This is Ashley, Andy and Lila (and Carra!). Ashley calls her “Lila-bean” which makes me happy because I love the word bean. It’s possibly my most favorite word. I went to high school with Ashley and I probably hadn’t seen her since graduation but I have to say, seeing people you went to high school with, with children is something else. They’re people that you were all angsty and teenagery with and it was great to see her in the beginnings of motherhood. She and her husband Andy are great parents and it was such a joy to watch them interact with Lila. This was my youngest shoot, which was followed by my even younger shoot the next day (a 1 mo. old!). I’m loving it! These are just a *few* of the images. I took sooo many and can’t even knock it down under 150 images! Too many cute faces. Plus we had a lot of nekkid bum time, which I have decided won’t go on the website.

But I don’t like Valentine’s Day. There. I said it. And that’s what this shoot is about.

While I was telling someone about my idea for this shoot, they asked me if I was doing this just because I didn’t have anyone to celebrate the holiday with. I thought to myself that people must think they’re supposed to buy expensive gifts for their special someone because someone told them to. We celebrate Valentine’s Day every year by going to Bukowski’s annual “F*** Valentine’s Day” bash in Back Bay. If you haven’t been, you should totally check it out, regardless of how you feel about Valentine’s Day.

I hate how the holiday makes my single friends feel. Nobody likes to feel left out. Yes, everything is what you make of it, but I don’t like seeing how it makes my single friends in their late 20’s feel. And my friends who are in a relationship get stressed out about what they’re going to get their significant other for the holiday. That’s no fun to watch either.

Luckily for me, I found someone who feels the same way I do about V-Day. Just how nice is it really when you wait until some holiday tells you to do something nice? If you do random nice things throughout the year, there’s no reason to have to go all out for V-Day or any other holiday! Maybe I’m just a simple person that enjoys the simpler things in life.  We sprinkle our own special days with love throughout the year and they mean more to me than some day that people are forced to see as “special”. So, Danny, this is my public Valentines Day card to you! xoxo.

I know half of you probably didn’t read the text above. This is after all a photo blog. So on to the photos!

Meet Kate and Sean – they hate Valentine’s Day, too :-p

So relieved that Kate too hates Valentine’s Day, the two enjoy a drink together. This is what love actually looks like, without all the frills of forced holidays. Much nicer

I had such a blast doing this shoot. I had my awesome assistant, Rob, to help me make pompoms the night before and he helped with lighting/prop recovery during the shoot. Thanks Rob!

I’ll leave you with one last shot of this gorgeous couple:

However you celebrate, Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

xoxo

Meanwhile, here are a few photos from a recent shoot on the esplanade that I love.

I love trees. If I am in a hurry and sprinting to make it somewhere on time and I happen to pass an cool gnarled tree, I will most likely stop to gaze at it.

Thank you so much for checking out my images. If you like me, you should tell me so in a comment. If you hate me, you should also tell me in a comment! I love to hear from my readers, it makes my day!

In the next few weeks expect to see an insane photo shoot involving fire and the setting of things on it =) Doesn’t that sound fun? I am also going to have a giveaway, but the details of that are a secret right now! I am going somewhere fantastic to shoot my first destination wedding in just a few months, and I am so excited about it! I can’t wait to share the details of that, either!

Until then, enjoy these pretty people and trees!

xo

I’ve met so many great people in this short time and I am so excited to see what 2010 brings. For me, I want 2010 to be a year of me trying new things, busting out into a whole new world of photography that is currently unfamiliar to me. I kicked off the new year early by getting some friends together and doing just that.

I am typically more of a “natural light” kinda girl but I really wanted to take advantage of the season’s outdoor lights and try a portrait session with some off camera flash. I don’t learn very well from going to workshops and having someone show me how to use my gear or watching video tutorials. I need to go out in the field with some patient friends and just tinker with my camera until I get something I like. I have enough of a photography background where I know my equipment well, but when it comes to new ideas, nobody can teach me how to create what is in my head. That’s up to me!

Thankfully, I do have some really great friends who were willing to stand in the 20 degree weather here in Boston and let me shoot them and a kick-ass boyfriend to hold my light stand. This is Christina and Rob. Rob was one of the first friends I met when I moved to Boston 3 years ago and Christina is his lovely wife. They are from Texas!

Thank you to everyone who has helped me get to where I am today and it goes without saying, but I wouldn’t be here without your help.

xoxo

Once Julie mentioned those matching sweaters and hats I knew they were going to be insanely cute. As they bundled the kids up, I snapped this series of David. I laugh out loud every time I look at it!

They were so easy to work with, too! They didn’t fuss about anything and it was as though they were meant to be in front of the camera because they had what seemed to be an unlimited bank of cute faces.

I know what you’re thinking, “wow these chillins couldn’t be any cuter!” Think again! Here are a few other shots from our shoot.

Thank you for looking!

My brother sent me a link to some of Meredith’s photographs a few months ago because she is a pet photographer and gets great shots of dogs and their owners. Who doesn’t want to spend all day looking at photos of cute dogs? I loved her style and so we started talking through tweets. I know, I know. Meredith and Stacey had already met in person and also initially met online.

It was so so so fun to hang out with other photographers. We met up at the Fells Reservation in Medford, MA. We bring Emma here quite a bit, and it was awesome for her to have some friends to play with this time!

Here is Meredith and Orvis!

© Alexandra Roberts Photography

And Stacey, Brewer, and Bromley!

© Alexandra Roberts Photography

I have a whole new respect for pet photographers.  It’s SO hard!  The pups are never looking where you want them to be looking and are usually distracted by whatever bird or squirrel is passing by.  Both Stacey and Meredith have some great techniques for keeping the dog’s attention that seem to work really well!  Meredith cracked me up so much because me and Emma were posing and I hear her make this sound I can only describe as a “chirp”.  It definitely kept both Emma and my attention.

When you have such beautiful women in front of you, it makes the job easy!  Here are a couple portraits of each of them.

© Alexandra Roberts Photography

© Alexandra Roberts Photography

And here is a shot of the girls hard at work!

© Alexandra Roberts Photography

I hope we do this again and often! For more images from our adventure, head over here.