For the third time I was able to photograph Henri and he’s just over one year old – it’s been fun to see him grow up so much from past sessions.
Michelle + Ben’s before the baby session was fabulous and so fun to spend some time with them in Rochester (thanks for coming down!) They are excited to become parents and I’m so happy for them.

There’s full posts from these sessions to come so look for them soon! I just had a great weekend in the Adirondacks and even though it was just a long weekend of vacation it felt like vacation (almost) every minute. We were able to go out for a long paddle – for me – since I’m new to the whole canoeing for distance thing; get up early and watch Ironman Lake Placid, ride 50 miles along the bike course to see the race in action and cheer in finishers after seeing the pro’s come across the line; and enjoy some fabulous food none of which we had to cook ourselves! Oh and the bad food choice I was speaking of on twitter? That was “Josh’s Fire Fish” which is basically fish+chips but with buffalo wing sauce on the fish. I know, sounds crazy but after my long bike ride I was starving and I went for it… and it was pretty good.

Before I do a full post on Ryan + Christie’s session I wanted to share this image in particular, taken with my lensbaby. If you’re not familiar with cameras you are probably wondering what in the world a lensbaby is… and to find out more you should follow the link. The basics are that the lens moves and allows you to have one point in focus with everything else being dramatically out of focus (I guess you could say it’s like a trick lens…  like when you listen to the song and start to hear robotic voices… that’s what I’ll compare a lensbaby to). Anyways, when I bought my lensbaby I was excited but it took me a while to use it. Since it can create such dramatic images at first I think I didn’t use it because I wasn’t sure it would meld with my style and the other images I captured. I didn’t want robotic voices in the song for the heck of it (and we’ve all heard those songs + seen those images), but after seeing what I captured (from the ones that are in focus – it’s super tricky manual focus) I love how it looks. Now you can expect a few robotic voices, just enough to keep things interesting.

my niece is the cutest watermelon eater. Like any good photographer aunt I took some pictures of her over the 4th of July. Playing in the pool, eating watermelon and sharing some with her best friend Lexi are among the things I documented. Are my kids going to be as cute?

Julia and Lexi are best friends and I’m not even kidding when I say that. They could entertain each other for hours, too bad we don’t live closer! Playing in a backyard pool is a must as a child, and Julia’s fav activity doing so is pouring water back and forth and back and forth – and sneaking drinks in between too. Don’t drink the pool water Julia!

This love story started on the basketball court. Christy and Phil met on a church league and while that is where their story began, the first chapter wasn’t written until Christy’s trip to Zambia. Working for World Hope, she was presented with the opportunity to work in the field. She spread the news about her trip and asked family and friends to help support her, and one of those friends was Phil. They met over coffee to talk and their friendship soon developed into something more. Who would have known that a support letter would have lead to an engagement… that’s taking a support letter to a whole new level.

look at those moves! Matt and I met up with Phil and Christy in DC and spent part of our time in the district and most of it in Georgetown area, which is beautiful.

Christy left for her trip not too long after their coffee shop date which meant that they spent the first part of their relationship miles apart.

Gorgeous, right? Are you as excited for their wedding as I am?

they love each other. There’s so much more of their story to be written and I’m so excited to be a part of documenting it. Phil + Christy see you in October and good luck with the wedding planning!

UPDATE: So last night I posted the photo below, as a quick edit after downloading the images from the shoot. I looked at it this morning and knew I had to do a few edits to finish the image and wanted to show you the difference. The one above I’m happy with and looks so much better I’m kind of embarrassed I posted the one below but that’s what you get for a late night post. As you can see below the grass was just too blue, and I added a little warmth to make it sunnier. I feel soo much better.

I’ve come to the point in my photography career where some of the newlyweds I’ve photographed are now becoming parents, and the Vickroy’s are one such couple. My drive up to Michigan for Easter brought me conveniently close to the Vickroy’s so we took a slight detour to stop by for some photos, just a few days after their identical twins Josh and Luke were brought home. Newborns will never cease to amaze me, and these brothers were just around 5lbs so they were extra tiny. They will only be this small for a few days, and its not every day you are able to document the beginning of someone’s life so I count it as a privilege to be there for this time.

