brothers and sisters

This shoot was set for my very last day in Richmond and I was a little worried about what we would do if the rain that held off the day before came down on us ! Again, the gods were kind...
I am not even kidding when I tell you that there were moments during this shoot when I was so excited that it was almost hard to contain myself. With anything you do there are times when all the elements simply "click" and it's not anything you can manipulate or control it just happens. I've been told that "luck" is when preparation meets opportunity and I really believe that is what happened with this day. Great Kids: "check" Great Weather: "check" Great Setting: "check" Great Coordinating Colors: "check" Great Grandma and Mom who occupied off camera kids: "check, check " Photographer with camera that died at one point: "check" Mini heart attack for said photographer: "check"
Ok...so the camera part was a little glitch, but it got back on track.
I am so thrilled to have had the chance to shoot these kids. Another example of family that truly loves each other. Love, love, love it!








ciao...for now Richmond! :)
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tommy boy, tommy girl

This session almost didn't happen because of the weather, but I said a few "hail mary's" and luckily it worked. I would not have wanted to miss out on my time with these two. Brother and sister teams are always fun, but can also be challenging at times if they aren't too into each other. Luckily, that wasn't the case with this dazzling duo. They are so kind to each other and as I had the chance to get to know them a bit this summer, I can speak first hand to the fact that they are actually friends. They look out for each other and have fun together and genuinely enjoy each other. Can you IMAGINE!!!?? hahaha
If there are any agents in Virginia looking for Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph Lauren models I have two for ya right here. The moment I started browsing their session I thought to myself "they are total pros."











Their mom bribed them with the promise of a weird "person/pen" type thing if they behaved for my session....hope they got it!

be well

hot...hot...hot

The heat was oppressive my friends...but we made it through with a totally knock out session for this awesome ten week old gem. I had the best time today. Ok, I admit that having two assistants, my girlfriend who gifted the shoot to our "little" as well as the mom, made my life easier. Having always been the assistant over the years I never knew how much fun it is to be the boss. I love it! It was so much fun being able to have help and say things like "that green stuff in the background needs to go" and "that chair is ruining my life" and "we need new "talent", this baby keeps crying and ruining my chi!" Just kidding. I did keep calling her "the talent" though because in between set ups she would get her binky, and a hug, and told she is beautiful. (just like hollywood only their "binky" might be a vodka tonic or something) Seriously this was one of my favorite shoots ever. The mom was open to letting me do whatever I wanted and I certainly took advantage and let my creativity flow.
Thanks Mrs. H! And to the other Mrs. H...that's for comin along and helpin out.

special delivery


don't babies ALWAYS sleep with a flower in their face?


the girls

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"C"-easons of Love Part I

A fitting title since in the midst of composing this post I am listening to the Tony awards and they are going to do a tribute to the record breaking rock musical, RENT. I'm calling this Part I as I have a few more images which actually show baby "Cs" face, but as it's dad's day I wanted to get this one up before the day is completely passed! I don't know about the rest of you, but for me there is just something that touches my heart when I see a father spending time with his kids. The conversations are just different than they are with mom. Dads are just different. And there's nothing like seeing a new dad. He may not know anything for sure other than the fact that his capacity to love has increased ten-fold over night...oh and that "Babies come with hats."
(name THAT T.V reference)




Happy Father's Day dad's out there...

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All in the family

This incredibly beautiful family, both inside and out, were hard to say goodbye to. This session was a few weeks ago, but as they had ordered an album I wanted them to be completely surprised when they received it. Posting images here would only lead to temptation for them and it's just so much more fun when you can be totally surprised. Over the last few months their faith and trust in both myself and my work was a blessing. It afforded me the luxury of trying new things and taking risks when in other circumstances I may hold back. While my time in Pittsburgh is done I take with me some incredible lessons for both life and my photography. Many thanks to all of the old families/old friends/new families/new friends I had the pleasure to meet. I am inspired by your lives and it is my personal goal to tell the stories of your children in images that reveal to you the beauty of the lives you have chosen to bring into this world.

