So here are my favorites, not all my favorites because that would be the entire session, but enough so that you understand that this too will be a session that will make me incredibly happy, and undoubtedly end up somewhere on my sample wall, along side Caroline!

Let’s be honest, no one ever, ever, ever wants to have the message delivered that says “you’ve got cancer.” But when the call is made to a young mother, and it’s about her husband, it’s impossible to fathom.  It’s not my experience, and I don’t live it… but I’ve had the privilege of knowing Stacey as she’s gone through it. And I can tell you that from the outside looking in, she is tremendous.

Because of this connection, and that I owed Stacey her slideshow, and because she has her “Marathon Walk” to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute coming up (more info and donations here), I thought it would be an awesome time to check in and chat.

For those of you that don’t know Stacey, or this is your first time hearing her story… she is a young mom of adorable twins.  Her husband Joey was diagnosed with a glioblastoma multiforme when she was two months pregnant and he passed away when the twins were six months old.  She works full time and “on the side” she runs her late husbands HVAC business.  She never sleeps, she has boundless energy, and she’s a very funny girl.  She sort of makes me look like I lay on the couch eating bon-bons all day.

I pulled up a few images to go with the post… they are both happy, and sad, but either way, they are so, so important. [Please be patient, the first slideshow might take a minute to appear].

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It’s been 2.5 years since Joey passed away.  And while it’s your life, not mine, I can’t decide if that time has flown, and if it feels like a lifetime ago or if it feels like yesterday.  How does it feel to you?

Some days I feel like it was years ago another life that I had. And, then some days when I have time to “think” about what happened or see an action or smile in my children’s faces and see their father and I feel like it was just yesterday that I lost him or when I have a dream and wake up and reach for my cell phone and want to call him and can’t, it feels like it just happened.

Tell us the back story… you found out you were pregnant and found out he had cancer all within a few days of each other.

Joey and I had been trying for about a year to get pregnant. I found I was pregnant and when my levels were so high, we went in June for an ultra sound and found out we had twins…  On a Monday we found out it was cancer, few days later twins, and then a few days later brain surgery. To this day it’s all surreal and I truly don’t recall a lot of what happened or how it was delivered to us….. it was just like walking through a fog. Actually, the majority of my pregnancy is a fog because there was only one focus and that was Joey.

Joe was able to spend six months with his children, then he passed.  How do you keep him alive for them?

We talk about their father and have photos of him on the walls and in their rooms. I try to continuously tell them about their father and how strong, smart and brave he was and that he loved them very much. And, just recently showed them our wedding video. And, remind them constantly that he is always watching them from “up above, in heaven”.

Was there a particular milestone or time amount that passed that made you think “I can do this?”

I can tell you that “not doing this” was never an option. I knew from the diagnosis and the failure of several treatments that his health was not good and that we were on borrowed time and I had to make this work for us. God was taking one, but leaving me with two precious jewels that I had to take care of and be there for; there was no choice.

The twins are 3 now… and are beautiful and happy and well-adjusted… what has been key to making this happen?

Getting us to 3, we’ve definitely had ups and downs and lots of tears, but I think by keeping Joey’s memory alive and talking about him, Joey’s family staying involved in their day to day lives, my mother whom moved in to support me and the kids, and reminding them that we are a team and we get through things together has helped us to get where we are.  I also think that when they ask or cry or say they miss there daddy by acknowledging their feelings and just saying “I do too,” and “yes this is not fair” helps them not feel alone.

What do you do on the days you just can’t get out of bed?  Or for you, on the days that you can’t sleep for even one minute (as I know you are always awake!)?  How do you push through?

Sleep is a pastime favorite — looking forward to teenage years and dragging them out of bed!   I used to worry about everything. But, now to survive the day, I’ve learned not to worry about the future just get through today and what needs to be done. I take numerous deep breaths through out the day.

Describe a perfect day.

A perfect day….  I’ve slept at least 4 hours, the twinettes awake easily to get dressed; lunches packed, and back packs together so Gram can get them out the door by 9:30 to go to school. I begin with a decent ride to Boston via Route 1 South by 7:45 to make into work 9 and then I get my perfect commute home and am with kiddos by 6:30 so I can have some day light to play with them before bed time.

I traveled Europe for 2 months by myself.  I was in the Philippines for a short time.  I LOVE to cook.  Neat freak.  Love love the theatre.

Stacey, thank you so much for being so candid… and for the honesty and going back to those days.  You are an amazing lady and I am so glad I know you.  Here are you latest images, from our awesome beach session… best light I’ll get all year! [Watch this one full screen!]

So we shot this at my studio. It was supposed to be a mini session, but I have such a hard time keeping it mini when my clients are like old friends!  I think Michelle was a little confused when she walked in… what’s this big white room… where’s the studio part?  It’s evolving, but I can still shoot and have it turn out exactly as I like.  It makes me so happy that on a rainy Sunday, I can still eek out a natural light session in there!

So until we meet the babe, here are the other three!  Let me know what you think!

So these guys did not disappoint.  Everyone who has peaked over my shoulder has agreed… they are a gorgeous family.  Thank you so much… I am so truly grateful that you are my clients…and now friends.

To set the stage, when you stepped out of the hallway, it was done up to the nines as a jungle theme, courtesy of Balloonantics.  It was stunning and put all the kiddos [and adults!] in a jungle mood before they even arrived at the party!

Once in the party, you were greeted by amazing visual stimulation, again, courtesy of Andrew… and custom linen designs for Ilex by Be Our Guest.

And food that you just could not pass up.  The food and drink [Max Ultimate Food] was exquisitely coordinated to compliment every aspect of the event with delicacies like duck mini-burgers, Tiger Paws, Safari Sandwiches, Jungle Sticks, and Monkey Tails.  DID I MENTION THE BELLINIS?

But all this aside, the MOST important element of the party, was the beautiful birthday girl, her family, and her friends.  She is truly loved!

1. In 2011 I went from being a very awesome, heartfelt, deeply involved blogger about my work and my sessions to being a slacker to being downright absent. A number of reasons accounted for that, time, laziness, guilt, too many things to say, lack of anything to say. But I know that clients and future clients really enjoy seeing favorites from a session, and to share images before they even see their slideshow, and so for 2012, I am going to do my best to document my sessions.

2. I shot this session on Friday, and I am blogging it three days later. That’s not off from how I used to work.  But get this: their slideshow is ready. No joke. Undoubtedly, this trend won’t stick. There is no way it could. Typically it takes me a day just to upload, backup, organize and “star” my sessions, let alone to proof, final edit, rename, resize, select for slideshow, upload, produce, and publish. But I have almost nothing else in the hopper right now and if I didn’t do this, I’d have to clean my studio and I REALLY don’t want to do that.

3. I love this family. Read On.

I met these guys late in 2010. It was a session that almost didn’t happen because it was booked late in the year, then we rescheduled, and it was close to cutoff. But it did. And for some reason I had no expectations when I arrived at their house. Not high, not low, just no. And when I walked in, I was happy. They are my perfect family. Beautiful. Gracious. Smart. Kind. In love with their daughter. And BALLBUSTERS. Steven immediately let me know that I had to exceed the output of a friend’s family portrait “montage.” And thus with every click of the shutter, I was reminded of the bar I must vault. All while Jill shushed him and shook her head behind his back. And Ella smiled. I think I spent two hours with them and drove laughing the entire way back home.

A few weeks later, I decided to listen to my home phone messages (a rare occurrence) and there sat a message from Steven with a heartfelt thank you. Not only had Jill thanked me over email, which was awesome, but Steven had taken the time to call. This blew me over [and more important meant he WON the montage bragging rights]. I deliver countless orders to clients and other than checking the tracking numbers, often never hear directly from the client they’ve received their orders and were pleased. I don’t expect to hear each time, I delivered what I promised (usually late) and it’s end of story. But to get a call, from a husband no less, really meant something to me. [Please don't go calling, my home phone is in the garbage pail and my mobile voice mail is full].

