Since shooting weddings has slowed down a bit for me this winter I have had time to take on other photography adventures. I don’t discriminate when it comes to photographing, I just love doing it! The March-November months is mostly filled up with weddings and so I am so psyched about photographing people and their new children! Most of you who know me are like, wut?! Kids?! Well, since photographing Charley’s kids back in 2009 I’ve decided that I love other people’s kids! Especially photographing them.

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.

Carra the sheeb has been an excellent big sister. She had a bit of a rough start with the new addition to the family, but I think that is definitely understandable.

I’ve thought long and hard about what I was going to write to accompany these photos because I really don’t want you to get the wrong idea. Being in the wedding photography business, it can feel like everyone is over the top in love with Valentine’s Day. I see blog posts covered in pink and red, couples giving each other shiny presents and being “in love” in front of the camera in tribute to this “holiday”.

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

Sorry I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks! I have been working on a couple of wicked awesome projects that will surely bring some exciting new posts. I can’t wait for you to see!

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 wanted to do an end of year post that is more about the year to come rather than the year that has just passed. As far as my photography business goes, 2009 was about getting it started. I have wanted to be a photographer since I can remember holding my mother’s minolta as she showed me how to use it at 6 years old. Now, at 27, I have decided to try even harder than ever to pursue my love of the art form and I started my own photography business in October of this year. So, you could say I am fairly new to this world. All I know is that I love photography and love taking photographs of people and getting to know their story. It sounds cliche to say “everyone has a story to tell”, but it’s true.

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