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I figured it out...sort of

so it's clear that I have learned SOMETHING..."vertically" that is. Awww well....I'll figure out the sizing of horizontals another time. ok....in actuality it's still cropping too much and I'm not happy with it, but I couldn't put off posting any longer and what with traveling to 3 states over the next 7 days I will just have to put off my learning until another day... Of course once I started tinkering with my layout I couldn't stop. I changed everything, then changed it back, then changed the heading. It's addicting! One day the images will be just how I want them. Until then I'll just keep workin on it.







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kids say the darndest things...

In case you have not recently been around kids who are potty training allow me to bring you up to speed. Kids like to talk about poop. Ok, even as adults it's fun to talk about it sometimes, but a kid who is just figuing it all out is incredibly funny and candid about their fascination with "all things rectum" if you will. Additionally, because parents are so incredibly exasperated during this process they usually have no other recourse than to resort to bribing their children to "use the potty." At which point the child is rewarded with stickers or transformers or t.v. time or in the case of the conversation being written about here...GUM.
For the sake of anonymity I will just call this boy "the little" He made it very clear to me that GUM was his reward and he loved it. Bright Yellow gum is the best.
THIS ENTIRE EXCHANGE IS 100% TRUE and happened to me on Friday

the little: "do you poop on the potty?"

me: "Yes, indeed I do"

the little: "that's awesome"

me: "Yep"

the little: "do you have GUM at your house?"

me: (begin laughing hysterically)
2nd grade is so hard!!!
These two photos do not relate to the above story, but I just had to share it.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Go rent THE MATCHMAKER. It will make you smile.

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the great "AW" and a night of flashing people

With everything that's been going on recently I completely ran out of time to acknowledge the incredible Audrey Woulard whose photograph graced the cover of PPA last month. She is in my opinion the greatest contemporary children's photographer around. Based in Chicago, Audrey is in high demand and she could tell me to "get her a latte " anytime she wanted if I could watch her work. This entry is a combination of due praise to her as well as a practice evening with my new kick a** flash. (Santa was good to me and also placed a pretty sweet graphics tablet under the tree as well) No complaints. I now understand even more how incredibly gracious it was that my friend used to let me use his equipment when I didn't have my own yet. I won't let anyone come near mine! When a two year old grabbed my Canon last night I almost had a heart attack and put both of us in an immediate "time out! " (him to learn a lesson and me to calm my heart rate) hahahah

My naive attempt to recreate Ms. Woulard's November "Hangin Out" blog entry

Love the [Red] Campaign at GAP

For futher clarification of what I am talking about click on the green links and they will take you to some cool sights.

Happy New Year.

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what do you get when you fall in love ?

Actually it should be "What do you get when two beautiful people fall in love?" (I'm putting everything "P.C " aside at the moment and not recognizing beauty on the inside and the whole eye of the beholder stuff we say to make us regular people feel better) I'm talking about mixing a tall blond with incredible blue eyes and a tall redhead with a great smile. And the answer is....you tell me after checking out their incredibly gorgeous, well behaved and fantastic children. There will be more of these boys so keep checkin back.

I did absolutely nothing to his eyes! He's a little "Newman" if I ever saw one. Baby Gap Superstar!


He does cry, but even that is adorable and worthy of some photos.


Big Brother. He was not lovin his little bro the day I was there and so my assignment to get a pic with the two of them pretty much went out the window...but how could I be upset with a face like this? Plus, at 2 years old he can already identify Chile, Argentina, Brazil and pretty much any other country you'd like pointed out on a map. AND he pronounces them perfectly. What?!



My new thing is making my "littles" cry during their sessions. It's working for me pretty well and I'm realizing it doesn't take that much effort on my part. This day I just took his candy cane away. ( kidding) I adore this child. He calls me "miss julia" and I melt. Can I put in a special order for kids just like these two?



