Warner has literally grown up before my eyes. From his newborn photos, Easter egg hunts, Christmas photos, his first sparkler experience, birthday's and even being the most adorable ring bearer at my wedding, this little man knows my camera so well, he now decides when it's ok to take a photo...with his eye behind the viewfinder! Captain Warner turned 4 in September and p-arggghh!-tied h-aarrggghh!-died in his huge pirate ship as him and his friends set off to find the treasure chest full of gold, jewels, and doubloons! They let the skull-n-bones sail fly high over the crow's nest and hung their pirate allegiance proudly over the stern, as their treasure chest piñata flew in the wind on the bow. This was by far one of the most charming pirate shindig I've ever witnessed. As this little pirated directed his shipmates around, they hunted for treasure, ate the tastiest cupcakes off all time, and worked hard in the rain to keep their ship afloat! This little pirate has the biggest personality around! Happy birthday, Warner!

I hope your birthday p-arrrrggghh-ty was pirate-tastic!

This year, my birthday was pretty awesome. Mainly because y'all made it fabulous & because I got to do what I love all day (make pretty photographs...duh)! I held the RDU Baton instagram account, a collaborative photo project held by the wonderful people of the Triangle to let the world see how AWESOME the Triangle-area of N.C. is! I didn't have an unusually eventful day, but worked to make all my shots count! It's definitely nice to have a challenge when shooting since I haven't had that since the good ol' days of Pat the photo professor! I included the original captions beneath each photo for y'all. You can sign up to hold the baton here. Also, if interested, all shots are iPhone and I use a diverse group of photo apps and textures: Mextures, pictwo, pictapgo, vscocam, snapspeed, and squaready (although this is just a handful of what populates my 2 "photo folders" on my phone).

Hello RDU! I’m Lauren V. Allen, a local photographer based out of chapel hill! I’m also a high school photography teacher at Northern High in Durham. I always start my mornings off really early, around 6:45, at work with a cup of coffee in my “great mustaches” mug! #chapelhill #durham #latergram by @viedfinder / on Instagram http://instagram.com/p/YxR9cGjh-z/

My intermediate photography class at #Northern decided it was best to do a crazy class picture! These kids are the next movers and shakers of the photography world and have quite the eye for it! They are my #durham #babyphotoninjaz! check out my blog, viedfinder.com for some upcoming class galleries! Photo by @viedfinder / on Instagram http://instagram.com/p/Yxei5ejh8l/

I’d like to thank @google for making this girl happy with a #google #doodle! By @viedfinder #techgeek / on Instagram http://instagram.com/p/YyKKEMDh55/

I’m always lovingly greeted home by my sweet yorkie, Eloise. Today she fought over a new hair bow while barking at our neighbors at the bus stop. She thinks she’s the biggest dog in all of #chapelhill. Photo by @viedfinder #adventuresofeloise / on Instagram http://instagram.com/p/YyOUsSDhwP/

So freaking excited for my birthday present & good company! I sure do love my husband & his memory of my favorite color :)! #chapelhill photo by @viedfinder / on Instagram http://instagram.com/p/YySIowjh11/

Fresh cut lines for my favorite #chapelhill @thetopofthehill knock-off: Kansas City Ice Water! Love dinner parties! Photo by @viedfinder / on Instagram http://instagram.com/p/YyXa2DDh9O/

Confetti cupcakes with great friends are better than confetti cupcakes alone #ftw. It’s been a great day with you lovely North Carolinians! Couldn’t have had a better social media birthday:) now to spend my time with friends and the hubs! Be on the lookout for Emily @mlelynn and her day with the baton! #chapelhill by @viedfinder / on Instagram http://instagram.com/p/YyjBqBjh9K/

Thanks for all the well wishes! Such a great way to start off a new year!