post christmas drizzle

when this family asked me to come on boxing day morning, i thought "wow.  sacrificing all those great post-christmas deals to honor mom's request for a family picture and come together in love and unity".  can i get a collective "awwwww"?  turns out it was the only time over the whole christmas break where they could all fit an hour in between work, birthday parties and other family gatherings.  but what an hour they picked!  what was supposed to be a soggy sunday morning turned out to be a very overcast sunday morning and we were gifted with about a half an hour of clear before it started to pour!  which gave us just enough time to get these:

check out these eyes!

these two cuties have been married for ten years and still have quite the spark...the rest of the family suggested they get a room.  clearly they already have :)

thanks for braving the elements with me, ritchies!

run for my money

this little guy made me work.  which is good!  because i'm not working out regularly right now and every once in awhile a girl needs a good sweat.

he is so cute.  which is also good because i knew if i was patient enough to wait him out i was going to get great smiles.  and i did.  for about 5 minutes.  in all fairness, it was freezing cold outside, the biting windy kind of cold that when you're sitting inside by your fireplace looks beautiful, but when you're climbing the icy paths of discovery trail with nearly frostbitten fingers, is not quite as quaint.  and there were injuries.  slips and blackberry bushes and splinters.

so all in all, he was amazing.  and i like tough cookies because it makes it all the more rewarding when they crack.  even for a moment.  

i'm just sad that it was so cold, i couldn't even get a picture of jen's sweet baby bump because she didn't dare take her coat off!

honored.

i'm always blown away when other photographers compliment and admire my work.  it's especially cool when i'm an admirer of their work too.  stacey malleck contacted me about taking their family pictures and i was so flattered.  she's got a good eye and great style and a sweet family, so of course i jumped at the opportunity.

it's always a little nerve wracking taking pictures of another photographer, but it's also nerve wracking being a photographer and having your picture taken, so i'm not sure which one of us was more uncomfortable!  but being who i am, i just made a few inappropriate comments and everyone relaxed right away.

the kids were so desperate to play in the puddles, so after we got a few pictures of the family, we freed them.  and they didn't disappoint.  you can always spot a photographer's children...they're the ones that don't care when the camera comes out.  they don't even give you the time of day.  they just go about their business.  which happened to be getting filthy dirty in this case.

did i mention stacey is a photographer?  well she is.  you can find her here.  and here.  she wanted a few pictures of her with her camera that she could use for promotional purposes, so while she channeled tyra, i did my best annie leibovitz impersonation and i think we came up with some really cute pictures.  because stacey is really cute.

side note: the people of blueberry junction were so generous to let us use their property and feature the incredible fall colors of the blueberry bushes.  even though the season is over, you can still order amazing organic frozen berries from them here.  each of their bushes are hand trimmed to help produce extra large berries!

perfect.

pretty much describes this family.

their love for one another is so evident, they enjoy and celebrate life together and with others and those girls...know how to pose.  i had such a hard time getting candid shots of them because every time they saw me looking their way, they struck it.  vogue.

do not get me wrong.  this family has struggles and life has not been easy.  not by a long shot.  they have come through so much and i'm sure will go through more, but i think that's what makes their love so sweet.  knowing that each day is a gift and choosing to live it fully.

so i say to the richmond family: you were worried i might not be interested in accepting what could have been seen as a challenging session.  watching your girls' joy as the birds circled overhead, seeing andrew's patience and tenderness and willingness to engage his sisters, knowing your trials and seeing a window into the amazing perspective you have...it was easy.  maybe one of the easiest families i have ever photographed.  i hope you are as blessed by these pictures as i was by our time together.

neighbors

we used to live across the street from these guys.  when we first went to look at renting this particular house, we were standing outside with the landlord when we heard yelling from the road and a woman with a hat on running wildly toward us waving her arms.  we were taken aback and thought surely this incident would deter them from letting us have the place, until we realized it was andrea and she was actually trying to tell the landlord (who turned out to be her good friend) that we were nice people and they should rent to us.

we have lots of fun memories, my favorite being the time they were sitting in their living room for a quiet evening and their eyes were drawn across the street to our front window (you know how when it's dark out and you have lights on and people can see inside your house, but you can't really see out?).  well, cliff was getting ready for a youth event which involved him dressing up as a caterpillar wearing one of those tent-like tubes kids crawl through over his body and a pair of allie's green tights that i had stuffed with socks over his head.  yeah, they had a good laugh.  

we miss backyard bbqs and impromptu driveway parties!

we had a good time.  i think they laughed more at me than they did with me, but hey, i can take it.  it's all part of the job.  this little lady was a little shy at first, but once i got her talking about her minnie mouse halloween costume, she was all smiles.

oh hey, gorgeous.

and this guy...does he not look like a full out teenager to you?  complete with skinny jeans.  goodness gracious.

and what to say about the littlest of them all?  his face was like zero to sixty in two seconds flat.  so fun.  and when we started playing in the leaves?  hysterical.

and just so you know, when cliff looked at the family pictures, he said "they're cute.  and you can tell scott i said that".  not sure how you feel about that, especially after the whole caterpillar incident, but i think you should take it as a compliment.  love you guys!