We love babies. We love shooting babies, we love being around babies, and we'd love to have more babies. But since we only take a limited number of shoots a year, and newborns have to be booked last-minute, our time is usually filled really far out with our engagement shoots and weddings... except for the dead of winter. So, we were ridiculously thrilled when one of our awesomest couples from last summer wanted to get a newborn shoot for their good friends who had their first son, Finn, in January. We headed over yesterday morning for a really rad shoot with Finn and his absolutely awesome parents, Jenn and Nick.

It's an understatement of universal proportions to say that it's a pretty amazing thing to be around a newborn and his new parents. Our little guy is getting older (I'm currently watching him help mandolin-slice homemade potato chips in our kitchen) and I sometimes struggle to remember how heavy and warm the responsibility of being a parent felt, like this huge power had just been handed to me from somewhere to be everything that another life needed me to be. Being around babies reminds me immediately of that feeling and just what an unfathomable gift it is to have a child. I joked with Nick and Jenn about it and I wonder how many other parents felt the same way I did when we put Murphy into our car three years ago for the first time, on our own, to take care of him. ("They're just going to GIVE us our baby? Like, we are in charge now??)

Jenn and Nick are already old pros, though, a few weeks in. Their baby, Finn, gets them and they totally get him. I'm not sure I've ever met more chill, focused parents.

And they're awesome - how many kids are going to get to bring friends over to see the family piranha tank?? Super rad!

I love this one of yours, Rich.

Thank you, hon. I was trying to think of what Nick would always remember from that first month, looking down at his little guy and shoot that, you know? You get so burned out from lack of sleep and how everything has changed and then you look down and hey, everything is fine :).

I couldn't get over how alert Finn is. At four weeks, he'd been awake since before 5 a.m. and was still going strong at our 9 a.m. shoot. We tried to get him to pass out for a few sleeping baby shots, but then Rich was all like, hey! We didn't do any naked baby shots yet, and anyone who's ever had a child knows just about how much newborns in Buffalo in winter like to be naked. So, clearly, he immediately woke up, and was furious. He looked right at me as if I had something to do with waking him from his amazing and wonderful sleep by allowing the cold air to hit his skin, so I pointed at Rich. Totally not my fault, little dude!

Hey - I just know how you are with baby butts, Alyssa. If there is a tiny butt somewhere in your vicinity - it's your favorite thing ever. Finn also has NO problem eating, which is rad for Nick and Jenn. You can tell he'd kindof just like to be eating all the time right now. At one point we got the binky extracted for just a moment - and Finn went for Nick's nose to try and latch. Heart-meltingly adorable.

You guys made an absolutely gorgeous baby.

Heh - yeah, I am completely smitten with baby butts. Heck, I still think Murph's is the cutest thing ever, and he's three. Hopefully, by the time it's no longer cute, he'll also think it's no longer funny to yank his pants down and ask if we can see his butt, so I won't know it's devolved into not cute.

My favorite of yours!

Gah - mini toes. Seriously, babies are so stinkin' cute!

Guys, thank you so much for letting us come over and meet Finn (and Max - Rich swears our next dog is now going to be an American Bulldog. I keep reminding him that Max just could be the world's coolest dog, and it might have nothing to do with the breed, but he's focused!). You guys are awesome, and Finn is so ridiculously cute and sweet. Enjoy this time - it really goes too fast!

We took a little time off from the blog and work last week to head down to Nashville for a convention. Which may be the most lame thing we've ever done - used our couple free days off to go to a wedding photographer's convention. We really are that lame. Anyway, we came back and jumped right back into things with Liza and Christopher. We were supposed to shoot them last year, but as the weather was the worst ever, we had to reschedule a couple times due to rain and decided to go with a winter shoot. So, when we woke up yesterday, and the reports were for 38 and rainy, I thought the weather gods really just hated us. I mean, 38 and rainy in mid-January?!? Luckily, the rain held off, and we got to hang out with Liza and Christopher for a couple hours, and it was SO nice to get back to shooting after our time off!

Photography conventions - kindof lame. Learning a few things that we can apply to take better photos and run a better business to make our clients happier? Kindof awesome. Plus we ate out a bunch and got to see a movie together for the first time in a couple years - so that was pretty awesome, too.

We had a LOT of fun on this shoot, telling stories, talking about dogs (Liza and Chris adopted a golden) and generally having a blast. I love this one the best :)

Thanks! I liked that one (and this next one!) a ton too. I also like that the highlights of our trip were eating out and watching Sherlock Holmes. :) Which was fantastic - I don't know why Robert Downey Jr. wasn't all over action films before Iron Man.

And, with regrets to how protective folks here in the B-LO are of there local cuisine, it's driven us nuts that we haven't been able to hit up a Jack in the Box or Papa John's since we moved here from Kailua. We've been getting on a serious health food kick lately (we bought a grassfed cow, we're eating all organic and raw as much as possible and the pajamas Alyssa are wearing smell suspiciously like patchouli - if I hear a phish bootleg pop up on iTunes, we may rethink this.)

Yeah, Papa John's was a MAJOR win! But, not as big a win as getting to shoot Liza and Christopher! ... What? Too cheesy? :) Usually when we start out, folks are a little nervous, but L + C were super comfortable right away, which was a giant win for us - especially with their mega-watt smiles. Awe. Some.

Super fun couple! :)

Liza's one place she really wanted to shoot was around the cool stone bridge, which I will never complain about. I seriously love this bridge!

yep, we were feeling extra goofy :)

One of the biggest wins of this shoot was that by the end of it, we all still had feeling in our fingers. Seriously, I can hang with this 38 degree winter.

I know, right? And no freezing couples while still getting some snow on the ground. It was a rad, rad time.

My favorite I shot - seeing stuff like this is definitely getting me excited for August.

Eliza and Christopher - thank you guys. One of the best things about an e-shoot is that it really gets us excited about the wedding day and the couple we're going to be shooting with. When we started doing the wedding thing, we had no idea how much fun it was going to be. Getting to know the people we have and to hang out with so many couples with so many different stories and plans for a future together is just about the best thing ever. We know we probably won't be doing this forever, but while it lasts it's the best.

Our last favorites post of the year was really, really hard for us to narrow down. So, these are our favorite e-shoot shots from the year, but if you want to see the rest that we loved that didn't make the blog post, check out this slideshow! We really couldn't have made any of these images without the ridiculously cool, kick-ass, trusting, awesome clients we get to work with. We love all our clients and cannot wait to get into this group's weddings this year. It's going to be amazing, and I can't wait to see you all again for the big one!!