Quadruplets plus one!

Today I had the absolutely delightful experience of a portrait session with a set of quadruplets and their little sister Abby. The kids were so much fun, and had me laughing most of the session. They are home schooled and we were having such a great time doing pictures indoors that their mom decided to let them have the day off from school. You can just imagine how disappointed they were at that announcement! I had to do some group pictures for the LEAP pre-school at my church, of which Abby is a part, so we began the session indoors with a backdrop. I left the foot for my flash at home so I couldn’t use it with my zumbrella. Fortunately there was a tremendous amount of natural light coming in the windows behind me, and it was quite beautiful actually. I was so pleased with the pictures I was getting I asked their mom, Maria if she wanted to take them to Rollins park just down the street to do more photos in a more natural setting, and she was all for it. The kids never tired of getting their pictures taken and I probably could have stayed with them another 2 hours if I had the time! They certainly made my first experience with quadruplets a blast, and I am looking forward to doing other sessions with them in the future!

Kara and Chelsea Senior Session

Yesterday I had the pleasure of doing Kara and Chelsea’s senior photos. Kara had to be rescheduled at least 3 times due to either inclement weather or illness. I think it was for the best as yesterday was another beautiful fall day. It was more like spring actually with temps in the 60’s. Our original plan was to go to downtown Concord and do an urban session, but Kara’s folks have a great piece of property with a variety of settings and the light was just fantastic yesterday too! I have been friend’s with Kara’s parents for 25 years! I don’t know how time flies so fast! The girls were an absolute delight to photograph yesterday, they were game for anything, and they knew how to work the camera. I particularly loved their “fierce” look, and Tyra would be proud! These 2 kept me laughing the whole time with their antics, my biggest problem with this session is the amount of pictures I took and how to get them down to a manageable number since there are so many great ones to choose from. Enjoy these 2 delightful young ladies! Larger gallery on my fanpage

Turner Family Session

I met up with Chris, Kristi, Emma and Jake at Greeley Park in Nashua today. The last time I saw Kristi she was probably Emma’s age! The family just moved back from AZ and facebook reconnected us. Its an amazing thing. I always enjoy doing family sessions because no matter how tense or uncomfortable the adults may be when getting ready to have their portraits done, you can always count on the kids to loosen things up a bit. Jake was in rare form today from what I gather and helped to liven up things a bit. Emma looks like her mom did all those years ago.(we won’t say how many years ago!) Bigger gallery on my fanpage

Brent-Senior Session

Last week before I left for New Orleans I had the pleasure of doing Brent’s senior photos. He was a great subject, very easy to work with, pretty comfortable in front of the camera and was willing to try any crazy stuff I could come up with(his words!) Unfortunately I couldn’t think of any crazy stuff, but I know I have a willing subject for when I do! We wandered around the downtown Concord NH area and found some great spots. I really enjoy the urban setting of a city, no matter how large or small, and if you are unfamiliar with NH, Concord is not that big! Brent is a huge soccer fan, and plays goalie for Trinity Christian School. Enjoy your sneek peek, a larger gallery can be found on my fanpage.

Scarlett Lillian and Stephen Knuth

I spent this past week in New Orleans for Pictage’s Partner Con. It was a great week of workshops and talks by some of the top wedding photographers in the country, if not in the world. It was definitely information overload for me! I felt like a kid meeting some of my favorite photographers. I had a special thrill finally meeting Scarlett Lillian. We have been email buddies for awhile now, and she really puts herself out there on her blog, so I felt like I knew her even without meeting her. Needless to say I never thought I would actually get her in front of my camera for a portrait session! Scarlett, her boyfriend Stephen Knuth, and my new friend Susan from Partner Con all hopped on the Charles Street Trolley and rode it til we found a neat park that looked like a good spot. It had beautiful light and water, and it seemed to be the golden hour for nice warm light! The park was right across the street from Loyola University. It seems to get dark fast in New Orleans, but we were able to shoot for about an hour or so. Its great having subjects that are not camera shy and in Scarlett’s case, can embrace her inner diva! Fun stuff, here are just a few of my favorites! larger gallery on my fanpage.

New Orleans day 3

Got up quite early on Weds. morning to explore the city in the daylight since the first session of PartnerCon wasn’t til 8am. I met up with my friend Susan again at 6am and we headed down Royal street towards the water. The golden early morning light is beautiful. I met a cameraman filming some stuff for a new reality series based in New Orleans and chatted with him for awhile. It seems he worked on Survivor for 2 years, which I thought was pretty cool. nice guy. Just behind Cafe Du Monde is the Moonwalk, and there were a lot of marines doing their running drills down the boardwalk with packs on. I felt safe needless to say. And proud to be an American. We had breakfast at some hole in the wall, which wasn’t anything spectacular, but I did get to experience grits, and once I put butter and sugar on them, they were actually quite tasty. After about an hour and a half it was time to head back to Canal street and begin a day of workshops. Joe Buissink had a powerful and passionate presentation. He had many in tears with his words and his images. His work is full of emotion and the special moments of the wedding day and is just jaw dropping too. He has quite an interesting life story too. very touching. We then got to hear Zach and Jody Gray, and I can see why this husband and wife team is so successful. They have real charisma and work well together, and their humor was infectious. A lovely Christian couple to boot, and they are completely debt free thanks to Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover! They had one of my favorite sessions of the week and it was fun running into them later in the evening during a street corner concert consisting of an 8 man brass group! It was the one time I left my camera in the hotel room, so I have no pictures of them. One of the highlights of my day was getting to spend the afternoon with Scarlett Lillian and Stephen Knuth. We hopped on the Charles street trolley and started riding it and found a great park and did a very fun photo session along with my friend Susan. The ride back was also a blast as we had quite the colorful trolley driver, and we even had a newly married couple hop on, so I asked if I could do just a few pictures. Day 3 was an extremely fun day. One day left and its going to be a fast one as my plane leaves at 2pm to head back to NH. Looking forward to a shooting workshop this morning though. I have learned so much and it has been a thrill to sit and listen to some of my favorite wedding photographers. I have been truly inspired and moved, and learned a lot. I have forged some new friendships, and getting to meet some of these icons has been a real thrill for me. Partner Con returns to New Orleans again next year, so I am already planning on a return trip! Bigger gallery here.

New Orleans Day 1 and 2

I arrived in New Orleans on Monday to attend my very first PartnerCon with Pictage. It is 3 days of workshops with some of the top photographers in the world, and this year it is in New Orleans. I arrived yesterday about 4pm, and it was fairly uneventful except for not being able to check in for a few hours. It seems the Atlanta Falcons were staying at the hotel and didn’t check out til 5pm! Needless to say that left the cleaning crew having to scramble to clean 280 rooms while lots of irate people were waiting in line to check in! I am staying at an amazing hotel the JM Marriot, and they gave me a 50.00 room credit, and brought me up Haagan Daz Ice cream last night and a bottle of Merlot which I sent back as I don’t drink. A few minutes later I was brought up some chocolate too! Today started off with an amazing breakfast consisting of cajun salmon, belgium waffles with fresh strawberries, scrambled eggs, has browns and fresh OJ. delicious. I went to some great workshops today with Scarlett Lillian(one of my favorite wedding photogs), Mike Colon, and Denis Reggie-the father of wedding photojournalism. I then met up with my friend Susan whom I met on the airport shuttle on monday and wandered the streets of New Orleans for about 4 hours. Its an amazing city. We went over to Cafe Du Monde, and then worked our way down Bourbon street where we wandered into a little hole in the wall and heard an amazing Jazz quintet. They were fantastic to say the least. The buildings in New Orleans are very unique and the architecture is really interesting. It’s quite a place to wander around and take photos. Here are a few of my favorites from day 2. Bigger gallery here

Maguire Family session

Today I had the pleasure of photographing Joe and Beth and their adorable little girl Mila, in Westford Mass. I remember when Beth was born, but hadn’t seen her since she was a little girl. Today’s session was a gift from her brother Nick and his wife Deirdre. I did their wedding back in Oct. Today was another great fall New England day. It wasn’t quite as warm as yesterday, but it is Nov. after all! We did these at a bird sanctuary, as Joe grew up in this area, and this place was very special to him. I loved the setting and the light was fabulous. The path you see us on was actually a railroad track at one time. I am sure it had to be a very long time ago, and the bridge is in the middle of no where in the woods! I had an enjoyable time with the family, and Mila was a real trooper for about the first hour. The thing to remember when taking portraits is to go with the flow and NEVER force a child to be in a shot that is going to cause them to melt down further. I also don’t necessarily believe a child, or anyone for that matter, has to be smiling all the time in every picture. That doesn’t always convey a person’s true personality. I love capturing little ones in their natural state, even if they are unhappy. It always makes for some great photos. I love capturing the real emotion of the moment. Fortunately Mila really did last for about 95% of the session, before she was all done! I was glad to find a future portrait spot, and will definitely be revisiting it again with another subject.

Jenny-Portrait of a Photographer pt 2

Today I had a portrait session in beautiful and historic Newburyport Mass. Such a beautiful location to do a session. Jenny is a fellow photographer and she also makes a most beautiful subject for portraits. I think she may have a future in front of the camera! We had some ideas for this shoot a while back and weren’t sure if the weather was going to be too cold or not. We could not have asked for a more beautiful fall day, more like summer actually! It was almost 70 degrees and humid! We did photos around the downtown area for about an hour or so, and then headed over to the Plum Island Reserve. The light was absolutely perfect. Almost magical. And that coupled with a fantastic model really made for some fantastic pictures. When doing portraits you really want to capture your subject’s true personality, and it always helps when photographer and subject are comfortable with each other. The more relaxed your subject is, the more natural they will appear in their photos. Jenny hit her stride once we got to the beach. She loves the ocean and the beach, and of course being barefoot, so she began working her magic in no time! She was a real trooper too, as the wind was just really blowing the whole time. We were able to use it to our advantage most of the afternoon, and I have to say I am extremely pleased with our collaboration. I am looking forward to more sessions in the future! You can see a larger sneek on my facebook.

Rachel-Downtown Portrait Session

Rachel is a friend of mine from Fitness Bootcamp in Epsom NH. She is also ironically in the military. She did a little modeling when she was younger and wanted to do a portrait session as a gift to her husband. She loved the chance to get all dolled up, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to do something just a little bit different portrait wise. The downtown Concord area is a great place to do a portrait session, lots of walls, textures, and nooks and crannies. Its a fun place to explore and make use of, and is quickly becoming one of my favorite locations to take a subject. Here is just a little sneek peek of our session. A larger sneek can be found on my facebook