BOSTON CHILDREN'S PHOTOGRAPHER, BOSTON FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHER, BOSTON NEWBORN PHOTOGRAPHER

For right now.  Because soon there will be FOUR!  I should write this entire post in CAPS because I am screaming it in my head.  I AM SO EXCITED FOR THESE GUYS AND TO MEET THEIR NEW BABY.  Seriously.  And it’s not because I have been thinking about how I am going to shoot their newborn session on a daily basis (which I have).  It’s because they are SO READY for this kid!  And I think Cat is going to rock the house as a big sister.  She’s so good with my little Baby J (who is so not a baby anymore)… and she was always so good with Christofer (and now they are BFFs)… she’s going to be the best big sister EVER.  (Like I am quite sure she won’t put a galvanized tin bucket on Baby’s head and bang it with a spoon… I don’t know any kid that would do that, I’m just sayin’).

Anyway, I grabbed some shots yesterday and am sad to say that my camera is definitely needing to go back to Canon.  Though they promise me I will be at the front of the repair line and I’ll have it back (or a rental) for Thursday.  I was able to get a bunch of great shots (more than what I am posting), but I am breathing I sigh of relief that I rescheduled all my sessions because I’d be in tears if this happened with a client (like every shot I would say “I don’t know Erica, I just do not know.”).  But I love these… and hope I can get the rest to her without making her wait 6-12 months (because that is the poor treatment I give my friends and family and myself!).

Quick update… added this one and it could be my fav maternity shot EVER.  If you are curious how I shot this, read on, otherwise just skip to the pictures!  I shot this at ISO 500, 1/200, f/3.2 on my {broken} 5DMK2 with my 24-70 L.  Probably metered about +2/3 of a stop over 0 (where I typically shot, rarely do I meter to 0).  I put Erica up on  a chair (which is sort of mean to do to a woman who is 35 weeks pregnant) since the only way I could get the light right was to shoot up to it (and avoid the white railing behind her)… the light was pretty high and only come through a few branches.  Then I got below her and moved around until the light was partially behind her, partially giving her edge light.  I focused right on the edge.  With a Canon, the only focus point that will allow you to do this is the center one.  The other focus points will search and not lock.  This shot is remarkably similar to how it was SOOC.  I adjusted white balance (added red, reduced magenta), slightly recovered a little Bokeh (+15), and jacked up the blacks to 25 for her tank top.  In PS I tweaked curves a tiny bit, added color balance layer and added a vignette.

Jennifer and I are “imaginary” friends (Owen’s term). We met on a rather large photography forum only to find that we live right in eachother’s back yard (that’s not totally true because if I lived in her backyard I’d be swimming in the ocean). We decided it would be great to do a session swap, but really, images of your family (esp for a photographer who is never in them), are priceless. So instead of calling it a swap, it’s more like a gift and a regift!

I met up with Jen and her awesome family and they took me to their favorite beach.  And what a beach it is!  Although I love Devereux Beach for it’s location, this beach has WAY better sand!  And it has this fabulous grassy area with neat little paths and hideaways, so completely perfect for catching late afternoon light (and containing little boys that like to run!).    Jen’s family is really gorgeous.  You know how I get all excited over long haired boys, their boy is just beautiful.  And her husband is really great.  He’s a very talented fine art photographer.  And if you can believe it, we totally failed to make the Greek connection.  I am fairly certain had we done that, I would have suggested finding some ouzo somewhere and quite possibly would not have made it home to my family until very late!

Jen, thank you SO much!  I am really looking forward to my session with you.  I am really happy I made a new friend in the area and that you are no longer imaginary!  I’ll get the rest of the files to you at some point soon!

(extra big sneak peak, just because!)

Seriously. AMAZING.OUTFITS. When Tracey emailed that she had the kids outfits picked out, I was psyched. I was probably 10,000 time more psyched when I saw them in person. It’s like she said “sky, grass, road, trees, we are are showing up in these colors, now you match.” And everything did! Enough of that, Tracey’s kids were really good. Like really good. And really friendly and knew my name right off the bat, new my friend Harry’s name, new my kid’s name… they conversed with me, I totally felt like I was “in like flynn” with them. Love. We checked out the old haunts of River Road and then they were such awesome sports about checking out a new location with me. And man did I LOVE the new location! I am so excited to shoot there more often, esp at sunset. But the cool thing is that no matter how many sessions I shoot there, Tracey can say “oh, yeah, well, we shot there first…”

I’d say my only regret about the entire morning is that I didn’t get to chill with Tracey enough. She is so cute (and in such great shape, triathlon girl) and there were a ton of things I could have caught up talking to her about. But I guess we’ll get to that if we figure out holiday cards + a bottle of wine!

Tracey and co, awesome morning (I know, I overuse the word awesome). Can’t wait to get you the full gallery! Thank you!

me to hang out with this family.  I just love them.  Not only are they incredibly easy to photograph (because how could they not be?), but also they are just really nice, gracious, thoughtful and kind of funny! I could hang out and talk to Janice forever because she is just so down to earth, and because I love her love of photographs.  She has them beautifully displayed all over the house and it just makes me so happy to see some of my images in the most beautiful frames she has scoured the world to find.  It so wonderful to see someone actually do something with their images, instead of just, oh, I dunno, leaving them on their hard drive and risk losing them to hard drive failure… or printing them and never hanging them but instead leaving them in the white Millers boxes that litter the house.  Someday, someday.

I am doing a small sneak peak with no “family” shots because I am not sure which will be “the shot” for the cards this year and I’d hate to ruin the surprise for anyone who might peak here and see it before it hits the mailbox.

So for this one, I positioned a massive exhaust fan right at my feet and turned it on right before I started shooting… I am KIDDING.  It’s crazy, but it’s true, Janice’s hair just does this when I photograph her.  It’s simply phenomenal.  Now if only I could find a way to have low-lit amber backlighting follow me around so I’d always look sunkissed and hazy (and 20 lbs thinner).

I just love this one as well.

I really need to stop teasing this kid.  But he’s a really good sport.

Today was absolutely fabulous here in Boston.   I was so happy to meet up with Michele and her kids.  I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous… beach, full sun, 11AM.  And I’ll also be honest and say that I completely confused my days and so it was actually day TWO of me driving to the beach to meet them since I was there on Saturday morning, not at all understanding why I couldn’t find her.  Whoops!  But I am so glad it worked out this way because there was much less wind and the temps were perfect!  It was such a Boston-in-September-Beach-Day!  So once I got the day right, and Michele got the kids there, everything worked out absolutely perfect.  I think we really captured some fun, colorful shots!  I have a feeling I am going to be adding to this blog post as I go because I am posting five images and those don’t include my absolute favorite one of the day (so check back!)  Michele and I designed such a gorgeous holiday card last year, it was one of my favorites, so I am super excited to see what we can come up with this year!  Yay!

Michele, I hope the kids picked out awesome treats, they really were great!  Thank you!

And just to throw in a horizontal Black & White!  I love this one.