Perreault Family

Carla was referred to me by one of my work buddies which I really appreciate! {Thanks Derra!}  Carla is celebrating her birthday today and with her family in town she thought a family photo shoot would be a great birthday present and I couldn't agree more!

To be honest, last night when Carla emailed me a few last minute questions about who would be at the shoot I got a little nervous. Since I've never done a shoot with so many people I wasn't sure what to expect especially since most photographers frown upon it. In total there were 5 adults {herself, her sister and her 3 kids} with the 3 littles (all under 3) BUT it couldn't have worked out more perfectly! Everyone was so helpful and willing to pitch in. Daniel wins the MVP award! He was carrying babies, lugging props, sliding, running after, tickling, moving props, straightening headbands and dresses, and washing sandy feet! I loved having a big group and it really made my job a lot easier so I could focus more on the photos and less on everything else!

Carla is the proud mama of 4, Sarah and Nicole who are the oldest and twins, James, who wasn't able to be with us today and Daniel, the baby! Carla has also been blessed with 3 grandbabies!

Sarah is the beautiful mama of Lily who was having no parts in picture taking today! Lily wanted to play, play, play and we bribed her with some water time! She was most smiley when Uncle Dan was chasing her on the beach! 

Nicole is the lovely mommy of Noah and is expecting her 2nd later this year. Noah is a doll baby with his blue eyes and little cheeks!!!

Daniel is the proud new daddy of Rosalie, his first little bundle of joy. Rosalie was the most cooperative of the bunch. There were no tears and not even any fussing. She was happy to be outdoors with her daddy, big cousins, grandma and aunts for the morning! 

Getting three littles 2 and under to all look at the camera and smile is nearly impossible no matter how many adults are standing around, jumping, singing, dancing, making noises, clapping, blowing bubbles and everything else short of standing on their heads!

Lily tried to avoid the camera all morning and would not give up a smile, until Uncle Dan chased her around the beach! 

Noah was happy once barefoot and with snacks or his fingers in his mouth! He loved my soft blanket. I have a feeling if we would've left him alone much longer he might have been fast asleep on this cozy throw. Nicole & her family arrived from CT late last night so a wake up call at 7:00am was too early for this little man. 

Sweet little Rosalie just wanted to be snuggled. She wasn't so sure about being alone on the ground but was happy in anyones arms or when her cousins were near her! 

It was such a pleasure to meet this family! Carla was the cutest mama and grandma and the love she has for her kids and grandkids was so sweet. She even got a bit teary thinking of them all being together and I am such a softie for this kind of stuff. Happy Birthday Carla! I hope you treasure these images for years to come! We had a great morning!  Although we don't have puffy clouds and bright blue skies the rain held off and we only had a few raindrops. We ended our morning on the "beach" area. No family photo shoot is complete without a full blown meltdown from one little, luckily we finished up just in time before the tears really started to fall.

I hope you enjoy the slide show!

The Holmes Family

Today I had the pleasure of meeting and photographing the Holmes Family. Monica and Stuart are celebrating their 2 year wedding anniversary today and Junelle turned 2 months so it was a perfect day for a photo shoot. The weather was gorgeous again {very low humidity and mild summer temps} and we shot in their back yard! I immediately fell in love with their yard and a gorgeous tire swing {I know maybe tire swings aren't typically described as gorgeous but my artist eye loved the look of it}. The lighting couldn't have been more perfect and Junelle was such a trooper and didn't fuss much at all.

There are so many things I love about photography and this short journey has already been amazing. I really love meeting new people and getting to know them during our time together. I always hope to make people feel relaxed and comfortable so they are at their best in front of my lens. I know I've said it before a thousand times but one of my favorite parts of photography is watching families interact with each other. Some of my best captures are the ones that are unposed, unthought out, and a family really being caught in a moment! 

