I was in a horrible mood on the car ride over to Cannon’s house.   I can’t even remember what exactly it was that had me down in the dumps and on the verge of tears as I  jammed CD after CD into the player in search of a tune, anything at all that could pull me out my funk and give me the right frame of mind to have a great shoot with a family I adore.  No dice.  Then I walked in and Cannon gave me a big, gummy grin as he beat his chubby legs against his momma in excitement and poof – just like that – I smiled right back at him from the inside out and the funk was finished.  I have decided that a baby smile might just be the best bad mood remedy on the market.

And Cannon is particularly charming, its hard to believe that the tiny little preemie I took photos of when he was 4 weeks old has grown into such a rolly-poly little boy.

Even though Cannon is only 6 months old, he’s already dodging kisses like he’s embarrassed…  You start stealing your kisses from baby boys early on I think.

We drove around in search of green grass unaffected by the brutal summer heat and though it took awhile to find the right spot, Cannon seemed to enjoy exploring grass and dirt like a wee boy should.

We had to play up all Cannon’s cowboy gear.   His cowboy hat is a little big for him still but it was too adorable to pass up, especially while sporting a diaper.

Here’s a slideshow of the shoot, it was a lot of fun for me, and here’s the online gallery too.  And I had to put these up on FB, of course.  Thank you, Cannon, for making my day!

Happy belated Birthday, beautiful Baby Cadence.  I’m so glad that you came along and that you get to grow up right across the street from us, the best is yet to come!

You might guess that its easier to take pictures of family members than clients, at least that’s what I would have guessed, but Sam and I talk often about how its the opposite for us.  We wish we knew why.  Is it knowing too much about someone?  Wanting to say too much about someone?  Are we relying less on instinct with someone we know?  Are we afraid of showing them how we see them?  All of thee above, maybe, but mostly I just can’t maintain a professional self with my family and friends, I become a fit of giggles holding a camera.  But I wanted so badly to take photos of Olivia, good photos, something for her husband and son to remember this time by.  So I asked if I could try.

Olivia’s husband Lincoln has been Sam’s brother since they were nine, blood is a mere technicality.  Lincoln lived with Sam’s family through high school and just about every story Sam tells begins with, “My buddy Lincoln and I….”  When I was first dating Sam, Lincoln was the person in his life that I was the most nervous about meeting for the first time.  So if that gives you any idea how important these folk are in our life, well, you know how difficult this shoot should have been for me because Olivia has become my sister too.

But it wasn’t really that hard.  For one thing, Olivia is gorgeous so that was easy.  And I didn’t have to direct too much, I just kind of watched her be.  We both laughed a lot because it was a little awkward and strange, to play model and photographer for an hour like little girls role playing.  But I’m really glad we did it and I was happy with what I got.

When you pull up to Lincoln and Olivia’s place the driveway winds your car around the cottage like a hug as the sun dances through the trees. Its one of those places that has good energy though I’ll never know if its because it was always there or because Lincoln and Olivia put it there.  I’m slightly obsessed with the shed out back and the barrel rings that hang on the side, rough with rust but round like a baby bump.  The garden was feeling a little too cliche but I liked the tomato shots anyway.  The daisy shots were my favorite though because they were the most Olivia to me.

I worked on this edit yesterday while Olivia labored with Milo Arthur, who joined our world at 11:57 weighing 7 lbs, 11oz.  I’m so tempted to share photos we took at the hospital yesterday but I think they should be the first to post pictures when they can.  So stay tuned for those, we’re just so thrilled to have Baby Milo here.  Something tells me that an adult Fiver will start a lot of stories with, “My buddy Milo and I….”

On May 17th, Jasper’s family welcomed her baby sister, Amanda Reece.  Sweet Baby Reece was just four weeks old when I took these shots of the family together.

This shot cracks me up.

Don’t let it fool you though, Jasper has a surprisingly positive attitude about her baby sis.  She always calls Reece by her name, she never refers to her as “the baby” or anything else, just “Reece”.  Which is pretty thoughtful, if you ask me.  And she gives quick kisses and hugs, if you can catch her in the act.

Getting into a chair is a little harder than it looks when you are Jasper’s size.  Pretty cute for photos, though!

Jasper is all about sharing, I love this shot where she shares one of her favorite story books with her little sister.

Baby Reece is surprisingly expressive for such a wee thing, I love it…

Congratulations to Joy and Reggie on another beautiful little girl!   Here’s a slideshow from the session and if you would like to see the online gallery, click here.