This year, I was thrilled to hear from Jill that they wanted another session, but more important, that Ella would become a big sister in December. Oh happy day. I love hearing that my clients are expecting, I love that I am on their “notify” email list when the baby arrives, and I love that I can share in their growing family. And so twice in about 6 weeks, I was able to visit them and document more of their life, and share in their happiness.

So Kramers, thank you. Your third “montage” is on its way to you. Hopefully now you have three winners of which you can claim bragging rights to. I am so happy you have selected me to document the milestones of your life. You guys really are more than I could ask for and seriously amazing clients.

I cannot get enough of this face.  And she’s not even mine.

High key B&W images make my heart sing.  Even when they are serious.

And welcoming Evan.

Okay. Stop here. Girls, this is EXACTLY why your mother-in-laws have reservations about you. Because honestly, why wouldn’t you try to knife down any other person that received THIS LOOK from YOUR SON.

I shot this back in November.  But if you’ll recall, back in November I wasn’t blogging.  I was re-capping from shooting a wedding.  And I was packing for St. Martin. And I was generally losing my ever-loving mind [along with countless emails, phone calls, and whatever else that is important].  But I was SO psyched for Melissa’s session.  I drove down there and I still had all my delicious rental gear from Corey’s wedding, and went down and arrived at their home and Melissa HAD IT GOING ON.  Like everyone was prepped, ready, dressed.  We had 45 minutes with John there, and we planned to walk to the park.

Which was awesome.  Until I realized that I brought my gripped body with TWO DEAD BATTERIES.  How unprofessional.  But I remember standing at the table and checking the other body and saying “well, I’ll bring the gripped on and play it safe.”  I think drove 30 minutes with my extra battery charger plugged into my console (yes, for emergencies) and never thought to check and charge.  So in a panic, but still smiling, I had Melissa call valet, retrieve my battery adapter from the car, and I charged one battery.  I charged it 13 minutes.  While heading to the park, I charged the second.

Without turning on my gear, I figured out what each setup would be (I have shot in the Commons a lot).  I studied the light, silently the entire way over, and I mentally calculated exactly what my settings would need to be for the compositions I had in my head.  You’d have thought I was re-working the Fibonacci Golden Ratio in my head.   When I turned on my gear, battery was blinking and I figured I had 15 shots.  So I’d set up each shot, shoot, chimp for 1.5 seconds and turn off my camera.  Literally.  Camera off in between EVERY SINGLE SHOT.  I ended up with probably about 50 shots, 33 of which were keepers in the gallery, thus really reminded me that if you shoot TOTALLY INTENTIONAL, there is no need to overshoot AT ALL.

When we got home, we relaxed, said by to John, and with a full battery [and a full glass of wine], we were able to change up outfits and rock out a Part 2 with some killer outdoor natural light on their gorgeous patio.

Melissa being Melissa hosted some good eats, delicious wines, fed my kids, and entertained me to no end.  It was truly a very awesome afternoon.  I was so excited to get her images, but am even MORE excited because we are adding to her gorgeous album library, and have pulled together a stunning frame arrangement with her beautiful images.  I can’t wait to share when they are hung!

So thanks Melissa for sharing your beautiful home and family!

So here we are.

I really wanted to share some images from this session for a few reasons.  Primarily because I really did stalk Chris and Marci last year for this session.  I reconnected with Chris, and then “met” Marci, when I was having coffee [read: cocktails] with Mrs. Fellows and inevitably we had Facebook up and somehow we made the connection that she knew Marci and I knew Chris, and what are the chances, and don’t we now have a bunch of mutual friends up here on the North Shore?  So you know I love to photograph people I know, and conversely, you know I end up knowing all my clients through 10 different avenues.  And so it just begged the question “Why aren’t I photographing the Gallups?”

Chris and I went to college together and I’d say we ran in the same circles, which is really just one giant circle, a giant confused circle, a giant confused very fun circle.  Such was Hobart College.  I think we ran into each other a few times out in Boston… and now ALL these years later we both live on the North Shore.  It’s so awesome to see the people I knew 20 years ago living such great lives.  He married Marci who is downright FABULOUS in every sense of the word and they have 4 awesome kiddos.  And it’s just a really cool thing to come full circle and catch up again.  Even though we didn’t actually catch up because he was trying to prevent his children from jumping off Castle Rock and I was trying to photograph them doing just that… but I did kind of get to know Marci more and she’s a winner and I know I’ll be seeing more of her.

So landing the plane, one reason I wanted to share is that I know them, love them, cute family, all is good.  The other reason is that one night last year I happened to log on to Facebook and saw that they adopted Riley.  To me, that is the most beautiful and selfless and amazing thing someone can do for their family.  We have a few adoption stories that are quite close to our hearts and so when I find out that someone has chosen this option to complete their family, I immediately think “I need to capture their family complete for them.”  So we planned to do a session last year, but things got crazy with my schedule and their home renovation, and it slipped to this fall.  But we finally shot it, and I love it.  Their family is so full of energy, their boys are gorgeous [and funny and polite] and Riley just completes the puzzle. [Well, a dog actually completes the puzzle... so we'll have to see what happens with that!]. And so here they are, on my blog.

Thanks for a great Sunday.  I am happy we got this done and we did so before the first touchdown of the Pats game.  I hope to see you soon!

[As a special little treat, I am sharing their entire slideshow at the bottom. It was a fun session and very representative of my work -- a blend of lifestyle portraiture.... and since I haven't updated my portfolio on this site yet, it gives you an idea of what to expect at a session!]

Love this.  I must have said “OK, now NO ONE look at the camera!”

Love love love how Chris and Marci are pretty far apart but still totally connected looking at each other!

A picture of the Lighthouse at the Lighthouse!  What could be better?

I digress.

The Surf Club is just a special place for us.  My inlaws and Mandy and Owen thrown their blood sweat and tears — their entirety — into making it the place it is today… and we feel so blessed we can share it with our kids.  But the staff each summer does the same.  And so a few years ago, they established a Scholarship Fund where the kids who run the kitchen, the pool, the beach, so diligently can be rewarded for their hard work through scholarships towards their college tuition.  For the past two years, I have happily donated sessions to the cause, in hopes that people would bid on me in order to raise money for a great cause.  And so I mentioned, when I found out that Ann & Clarke bid and won I was so happy as I know that they also do so much for not only the Surf Club, but also the Village of Quogue (and equally special place).

So here are a few images from their session.  I am so lucky that I can not only have this family as a lifelong friend, but also that I can now put them up on the big screen in the studio!  Cheers!

So we wrapped up the summer at the Surf Club and I shot three amazing sessions, for three amazing families while I was there.  We went from sun to rain to gross to sun to wind all in about 36 hours, so planning the sessions was a bit of a shot in the dark.  Add on top of that the Surf Club was recovering from the effects of Hurricane Irene, and so the beach just didn’t look like “our beach…” no benches, most of the greenery turned brown from the salt.  But as I’ve said time and again, you put beautiful people with gorgeous light in front of a dumpster and you have a winning image… The Surf Club, even less than it’s usual splendor, is still a fantastic beach.  Add to that the light of Quogue, which is like that of Provence (I imagine), and the beautiful families just shine.

I was so happy to be able to photograph this family.  We’ve played “tag” for dates for about a year, and finally, at the VERY last minute (I mean on Wednesday I write “I’ll be there Thursday…”) we were able to sync up and I am SO GLAD WE DID.  Not only do I love Megan, but I feel like I know yet another Surf Club family with beautiful children that mine will someday cause trouble with (well, her youngest two anyway… hey, maybe the oldest will be old enough to babysit by then!).

Anyway, to land the plane, and not disappoint, it’s yet another beautiful family.  I’m sorry, did you expect anything less?