How great is your job when you get to go to the beach for work?  I met up with Trey, Ellen and Tim one afternoon in Sandbridge where they were vacationing with Ellen’s brother T, his wife Greta, and their kids Alice and baby Sadie.  It was a beach party, family style.

Alice, Trey, Tim and T walked the kids to the park to get the wiggles out while we waited for the sun to dip a little lower in the sky.

The kids hitched a ride on the way back…

I loved this shot of Trey walking back with the pier and surf board in the background.  Will Trey be a surfer dude someday?

Alice was all about posing on the beach with her little sis.  Trey, not so much, but I did manage to get one pic snapped before he popped back up!

You gotta love kissing cousins, how sweet is Alice?

And Sadie’s eyes, just captivating, oh my goodness…

We got a few shots with everybody:

And then some with both families:

How’s this for an ocean view?

And finally, sweet pics of Ellen and her son.  What’s great about these photos is that Trey is running to his mom to hide from his father, who is chasing him towards the ocean.  It was a great tactic for getting cuddle shots out of Trey…

I loved this photo, a little boy exploring, what is that?  A sea shell?  I zoomed in to find that it was a plastic soda cup lid and I completely deflated… my idyllic shot was of Trey exploring a piece of garbage.  Ahw.  But I got over it and posted it here anyway because I loved the muted colors and the spirit of the photo so much.  We can channel the spirit of a two year old and just pretend that its a seashell, right?

Then it was time to get the kids in for dinner and a bath and I got Ellen to myself.  Ellen is awaiting a baby girl any day now and looked stunning against the ocean backrop.  The light was warm and beautiful, the breeze was cool and comfortable, it was the perfect evening to be out and overlooking water.

Here’s a slideshow from our shoot and and the gallery if you would like to visit.  Thanks so much for inviting me to tag along on your vacation and stay tuned everyone, there’s going to be more photos of this family very soon when Trey’s little sis arrives!

Posted by Mel @ 10:15 pm, in Bellies, Portraits, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink

I met up with Amber and Justin at their home in Baltimore, Maryland at the tail end of an unseasonably warm weekend.  We had hoped that the sunny 70’s we had on Friday would last through Monday but no dice, it was cold and rainy and a lot more like the February we all know and have a hard time loving.

Hence we began our shoot indoors and in the most obvious place: the nursery that Amber and Justin have so lovingly prepared for their son.  The finishing touches had just gone on the day before so I felt honored to get the first official peek at the room.  But first I had to ask Perry if it was OK to take pictures since he clearly hasn’t relinquished his room to the baby yet…

A tree of birds peek out from behind the crib.  A wall display wall display of bright and and eclectic framed cards and prints offset the rocker and shelving.  There are some special hand mades on the walls too, including an awesome owl painting that Justin made for Amber in lieu of an owl decal they couldn’t quite find online and the gift of a family owl print made by another talented client of ours: Amber’s dear friend, Beth!

We did brave the great outdoors for a little bit to get some shots at a nearby park…

…and when we got back we posed the fun stuff.  Justin is pretty proud of his basement, its definitely their hang out joint in the house.  Beer bottles that he has collected from their many travels together line the walls above the pool table.  Lately, Amber has been folding the baby laundry on the pool table so they thought it would be fun to pose something there.  We arranged the balls to reveal Eli’s estimated due date, initially 3/24/11, and then we made the more recent estimation of today, 3/22, once we found another 2 ball to work with!  Today seems like the right day to blog these.

Here’s a slideshow with my favs and you can visit the online gallery by clicking here.  Amber and Justin, thanks for being such fun subjects and I wish you an amazing birth experience sometime very soon… Hey, maybe even today!  Can’t wait to hear the good news when Eli has arrived!

