I met Kay Beaton today, who is a joyful, beautiful woman that just shines a light wherever she goes! She loves to photograph, and has an incredible heart for children, which as a mom of two young kids, melts my own heart. I found myself smiling more than I normally do during our session – she has a truly infectious smile and I love that she challenged herself to be in front of the camera. It’s no easy task, and she handled it beautifully.

Here is Kay’s story:

“My photography style is candid, natural, and fun! Photography is my second career.  Environmental engineering was my first career where I worked professionally for 15 years and now I’ve been a professional photographer for 14 years.  Many of my family have this left and right brain balance… my father was a PhD chemist as well as a talented musician.

It was passion that led me to photography as well as a broken leg.  After a ski accident and two months on crutches with two small children under age 3, most of my engineering consulting work petered out.  With the help of a great life coach I morphed into a butterfly and took on the photography world.

Over the years I have photographed a wide variety of subjects including weddings, children, families, real estate and commercial and product photography.  But it’s always the babies and children that steal my heart. Newborn photography is my latest passion – getting those sleepy curly beautiful shots of a baby in the first week or two of life.  And it reminds me of what a miracle life really is!

When I photograph children, I get to be a child again.  I make animal noises, play with toys, sing songs, I’ll do ANYTHING to get a child to smile!  During family portraits outdoors, I’ve had strangers say behind me that they don’t know how the subjects cannot laugh with me because I’m laughing so much.  Being extroverted and having a voracious laugh have always helped me as a photographer!   And I love long term clients – watching kiddos grow over the years or photographing a beautiful wedding then baby and family photos as the years progress!

But the most meaningful children’s photos I take each year are portraits of children with critical illness for Flashes of Hope (www.flashesofhope.org).  Most of these kiddos survive and go on to greatness, some of them don’t, but either way the portraits are a documentation of a very difficult time. I try to capture their true personalities and we have a great time getting them taken – often with the help of the amazing staff at Children’s Hospital.

I have always been more comfortable on my own end of the camera… but know it’s important to get professional photographs taken, so I pushed myself out of my comfort zone to ask Eldeen to take my own photos this month!”