missing moments with my girls and my husband. So a couple years ago I decided to turn that little beep off, so I wouldn’t be tempted to check my email every time I heard something pop in my inbox and instead became more intentional about when I check my phone. I’ve always had a rule that unless there is some type of emergency I do not get on my phone until after I drop my girls off at school. I want them to know they are the most important part of my life and start of my day. We spend our morning commute talking about the things we have planned for the day, sometimes we plug in the ipod and get a little loud and silly and we have a certain landmark on our commute that we always stop everything, turn off the radio and say our morning prayers, something that started years ago with my oldest daughter. I love mornings with my girls, its often the highlight of my day, but somehow as the day goes on things come up that I have to tend to, so I often find myself using that distracting piece of technology. I am not perfect but I do make an effort to be present when my girls are home, but after reading THIS recently it reminded me that I still need to make more of an effort to unplug from this electronic leash as I sometimes call it. So as we approach Mother’s Day I wanted to share it with you, not to make anyone feel guilty, but to say lets all try to put down the technology for a few minutes each day and be in the moment with our little ones!

Now that I’ve made “the phone” sound like its the worst thing ever, I think it can be a wonderful tool to document some wonderful memories in your life if used in moderation of course… I often have friends and clients say “you must have some amazing photographs of your girls” and the truth is, I do have some images I adore of my girls, but I am guilty of not documenting the simple moments in our lives. I have a million excuses, I don’t want to lug my big beast professional camera, I don’t want my camera to get damaged or stolen, etc… and even more simple when I do have “my” camera I am then in “Professional Photographer” mode and not “Mom” mode and I then tend to get distracted over the lighting, composition, etc… I’ve often been guilty of missing the moment just by trying to capture the moment. I’ve slowly started to let go of the guilt that every image has to be perfect and decided an iphone image is better than no image. Thanks to Instagram I now have some images that make me smile for many reasons, but most importantly I have captured moments in my families’ life without missing the moments. Sure they are not technically perfect but they are good enough for me, and my girls love to flip through the photo album and reminisce about all the silly things they did. They even get in on the fun and it is not uncommon for me to find photos or video that they have taken themselves, and those are sure to put a smile on my face. So if you aren’t documenting your little one’s lives, please pick up your phone (every now and then of course) and start remembering those moments.

My twins just turned five last weekend and we have a tradition of going to Disney World for a character breakfast or dinner on their birthdays, and although I did bring my big beast camera I only took it out a few times, instead I chose to use my iphone the majority of the day… I thought I’d share some of my “iphone art” with you for some inspiration.

I hope you find time to unplug and relax with your little ones this weekend and have the best Mother’s Day ever!

How to Miss Childhood Article

Pretty in Pink ~ Tampa Newborn Baby Photography

admin — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:05:08 +0000

I just loved photographing this sweet baby girl and her family. They were referred by another very special family that I also love photographing. There is no bigger compliment than a personal referral from a family I have had the pleasure of working with several times over the past few years. I look forward to seeing both families as their little girls grow. I thought I’d share a couple favorites from baby Taylor’s newborn session, she was photographed on her 7th day after birth.

Pure Happiness ~ Tampa Baby & Family Photographer

admin — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 17:24:34 +0000

“Simplicity is the essence of happiness” – Cedric Bledsoe

Love this family and image, sweet, simple and pure happiness!

Beautiful Baby Boy! ~ Tampa Baby Photographer

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 20:07:50 +0000

It’s no secret that I love photographing newborn babies, look at this sweetness! This little guy has the sweetest parents and it was such a pleasure to photograph him and his family!

Adorable Little Guy! ~ Tampa Family Photographer

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:54:04 +0000

I love photographing this beautiful family. Last time I saw them little A was crawling around still a baby, and now look at him all grown up.

Brotherly Love – Tampa Child Photographer

admin — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:02:58 +0000

“Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero.” ~Marc Brown

I’ve had the pleasure of photographing these little guys as newborns and I love when I get to watch the babies I photographed at days old turn one and into big brothers!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!!! – Tampa Photographer

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:53:58 +0000

I fell in love with this little girl before I even met her. Her and I have a few things in common, one of them being we share the same birthday! I met her and her mom a couple months ago at her session, and they are both just as sweet as they are beautiful. Little “F” is celebrating her First Birthday today. Happy Birthday baby “F”, I hope you have a very special first birthday and I hope to see you again, as you continue to grow into a beautiful little girl!

