a new face for you

Is this a new face for you?

 Thankfully for me, it is quite familiar.

Let me introduce to you Alaina.  Alaina and her husband Loren worked with Youth World (same mission as us) in the Chaplains' office at the school the kids go to - Alliance Academy.  This year Loren is working as the youth pastor (essentially) at English Fellowship church here in Quito.  They have a passion for reaching third culture kids - missionary kids, embassy kids, etc.  And they are perfect for it - they both grew up in Latin America themselves.

Last spring, before we left on furlough, I asked Alaina if I could take some pregnancy photos of her in the fall.  I wanted to experiment, hone some skills and try out my new camera, purchased for Fotografía Pescador.  Well, I don't have the new camera yet, but I still got to play around with photos and have a great time with a great friend for an hour.

 We had made several attempts to do this here little photo shoot, but between my headaches and bright sun-shiny days, we kept postponing.

It was another bright sun-shiny day when we took them but Alaina wisely figured that we better take them or she might not be pregnant much longer!  So we dealt with what we had.

The background for these three shots was tarping set up to block off a construction site.  I saw it and loved the glow that it gave off with the sun shining on it.  So we took advantage of the positive parts of the sunny day and took a few photos there.

 It was kind of limiting as there were a lot of piles of dirt around, also in the background (we were on a slop) and there were a lot of nasty wood pieces holding the whole thing together, but we managed to get a few with a nice blue glow behind her.

Then we found a nice shady spot.

 Alaina was so great - the perfect model.  Tried whatever I suggested, even in her uncomfortable 9-month state.  And if I said "look mischievous" - she could (like in the second picture from the top).  She should be on the cover of some maternity magazine.

 I asked Alaina what type of photos she wanted - more on the soft, tender usually black and white type or something more playful and fun.  She said playful.

Yes!

I asked her to bring a few props - a coffee mug, as I knew she loved coffee (and they were helping her to get through the pregnancy!), a book or two that she had been reading about pregnancy and childbirth, and then I made a little prop myself (seen in the picture following this one).  She seemed pretty excited about the whole idea.

 She not only had the things that I requested, but also had about 10 extra books (all given to her!) and chalkboard markers to write on the mug!  Nicely done!

 Needless to say, we had a great time setting up and taking some fun pictures using these things!

(The sign?  It turned out cute, I thought, but our printer was running out of black ink.  Grey letters are not nearly as nice as black!  Oh well.)

Obviously, however, Alaina doesn't need props to make a great picture.  

 She is such a beautiful person - and no, not just on the outside.

 Already I know that this little boy is one blessed child.... how could he not be with a momma like her?

 And Loren?  He's pretty great too.  Definitely great father material there.

 He stopped by just as we were finishing up, so we thought it might be nice to include him just a little.

He also had the brilliant idea for the next shot.

 I love it.

(although I wasn't quite as brilliant as him - I forgot to change my aperture settings for these shots, so they aren't quite what I wanted... oh well)

Needless to say, it was a very fun morning.

Thanks Alaina!