Monica and Stuart were so genuine and such a loving couple. They are adjusting well to parenthood and life with a newborn. Monica is a teacher {we have that in common} and her husband Stuart is a pilot. I loved chatting with them about work, family, photography, pets and their new life as parents to sweet Junelle. Junelle was named after Stuart's grandma and her middle name, Luree is after Monica's aunt. Isn't it a beautiful name, Junelle Luree?! Whether they call her by her full name, June or Junebug she is a doll baby and was a gorgeous little model this morning.

Monica and Stuart will be celebrating their anniversary tonight sans baby by going out to dinner (a true delight for new parents)! They had already exchanged gifts and Stuart wasted no time in busting out Monica's present, a new camera! Yes, you read that right he got out HER camera, the gift he gave to her :)! Since he is gone for days at a time with work she wanted to be able to capture every moment so daddy wouldn't miss things while he was away. Stuart was really interested in learning how to use the camera in manuel mode so he experienced Jones Photog 101! I gave him a quick lesson in ISO, aperture, shutter speed and all things photography haha. Mommy is going to put it on P and snap away! 

Sandy and Sophie joined us for some shots. Stuart and Monica rescued these two beautiful ladies in April, when Monica was 7 months pregnant! They were dropped off at the shelter together and Stuart couldn't separate them so of course he thought it would be a great idea to adopt two dogs. Monica wasn't so sure about the idea at first considering they would soon have a newborn and two dogs. They have fallen in love with the dogs and already have funny stories to share like how they race downstairs at night to fight over a chair {when there is a perfectly good love seat too}. The girls had huge separation anxiety at first and insisted on being together at all times even though Monica tried walking them separately, ya know that whole pregnant thing? Sandy is a bit sneaky and made off with a blanket and chalk board during our shoot. She also is enjoys opening packages, like daddy's anniversary present that was delivered while they weren't home. {OOPS!} 

It was such a great morning meeting this wonderful couple, their beautiful baby girl and their fur babies. I've had such a hard time picking favorite for Facebook and my blog and as I keep going back to 200+ images this one stuck out. I am laughing OUT loud at her expression. Google image search "tough baby" and I think you have her true love! If you were captioning this photo what would it say?! I say, "You want a piece of ME?"

ENJOY the slide show!

Meet Sweet Emily

Meet Emily! She is 3 months old, absolutely gorgeous and has stunning blue eyes. It was impossible to get a bad shot of her (which is why it is 12:26 and I am still playing in LightRoom, drooling over the images and writing this blog post)! I have it narrowed down from 399 photos to 171. I don't know how I will ever choose {favorites}.

My friend Christine has been watching sweet Emily since the beginning of summer! Christine is good friends with Kelly, Emily's mommy. Kelly and her family are moving at the end of the week and as a surprise going away gift Christine asked me to do a 3 month photo shoot for sweet Emily. Isn't that the best gift idea ever? Remember when I said Christine is thoughtful, true story! Since they are moving on Saturday we had to work fast so we snuck some photos today. Christine was sneaky and told Kelly that she wanted to practice with her camera and asked her to pack a few extra outfits. I toted along my trunk full of blankets, buckets, boxes and other props and we created our own studio in Christine's home (you should have seen the mess we created). I am much more comfortable shooting in natural light but the summer heat and humidity have arrived here in Northern Virginia so we opted to stay indoors. I quickly began scouting the house for a location and Christine suggested a spare bedroom upstairs that had FABULOUS light pouring in the windows. Today was the day I fell in love with my 50mm f/1.8 lens. I have been waiting for this moment since everyone raves about this lens and today was the day! It was amazing and perfect for shooting Miss Emily. Emily was an awesome little model despite peeing all over everything {OOPS! Who knew taking a baby's diaper off for a few minutes would cause the water works to flow freely?} I mean seriously, how much can a 20 lb. baby pee? We got a good laugh out of it and some cute little bare bottom shots. Christine was an amazing assistant and I couldn't have done it without her help. She was propping, poking, singing, fixing backgrounds, adjusting headbands and hats, wiping spit up, and soothing Emily when she had had enough. I had a wonderful time and the whole morning and afternoon got away from us.

Here are 50 of my favorites!