I’ve known Holly and Rob for years now. Since Holly and I worked together on Nick News. She was one of my first clients and one of my most loyal. Just before the holidays, I photographed her family pictures. She mentioned specifically that she wanted an “Anthropologie” look with the outside shots. I knew JUST what she meant. I had in my head the color palate, the croppings, the compositions. It’s quite similar to my favorite stylings as well and I couldn’t WAIT to start the shoot. Since it was winter, we did begin inside in the studio. Ellie is just now starting to sort of remember who I am and that I see her yearly. And I soon came to learn there were two things about my apartment (which I turn into a studio for indoor shoots) that absolutely fascinated her. 1) My dogs. and 2) My fridge.

Kids are funny little things. She wanted to see my dogs SO BADLY. She kept asking for them, so during breaks, I would bring out Bebop. Typically chihuahua’s have a bad rep for not being good with kids–Bebop is the anomaly. She is GREAT with kids. Even friends who bring their newborns over, she will simply smother them with kisses. Now, Red on the other hand isn’t BAD with kids necessarily…he just doesn’t understand them. I think they freak him out a little. He gets very focused on them and trying to understand what this little human is doing walking around his house. So, I always feel more comfortable keeping Red away from kids. But NO! Ellie wanted to see the big dog! He was her favorite! However, she didn’t want to touch him. She just wanted to look at him. While being held by her mother.

As I mentioned, she also really wanted to see my refrigerator. No problem. There’s hardly anything in there anyway. I opened it up and showed her. Inside I had laughing cow cheese, half and half, some turkey, a pickle (yes, just one), and beer. She found this hilarious. “What do you eat!?” She asked with her shoulders raised to her ears.

“Do you want to see my recipe book?’

She nodded emphatically. From the top of the fridge, I pulled down 30 take-out menus. “This is the extent of my cooking.” She slapped her hand to her forehead and started laughing the deepest belly-laugh I ever heard from a 3 year old.

When I have one (someday many moons from now), I hope she’s just like Ellie.

Isla was born in late summer and I met her mother months and months before. I feel like she was long-awaited and worth every minute of suspense. Her parents decided to not find out her gender prior to her birthday (which was super exciting). It also meant I couldn’t plan too many props ahead of time–I had to wait to choose appropriate pillows and such.

Her shoot came out stunning. Based on the chats I had with Isla’s parents, we used props that were meaningful and pointed…such as the Shel Silverstein books which were a gift to Isla from her grandmother. And her father’s fireman helmet (obviously, he is a firefighter here in the city and without being a cliche, I’ll say it just once, he’s a hero to many).

Here are a few of my favorites from the session–Isla, welcome to the world, beautiful girl. Your daddy is going to have his hands full once you’re old enough to date! Maybe I can introduce you to my nephew when the time comes. ;0)

I had been doing quite well with all of my blogging–that is until a couple of weeks ago. All in one day, I got both wonderful news and terrible news. My sister gave birth to her second child, her little boy, Harrison Robert. Within minutes of receiving the phone call from her very happy husband–I got another call from my mother. My uncle had passed away.

It’s a weird feeling–switching from elated to melancholy in the course of minutes. Uncle Pete was a great man. He was hilariously funny, snarky and witty all the while still being very compassionate and loving. He would bend over backwards for friends and family. His health had been on the decline over the past couple of years, so while this wasn’t completely unexpected, it was still somewhat of a shock since we were told he was in rehab and getting better. The funeral lasted two days and I was glad to have had the chance to say good-bye to such an amazing man. RIP Uncle Pete.

Two days later, I met my godson, Harrison. He does very well in the daytime–but then when about 4pm hits, something in his brain switches and he unleashes what I call ‘the monster’. Every day at 4pm, he decides that he hates this world and everyone in it and makes this fact known by screaming his little head off. Poor little man. Then we discovered the formula the hospital had given us was expired–BY THREE MONTHS. I think we found the culprit.

Big sister, Adelynn is adjusting slowly but surely. She definitely doesn’t love not being the center of attention anymore, but she seems to be growing more and more ok with this idea. For the first week, she refused to touch Harrison or come near any of us who were holding him. After a night at home with them, Adelynn decided to start playing chase with me. I took Harrison from his pack ‘n play and without missing a beat, continued chasing Adelynn. I kept saying “Harrison got you!” as I would run up to her. Including him in playtime seemed to work really well and within minutes she was kissing him and wanted to hold him. SCORE FOR AUNT COLLEEN! Aunt Melanie might have the better toys and the bigger house, but remember Addy–I GOT YOU TO LOVE YOUR BROTHER.

Here is Harrison’s first photoshoot with a few at the end of Adelynn’s first encounter holding Harrison (The ones of Adelynn and Harrison were taken at 8pm sort of impromptu, so they’re a little dark!). We ran the gamut in terms of costumes and props and stuff, but the little hats were just too cute to not use!!

