Rain, Rain Go Away….{East Cobb Photographer}

Picture this…. you are getting ready for your long awaited maternity session. At this point you have picked out outfits for three people, your hair and makeup is good to go and you are now ready to walk out the door….and it starts to rain? UGH! Do you risk it an pray it stops or reschedule? This is always tricky call! In the case of the adventurous Paul family, we decided roll the dice and head out to East Cobb Park despite the weather! Now, I have found myself taking this chance several times this summer and had a dry shoot each time I did (take that rain!). So what could go wrong right? Holy cow you guys! This time… I’m not going to lie, I was extremely nervous that we would be rained out. On my drive over the drizzle turned into a legit downpour! I had no idea what the condition of the park would be even if the rain did stop. All I could do was hope for the best and joke that maybe we would get lucky and have a pretty rainbow for our pictures lol.

Though this story didn’t end with a happy rainbow or a pot of gold, the rain did stop and the sun even came out towards the end! I’m so glad this fun loving family is as crazy as I am because we were able to capture some very sweet moments and certainly had a lot of laughs doing it! I’m so excited to meet baby Paul this fall! Wait until you see how adorable his sweet big brother Sawyer is in the meantime!

Maternity and family photos taken at East Cobb Park, Marietta GA

Leslie + Taylor {engaged!}

So Leslie and I go WAY back, back to 2006 at Valdosta State University. Many might be laughing and rolling their eyes at me that I said WAY back and referring to 2006, but after having 2 kids, college seems like a different lifetime! Back then, I would have never guessed that I would be capturing sweet Leslie’s engagement session! But here we are! When planning this session I had a vision…vineyard. Leslie jumped all over it and we decided on Montaluce Winery right here in Georgia! Congratulations Taylor and Leslie! I can’t wait to watch you both say your I Do’s and start your life as Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins!!!

engagement session Cumming, GA Photographer

THIS FACE! {Alpharetta Childrens Photographer}

Where is the time going you guys? My adorable nephew Avery is already 6 months old! He is such a giggly little cherub and one of the happiest guys in town! So precious! I just can’t handle it!!!! I’m sure all my nieces and nephews will forever consider me the silly (and a slightly crazy) aunt who chased them around with her camera for most of their childhood lol. Oh well, it’s a title I will be proud to have!

Monday challenge: Try not to giggle while looking at this sweet face…

Baby's first year package Alpharetta Photographer

Airman Merritt

While shooting the Merritt’s fall photos last year, I learned that Ryan was being deployed in just a few short months. I love all my family sessions but, this one struck a cord with me. It was special. It was their last family session before the United States Air Force sent him to Africa with his unit. When I got in the car I called Lindsey to recap what the family had shared with me and how touched I was by the news. I can’t remember who said it first (because we were both thinking it), but we asked them if we could be there to capture his homecoming and document the intimate moments of Daddy coming home and Jessica seeing Ryan again for the first time in months! As we got closer to August, Jessica started relaying information to us to keep us in the loop. Now, if you know anything about the military you know what I mean by “starting.” There was no set date and time until right before. Once they finally nailed down the first week of August, we still waited to hear the actual day, location and time. I can’t imagine how antsy Jessica was getting because even Lindsey and I were eager for the big day! Well the day finally came!!!! 9:15 on Wednesday night was when the family would be reunited. Coco Alley was ready, about to leave for Hartsfield Jackson International Airport when we got a call from Jessica that he wasn’t returning home that night. They were stuck in Baltimore until the following morning. We were all devastated, but after HOURS of scheming and planning- the next morning we all made it to the airport, somehow on time, and the reunion was priceless, breathtaking and tears were definitely shed. I know for a fact, Lindsey and I were incredibly honored to do this for the Merritt family. It made us even happier that we were able to snap some moments of other airmen and women from Ryan’s unit with their families as well! Just icing on the cake, I tell ya! But, below, are some of our favorites from the homecoming with the Merritts! You may or may not cry!!

Friday night lights { Senior Photos Canton GA}

Have I told you guys how much I love my job? I really, really, reeeeeeeally
enjoy what I do! I especially love planning milestone sessions. You may
recognize Josh’s face from his family’s amazing and spontaneous snow day
session that I blogged about this past winter. Well … It was spontaneous
to 75% of the family anyways lol. As our toes were defrosting in their
kitchen, his mom Amber Lynn, and I were already onto planning our next shoot
and floating out ideas for his senior pictures! Eeeeekkk!

Now, I have to say that as a family, this crew always makes my job super
easy. Every session just turns into me happily snapping away as they all
crack each other up. So being that this was going to be Josh’s first solo
mission in front of my camera, I wasn’t sure how I would get him comfortable
and laughing without his sidekick sister around to cut up with. Um yeah….
Not a problem! Josh CRUSHED it! Apparently his love of football and
excitement over senior year was more than enough for him to “bring it” lol!

Josh you are awesome, buddy! I hope your football season and senior year is
everything you want it to be and more! Make lots of memories friend! GO
GRIZZLES!

Senior portrait photography session Creekview High School Cherokee County GA

Here We Grow! {Cumming Photographer}

Honestly guys we had no idea how quickly our business would grow! We really can not express how grateful we are to all of you reading this and of course to all of our loyal clients! Between our heavy shooting schedules, editing, location scouting and more, we have a really hard time keeping up with our administrative stuff, marketing efforts as well as our social media accounts. Because we really want to keep everyone informed of upcoming portrait events and other Coco Alley happenings, this was not ok! Enter Katie!!! We are so crazy excited to welcome Katie Hughes to our team and feel extremely fortunate to have her! You may recognize her pretty smile since she and her sweet family have been featured several times on the blog! So although you will still be hearing from us personally on the blog and social media, Katie will be popping up now and again when she isn’t keeping things straight for us behind the scenes! You may even get to hang with her at a shoot when we need more hands on deck. Sometimes it takes a village are we right? As another creative mind and a photography enthusiast as well, she makes a great addition to our happy little tribe! Woot! Woot!

Xoxox

Lindsey & Stephanie

Goodbye Thin Blue Line

{Beware…it’s a long one folks! But when your life is taking a different path, well this is what you get from me.}

Today is a mix of emotions kind of day. It’s my husband’s last day as a police officer. It will be the first time in 15 years that he will not be serving his Country as a Marine and Community here at home. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard “you must be excited John is getting out.” Being married to a law enforcement officer (LEO) has its challenges. John worked nights, which meant the day was used for sleeping. The crazy hours and shift work made our family accustom to him missing many events and delaying holidays or other celebrations. You get used to “I’m going to be late, I’m on a call” or “I picked up an extra job on my only day off”, or in the middle of dinner in a restaurant he has to take off because he has to head to an emergency.
Then, of course, there is the inherent fear and worry that a supervisor will knock on your door in the middle of a shift to bring devastating and life-changing news. I haven’t had a supervisor knock on my door, but I have had my phone ring with scary news waiting for me when I answered. You learn playing the “what if game” makes it worse. It’s hard to keep the devil out of your mind when he has to go mid sentence on a phone call when you are trying to tell him goodnight and you don’t hear from him for hours. This mommy of 2 had to hold down the fort.

So….am I excited? Yes, I am excited that I won’t have to feel relieved to hear the velcro of his vest tearing apart when I am half asleep. I am pumped that he will be home at night for dinner and to help put our five and two year old to bed. Our kids will have their Daddy!!

But you know what, as scary as this life can be, the amount of hours this job takes from our family, the despicable amount of money officers make…I will miss this life TONS. I really did love being a police wife! We have gained a family. There are tons of men and women that would have my husband’s back in a heartbeat! My kids think of police officers as heroes and in today’s world we simply need more of that. And Karlo, you’ll meet him when you scroll down…Karlo taught a lot of people that police dogs aren’t these scary monsters society paints them to be. Lyla is devastated Karlo will no longer be part of our family. But I give credit to my husband. He LOVES this job, John is great at his job. He does’t WANT to leave this job but feels its the best for our family. Which sucks because I have always said, he was put on this planet to be a police officer. But we both need to embrace this change in our life and see what this next stage has in store for us.

A ginormous shout out to one of our favorite people on this planet, Lindsey! She knows how hard of a decision this was for John and how much we will both miss this. Thanks for documenting this for us, girl!!!

Professional Cumming Atlanta Alpharetta Canton Photographer Headshots

Professional Professional Cumming Atlanta Alpharetta Canton Photographer Headshots Cumming Atlanta Alpharetta Canton Photographer

Sand in my toes

Sweet summer time is almost over! Can you believe it?? School is about to start and we will have a kindergartner in the Allen household! Holy Cow!!!! We took one last family trip to the beach and got to spend some time with some of my favorite people! My parents, grandparents, brother and nieces were all in attendance! We spent countless days in the sand, the kids enjoyed some movies, and tons of good food!! You’ve met my little fam but let me introduce you to the rest of the Breen side. We are missing some special people…my grandmother, my brother’s fiance and soon to be niece!! Hope you enjoy this beautiful Navarre Beach sunset!

Summer, Summer, Summer time… {Johns Creek, GA}

I know I’ve said this before, but I absolutely adore shooting large multi family sessions! It’s the perfect storm of capturing special moments with everyone enjoying each other’s company mixed with quiet moments between couples. Sprinkle in the opportunity to chase adorable little people around and I’m one happy girl! The Eramian family’s shoot was a dream session for me! It’s been a little while since I’ve had the chance to shoot at McDaniel Farm Park for one. The place was uncharacteristically empty, it was breezy and cool( which for July in GA is practically unheard of) and this loving group of characters were an absolute pleasure to hang with. For anyone who has had portraits done with Coco Alley, you are well aware that we push hard to schedule our sessions close to sunrise and sunset. Here is another prime example of why it’s totally worth attempting to make that happen! Those are the absolute best times for gorgeous, magical light! That said, I totally recognize its not always ideal when you have littles that go to bed early or can’t risk throwing off a nap schedule. I’m just saying that if you can, you won’t be sorry!

I’ll leave you to enjoy this huge overshare of images of the potentially the cutest set of cousins and their awesome families! If you are anything like me, you won’t be able to stop smiling at their sweetness or reminiscing about past childhood summer nights with your own family!

Sunflowers galore!

I had the pleasure of photographing this gorgeous family for the first time this past fall and our little summer reunion was just as much fun! Courtney, Eric and their ADORABLE children Harper, Asher and baby Max brought their A game! It started to rain shortly after we arrived at the sunflower field so we hustled back to the car just incase it poured. After discussing the (seemingly non phased) kid’s very recent birthdays and Asher’s latest Mickey Mouse book bag and the loot inside, the rain had stopped as fast as it had started. We decided to risk it and shoot close to the car incase the rain picked up again. Luckily it stayed dry the rest of the session and we got to ham it up all over the farm! I honestly love all of the images from this session! Not only because of the beautiful sunflowers, lighting and the gorgeous Nagy family, but because of all the laughing we did! Despite the extreme heat, the constant redirection, waiting and walking to find clear areas to shoot (it was super busy), everyone remained in such a great mood! The kids are only 6,4 and 1 1/2 years old! Not even the bees seemed to bother these kiddos and I’m here to tell you … they were everywhere! They are as well behaved as they are cute lol! The sneak peek is proof!

sunflower mini sessions cumming ga