Posted by Mel @ 8:54 pm, in Bellies, Portraits, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink

As I walked to my chair to sit down and write this post, I felt the familiar crush of a Cheerio beneath my shoe, called the dog to come clean it up and wondered how on earth we got our closest friends to follow us into this beautiful mess.  We haven’t exactly made it look easy, our entry into parenthood was less than graceful and its the people closest to us that have born the brunt of our complaints about lack of sleep, freedom and privacy in the bathroom.   They have ignored moody outbursts while stepping over mine fields of toys to access a fridge with sticky handles, turning a blind eye to the dirty diaper sitting on a piece of furniture that somehow never made it to the pail.  But I guess they have also watched us glow, laugh, cuddle, sing, smile, rock and coo while getting stupidly excited about the small things in life, like the way my son says, “belly button”.  I guess that these are the impressions that stuck since one by one, ready or not, our favorite DINKs (dual income, no kids) are dropping like flies.

Enter Dan and Erin who rented an apartment from us while relocating from New Orleans to Richmond after Katrina.  They were the Ricardos (young, riotous and shenanigan prone) and we were the Mertzs (a little older, a little grumpier, equally shenanigan prone) and life as we knew it in Richmond hasn’t been the same since they came.  Many years, travels, life changes and shenanigans later, we are family.  We were so happy when they announced that they would be joining us in the beautiful mess.

If you read my post on Olivia’s belly portraits this past summer, you already know that I arrived at their house with my equipment, some excitement and quite a bit of dread.  Taking pictures of people I love is always infinitely harder than photographing people I have just met for reasons I haven’t entirely figured out.  The sun was not cooperating as the sky continued to darken and threaten rain… so much for good light.  Poor Dan had been up all night working and fell asleep in the nursery during a costume change!   Erin was every bit as nervous as I was and its probably good that photos can’t reveal the occasional irreverent conversation amidst our chatter.  Mostly we talked momma stuff and despite the awkwardness, it was nice to get Erin to myself for a little while without the men folk or the ankle biter.  The house was quiet and dark and warm like a favorite cup of tea.  She and I weren’t nearly as quiet as the photos look but if they feel pensive, that was real.

If there’s something I really like about belly portraits and first time mommas, its the quiet before the storm.  Pregnant women in their final trimester, if left to their devices, are a flurry of nesting activity, whirling dervishes of laundry and preparation.  So its nice to press the pause button and allow the calm, confidence and readiness to rise to the surface: which is exactly what I see in these photos of Erin.

Even Sienna Brulee is ready.  Reluctant maybe, but ready…

Erin and Dan welcomed Charleton Fisher O’Regan to the world a week ago yesterday and are doing fantastic together.  Dan is already a master swaddler, as we got to see during a brief hospital visit the day after Charlie was born.  Welcome to the world, sweet Charlie.  D&E, welcome to the Beautiful Mess.  And to all three of you, welcome home.

Posted by Mel @ 6:29 pm, in Bellies, Personal, Portraits, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink

When I heard that Brayden, now two, was going to be a big brother, I was over the moon.  And even more excited for the opportunity to document Baby Reese’s first year just like I did for Brayden!  We decided to start the photo fun early, before Reese’s big debut.

When I arrived, Brayden said, “Hi Mel!” and ran for his camera, still wearing his Elmo slippers.  We were ready to play.

Then it was time for Brayden to get dressed and show me the baby’s nursery.  When Amy and Jeff learned they were having a girl, they decided to embrace the pink full throttle!   The nursery is painted in two rosey shades and Brayden loves to climb into her crib, give her bear a hug and hang out.  Something tells me he will have a love/hate relationship with these photos someday.

We got a lot of sweet photos of both Amy’s belly and the whole family in the nursery….

When Amy was pregnant with Brayden we took this belly photo by her antique piano.

Since then she has raised a baby and taught him a few things about music, including how to play “Twinkle, Twinkle.”  How could she have imagined, back then, that this is what the follow up photo would look like?   And who knows what the next follow up photo might be?

I love this picture.  If I had to give it a title, it would be, “Here We Go Again!”

Brayden got a kitchen set for Christmas and made me some breakfast since it was a morning shoot.   What a sweet kid!

Here’s a slideshow and the online gallery too.  I’m waiting for some good news any day now, I’m looking forward to meeting Reese very soon!

Posted by Mel @ 8:05 pm, in Bellies, Portraits, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink