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

I am so happy to be blogging this session for so many reasons.

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.

Be warned.  Like Biggest Blog Post Ever.

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!

I think I start every day out thinking “today will be the day I blog some sessions… or at least something from my life.”  And then each day ends and I think “well, I stuck a few shots up on Facebook, hopefully that will suffice.”  Today started out no different, except that lo-and-behold, I am blogging.  It’s really a crying shame I can’t get my act in gear and do this more often.  I know clients appreciate it.  I know my other readers [read: my mom] enjoy it as well.  I just get to a point where I think “where on earth do I ever start…” and then you know my ADD, I end up in the kitchen painting the ceiling, or in the basement trying to dig clothes out of the cedar closet and I think “aren’t I supposed to be doing something else…?”

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 wrote last week about our beach and the sessions I shot down there… and this was the second of three… and a really special one for a lot of reasons.  The primary reason is because I LOVE this family.  Well, I really just know the parents well, but for many, many summers I’ve passed by the kiddos thinking “Seriously, how good looking are they?  Wouldn’t it be awesome to photograph them?”  And so when I found out that they bid on and won a session with me, needless to say, I was THRILLED.  As you might know, our summer life — the few weekends we can spend in Quogue — is incredibly special for us.  It’s where Owen’s family grew up, and where I hope my kids will always have a home… whether it be swimming on the team, skim boarding with the kids, or sitting by bonfires at the end of the year.  It’s just special for us.  I watched Christofer sit so close next to Shane, and his new compadre Nathanial, and he was so excited, and intent, on watching the awards and he was beaming as his girlfriend Kal came away with an award… and we hugged and I said “Buddy, for sure, if you can just dunk that head under water I am SO SURE next year you can get an award too.”  [unlike his sister who will literally sit on the bottom of the pool, we have a hurdle or two to jump over with the Boy.].

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!

If feels like summer ended months ago… I go through these periods of time warps where I cannot tell if things are moving too fast or too slow, if I am totally in the weeds or relatively caught up.  And the last month has been a bear.  I’ll write about that in another post (or maybe I’ll just digest it and try to move past it and not bore you all with a drawn out saga that really is just a first world problem anyway).

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?