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here on martha's vineyard

These are just a few of my favorites from my summer on "the vineyard." Thanks for taking this journey with me. My photography has grown in the last few months and I look forward to developing even more.
Stay tuned...

Chappy lighthouse tour with the Trustees of Reservations. Take a tour if you visit.
Fourth of July!

Squibnocket Beach with little Peter and his "girlfriend" Georgia

He knows everything about baseball and will play professionally someday.


Little Michael from earlier this summer.


Alley. I finally saw the cup stacking. She tried to teach me and it's way harder than you think.


Chase not arguing with me...this is rare.


IMP camp final circle

And on that note. I bid you all good night

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one feather not two

So the teen I asked to be my model this week is the lovely and talented Ashley. Isn't she a knockout? She is the coolest and sweetest 13 year old I've met. Yes, I said 13. Ashley was my co-teacher this week and we had several days of utter hysterics with the 5 and 6 year olds. Our rendition of Gertrude McFuzz goes down in my book as the funniest story theater piece to date...although maybe more fun for us than the kids. She played most of the parts while I narrated and tried to speak in "Seuss Speak." Lola-Lee Lew is easy to rhyme, "had not one feather but two," but try McFuzz! I kept wanting to say that she'd ruined my "Buzz," but thought it was inappropriate. However, I did get in "Uncle Drake gave her a prescription for tail-feather enhancement pills." Read the story and you'll see why that's funny.


I can't tell yet if my photos pop the way I envision them. I'm glad I have these sessions to help me work on that skill.

bedtime fun

I am a firm believer that every kid needs to be thoroughly "tucked in" to bed at night. They need the consistency of this ritual and to know as they drift to dream land that they are loved. Gosh, isn't that the last thing we ALL want to know before we go to sleep?! Each child is different I'm learning. Some need a book a song and a hug and kiss. [ok, that would be me. I was all about "milking the tuck-in"] Others just need one. If the kid is with me...look out...who knows what will happen! Tonight I couldn't help myself because Peter hasn't been feeling well all day so I took the opportunity to put all his animals around him to stand guard over him during the night. He's also layered under 5 blankets which you can't tell, but they are literally tucked all around his body so he can't move! It was all he could do to get his hands out. He was clearly not having as much fun as I was with this, but it was too funny to not take a picture. It reminded of the scene in E.T. when Drew Barrymore opens the closet door and can't see E.T. in the midst of everything else. Ok, so this has nothing to do with photography I realize, but a valuable entry all the same.

mentos and diet coke

hmmm...what did I learn from 4 kids under the age of 5 all needing to be in the same photograph? A TON. Let me tell ya. They were terrific kids, but boy oh boy oh man oh geez... it was amazing. Picture two kids looking at the camera, one picking their nose, and the other sticking out their tongue. Then reverse that and add in other crazy elements and you will have a taste of it. I think I might have gotten half a dozen shots where at least 3 of the kids were sort of kind of engaged in the scene. Truly, I loved every minute of the challenge. Plus, they were all cousins so there wasn't always love goin on. After the fantastic chaos and dropping mentos into diet coke and watching it explode [Although my camera was on the kids reactions to it so I missed the hysterical episode totally] I got to relax and just hang with an awesome brother and sister team. Such a fun day!






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a martha's vineyard 4th

Edgartown is the place to be in MV on the 4th of July and as luck would have it that's exactly where I was. I'm not a big one for parades, but this one was not to be missed and it was a classic hometown festivity complete with kid's hockey teams, dance troupes, and local theater groups all marching along in the light drizzle. Quite honestly the best part was watching people's reactions after they tripped over, stepped in, or just barely missed the large "gift" left on the street by the horses who were also in the parade. It was hysterical!

These three totally reminded me of a Norman Rockwell scene. Love the little boy on the far left.
There were tons of kids on shoulders. They have it so easy.

Luckily the fireworks were not rained out as they were an incredible sight to behold. I had a perfect view from my third floor window and truly they were the best I've ever seen.