Emily McCall Photography

Lazy bones

Emily — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:15:05 +0000

I was walking past the guest bedroom when I happened to look in and see this:

She’s got such a tough life!

Some serious yardwork

Emily — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:48:08 +0000

That’s what Ben and I have on our hands now that our two ridiculous dogs have destroyed every last shred of landscaping that existed in our back yard when we moved into our house in March. We no longer have plants, shrubs, or even grass back there! It’s now pretty much nothing but dirt and gravel; it looks a bit like a third-world country.

Now, anyone who knows me will tell you that I don’t have much of a green thumb; I’m actually more of the black thumb variety. And while I flatter myself that I did a pretty decent job of decorating the interior of our house, I am absolutely clueless when it comes to designing a landscape. I have no idea what grows in Texas soil, what should be planted in sun, what should be planted in shade, what needs lots of watering and what doesn’t, what will stand up to two blundering sheepdogs . . .

So, to save myself the trial-and-error ordeal, we hired a landscape designer to come in and tell us what to do. And boy, did he! Daniel from Colorful Impressions gave us a killer design for both the front and back of our house, keeping our lifestyle and budget in mind. Now all we have to do is make it happen! Our plan is to do things in phases, starting with the back yard — which is in the most dire need of help! So we got started last weekend by doing some planting in the corner of our back yard around our giant pecan tree. Here’s a before shot:

Ick, right?! It was an ugly mess. But after a very productive trip to the North Haven Gardens nursery and a long, hard weekend of tilling, digging, planting, and watering, it now looks like this:

Much better, right?! For those of you interested in this sort of thing, I’ll tell you that we planted yaupon holly, oak leaf hydrangea, spring bouquet viburnum, and — my favorite — an oshio beni Japanese maple that I’ve named Jasper. We also planted lots and lots of little vinca plants, which will hopefully grow into some nice ground cover. The vinca is camouflauged in these shots by the thousands of pecan tree leaves that are falling on it, but you can see it (and the viburnum bushes) a little better in this shot:

The best news of all is that everything we planted is still alive after one week! That’s a pretty big accomplishment for us — both the dogs and we managed to keep from destroying it! We’re so high on our success that we’re already looking ahead to the next project: laying a flagstone patio off of our garage . . .

Yikes. Please pray for us!

(And bonus points to you if you can spot all the dog toys in this shot — I see three!)

Meet Frank!

Emily — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:39:07 +0000

Isn’t he a handsome little guy?! Frank will be five weeks old on Monday, and he’s just a doll! His mom and dad wanted to get some shots of him for his birth announcement and holiday card, so he put on a smile for me and made my job easy!

Here he is in his christening gown, which his dad wore, and his dad’s mom wore, and her mom wore . . . it was gorgeous!

And this is Frank in a stocking! One of his grandmothers needle-pointed this amazing stocking for him, and we couldn’t resist stuffing him inside!

Happy babies make me smile!

Frank’s mom and dad love him so much — he’s a lucky little guy!

But who wouldn’t love this guy, huh?! He’s just gorgeous.

The whole beautiful family:

Well, not quite the whole family. Frank’s got some sisters — Katie and Emma — that I couldn’t resist!

Too much good stuff for one session, I tell ya! My clients really spoil me. If you’d like to see Frank’s whole session, check out the SLIDESHOW here!

Happy Halloween!

Emily — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:32:34 +0000

Diana + Ben engagement session: more!

Emily — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 02:34:18 +0000

This smokin’ hot couple is back! Now that I’m finished proofing Diana and Ben’s downtown Dallas e-session, I can show you some of the rest of my favorites . . . this is my longest post ever!

Check out their slideshow!!!

Diana + Ben engagement session: a sneak peek!

Emily — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:15:22 +0000

I shot Diana and Ben’s super-hot engagement session last Saturday, and I have so many keepers from the shoot that it’s taking me forever to proof them! So just to whet your appetite, here’s a little preview . . .

See, totally hot, right?! I can’t wait to show you more!!! I just love engagement sessions . . .

Owen Marshall

Emily — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:23:04 +0000

It’s really hard to beat a newborn session, and I had an amazing one on Saturday! This is Owen Marshall, just ten days old. You met his beautiful momma a few weeks back — the good looks obviously run in the family! Little Owen was born on October 1 and weighed in at 8 pounds, 9 ounces. Don’t you just want to eat him up?!

Here’s the gorgeous new family:

Check out those baby blues:

He was happy as a clam hanging out in that basket:

And the doggie had to investigate . . .

I love toes!

This is one of my absolute favorites:

Here he is in his nursery:

Takin’ a little snooze . . .

Here he looks like he’s pondering some big questions:

And this one just cracks me up! What a face!

Okay, you know I’m hopeless at narrowing down photos to post, so here they all are — turn up your sound!

The holidays are comin’

Emily — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 18:56:51 +0000

Yep, it’s getting to be that time again already — can you believe it?! That means it’s time to start thinking about holiday mini-sessions! This year’s mini-sessions will include 30 minutes of shooting time with me, 5-10 images in your proofing gallery, a set of 48 gorgeous holiday cards featuring your family’s images (see below!), and an 11×14 mounted print of your favorite image from the mini-session. The mini-session fee will be $325. All mini-sessions will be scheduled for the weekend of November 1-2, so be sure to let me know soon if you’re interested — the first family to schedule their mini-session gets to help me choose the location!

Now I get to share this year’s holiday cards! They are super cute. There are five designs to choose from, all 5×7 folded cards with full color spreads on each panel and multiple spaces to showcase your favorite images from this year. And each design is completely customizable! Want your cards to say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”? You got it! Want more traditional red-and-green colors? You can have that too! Your cards will be one-of-a-kind. And you don’t have to schedule a mini-session to take advantage of these beautiful cards — if you’ve had a session recently and want to use those images for your card, that’s great! Samples of all five styles are below, so pick your favorite and let me know! The deadline for ordering holiday cards will be November 30.

Register to vote!

Emily — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:26:55 +0000

Here’s my public service announcement for the day: make sure you register to vote! No matter what your views are, this is an extremely important time to be heard. The deadline to register in Texas is Monday, October 6, so get on it! But here, these guys say it a lot better than I can:

I love one-year-olds!

Emily — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:37:27 +0000

Seriously, is one year old as good as it gets for kids? It must be! These one-year-olds I’ve been shooting lately are amazing! I met Jake last night, who just turned one on Tuesday, and I’m smitten! I don’t know how I get so lucky to shoot all these beautiful kids, but they really make my job easy!

His parents aren’t too tough on the eyes either . . .

We had a blast, running and playing and enjoying some gorgeous sunset light . . .

I love this one. Between the yummy light and that tender look on dad’s face, it couldn’t get much better:

Ha!

I told you, I’m smitten:

You may or may not be able to tell from these photos, but Jake is going to be a big brother in December!

Alright, I really can’t bear deciding what else to show you, so I’m just going to show you the whole session! Turn on your speakers and enjoy!