I walked into Caitlin and Kerry’s lovely home and was shocked to see garland strung up the stairs, stockings hanging from the fireplace and a Christmas tree seated prominently in the window and fully trimmed.  What a sec, you have a two week old baby and you put up Christmas decorations?  Moms everywhere know that’s no small feat and I didn’t know whether to accuse Caitlin of being an overachiever or feel like a slacker.

Baby Jackson was such a perfect little subject, happy to doze for sleepy baby shots and captivated by his parents’ faces whenever he was awake.  Caitlin and Kerry were equally captivated by his sweetness, these three people are in love…

Catilin’s mom made the valence, crib set and crib quilt in the nursery by hand.  What crib would be complete without a little college rivalry?   Caitlin and I agreed that the Longhorn mobile sings, “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” while Kerry argues that its the Texas fight song.  What do we Virginians know?

We took a couple holiday pictures too.  After all, Christmas in its origins is about a baby boy.  I don’t know what I said to make Kerry laugh but I love this shot:

Congratulations to Caitlin and Kerry on their greatest gift of the season.  Enjoy this slideshow and here’s the online gallery too.  I’m so excited to photograph this little guy as he grows!

Posted by Mel @ 6:22 pm, in Newborns, Portraits, Wee Ones | 1 comment | Permalink

I love shooting but designing might be my favorite part of the job.  Maybe its the chance to pour over all the old memories again, maybe its the challenge of visual story telling, or maybe its the freedom to get out of the office and sit in a busy coffee shop with a lap top and a latte and just let the world buzz around me while I play with pictures.  Baby books are especially fun since there’s so much creative latitude: we can easily add text, quotes, or other memories to augment photos if we want to.  Catherine and John decided they wanted to keep the book straightforward and all about the photos and it worked out lovely.  Sometimes photos say it all.

The book was designed around 5 different sessions that we did with Caroline ranging from two weeks of age to sixteen months.  The family chose a Paris style Museum Art Book for Caroline.  The formidable 14″x10″size of the book allows photos to be large and powerful in a way they can’t be online.  100 pages of design space is luxurious, giving me plenty of room to play with sequence and rhythm without having to rush or crunch.  The Paris style book is a modern choice that comes with a printed vellum dustjacket as well as printed end pages for a finished, classic touch.

Next the family chose linen paper for the printing and binding: a heavy stock, textured paper that renders soft color and a dreamy feel.  If you look at the foreground of this photo you can see the subtle, linear texture of the linen paper.

I love how the book itself can really bring a sequence to life.  The computer preview of the following layout is flat but, as a book, the open doors of the playhouse make “big” Caroline appear to pop right off the page!

I love making favorite photos extend in a panorama across pages, making a super detailed print size of 14×20!  This was one of my favorites shots:

And one of Catherine’s favs.  She loves remembering that Caroline was only 3 months old when she insisted on holding a bottle by herself!

I’m looking forward to making another book for Caroline’s baby brother Michael but I won’t rush him through his sweet babyness.  I’ve got plenty of design work on my plate so I will patiently wait.

Here are a few more shots and if you would like to see the entire layout preview, click here…

Posted by Mel @ 7:22 pm, in Newborns, Portraits, Uncategorized, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink

On July 7th of this year, Caroline became a big sister when Michael Joseph Boehling joined the world weighing eight pounds, one ounce.  I have been so excited to shoot these two together, Caroline is ridiculously happy about the new arrival.

The love that a 3 year old has for a newborn sibling is a precarious kind of love, one so innocent that you hate ruining it with the constant utterance of “gently” and “softly” but energetic enough to require a few boundaries.  Some kids want nothing to do with their baby sibs but Sweet Caroline was all over him like a like a fly on honey, there are some really sweet moments here.

I’m not sure if this reaction in Michael is shared enthusiasm or primal fear but I love the shot anyway…

Caroline is definitely Momma’s little helper:

Sam and I went a little gung-ho on the creation of Fiver’s nursery, we made sculptures and murals for Pete’s sake, so I worry that when the times comes for #2 that we’ll lack the energy to prepare with the same amount of creative zeal.  Will we even paint the room or will we just shove a crib in a corner and call it a day?  Catherine gave me great hope though, Michael’s nursery is every bit the visual wonderland as his sister’s.  Like their first pregnancy, Catherine and John chose to be surprised by the baby’s sex and choose a theme of circus animals, perfect for a little boy or girl, which organically expanded to include creatures of all types… even garden gnomes!  The pale, citrusy lemon-lime  wall color and bright green accents are perky and inviting.

While I was shooting the nursery Caroline found her vintage Fischer Price camera and we dueled.  I am especially in love with the b/w shot of Caroline, Jr. Photographer:

Auntie Carolyn likes to tell everyone that she is a novice knitter when she is actually a pro, she kind of blew her cover with the myriad of adorable knitted gifts she dropped on our doorstep for Fiver over the past year.  I loved this happy green blankie she made for her nephew over the weeks since he has been born, she finished it just in time for our shoot.  I just love babies snugging up to their handmade gifts…

I’ve often wondered what life would look like with two youngsters in it and this shoot gave me a pretty good taste.  I’m sure that its hectic and in moments very challenging but there’s never a dull moment.  In short, it looked pretty good!

Here’s a slideshow with my favs from the day and if you would like to see the online gallery with all the photos, click here.  Congratulations to the Boehling family, I look forward to watching them grow together.

Posted by Mel @ 4:39 pm, in Newborns, Portraits, Wee Ones | No comments | Permalink

Time is flying because I just realized that Baby Milo was born a month ago today, prompting me to get my act together and share photos from Day #1 like I promised I would.  It was a stealthy 10 minute visit to the hospital the afternoon of his birth, just enough time to congratulate our dear friends, oogle over Milo’s preciousness and duck out as Grandma Sue arrived.  Predictably I did more oogling than Sam but we both had to agree that Milo was one gorgeous kid.  Olivia looked nothing short of amazing, the woman makes a hospital gown look good.  And you can just see Lincoln’s pride.  They say its good to have a doctor and a lawyer in the family but I say its good to have a photographer too.  Congrats once again to Olivia and Lincoln and a very warm welcome to Milo Arthur!

Posted by Mel @ 2:44 pm, in Newborns, Personal, Wee Ones | 1 comment | Permalink