Some preview images for her mom and dad who were kind enough to drive up to Bronxville from Manhattan.

I love this cradle – it was her mother’s when she was a baby.  I hope it makes this image even more special!  I love the little grin she’s giving in her sleep!

This lace was the wrap her mother wore on her wedding day – I love when parents include heirlooms during the session, it makes it special for me too.  Kudos to Grandma for bringing it out and covering her face like this – I probably wouldn’t have done that and I love the lace on her face – both so delicate!

Some baby bits closeups…  can’t you just cuddle her???

Thank you for bearing the heat Mom and Dad!  It was a hot one and you guys were good sports – as always!

much love, C

Their parents are very patient and so adorable – I’ve known their dad Mike from long, long ago days at Westchester Country Club.  He’s my brother’s age so he’ll always be a kid to me!  Now look at him, grown up and a great dad to three boys.  Although, I did have to promise not to post any images of him on the blog – somehow he is convinced my brother will send around…  hmmm – he might be onto something.

Thank you so much Liz and Mike for a fun evening!  Your boys are just fabulous.  These Adirondack chairs were occupied when we first got to this location – I was so happy when we were walking out and they were free for the boys to play on.  My favorite shots of the day!

These little cuties are celebrating their one year birthday soon.  Mom told me their party had a twinkle twinkle theme and I thought it would be really fun to make some star streamers!  A quick trip to Micheal’s, and out came the scissors and glue gun.  I love the way they came out – perfectly colorful and their chubby hands couldn’t get enough of them!

Look at these peepers! 

and this adorable chubbiness just makes my heart sing…

Happy birthday girls!  You were such a pleasure – every minute of it!

Introducing little Ela.  She’s been born into a lovely family and I know she will add nothing but joy to their lives.

I found this amazing purple scarf and I’ve been dying to use it!

Lovely nursery details in a beautiful home for her to grow up in!

Congratulations Ela!  Your parents are going to love you a whole bunch!

I have one and I’m always impressed with the moms who have two.  Then three?  They deserve some sort of peace prize as it’s constant negotiations, I swear…

These three were polite and sweet, but give ‘em a second and they would be acting exactly like they should!  I got such a kick out of their brotherly nature.  Playing beautifully side by side one minute, then tossing wet newspaper boats at each other three seconds later.  LOVE it.

For example – I wanted something sort of beachy/brotherly without getting too cutsie.  I made these newspaper boats and it was really cute for a moment.  Then the boat fight began!  Made the photos even better.

This guy usually wears glasses, but he wanted to show me the bump on his nose.  He’s pretty darn handsome, don’t you think?  I wish he had his glasses on for this picture, as I just LOVE his expression.

Happy guy!  Too cute!

And his older brother told me this was his “Blue Steel” look.  It works.

Thanks for a great evening Shannon and Joe!

Seeing it’s my last day, thought I would post my annual mini session with my best friend Kelly and her beautiful family. You can see last year’s session here.  We do one every year during our last week in Cape Cod.  Kelly lives in London and it’s one of the reason’s I’m so sad to leave the Cape – I know I won’t see their family until Christmas and it just seems like forever.

They are just too cute.  Really, get a room kids. 

Thanks for a great summer K family.  I love you all so much!  Bye bye Cape Cod.  sniff.

Kristen and Tom are one of those natural couples – not the all mushy kind of natural, the fit together like a puzzle piece kind of natural. They laugh at the same time, get the same jokes (although one is supposedly highbrow, and one lowbrow, looked the same to me!), and have all the same sort of interests that you can just see them getting old together. All their friends just mesh together so that at the wedding you can’t tell which side is the groom and which side is the bride – I love that.

So, where to start with all this fabulousness? I think Tom’s first look at his bride.  They wanted to spend as much time with their friends as possible – so they opted to take their formal pictures ahead of the ceremony.  Not traditional, but I think it’s amazing.  You get a special moment between just the two of you and get all those nerves out of the way.  It was so cute!

This is Tom’s reaction to seeing Kristen for the first time and K getting a little misty right after!

Kristen planned the wedding by herself along with friends – I think they did an amazing job!  The theme was hydrangeas and flip flops – can it get more Cape Cod than that?

Tom owns a restaurant/bar called Quahog Republic in Falmouth – notice the clam (a Quahog) on his tie?  We had to make sure that got a little attention shot.  You’ll see a bunch of Quahog references, just want to keep you in the loop! 

I for one think everyone should laugh like this on their wedding day….

I had a little idea while preparing for this wedding.  As you’ll see in my last post, I’m working on trying to give my clients something different during their sessions.  Weddings are a beast on their own, but I wanted to do something fun for Kristen so I talked to her sister (who happens to be my best friend) about doing a photobooth/guest book for her.  I asked her to pick up some chalk board and thought it would be really cute to have the guest write a message to the couple and I’d photograph anyone who wanted to participate.  It was AWESOME!!!  Everyone had a blast and it ended up being like a party game during dinner.  About 99% of the wedding guests participated.  Here’s a few of my favorites!

There are way too many, so I thought it best to include everyone in a little video:

Thank you so much for a great day Kristen and Tom!!! Can’t wait until you see all of them!
Lots of love and luck to you both!
xoxo

I just got back from a workshop in Pittsburgh with the very talented Australian photographer Barb Uil, otherwise known as Jinky Art.  She is AMAZINGLY talented – just oozes with ideas and creativity.  Her work makes my heart sing (her words for something else, but I found it so appropriate when trying to describe how her images make me feel).

These are some of the images I captured while studying with her.  I love that they are concept sessions – props without being too done.  Showing everyday life, but just a little exaggerated.  Isn’t that how children see things?  Life – but more colorful, whimsical and filled with wonder and imagination…  I am bursting with ideas (all written down in my new creative journal) and now I just need places and people.

I was so humbled this week as a photographer.  There are so many talented people out there to inspire you.  Have you been inspired lately in what you do?  If not, I hope that you can find what I did this week.  A nice kick in the bum to get you into action and make your daydreams into reality.  Gosh, I needed that.

This is my favorite image of the workshop.  I found this little caterpillar while we were shooting and gave it to Jinky’s daughter to hold…  normally I might have passed it by, but it was too colorful and with her high socks it looks like Alice in Wonderland to me.

No, this wasn’t a model.  Again, these are clients of the hosting photographer.  Um, hello beautiful people.  Wow, I love these mason jars as lanterns!!  And do you see how mommy and baby’s heads and mom’s arm make a heart on the bottom left???

I loved this little guy.  All he needed was a goat.  Oh wait, there was a goat – he just wasn’t cooperating when I took this image.  Seriously, she brings goats to sessions!

This little two year old was SO happy and beautiful.  I had to put a toes shot in too…  Plus my friends and I were borderline obsessed with the swing so it MUST be included.

Many thanks to Jinky, Deb, Meg, and Kathy for all the hard work.  It was wonderful.

This year’s trip was a bit bitter sweet for Becky’s family as her husband Greg is getting ready to deploy for Afghanistan for a year.  It was their last family vacation for a while, and I was so honored that Becky asked me to capture their family for some photos for Greg to take with him.

First we started on little Ian at my house.  The light in my guest room is AMAZING, and little Ian was happy to play with me while mom needed to do some work.  Yes, this is what I do when I babysit!!

There are about 20 more looking just as cute, but this post is about the family, so I’ll continue there.  Although I would really like to show you all dang 20 because they are so adorable!!

Later that afternoon we headed to the beach – when we got there (literally, like right when we got there) a ton of fog rolled in so I didn’t get to play around with the sun like I wanted to.  That being said, an overcast sky is like a huge lightbox, so it worked out with Becky’s oldest running me all over the beach!  I got her sitting still at one point though!

Shouldn’t every little girl have a picture like this with her dad?  I think so…

I love this one, I hope you guys do too…

I’m always so amazed by the humble nature of these men and women that voluntarily serve for our country.  It’s second nature to them – a calling that only a few hear and answer to.  It’s just what they feel they have to do.  In a strange way, it completes them.  It just impresses the heck out of me and I hope Greg knows how much I think of him and what he’s doing.  Lots of love and luck to you, Greg and God Bless!

As my husband and I are a few months from our ten year anniversary, Marg and Shep (he’s Scott, but he’ll always be just Shep to me – and Uncle Shep as he’s now known) are getting closer too and they asked me to take some 10th anniversary photos to replace the wedding photos on their walls.  Apparently they’ve grown older or something?  Strange, because I look exactly the same as I did 10 years ago.  Righhhht.

So, being the good friend I am, I put these up straight away on my blog to embarrass them.  Ahhh, friendship.

Also, I had to do this before sending them to her, because I know she’ll find something wrong with about 90% of them.

She doesn’t like this picture.  I mean, really.  Sorry bud, it’s one of my favorites and you look amazing.

My favorite of the day.  Last shot before we left the place we sort of were trespassing on.  Sort of…

Thank you for being such wonderful friends for ten years, you are amazing!  Happy Anniversary!!!