This little guy was so sweet, and his family was utterly adorable. He was 8 days old when we photographed his newborn session, and he slept peacefully the entire time I was there. He had a beautiful head full of dark hair (I adore it when babies have lots of hair – all three of my babies were born bald!). His daddy is in the U.S. Air Force, so we incorporated dad’s hat into the session. He was so teeny that he fit right inside the hat! I also loved his airplane-themed nursery.

Congratulations to mom, dad and big sister! Here are some of my favorites from your session.

Be a part of our Celebration of Smiles Day on April 26th!

This year, Leah Jent Photography is participating in PPA Charities’ “Celebration of Smiles Day” to benefit Operation Smile. If you’ve never heard of Operation Smile, the organization is a medical charity consisting of more than 5,000 volunteers who perform free reconstructive surgeries for children suffering from cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities. You can also scroll down to the bottom of this page to view a beautiful promotional video for Operation Smile.

“Celebration of Smiles Day” is a mini-session event where we give you one 5×7 print in exchange for your donation of $24 which goes to Operation Smile. Each surgery costs as little as $240, so for every ten participants on “Celebration of Smiles Day,” we have paid for one child’s life-changing surgery. This event will be held on Saturday, April 26, 2014.

Please consider joining us in saving smiles!

• Donate $24 and receive one 5×7 print. 100% of these $24 donations goes directly to Operation Smile.
• For every 10 participants, we have paid for the cost of one child’s life-changing surgery.
• Pay your $24 by check or credit card in advance to reserve your time slot.
• If you can’t make it on the day of the event, you can still donate. Instructions for donation are listed at the bottom of the page.

Location:

• Morning sessions will be held indoors at the Miami Township Government Center building, near the Dayton Mall. Once you have paid your $24 donation, you will be given the address and directions for your session.
• Afternoon sessions will be held outdoors at Cox Arboretum MetroPark. These afternoon outdoor sessions will be canceled in the event of rain. In the event of cancellation due to rain, you may choose to have a refund of your $24 donation, or you can allow me to add your donation to the total for the event and send it on to Operation Smile.

Session Information:

• Each session is 20 minutes long.
• The standard image for the event will be a headshot (head and shoulders) portrait.
• Groups with up to 3 people may use one 20-minute session slot, but you will need to donate a separate $24 per person, and you will receive one 5×7 headshot for each person/donation.
• Groups with greater than 3 people should book more than one time slot in order to have enough time for each person’s portrait to be made.

After The Event:

• Within three weeks of the event, you will receive an email with a password for your online gallery with 5-8 images.
• You will choose your favorite image for your 5×7 gift print, and your print will be delivered to you within the next week.
• Additional products are available a la carte; 20% of all additional sales also goes to Operation Smile.

Additional Donations for Operation Smile:
If you can’t make it (or even if you are coming to the event!), I would love to add your donation to our total donations for the event. Please use the button below to send a donation with our donations for Celebration of Smiles Day. Your donation is secure, and 100% of these additional donations will go to Operation Smile.

One of the most frequently asked questions I hear when someone schedules a family portrait session is, “What should we wear for our session?” I’m hoping this will help.

Spring and summer are coming up fast! I know it doesn’t feel that way right now since it’s only February, and winter is lingering on here in Ohio, but it will be here before we know it! I wanted to share an idea for coordinating great outfits for your family session for the spring or summer. I will also show you how this look translates to a real family session by showing you one of my own family’s images! This color scheme looks especially great with the green grass and golden light of spring and summer.

Some of our pieces are slightly different from the ones above, but I used this idea to dress us for our outdoor sunset session. For my family, I started with the dress for myself.  I found a dress that was comfortable and made me feel good. It’s okay to work with bold colors and patterns, as long as you don’t have too many conflicting patterns causing a jumble. I took the colors for everyone else’s outfits from the colors in the pattern of my dress. I knew I wanted my baby girl to be wearing pink, since she’s our GIRL (and these are our first family pictures with a girl), so I put the boys in all of the other colors that were in the pattern of my dress.  And here is what our finished result looks like (aren’t we adorable?! haha):

Click here to see another set I put together for fall: Fall What to Wear guide.  Thanks for looking!

I had SO MUCH FUN with this family session in their home right before Christmas. The boys were 2.5 years old and 6 months old. We read books, crawled in a teepee, played Peek-a-Boo, and even went outside in the falling snow. This family was a blast, and we wore those boys out! We ended the session with both of them conking out for a nap – the perfect end to a perfect session.

My Claire-Bear is one year old. Here is an excerpt from our baby girl’s first year. There are a lot of pictures, but there are dozens and dozens more that I didn’t post. The first picture in the chair on the left was taken at 10 days old, and the one on the right was taken on her birthday.

How did we get from this…. to that?











Her first steps in October…


These last two were taken on her birthday…


Happy Birth Day to my sweet Claire. I love you, now and always, no matter what.