Kelly and Tyler’s wedding brought us back to the beautiful University of Virginia campus in the mountain town of Charlottesville, Virginia.  It was a memorable Saturday for lots of reasons: the USA was playing Ghana in the World Cup and a massive storm with hurricane winds had blown through town just a couple days before, wiping out trees and power lines in its wake.  It’s as if storms like to follow the Walk boys to their weddings only to jump ship after the rehearsal, we remember the storm that hit Williamburg the day before Tyler’s brother Mitch’s wedding to Beth a few years back.  We heard that the power had not returned in time for Kelly and Tyler’s rehearsal dinner on Friday night but that the chef figured out a way to grill the entire meal… and nailed it!   How’s that for Dinner Impossible?  Sam and I didn’t have any such weather related professional challenges, the sunshine was happy to help us out.  And if the prospect of power outages had either Kelly or Tyler worried the day of the wedding no one would be the wiser… they were all smiles from day into night, as you can see.  Our job is a piece of cake in any weather when we work with a couple as easy going as Kelly and Tyler.

The wedding colors were a cheery combination of peach and pink, summery and bright.  I asked Beth to order one of the house martinis for me to photograph, a yummy looking ice tea martini with fresh peach.  It doesn’t get much more summery sweet than that!

A big congrats to Kelly and Tyler on such a fantastic wedding… we’re so thankful that we got to be a part of it.  Here’s a slideshow of our favorite shots from the day and click here if you would like to be notified by email when the online gallery is available for viewing.  Congrats again!

We are so fortunate to shoot for so many brides and grooms who are beautiful people like that.

When Sestra Bridal got in touch to ask if we would share photos for their blog, that Jennifer had wanted to share her story I thought: how Jenn is that?  Of course she would take time out of her super busy day to offer a recommendation for a vendor she had a great experience with, she’s just that kind of gal.   So check out Jennifer’s story on the Sestra Bridal blog.  Congrats to Sestra for a job well done and congrats to  Jenn and Tim on this first, beautiful year of marriage they have enjoyed together.

As I edited these photos of beautiful Baby Preston I found myself thinking a lot about Anne Geddes.  I’m not a snarky person, I’m not into negative campaigns and I really believe there’s room for everything in the world of photography.  I just don’t….get it.  Clearly she’s more successful as than me by a factor of a bazillion: much more technically accomplished than myself and a bazillion times more wealthy.   Clearly the majority of this country relates to her vision of babies, hence her fame.  But I’ve never once looked a photo of a baby dressed up like a fruit or flower or animal or hanging precariously from a sheer sac like an abstract womb and thought, aw, how cute.  My reactions have been more along the lines of, where’s that kid’s mother?

Do we have to reach for ways to make babies more photogenic?  Can you make a baby as perfect as Preston Lee look more beautiful than this?

Its not just Anne Geddes.  Go on Etsy and you can buy a hand crocheted sac to hang your baby from or fluffy basket stuffing for pro photo sessions.  Many of you know I’m big into the handmade movement so I’m not dogging these crafters or enterprising photographers offering such products, they are making something the people want.  But to me, there’s something special about photographing a baby with something they already own: something handmade for them with love by a friend or relative to keep that baby warm rather than made for the sole purpose of a picture.  Something you will hand down to that child as an heirloom when they are grown and expecting their own child.  I know there are babies that don’t have such things.  Preston is a lucky boy to have so many lovely handmade things for me to choose from…

Or the simplicity of photographing babies where they truly belong, in loving arms.  I love how tightly Craig cradles his tiny boy, its one of the lovely “tells” of a new dad.   10 bucks says that by the time I return he’ll be throwing Preston 3 feet in the air, making Natalie crazy…

Does dressing a newborn baby to look like something found in nature speak to their innocence or cheapen it?  It might be like putting a scoop of ice cream on ice cream cake (which, I can admit, is something I have been known to do).  I love the process of photographing parents being parents, watching them bask in the wonder of this amazing little person who somehow managed to grab the helm and change the course.  You can see that Preston isn’t just loved by Natalie and Craig, he belongs to them.  And that is far more beautiful than anything I could dream up in a studio or stage for the camera.

I know it might bother Natalie, now, that the ever recognizable, standard issue hospital receiving blanket is so visible in this shot.  But it might be different later.  Every time I see that blanket, belonging either to my son or another baby, I zoom through a wormhole back through time to Fiver’s birth.  I don’t know if there is another object that has the effect of that ubiquitous blue and pink striped blanket on me.

I was pleased to see that the family message board still had a welcome home greeting written on it.  I just had to take advantage of that….

I loved the very act of shooting these photos.  If there’s something I’m certain Anne Geddes and I would both agree on, its that new babies are fascinatingly beautiful creatures.  I wish that these pictures had the capability to play the sleepy baby sighs that accompanied us as we moved through the house, in and out of light.  The only sound better than Preston’s sleepy sighs will be his laugh, a sound that’s yet to come.

