Gorgeous Children | Avon Children’s Photographer

This was one of those childrens’ portrait sessions I was really grateful at the end it wasn’t my kids because there is simply no way I couldn’t have every single one of these. It was s fun mix of film – love that film look – and digital for these. I adore working with film and am always thrilled to have a client who appreciates the special feel of a film portrait!

Of course, my kids never actually cooperate like this. Mine aim more for the “running away from the camera as fast as my legs with shoes on the wrong feet will go” look. Since if they consistently gave me portraits like THESE my house would be wall-papered with photos perhaps I should be grateful.

My Kid Again

Just my own girlie hanging out in a field in a tutu. This is another in my “kids via holga” series.

A Day in the Life

Just one from the A Day in the Life at the Cobb School. This was a full day of shooting, following this little Miss around her preschool as she washed windows, painted, prepared herself a snack, played with her friends, sang songs and more.

Your album should be ready in a few more weeks!

Moments to Remember at Photography Sessions

Now and again things happen at photography sessions that make one laugh, though usually not until a bit later after a glass of wine or two. A small sampling…

1. I was doing a very casual portfolio building shoot of a friend’s 3-month old son at my house on my back deck. She took her glasses off to get some pictures holding her child without the specs and my own child grabbed her glasses, broke them, and dropped them under the deck. We had to fish them out (or rather, I did, as she really is basically blind without her glasses) using a hook AFTER we located where they were by peering through the wooden boards at the assorted dead leaves below. Finding patterned brown glasses in dead leaves with almost no light is, well, interesting. I told her to let me pay for new ones. Did she? No. They are STILL taped together and that boy is 18 months old now. Every time I see them I feel glasses-guilt. Lesson learned: don’t ever try to do even the most casual shoot with your kids around. This just doesn’t end well.
2. I did a maternity session for one woman and was doing a set of rapid fire pictures, one after another, of the same pose. When I went back to proof the pictures, as I flipped from one to the next, I realized I could see the baby shifting around inside her womb and causing her abdomen to change shape. I’ve also had a woman have contractions during the shoot; she was a trooper and hiked all over West Hartford Center – in high heeled boots – pausing only briefly during contractions. She admitted she hoped the walking would bring on full labor. No such luck. I did, however, once have a mother go into full labor about 5 hours after our session.
3. Babies pee on my ALL THE TIME. It’s just part of the job and one reason I wear very casual clothes to shoots. Only once, however, did I manage to actually catch an arc of pee in the air when I pushed the shutter RIGHT as the baby peed. If this happens to you I will add a complimentary 4X6 of that shot for you to tuck away until your child’s wedding rehearsal dinner when you can add it to the slideshow of cute childhood pictures. This will be payback for the sleep deprivation.
4. At a wedding I once, camera gear hanging from my neck, jumped down a river bank to grab a blow-away ketubah that the wind had snatched and was attempting to introduce to the water, not 15 minutes after every single person in the family had signed it. This was not in the fine print of “How to be a wedding photographer.” I’ve also helped a bride into her dress, which eliminated any sweet “the bride getting dressed” shots but ensured that she actually DID get zipped into her dress.

Make sure YOU are in the pictures

Everyone wants pictures of their kids. Good pictures, bad pictures, doesn’t matter. We adore our children and want to capture every last moment as we feel that clock inexorably moving forward. Yesterday they were babies, then they sat up. Can that be MY child riding a scooter? We document their lives with professional portraits and iPhone snaps and home movies and tend to forget one thing.

We are part of their lives.

Women always say to me “Oh, I don’t want to be in any. I didn’t do my hair. I’m not wearing any makeup. I need to lose 10 pounds. Or 20.” No, you probably don’t need to lose 20 pounds and I’m sure you look gorgeous without makeup and, more to the point, you are in your kids lives looking just the way you look, right now. You need to be in the pictures. You are creating the photographic story of your child’s life, from the snapshots to the portraits, and when you look back you will see a narrative connecting them that you didn’t even realize was there at the time.

I know the odds are good that you are the family photographer and can claim “well, I’m not in them because no one else can take a picture.” I know this because this is my excuse. Or maybe you duck behind a tree when the family photographer comes out waving his or her camera claiming those 20 pounds or lack of lipstick as the excuse. I know that you feel uncomfortable in front of a camera. It’s hard to have your picture taken. But if you don’t get in front of that camera that photographic narrative won’t include you. There will be no photo you can show your adult children of you loving on them at 5 days old. No photo of you laughing with your 2-year-old. No photo of you with all of your children smiling at you because they adore you. Hand your partner the camera and get some snapshots with you in them. Next time you have a portrait session tell the photographer to make sure you are in some of the images. Because you ARE part of the story of your children’s lives. You need to be in the pictures.

Breastfeeding on the Back Porch

This is part of an ongoing project to do a series of informal pictures of nursing women, all shot with toy cameras, in different environments.

Ridiculously Adorable Little Boy

People ALWAYS want to know how to dress their kids. Little boys in tank-tops and jeans are about as cute as it gets. It gives them the freedom to show me the bugs they find (and, err… your kids will probably end up dirty after a photo shoot with me – best not to plan a fancy dinner directly afterward) and to sit in the mud or climb a tree. Of course, I’m perfectly happy to send a girl in a linen dress into the mud too but there is just something about a little boy in a simple shirt and jeans that evokes timeless childhood innocence in a way that ties and button down shirts just don’t.