The good kind. Love this kid. We had fun because he was relaxed and game to do whatever I thought of. Best of luck to him.

I've been making some images that are exciting and moving to me. Studying the Beloved style of invitations and games to create authentic interactions and responses during my last few photo shoots has added greatly to the enjoyment I already feel during my time working with families, as well as helped me get over my natural introverted tendencies. Once understood, the simple ideas and prompts that the purchased materials include can be expanded upon and personalized, and I look forward to doing that as I continue on.

These images are from the Hunter session, and what I like most is this: these images can be attached to a memory. In the first series, we are playing a game called World's Greatest Inventor. The little girl in front is telling about inventions that she is thinking up on the fly that will help her family with various problems. I love her seriousness and focus contrasted with the way her words are absolutely delighting the rest of the family, then I was able to lead them from that game time to the lovely hug shot at the end, where they surrounded the "inventor" with gratitude for her great ideas.

In the last photo, near the end of the shoot, I asked the children to take turns telling me the story of how their parents met, and a sweet, peaceful closeness seemed to surround the family. The little girl put her head on dad's knee without any prompting and the others seem lost in happy thoughts. These are the images I've always strived to make, so I feel very, very grateful and blessed.






Thanks to Brooke Snow for introducing me to Beloved. I can't wait to see where I can go from here. 

For now, this is going to be my photographic living room for the world. My son is building me a new website and I've moved my proofing galleries to Instaproofs. I am incorporating more and more of the Beloved techniques into my shooting and am really enjoying the evolution of my style. Here are some images from the last months since I've posted here. The reason for the hiatus is that I've been traveling extensively and have been able to take photos in Europe, Chicago, Utah and California in recent months, as well as for my wonderful local clients. Here is a taste of my photo-life since May:

We went to Howard County Nature Conservancy. Couldn't be more thrilled with how these turned out. I feel like I helped her (and a few others) to see how beautiful she is.

This job happened through a referral from my friend Jessica. I took her wedding photos back in like 2006 or something and she told her friends in Cooperstown NY about me. I love that girl. At one point we had a fairly close association while we worked on a project together during her senior year, and those times meant a lot to me. So, it was really nice that she thought to tell her pals about my work.

Anyway, these two families were so nice. They were laid back about the schedule, patient while we switched gears and waited for flowers to be fetched and upbeat even though it was chilly and cloudy after a week of warm and sunny, patient with my wrecked attempt to get us downtown to the monuments ever so cleverly, and just overall fabulous to work with.

Winter is always a bit slower when it comes to photo shoots, but I do have a few to showcase here before the busy season begins: A Wedding, a Family and a Senior. Enjoy: