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

Nothing makes me happier than shooting outdoors.  I love it.  Doesn’t matter where I am, I feel at home.

Second to that, nothing makes me happier than shooting families that I really like.  And I really like this one.  There are a few reasons why.  Obviously they are strikingly good looking.  And they are very gracious and nice.  But it is really special to me to photograph extended families — it’s one of my favorite things to do.  And I feel so fortunate that I was able to photograph them twice, once with each set of grandparents.  To have multi-generational photographs is absolutely priceless.  Finally, I just love this mom.  This winter, shortly after I left IBM, I drove through some really treacherous weather to get to her house.  I got there two hours late and was really out of sorts.  I was a little overwhelmed with life and wasn’t really sure everything was going to pull together like I had planned.  When I arrived, she made me a latte and we ended up discussing life on a very philosophical level.  And I learned so much in about 30 minutes that pretty much upgraded my entire level of thinking about why we are in this world and who we should strive to be.  So that meeting was perfect timing in my life.

So with that mouthful out, here are the images from an absolutely wonderful second perfect timing event.  Grandparents in town, everyone available, schedules coordinated, kids really happy and simply gorgeous weather!

If you are FB friends with me, you’ve already seen these, indulge me in looking twice.  Having a few images with my kids means the world to me… I think I’d fall over if I ever had an entire session of lifestyle candids.  I just can’t imagine.  I know I shoot almost weekly with my kids.  In fact, I am working towards an overhaul/revamp/massive update of my family blog.  But rarely do I capture the moments I really want… with me and my husband… and the kids… just being us.  Typically a simple shot goes something like this “Alright, I’ve metered and I’ve pretty much composed… the focus point that is red is the one that should be directly on my face, please don’t let it hit the wall behind me.”  Never mind going on about chopped limbs or rule of thirds.  And keep in mind that although he’d never dream of shooting with me, my husband actually has a wonderful eye.  So he shot these and I love them.

But more important, I went out and found a total “stranger” photographer to shoot a session for me this summer.  I have so many very talented photographer friends… in fact, I am really looking forward to a swap with Jennifer this summer… but I wanted to find someone who doesn’t know us, and more importantly, shoots and processes incredibly different than me and would treat me like a client, and I would pay like one.  So I tracked down an extremely talented woman whose blog I stalk and begged and pleaded (actually, she was cool and said yes right away!) and so we have set up our session for sometime this summer!  It’s a 5 year anniversary present to us.  I am hoping it’s also a “Congrats on losing all the weight” present to me.  I really can’t wait!

Until you can see her artistic wizardry, here we are.  [And yes, I'll post who she is a little closer to the session!].

I see this one and I just scream “MUFFIN CUPCAKE!!!!!!!!!” and Owen rolls his eyes at me.

We had a tough love talk.  “If you don’t smile, you get cropped out of the picture.”  “You’ll take me out?  Don’t you love me anymore?”  “Oh boy.  Never mind.  You’ll just be the only one in the picture making a funny face.”  I am guessing this was a good conversation to have with my own child, not so much with a client’s.  As he would say “these make my heart feel so happy.”

These make my heart more than happy.  These make my heart sing songs.  Really.  Until it becomes painfully obvious that I have given both of my children matching combovers.  They are so young, do they need a part so low?

If you’d made it this far, you’d know that I actually thought this title was perfect because I thought it was Monday. Until I realized it was Wednesday.  Except that is after midnight so it’s Thursday.  So I edited the title, sort of embarrassed.  Until I went back and looked again and saw the date said Wednesday.  So now I look like a dope.  Like everything else that is too big for me to wrap my brain around “it is what it is.”  Good night.

Carter might have been one of the cutest newborns I have ever seen. I am serious. He had the cutest little perfectly shaped head, and was just so small with big round eyes. Perfection. I am so happy that I was able to capture him on short notice… like the short notice he gave his parents by arriving a few weeks early! But as I talk to two good friends now, who each have about 2 weeks to go, early is good… early is good.

As you all know, my life is endlessly connected (which is why it’s such a good thing I cleaned up my act after college!). And once again, this mom and I were connected. I didn’t blog much about it, but last year I did this super cool project for a phenomenal Day School up here on the North Shore. By far one of the most enjoyable assignments I’ve taken on. I photographed a “Day in the Life” for their website and Viewbook content. So as Mom and I are talking, and she tells me where she teaches, it occurs to me that I have actually photographed her before! And really, she looked as awesome 12 days after having a baby as she did before she was pregnant. Dad was pretty cool too… a surfer, so you know that makes me happy… a really smart surfer, actually! This kid is very lucky having the parents he does.

[Mom from last May.]

So once again, a very amazing Monday… doing what I love. Watching families together, watching them love their new baby, and watching their new baby watch them!