And just for fun before I headed back to NYC, we passed the camera around and got a few of me and the other adults…well, all except my bro-in-law. Poor schmo had to go to work that morning. Bummer!

Some clients decide that on top of their digital images, the want to have some film pictures taken of themselves as well. With this family, also seen here, we did one roll of medium format film (shot with my Hasselblad) while we were outside. The look of these just seems so different than the digital ones. There’s a different sort of softness to them that’s very lovable. At least I think so.

If you decide you want to add a roll of film onto your photo session, they are priced per roll! Be sure to ask about it during your initial consultation.

Kaitlin and I met a couple of years ago when she first moved to NYC. She is an actress and model and was just recently crowned Miss New York! We had done a shoot together prior to her being crowned (which I will post soon) and when she was in need of her crown and sash photographs for autograph cards and business cards, I was SO HAPPY she chose me. We work really well together and she seriously is one of the sweetest girls you’ll meet.

Her handsome boyfriend came along as well and was the perfect assistant–holding hangers and hangers of dresses and a makeup kit, his hands busy with lipstick and mascara–that poor guy. But he was awesome and supportive through the whole shoot. And as it turned out, he was also a huge comic book fan. After the shoot, he and Sean had a blast talking about all sorts of geeky things while Kaitlin and I chatted about how awesome our men are (sarcasm? what?).

Here are a few of my absolute favorites from her shoot–my ‘favorites’ were practically IMPOSSIBLE to narrow down, by the way! Congratulations Kaitlin–can’t wait to see you in Miss America next year!

I can’t believe this little girl is a year old already. I’ve seen her entire year, which in itself is unbelievable to me. Time goes so fast and I know Nadine must be floored that her baby girl is already a whole year old. This is why I love my job–people who are “clients” invite me into their lives and yes I am their photographer, but I become so much more to that. I get to grow with them and see the first time their child stands or smiles. Their first tooth. And it’s an amazing thing. Thank you Nadine, Marvin and Madison for welcoming me into this beautiful first year. I hope for many more to come!

Krista and I have become really close in the past year or so. She is this amazingly beautiful, extremely smart, talented writer, producer and actress. And just as I thought she and I were destined to grab brunch every Sunday Sex and the City style–BAM! She hits me with the fact that she’s probably moving to LA. I say probably because I’m clinging to the hope that her plans might fall through.

Here are some of my favorite shots from her headshot session we did a couple of months ago. I know she’ll exceed in life wherever she lives–I only wish it could be closer to me. But that’s selfish, I guess. At least now, I have a reason to come visit LA!

Abigail is such a strikingly beautiful child. I could not tear my eyes away from those baby blues and fiery red hair. Honestly–so, so, so gorgeous. Her parents were also beautiful people–on the inside, too. And maybe that was one of my favorite things about photographing this family. They were all three (even the 6-month old!) so mellow and kind and relaxed during this shoot. And as a result, we got these:

Than a baby wearing sunglasses? NO! Miss Madison has been a client of mine since she was first born. These were her 9-month portraits taken a few months ago, just as the weather warmed up and the sun came out. She’s always such a little ham for the camera, smiling and posing.

I think she’s getting to the point where she recognizes me and remembers that I’m fun–because, I AM FUN! FUN ENOUGH TO REMEMBER!!! (That’s my excited voice I use to get kids to smile. It’s much better in person, I promise) I’m looking forward to the day that she can say my name and come give me a hug. =0)

This puppy decided to randomly come up to Madison and give her some kisses…

I love shooting with my film cameras–namely the Holga and Hasselblad. The holga and hasselblad both shoot with 120 film (medium format negatives), but the look of the images are totally different. The holga is completely unpredictable and tends to have funky light leaks and very little ways of constructing the image. It’s sort of a “whatever happens happens” camera. The Hasselblad is much more particular–hard to focus, the lighting has to be metered just right and its hard to compose an image. Overall, it’s two completely different ways of photographing, both of which produce awesome photos making the extra effort totally worth the reward.

However, the one MAIN downside to this is that getting these images scanned in takes FOREVER. Like, think FOR.EV.ER. in the way the kid in The Sandlot says it. Over and over. FOOOOOOR.EEEEEEEEV.EEEEEEEEEER. And, not sure if you know this about me: I’m not a patient person.

Why is our sushi not here yet? (because I just hung up from ordering it). Why haven’t I burned 800 calories yet? (Because I’ve only been on the treadmill for 2 minutes). I also turn everything into a contest–but that’s a whole other issue.

So, basically if any task takes more than a few minutes, I get very impatient and it becomes a game to see how fast I can finish (without sacrificing quality, OF COURSE). Although, ok, when scanning these negatives, it takes SO LONG and is SO TEDIOUS, that I definitely don’t mind sacrificing quality a little. Mostly because I don’t print them from the digital scans–only prints come from the negative.  That being said–here are a couple of my favorites from the first few rolls:

Hasselblad:

Holga: