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

Apparently I can’t work on Monday mornings.  I sat down to try to finish the post I started LAST Monday morning and again started editing old images.  So I decided to give myself permission to edit my own images, once a week.  Monday mornings, when I can’t seem to get the ball rolling.

These are from a very perfect August evening last summer.  We sort of did house stuff all day and swam in the pool, and then around 3PM packed up some cold ones and snacks and headed to Crane Beach, one of our favorite beaches.  Owen was talking about how Long Island beaches have such tremendous surf (and they really do!), so it was a let down when he moved up here (he surfs).  However, now he understands the benefit of a gradual decline into the ocean, and lovely little sand bars that pop up at low tide — perfect for containing our children in knee deep water.

This was a lovely, dreamy day that probably ended with grilling or Clam Box takeout… I think everyone in town had the same night that night… summer-end perfection.

[Disclaimer: I will probably use the images of Christofer for a wonderful tutorial about blowing the red channel at sunset on the beach.  I see it over and over and it makes me cringe.  So although I love these for my own, there are technical reasons as to why  they probably are not good enough to show a client.  If you are confused  as to why I say that, stay tuned.]

I have a nice, long, informative post about decorating and displays in draft.  As I go searching for my example images, I find a folder that isn’t housed with my usual family images, but instead tucked away from the day I was testing my gear for repeated focus issues.  I remember the day and then remember that I need to send my gear into Canon for a quick check up.  I start looking for my Canon labels.  I come back to the folder and look at the images and think about how much I love my kids, and how unfair it is to them that the majority of their life is either captured on an iPhone, or stored in lost folders that are only opened by chance.  I start to edit.  I start to blog.  Photoshop freezes.  I reboot. I make a cup of tea.  I come up and start on my display post.  I remember these.  And finally I finish a task.  In case you ever wonder where you images go, now you know.

Just a day in September.  I’m having an existential crisis about gear.  They are just being intrinsically them.  Oh how happy they make me.

I was VERY close to not blogging these images of Christofer out of total embarrassment that he is again wearing that red Appaman t-shirt that is actually a hand-me-down from Teddy & Beau.  Clearly it’s the only thing I dress him in, according to my photographs.  Aren’t I going to be embarrassed when I finally make books and Christofer is wearing THE.EXACT.SAME.OUTFIT in every image?

That said, every single pixel in every single one of these images simultaneously makes me smile and breaks my heart into a million pieces.  They make me sing when I see my boy gripping his beloved trains, they make me scared because I love him so much and they make me hurt because I will spend my life trying to protect him and keep him safe.  I never imagined it was possible to have an extension of my soul in someone else’s body.

Then there is this girl. As Owen says, she is the Master of my World. My mother just laughs and says “You just wait until 8th grade when you are chasing her down the street screaming because she’s wearing blue eyeliner to school.” Honestly, my life is catering to her every want and need. Five nights out of every week she’s in the middle of our bed, stretched out, yelling her demands even in her sleep (“Where’s my nah-nah… get me my sophie!”). But really, how can I not love her with everything I’ve got? She is, after all, the most beautiful girl in the world. She is my “I-do-it-by-myself-changing-outfits-5-times-a-day-laughing-singing-screeching-teeny-tiny-pick-me-uppie-very-silly-girl” girl. She will be voted “most likely to jump into life with both feet.” She will break a thousand hearts I fear.

[Her outfit is courtesy of Estelle at Kenzie Kids. Don't you love it?!]