Here’s a slideshow of the session and if you would like to view the online gallery, click here.  Congratulations, Natalie and Craig, on such a beautiful baby boy  and thank you once again for inviting me into your home to document this time for your family.  Already I can’t wait for our next shoot…

Whoa.  My very first “First Year Documentary” baby isn’t a baby anymore… not even close!  She has grown into a beautiful, bounding, curly haired girl.  I can still see the baby face but she’s just so…. growing up!  As Dick and Jane would say, LOOK:

We thought it would be fun to go to the Richmond Zoo to begin our shoot so I met Tricia, Camille and Dorothy the doll there.  I can admit that, growing up in the DC area near the National Zoo, I was expecting our local zoo to be kind of lame: a goat tethered to a rope or something.  Maybe some geese.  But I was actually impressed, our zoo is pretty cool!  I’ve never fed giraffes before and let me tell ya, Gene Simmons has nothing on these guys:

Its been the summer of the peacock.  I lived in India for almost a year and not one peacock sighting.  And then, within one week here here in Virginia, I’ve had two close encounters of the flamboyant bird kind between Logan and Joey’s wedding and this puffed up male who was just cruising around for… chicks?  As I turned my lens he came right at me for his close up… and I wondered for a moment if peacocks were attack birds.  I was assured he was just flirting but Camille wasn’t so sure about the peacocks either.

Or the budgies.  We had a budgie stick with honey and birdseed so we were expecting small visitors with busy beaks but its still a little strange.

Hmm… so far this post seems to suggest that we took a little girl to the zoo to torture her with a succession of traumatic, wild animal advances but I promise you that Camille really did have a good time.   The skyride over the park was definitely a big hit.

After the zoo we went home so Camille could show me her “big girl room”.  Her new room has many of the elements of the original nursery but with a new piece de resistance: a great big bed in the middle that is so much fun to jump on…

Something about life imitating art?  I did nothing to coax this photo and it makes me laugh, especially with that plastic broom: Camille is clearly the master of her little girl domestic domain.  I’ve known Tricia and Patrick a long time now so I felt like I could be my true inappropriate self and joked that we should put a beach ball up her dress so she could be barefoot, pregnant and sweeping her kitchen while feeding her children.   Using our better judgement, we refrained.

Camille did have some motherly advice for me anyway.  She told me that if a baby is crying, you should burp it to make it stop and then she showed me how.  Thanks, girl, I need all the help I can get!

I’m feeling multiple photo displays when it comes to this session.  Maybe its because Camille moves so fast, single photos just aren’t summing her up for me.

We even had a chance to update the family picture.  After I left, Tricia told me that Camille asked when I was coming back.  Soon, I hope!  An announcement was made since our shoot that another family member is on the way.  Woot!  Camille is going to be the greatest big sis….

Here’s a slideshow and click here to see the online gallery, I’m so excited about the big news!  And a great, big Happy Father’s Day to Patrick and all our WP superstar dads!

I feel like this post needs a drum roll!  We know that many of you out there have been patiently, patiently waiting for this one and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, we really do.  We’re hoping these photos come just in time to greet the happy couple back from their honeymoon.

Jenn and Kyle are, in a word, awesome.  We’ve really enjoyed getting to know them over the course of the past year: crazy fun, super sweet… not to mention we always have a soft spot for couples who love their dogs (aka children with fur) as much as we do.  We were so happy to see Ellie again, sporting her wedding garland and awaiting her newly “official” parents to exit the church.  Sam nestled dog treats into the lens hood of his super wide to get her attention!

I meant to ask when I saw this… Did Ellie help Kyle pop the question?

The ceremony took place at the Chapel at the University of Richmond.  It was as if God cued up the lights just as the ceremony began, how amazing is the sun coming through the stained glass?  I wish we could make this kind of light happen at every wedding but all we can do is exploit it when it does…

The reception took place at the Jefferson Hotel, the icing on the cake of a classic Richmond wedding and Lariza of Detail by Detail did an amazing job making sure the event ran without a hitch.  The Empire Room was dressed in blue uplights and spotlighting to create a wonderland for dinner and dancing.   We’re always amazed at what a difference professional lighting makes when it comes to creating atmosphere for a reception.   Not that the Empire Room looks shabby in any light, of course!

We admit that we felt a little self conscious, between ourselves and the videographers it looked more like a movie set than a wedding at times.  So we want to thank Jenn, Kyle and their amazing wedding party for making us feel so welcome throughout the day.  Actually, y’all made us feel like rock stars.  We’re not worthy… but we had a really great time and enjoyed meeting all of you.  (And getting to use the word “gachi”!)  Check out this slideshow with our favs from the day or share the album on Facebook.  Oh, And click here to access the online gallery when it becomes available.  Congrats again, J&K!!!