Clare and Hailey

I got a really nice email from a local mom who wanted us to capture a snapshot in time of little Clare and Hailey, which is one of my favorite things to do as a photographer. Being able to go to someone's home and capture their little kids running around is incredibly challenging and rewarding. As a dad, I know how life can get away from you fast if you don't stop to appreciate how amazing kids are and how much joy they bring into the world. I always hope that I can capture some of that with my camera.

So, what do you get when you have a 3-month-old and an 18-month old in the same house? Well, debilitatingly cute kids, for starters, but also a handful as you'll see.


One of the things I miss the most about our son getting older is little things you just can't do with a 30-pound toddler...like the sink bath!

Meet Clare:

and meet Hailey:

Cuteness achieved...

Hailey is really into playing the piano...so we did that in two outfits :)

Clare's bow-slip was too cute not to include:

And just like our wedding posts - how could I not include, "The Kiss?" :)

Thanks for having me out!!

Sneak Peek Post

So, you know what's lamer than posting a post about how you are sorry that you haven't posted a new post (that's a lot of posts)? Posting a "sneak peek" post because you've been running ragged on shoots for a week and are behind and the LOST premiere is on tonight!

The past week we've had several kids/baby/family shoots, and here's a preview of the adorableness, in no particular adorable order:

The full posts will be up over the next couple of days.

Seriously, we'll be back on top of things shortly because it's nearly the end of January and we still haven't hit your eyeballs with our giant "BEST OF WEDDINGS 2008" post!!! We can't wait...

Kale

We headed into the wilds of North Tonawanda today, right before the storm picked back up, to shoot some photos of Kale. He's two weeks old, which is absolutely the perfect age for newborn photos, and he's absolutely gorgeous -- he even has a dimple! Seriously, I can't think of anything quite as adorable as a newborn with dimples.

Normally, I can talk a bit about Rich's photos, but I'm not too sure what to say here -- maybe that I'm not sure why newborns always feel the need to turn the exact opposite direction I'd planned on shooting them from?

And the shot I was taking!

I love baby feet -- there's nothing as cute as tiny footwear. For the longest time, we'd see other people's children and remark about how giant their kids' feet were. Seriously, it seemed like every kid on Earth had noticeably large feet, until we realize Murph's were just super tiny. Murphy (at 2) is just growing out of the 9-18 month socks, and Kale's newborn socks wouldn't stay on at all! But that leads well into shooting some cute baby feet shots!

Kale with his daddy...

And a couple "staged studio" shots of Kale.

Slightly different perspectives from Rich (above) and I (below).

Kale was so awake the whole time we were there -- and really into eye contact which really surprised me -- he seemed more like a three month old than a two week old!

The we brought in his awesome brother Kai (who might be the best big brother ever -- seriously, he sings Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to him when he's upset!) for a couple quick shots.

Kai is also gorgeous!

And then some portraits with just Mom and Dad...

And we'll head out on this photo -- it's me showing Kelly the first shot on this blog post, where you can see Kale's dimples. It was around this time it started blizzarding, again, so we headed out -- I hope everyone had a safe and uneventful day today. Thanks for having us over, guys. You really do have two of the best boys I know, and I wish I could've stayed all day and held Kale! This taking pictures of babies thing never gets old! Keep warm!

Baby Siena

I believe the things that inspire us creatively are often passing things, little snipets of our lives that don't necessarily settle in the front rooms of our memory. I took photos of Siena, a beautiful three-month-old yesterday and it brought back a wonderful memory of the drawings of hands and feet that hung in my parents' hallway when I was growing up. You see, my grandparents' neighbor ("Mr. Bob," we always called him) made drawings of the most amazing details of hands and feet and he'd given one of his works to my mother. When mister Bob was growing up in pre-war Germany, his father forbid him from pursuing a career in art, so he became a machinist. He had amazingly precise hands and was very successful - but his passion for art never died. His drawings could look like photographs - but the only ones I ever saw were of hands and feet, studies in the anatomy of appendages. For whatever reason, those images stowed away in my gray matter for a very long time.

I got to thinking some more about it after those childhood memories were evoked, and I honestly think that's why I'm so drawn to taking photographs of hands and feet - those intricate sketches I stared at as a child. A photo editor I worked for at one newspaper once told me that you were never done with a personality feature shoot until you'd photographed a detail of someone's body, as close as you could get, to reveal something about that person the reader could not otherwise ascertain. After all, you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their hands and feet, the things they use to navigate the world...even if those feet have never seen shoes or found an unwanted stone in their path.

When I arrived, little Siena was in a good mood, and pretty interested in the camera. It's really amazing to see a little one so aware of their surroundings! Here she is grabbing the lens hood on one of my cameras.

That is one beautiful, happy baby. This next shot is my favorite, because it takes me back to when Murphy was that small - there's nothing better than holding a giggling baby up in the air...nothing!

Now that wedding season has pretty much wound down for us (two more in December, then we're on to 2009!), we're doing lots of family and "baby" work. We love being able to visit our clients and work with them to capture the moments they see every day with their loved ones. Seriously, we really do think we have the best job in the world. I think Mr. Bob would be proud.

On a side note: Blogging our weddings and portrait photography sessions has been AWESOME for us this year. When we started doing it, we weren't so sure about it - but it rocks, it's been a lot of fun for us and our clients and we're addicted to blogging. So much so, in fact, that we'll soon by doing away with our website entirely to have a custom-built blog that reflects our personality and style......stay tuned, because hopefully we'll have some sneek peaks as our killer web designers work their talented butts off over the next couple of months.

Thanks for reading, and check back in couple days for our shoot with baby Kale!

Helena

We've been super busy this week with the holidays and our mini-portrait shoots, but I really wanted to share a few shots from a newborn shoot we also did this week. This is Helena, and she's gorgeous!

She's a month old now, and though her mom would probably argue otherwise, she's so tiny! (She came out nearly nine pounds!)

She's totally a rocker! She's got her punk hair -- too cute!!

A family portrait...

And just being gorgeous... (sorry I'm not all that chatty today... it's a little after 1 a.m.!)

I don't know if you can read this shirt, but it's adorable -- "best gift ever." Spot on! Thanks again, guys, for having us over. She's absolutely perfect!

Holiday Portrait Sessions: Leo

Our good friend Leo stopped by the studio earlier today to get his holiday portraits done. Just a reminder: we're still booking holiday portraits until Dec. 7 -- our mini session is $60 for a half-hour session. Space is filling up for the season, so book yours today!

Adelaide

Miss Adelaide stopped by the studio earlier today for a couple of quick holiday portraits. She was absolutely adorable, so I wanted to get a couple quick shots up of her ridiculous cuteness! Thanks, guys, for coming by -- it's absolutely amazing to watch her grow. I still can't believe how fast this year has gone -- she's precious!

Owen!

I titled this blog entry with an exclamation point, because it's well earned. Owen was a ton of fun to shoot! I don't know how kids that young learn to ham it up for the camera, but Owen was all about getting his photos taken. He reminds me of our son, Murphy, a lot. That's probably just because he's an incredibly cute kid and I (as all parents do) think we have an incredibly cute kid, too.

Thanks for spending time with me, buddy!