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

I head down to Brewster to photograph another photographer who I now consider to be a close “internet” friend and now a real life one as well. She planned a family vacation, asked if we could make a session happen and I was thrilled to oblige. Not only did I love the session, but it was by far the easiest trip to the Cape I have ever made. I left from the South End of Boston and was on the Cape easily in an hour. Return home on a Friday night was door-to-door two hours and that includes me mostly maintaining the speed limit and coming from mid-Cape to North Shore! So really, it was a win and I am so glad she and I were able to connect.

I really loved meeting her entire family. It’s funny that sometimes as photographers we “talk” all day long on our various forums and boards, and often we share so much of our lives with each other… from a business and a personal standpoint. We really watch our kids grow up together. And we watch our businesses grow. So pulled the whole family together and making a real life connection is very amazing and I am grateful we had the chance to do so.

Here’s their slideshow, thank you for allowing me to share with everyone!

Which I have to admit, is incredibly lovely.  Incredibly.  You see, in Boston there is this sort of “north shore/south shore” thing that goes on… I am from the North Shore, that’s where I spent my summers, it’s where I live, it’s my peeps.  But the South Shore is pretty insane.  And so needing to expand my horizons, I tripped on down there on a summer evening and happened across these two.  I don’t want to call them displaced from the North Shore, because they have roots in both places… but I know them from up here.  Specifically from the playground up here.  Where I take my kids usually only under great duress when there has been just enough screaming at each other for one day and I realize we all need to let off some steam.  Inevitably I run into these two, and their mom.  And inevitably I say “I wonder why I don’t hang out with her more often!”  Needless to say, I was thrilled when she booked a session, and even more so when she said we could do it on the beach!

Happy Monday.  It’s a rainy and cold Monday and our new heat isn’t hooked up yet and my fingers are frozen and maybe a little arthritic (yes, I am old) and I can’t really type.  I feel like they did in Little House in the Prairie.  Except I live in suburbia.  And I have a really amazing hot cup of Rao’s coffee from Main Street Market (even though I planned to quit coffee again today).  And it’s actually 64 degrees in my house which I suppose is not quite as cold as what little Laura Ingalls was subjected living in Walnut Grove in the 1800s.  So maybe I am not frozen really, just chilly.

It really felt like a perfect day to share a little (long) slideshow that will make your heart “super happy.”   It’s from a session at the end of August, the 30th, and it’s at the beach, and it was SO hot it was beyond sticky.  It was itchy hot.  Here’s the backstory…

I met Stacey through Missy & Kevin across the street.  They really wanted to give their friends a special gift, so they hired me to shoot a newborn session for them.  The twins were 12 weeks when I met them.  At that time, the twin’s father, Joe, had an incurable form of brain cancer.  To say I was nervous would be a gigantic understatement.  But I knew it wasn’t about me and as soon as I met Stacey, I knew that I would photograph her family forever and that we would be friends.  Three months later in July I returned to do what would be a final family shoot.  They lost Joe in August.

Throughout the year I stayed connected with Stacey, we photographed the twins at nine months and one year.  And during this time, I watched with complete and total amazement as Stacey moved forward with such determination, love, purpose and grace.  She is an incredible force.  She not only took over ownership of Joe’s very successful HVAC business, but maintained her job as a manager at a staffing company.  Not enough?  She has raised an INSANE amount of money for the Dana-Farber and has rallied hundreds of people around her cause.  Oh, and she’s been named a “Woman of the Year” by the National Association of Professional Women.

It sounds like a lot, and it is.  But it’s all meaningless without her children and her family (love her mom, by the way).  She is — above everything else — an amazing mother.  Her babies (who are now toddlers, how did that happen?) are beautiful, sweet, spunky, and loving little wonders.  And every day they bring her love and joy (and maybe a few tears).  And every day she can hug them and know that she has this part of Joe still with her.  And every day they can give her more inspiration to continue to do about 36,000 times more than the average person and be the dynamo that she is.

