THIS IS THE LAST POST HERE!!!!!

We are so, so happy to be writing that this is our last post at this blog address. About 100 posts after we started blogging here (prior to 2008's wedding season), we're ready to move on to greener pastures at the main site for our wedding photography. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NEW SITE!!! (If you've come here from a google search for wedding photography in Buffalo, etc - PLEASE CLICK HERE :), too)

If it doesn't show up right away, it's because your internet service provider will need to update to the new site sometime today...

We'll still be blogging weddings, engagements and portraits (yes, and Dear Murphy, too), we'll just be doing it with larger photos and in a cooler way to share them with you.

This blogger.com blog, along with its contents, will stay active at this address (http://www.nickelcitystudios.com/blog.html) for a while longer, but eventually we'll pull it off line and will just be blogging on our main site....which, thanks to the inspiration of everyone who has read and commented here over the last year, is now a blog, too :)

If you subscribe to our posts using an RSS reader, please update your program to pull from http://www.nickelcitystudios.com/rss.

THANK YOU, again and again and again for supporting us and our photography.

- Alyssa and Rich Mattingly (and Murphy)

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!!

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!