“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go”

admin — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 02:31:57 +0000

I’ve always loved this famous quote from Dr. Seuss, however I’ve recently fallen in love with it. My oldest has always loved to learn, loved school and this past school year she absolutely fell in love with reading. She had the most wonderful teacher who encouraged her and her classmates to read, who allowed them to take daily trips to the library, taught them how to write & illustrate their own stories. I was overwhelmed as I watched her blossom this past school year and become so eager to read more and more. If she wanted to learn more about a particular topic she would go the library and find a book in that subject and then tell us all about what she had learned. Fast forward to the present day, summer 2011 and she begs me daily to go the library, I had to make a deal with her that I would take her once a week and as long as she would read them she could check out however many books she wanted. Well, the first week it was 8, then 10, then 12 and for the most part she has read them all each week, occasionally she finds one that doesn’t interest her and she won’t read past Chapter 1. I’ve tried to get her to read some of the more popular books for her level and she politely replied “Mom, if the author doesn’t make me feel like I’m there I don’t want to read it, I’ve tried that author and she doesn’t make me feel like I’m there and part of the story…” I could only reply with “well okay then….”.

It has been such a busy summer for me, seems like there has been some great baby boom, lots of my newborns who are now approaching two are becoming big brothers and sisters. I absolutely love to watch the families I’ve come to know and love grow and become families of 4, 5 and even 6. I’ve been busy photographing all these babies, toddlers and families in the Tampa area, traveling to the beach to photograph some families vacationing in Florida and all the while trying to keep my promise to my little reader. I decided to snap a few pictures of a recent trip the library, one thing that I love most about my daughter’s love of reading is that she is passing it along to her younger twin sisters. Although they can’t read yet, they check out their own books and we cuddle up for story time, its is my favorite part of the day! So if you are looking for something cool to do this summer to beat this Florida heat, try a trip to the library and open up a whole new world to your little one.

And this is her most recent stack of books, lots of fiction books and a few non-fiction ones…. a nice mix of Mother Teresa, Taylor Swift and Justin Timberake, lol!

Then finished off the day with some old fashioned cherry sodas….a first for my girls and they weren’t too sure about them, as you can tell from this photo.

Senior Pictures ~ (Tampa Senior Photographer)

admin — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:42:38 +0000

For those of you that follow my blog, you know I specialize in Children and Baby photography and have been photographing babies in Tampa for many years now, but occasionally I am asked to do senior pictures and more often than not, it is for a senior that I have a relationship with, as is the case with this young man. Meet Corey, I’ve had the pleasure of watching him grow from just a little guy into a such a handsome, polite young man. My husband and I have been friends with his family for over ten years and it was such a pleasure to photograph this special time in his life as he graduates from Strawberry Crest High School, class of 2011.

Before and After – Tampa Maternity & Baby Photographer

admin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:25:43 +0000

I’ve had the pleasure of photographing this family on more than one occasion, they are truly beautiful inside and out. I photographed their oldest when he was first born, he is now almost five about to start kindergarten, where does time go? I was thrilled to capture these photos of Mom’s second pregnancy, isn’t she absolutely beautiful? The images were taken just a few weeks before she delivered baby B and she looked amazing! She might look a bit familiar to you local folks for a couple reasons, one she has an identical twin sister (who you might also see on my website, blog, facebook, etc) and she was the Strawberry Queen a few years back. My oldest daughter was fooled when I was proofing her session, she said “where are the other boys’ and that other man?”, meaning her twin sister’s family my daughter had seen me proof a few months earlier, it was pretty funny. I love to hear their “twin” stories being a twin mom myself I find it all so interesting. It was really funny this holiday season when they both picked out the same Christmas card, I have a feeling there might be a race this year to get first picks on their Christmas cards. It will be fun to photograph this family this as a family of four for their cards. Little B came to me at only two weeks of age, just inside the two week window I like to photograph newborns and he was an angel for the session. Big Brother E was so cooperative and I got lots of great sibling images, the one below is my favorite I think….