So on August 30th, the anniversary of losing Joe, we went to the beach and we sent some balloons to heaven.  And Stacey and the kids got to run around and get a little wet and play in some sand and blow bubbles and do what most of us take for granted every day… she was just a mom.

On a completely and totally selfish note, my sessions with Stacey are a gift I give MYSELF.  I shoot them completely free of structure, not worrying about the technical perfection on which people typically judge.  I shoot them for capturing endless moments in time so that someone who I admire, respect and love can have them forever to add to her memory bank.  They are truly my pleasure.  {And of course she has to wait like 5 weeks for them, yes, I suck.}  So here they are.  If you are followers of her story, please leave some love in the comments below.

MWAH!

CLICK HERE if you want to listen to it with the music (it’s way better that way), otherwise, click the play arrow on the thumbnail bar under the slideshow!

[And because I am a little neurotic, yes, I know my music doesn't sync up and then song loops, normally I like to time it that way, but there are so many images and I wanted to share them all and this was the only song I wanted to use.  So that's that.]

“Her face is a map of the world
Is a map of the world
You can see she’s a beautiful girl
She’s a beautiful girl
And everything around her is a silver pool of light
The people who surround her feel the benefit of it
It makes you calm
She holds you captivated in her palm”

[Thank you KT Tunstall]

This year marks my first real journey into the world of photographing Seniors.  And after five sessions (with a few more on the books), I am overwhelmed, excited, rejuvenated, inspired and a bit awestruck.  I feel giddy when I come home from my sessions.  I call my mom and I tell her about each and every one of these women.  What makes them so special, how amazing they are, and… today I asked “was I really that bad a kid?” [It's not a simple answer... I was just young and a little rebellious and a tiny bit unfocused... but I turned out alright, I think!].

It’s simple.  I am overwhelmingly fortunate to be able to photograph these girls and spend time with them.  I could not love this any more.  Maybe I could.  Next year this will be a big focus for me.  More on that in the spring.

If you are a Senior and you have not booked your Senior Photographs, you still have time.  Masconomet is due in November, and this leaves us with September and October and the glorious light and color of the Fall.  Please email me using the contact form on this blog, through my website or message me through Facebook.  And don’t forget to Like my business!  If you are a parent of a Senior, please feel free to email me or call me.  I feel it’s important to have parents connected and involved with me so that you know you have entrusted your child to someone who is infinitely concerned about their happiness and their well being (even if they are all grown up!) and will do everything I can to ensure they have beautiful photographs that you both will love.

For more details on my “Keeping it Real” senior sessions, click here.

Most of these have already been posted to Facebook, but I thought I’d share them here.  I will have more to share in the next few week, stay tuned.

I love having siblings join.  What an awesome way to knock out some holiday gift prints and get the image for your holiday cards!

This image.

Everything about that image sums up what I love about life, summer, family, beach, water and the North Shore.  I love the light.  I love the rocks and lumps of seaweed — this ocean and that landscape is what I know.  I love the reflection of their feet in the sand.  I love that her feet do not touch the ground.  I love that they are holding hands.  I love that he is looking at her and she is screaming with joy.  I love that the youngest is trying to keep up.  I love that the parents are so happy and engaged behind them.  This will be an image that I look at when I am sad, just to make me happy.  This will be the first image on my new web site.  I love it.

OK, back to reality, land the plane.  I first shot these kiddos way back when, two years ago.  I was thrilled when I got a call for another session.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing clients I love, and seeing how their children have grown.  When they said they were at the beach, one of my favorite beaches that I grew up at, I was really excited.  And of course you know what happens when I arrive at a session… I play the name game and sure enough, I know the neighbors… and the other neighbors… and the others…. so no, there really are no strangers in my life.

The weather called for 70% chance of showers and thunderstorms.  Seriously.  What a great job.  You can be wrong ALL THE TIME and not get fired.  Sign me up.  There was not one cloud in the sky.  The temperature was perfect August.  The was a record low tide which made for a glorious sand bar.  Kids amazing.  Parents were awesome.  Never mind the weatherman, I have a great job.

Thanks Shannon & Geoff and kids.  It was awesome.