Flash forward to about 12-18 months ago. Beautiful Ravi and her lovely family move right down the street from me. Still, the memory was too deep to recall. One evening I am teaching a workshop and looking around at my past clients (including Ravi) and a wave of embarrassment hits as I realize that the EXACT people I am poking fun of (people that go into business too soon or shoot sessions before they know what the fork they are doing)… well that “people” was me and like a movie, a movie of all my early sessions (oh, there were a few, you know who you are) start flashing before my eyes. I am sure I was inexplicably bright red. I also know that I am not alone, and that every photographer has a session or two hidden in their closet or under their bed that they thought was THE bomb and now realize it was A bomb.

Flash forward again to about 2 weeks ago. Ravi brought her gorgeous kiddos (and lovely mom) to the studio for a quick little newborn mini session [newborn sessions typically aren't mini sessions, but I'll shoot them that way if you are looking for sibling shots and a few quickies for a birth announcement rather than a full newborn setup]. I really feel like it was my time to redeem myself and make good on all those earlier images.

I really love Ravi. She might be one of the nicest people I know. I am not kidding. She is just genuinely REALLY REALLY nice. Her children are gorgeous and I am so happy she’s a member of our community and it’s so nice to see her face around town. I haven’t seen her husband since they moved here, but he’s good with me because he is of my people [this is where I start to channel my mom and talk about the villages even though I have never been to the villages and cannot speak a word of Greek. Unless I've had a lot of Ouzo. And I am in Santorini trying to communicate with a waiter.].

And so here they are! Ravi, we can set up a time for you to come by and see them all!

But back to Baby Jamie.  He was just a love.  A good feeding and he sacked right out for his photos.  We tried to mix in a few with Oz, but it’s always a little precarious mixing a dog and a newborn, so we played it safe.

Anyway, I can’t wait to meet up with them again, maybe in the summer, so I can meet Jamie’s dad as well and do a little family session with everyone!  But for now, check out this newborn goodness!

They are super close to me, so I hope that means I will occasionally bump into them and see how this beauty grows up into a infant, toddler and baby girl!

This entire gallery was supposed to go out yesterday, my apologies.  With sick kids, and then snow days, and then losing power and then kids home again, it’s pretty clear it’s one of those weeks where nothing is getting done.  So thank you for your patience!

I love that she is smiling by the Christmas tree.  Like the BEST gift EVER.

There are a few other reasons I am simply in love with this session. I got to spend time chilling with Steph. And then little Gracie (my son’s future prom date) curled up next to me and proceeded to put on every newborn item I had in my bag. And Colin came home to be the amazing older brother. And it was rainy and grey and I shot the 2nd part of the session at f/2.8 ISO 5000. And I knew it would be B&W grainy. And I loved that too.

We have some future plans for Sweet Baby James involving some super cute new things I want to try out. We’ll feature those in the next installment of the Sweet Baby James Show! Stay tuned!

Yes, I realize this is a monster of a sneak peak. And I know I should be doing my taxes. But Steph deserves this!

When I look at these, it makes me realize that I need to stop stressing about getting the perfect sleeping baby pose and embrace just how lovely it is to see a baby being held and loved by his parents. The more I go back and look, the happier these images make me. I hope you feel the same!

Thanks for such a nice morning!  More when I can get a quiet minute to myself!