Meet Anna and Steve. I am not even sure if they know this about themselves but they were the first couple to officially hire me for 2010 back in October of last year. I know most of you know that I am in my first year of business, so this first official wedding client is very special to me. It’s only fitting that their wedding is currently my last wedding of the season alll the way in November. As a *huge* dog lover, I was so excited to know they were going to be bringing their furry friends to the shoot.

This first image is my absolute favorite!

© Alexandra Roberts Photography

The couple met while working in the John Hancock building in Back Bay, so we started out around there.

© Alexandra Roberts Photography

© Alexandra Roberts Photography

© Alexandra Roberts Photography

I of course saw this tree and it was talking to me, so you know what that means!

© Alexandra Roberts Photography

I am so excited for them and their wedding this November! I am hoping the dogs get to join in the celebration.

xoxo

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

It’s been a while since I’ve had a free weekend with no photo shoots and decided to take it easy, it is *freezing* here after all! We have dog walkers who take Emma to “the fells” every mon/weds/fri and when we asked where it is that they go, the directions seemed so simple yet we would always get lost. The place we would end up stopping was beautiful for sure, but we never saw other dogs around. After reading the boston dog blog Fidoloves.com that had a specific map with directions to the spot where people take their dogs, we headed out! There were so many dogs and Emma had a freakin’ blast! Isn’t she the cutest?!

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