It took a while to get the boys asleep, but soon they were perfectly content right next to each other.

I had to include this photo of Jen and Steve arranging them in the basket so you could really see how tiny they are.

A week ago I met up with a great group of people for a shoot out. I’m not sure if that’s even the technical term, but that’s what we called it. Lindsay, a friend from college, organized most of it as she wanted to get together photographers and models so we could practice and learn from each other. While there was no set schedule to the event, we started out at Andre’s Wine + Cheese Bar in downtown Doylestown. We shot indoors and practiced off camera lighting, but what was most interesting was seeing what each person did. While I like to travel a little bit lighter I was impressed by Keesha’s umbrella and flash set up… and I was also eyeing Lindsay’s external battery pack for a near instant recycle time on her flash. It’s always good to see what other people are doing – not so you can just copy – but when you’re in an environment that’s open to learn from… you can learn!

Part two of the shoot out took place outside. I decided to try something new and only used the lensbaby I bought at Imaging USA for my lens. If you’re not familiar with lensbabies, they are basically a variation on a tilt shift lens. Instead of a constant plane of focus, you can move around the lens so that there are only specific points of focus. This can do some really cool things, but of course it takes more than just an interesting lens to create a great image. I’m still working on it, and you really have to slow down and take your time since it’s manual focus. While it’s a different look for me, if you’ve seen any of the abstract work I did in college you’ll know it’s right up my alley. I’m looking forward to working it in to some of my shoots – let me know what you think!

Not too long ago, before all of the snow, I headed north of Harrisonburg to Glenmont Farm. It was there that I met with Dee and Melissa and their daughters Gabby and Hannah. The girls were entering a new division of competition with their horses, so they needed some portraits to document this time. I know there are photographers who specialize in equestrian photography… and if you are one such person you will have to let me know how I did. While I don’t have that same expertise in horses, I brought my style and point of view to the shoot. As I learned one of the challenges was directing both girl and horse – while normally I am just thinking about people and their placement, expression, and actions, when you add in animals it’s a new game. The main concern was making sure the horses ears were forward, so we did a lot to get their attention. They are such gorgeous animals I felt lucky to do such a fun session, and it was thanks to Jodi Miller who referred me since she was out of town. Thanks Jodi!

Today I drove a north of Harrisonburg to Glenmont Farm; there is so much beautiful farmland in Virgina and Glenmont is no exception. I had a great shoot with Hannah, Gabby, and their horses and here’s a little look at what I captured.

While today’s shoot was great I also have to admit I was exhausted. Let’s just say I had a few phone conversations and most of them started with “did I just wake you up?” Unfortunately that was never the case, I think I just sounded tired all day. Yesterday was our first indoor track meet (as you know my husband coaches xc+track and I am an assistant) and we had a really long day. It was a great meet and I was so glad to be there as I’m obviously not able to make it to all of them since I’ll be shooting weddings.

I feel soo much better today after dinner because we had my favorite meal. It’s been working it’s way up my favorites chart for a while, and I think I’m going to give it the number one spot… at least for winter (do you categorize your food favs by season?). So what is this number one?

Matt’s Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. I know what you’re thinking – oh I like homemade chicken noodle soup too – and although I haven’t tasted your soup, I think mine is better. This recipe is all creamy delicious broth expect for the chicken and homemade – yes, they have to be homemade – noodles. I could eat just the broth it’s so good and packed with flavor and would share it with you if I could. Now, this is totally Matt’s recipe- or at least his adopted recipe since he really found it in Emeril’s Del Monico cookbook and made just a few alternations, so if you want I can share it with you to try at home.

Well I need to get to bed early tonight so I’m productive tomorrow. Off to bed!