On-location Family Portrait

Just over a week ago, I took my gear to this family's home to try to get a good family photo of the whole clan, including Shadow the cat and Hobson the yellow lab.

Seeing as Shadow didn't really care to be close to Hobson, the session had its challenges (and a few yelps of pain as Shadow clawed to get away....), but we had a fun time and got some amazing images.


Here are a few of my favorites:
















Here's the Dad with his dog and their beautiful cat...

Halloween

Another Halloween has come and gone. A neighborhood group of friends had a Halloween parade through the local woods and this image of some costumed kids makes me think of a time long ago. It looks like it was taken on the English moorlands. The girls' Renaissance style queen gowns add to the mood.

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Toddler Twins in the studio

Two weeks ago, we had a whirlwind of activity in the studio as these adorable twins came in for their first portrait.

They are beautiful little girls with lots of spunk!

Portrait Garden Family Session

This family was in for their first family portrait a few weeks ago. I've photographed each child since they were each 6 months old - and, oh, what beautiful children they are, inside and out! We had a fun time trying out different sections of the portrait garden and even went for a walk down the street to some local conservation land for something different. What a lovely morning and a fantastic family!

Senior Portrait in Portrait Garden

This young man, a senior at a local high school came over in early October for a quick senior session. We had a fun time and got some great images. He reminded me of his sister, whom I photographed two years ago - fun, photogenic and with a sparkle and kindness in his eyes.

Finally finding the time to post some images from the last two months!

Wow, things have been busy around here! Since late September, I've been running around, as evidenced by the fact I haven't had time to post anything.

The portrait garden was in great shape through the fall and still has some good areas that I can work in, thanks to the beautiful evergreens throughout. We had a constantly changing palette of colors from late August through late October and, even when I thought the good foliage was just about done, we captured some amazing and colorful portraits here. It was great fun!

These kids came the afternoon in late September when I found some extra inhabitants in our pond. A family of ribbon snakes (similar to the common garter snakes, but much better swimmers) came out of their hiding spot when I was cleaning out some debris before this photo session. Alas, they (the snakes!) were never seen again, but these six year old twins caught plenty of frogs. They (the kids!) were very, very fast and the poor frogs really didn't have much of a chance. Everyone had a great time (OK, I'm not sure if the frogs really enjoyed the photo session, but the kids had fun and the frogs came back out to sun themselves the next day... but were certainly more skittish than usual!).

I love this image of Big Sister taking care of Little Sister. So sweet and caring.

Another favorite is this one of the toddler. Something about the lighting and the garden path, and her expression.... it looks like it's from a different time. What beautiful children.

Four great kids enjoy the Portrait Garden

The day before school started two weeks ago, this family with four children came to the studio and enjoyed some time in our Portrait Garden.








We photographed many different groupings including all four kids, just the boys, just the girls and each child individually.





Three of these kids visited me about six years ago, so this was a new experience for the youngest, who is now 2 years old. What a sweet boy he is; it was such a pleasure to meet him and to photograph all of these kids.


















After getting the most important group shots and the individual portraits, I spent some extra time with both of these girls. The older girl tried different poses; this one's a winner, I think!!!






This young girl showed me her gymnastic abilities by doing yoga and other various poses on my woodland path's giant rock.










The Portrait Garden is looking great. There is lots of gorgeous foliage and lovely light, especially in the late afternoon and early morning. Our pond has a good crop of frogs this year, as well as our five beautiful gold fish, who just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Just finished a beautiful album

We just delivered a beautiful album to the proud owners of two beautiful Bernese Mountain Dogs. In addition to having some gorgeous giclees framed and hanging in their home, these owners have immortalized their amazing dogs in this exquisite album.


This is the back of the album. Notice how great the photo-front cover looks. It wraps around the album and has a beautiful texture and depth.


Because I photographed these boys a few years ago in the snow, and one of the dogs when he was a puppy about 8 years ago, we were able to include some of those photographs in this collection. The combination of past and present images makes for an even more meaningful album.

Here are "the boys" in the winter of 2004. Completely in their element, they just LOVE the snow!!!





The photo on the right side of this spread is Cody as a pup. What a handsome puppy!





My professional designer helped come up with the layout for these album pages and they really shine. She does great work.

Monarch Caterpillar Search

A recent project had us combing the local fields searching for these distinctive caterpillars that will soon pupate and then turn into Monarch Butterflies. After almost an hour of searching last week, we'd almost given up when we spotted this little fellow munching on some milkweed.




A few days later, we went to the same field again and found two more caterpillars! Just yesterday, we went back and found one more. The milkweed is starting to turn brown now, so I can't imagine there are many more caterpillars out there to be found. Once these guys come out of their chrysalises as butterflies, they'll fly down to Mexico where they'll spend the winter. Amazing insects!

Thanks for sending me images of your framed prints hanging in your home!!!

A super huge thank you to my wonderful clients and Bernese Mountain Dog owners who sent me this photo of their framed giclee wall portrait hanging in their living room. I love seeing where my images have been displayed. This one looks great here. They thought a long time about what size would be best for this location and their thoughtfulness paid off.

Summertime Explorations

I've finally had some time to look through my summer images of creepy crawlies.





It was fun to see what images I could get of the various insects that crossed my path.



Not all of these creatures are insects - check out the crabs - but they were all very small!






Look at this centipede! OK. It can't be a centipede - there are not enough legs - but he sure was fast and hard to catch. I wouldn't want to meet him in the middle of the night!!!!







Here's my "Cricket in Times Square" pic. OK, so it's a grasshopper and it's sitting on a Timex, not Times Square, but you get what you can!










Finally, a few more grasshopper shots. It's amazing how they come in so many different colors. This 4 year old girl was captivated by her catch.

One Year Old and full of fun!

Last week, an adorable little girl came in for her first year portrait.



She was cute and full of charm and fun!


























Not only did we get great images of her in her pretty white dress and with her mom, we also had fun looking at her fingers and toes!









Like her big sister and two big brothers, who also came in at this age, she has a big smile and a fun personality.












She was just learning to walk when she came in and took a few steps for us at the very end.

What an exciting time for her!











One of my favorite images is of her in her birthday hat. How cute is that?!!!