My dear friend Lauren just turned 40. When you have six kids and home school, it’s easy to lose yourself in the shuffle. It’s amazing that she took some time out to do a few celebratory things for herself – like an adult cake smash!

Somehow I missed this trend, but apparently adult cake smashes are a thing!

Lauren is a jack of all trades – she sews, she has a work bench, she can do painting and tiles and cakes and all the things.  She’s a skilled ASL interpreter (though jokes that she “retired” when she had kids).  She also loves performing, so this theme was right up her alley.

She found an old tree at Durand Eastman Park that matched her elf/Tolkein theme perfectly. Her husband, knowing her affection for Lord of the Rings, had a hobbit cake made (which they said also tasted amazing).  She saved the hobbit hole topper for a Tolkien themed non-cake smashing part.  I asked her if she was going to eat it and she said slowly, savoring every bite.

You’re amazing Lauren. So thankful to have you in my life!!!

Beata and Joe have been together since they were 14 (or 13?) years old.  I remember this interesting fact from the first time I sat in her apartment when she was my graduate head resident and I was a resident adviser (RA) under her tutelage.  I had just started dating my now husband and was the worst RA ever (sorry Beata!).  Fast forward 10 years…

Beata got her PhD in psychology and now home schools her kids and teaches on the side. Joe is also involved in education, specifically assistive technology.

Beata was gracious enough a few years ago to be an arm model to help demonstrate what length of sleeves people of different body types should wear. You can view her head shots here, or learn what sleeve length will best flatter you by clicking here.

Our lives have crossed paths in so many ways – we even used to be neighbors until we moved out to the corn fields.

I am a little embarrassed to share these, but I will anyway… here’s a flashback from when Nadine was just five days old and Beata was gracious enough to share her with me for some newborn portfolio building.  I knew nothing at the time – poor Nadine!  I’ve learned quite a lot about newborn posing and especially newborn safety since then!

It’s easy to forget how small they start out and how fast they grow.

Thank you so much Beata and Joe for sharing your beautiful children with me. I hope 2017 is filled with an abundance of joy, love and laughter.

This Fall was unseasonably warm so late fall sessions were fantastically pleasant (as opposed to last year when our session was about a week earlier and absolutely freezing!).

Kim had seen images from last year’s mini sessions and really loved the Three Lakes Pavilion cobblestone background.  She specifically wanted to have a neutral color theme.  Ironically the fall colors peaked right around this time, and she lamented that she could have chosen a fall color scheme instead.

Check out this photo taken almost exactly a year before the above image.

Jedrick spends a lot of time in his Pokemon attire, so he is impressively not wearing bright yellow in this image. Kristiana had absolutely no interest in being more than 3 inches from Kim, but the grown ups in her life were able to distract her for a few seconds (which is all it takes!).

The grandparents love close up shots of each grandchild, so we made sure to get those in.

We tried getting Kristiana to smile with the usual approaches but she was not having it. So I have a little confession to make. In this image she was actually holding a lollipop and we edited it out. We’re about happy kids over here! And real life! After this, with mom AND her lollipop, she had it made. #whateverittakes

The boy/girl photos in this family work out nicely because of the even split.

Another family I photographed recently has five girls and a boy leaving images like this a little more lopsided.

And last but not least, Kim and Josh.

This is a family I’m blessed to be friends with and I’m so happy to have you all in my life! Thanks for trusting me with your photos. I know how much they mean to you! <3

Every year I eagerly anticipate this family’s outfits.  Alethea is a portrait photography clothing ninja, as discussed in this post.  This year she chose yellow and blue (the University of Rochester colors, go Yellow Jackets!).

However, after picking her color scheme she learned that they don’t make men’s shirts in mustard yellow. Ah well.

Sarina has a calm temperament and loves reading.

Her parents also have calm temperaments. Being around them is like meditating or taking deep breaths.

They were among my very first clients and I’m so blessed they’ve stuck with me all these years.  They typically choose the mini session arrangement.  We’ve been at Genesee Valley Park twice, Three Lakes Pavilion, Tinker Nature Center, Brighton Park, and this year for something completely different we headed to the Durand Eastman Board Walk over the Tamarack Swamp.  I’d never been there before – and neither had Geoffrey or Alethea.  It’s a great spot to take your family to explore Rochester.

Here’s a flashback:

She did a great job matching then too!

They typically order Christmas cards, digital files and sometimes prints. This year they also got a collage print.

These are custom designed to your specifications and you get to choose the colors, which images, their positioning, and how many magical unicorns come with it.

Thank you so much Geoffrey, Alethea and Sarina. As always it was a joy to see you again. I hope you have a phenomenal year!

This blog post features Rachel and Adam’s favorites from the session with their beautiful children Thisbe and Finnegan, and remembering their oldest daughter who passed away six years ago.

Highland Park is a really popular photo location, but the Rochester beaches are a hidden gem for family photos. Kids generally are very relaxed and happy hanging out at the beach, which makes smiles and great facial expressions a breeze.  Rachel also did a great job dressing her kids in beach themed clothing that blended together without looking too “matchy.”  She thought this image looked like they were models for J. Crew.

These were their two favorite whole family images. Beaches give a definite relaxed feeling to portraits since it’s such a relaxing environment for both adults and children.

And of course a few special father-son and father-daughter moments.

If you’re interested in being notified of mini sessions in the future, you can sign up for the newsletter by clicking here.

The kids came bounding out of their car with a puppy in tow.  She didn’t really cooperate for any photos (and no one thought to bring any dog treats), but the girls were enamored and very excited to show off the new addition to the family.

Shortly after this I had a session with some teenagers, who weren’t so keen on hugging each other.  It’s such a sweet age when you say “hug” and they fall apart into giggles, and then “mom can I have the puppy??”

Shortly after this moment, Abbie went running down the hill for the puppy.  The beautiful thing about cameras it that they can capture a moment like this is 1/125th of a second or so.

I first met Abbie in utero and she’s grown up so fast and looks just like her mom.

Here are their Christmas cards from last year.

Kim loves that she has her Christmas cards in hand by the end of October.  Even though we’re into November it’s not too late to get the ball rolling.  You can schedule your session by clicking here – it takes 5 seconds!

Sara and her family participated in this year’s mini sessions, which were held at 3 Lakes Pavilion in Durand Eastman Park.  It was a steep but beautiful location that the kids all seemed to enjoy thoroughly.  If you’d like to be notified of mini sessions, you can sign up for the newsletter by clicking here.

She also did an impressive job of dressing her family in very coordinated clothing.  The blue/gray combination is timeless and relatively common in people’s closets.  For the complete clothing idea gallery, click here.

This image is one of my favorites and is actually a severe crop of the chaotic image below.

I love the moment.  What a wonderful feeling to be so small and secure in your dad’s arms!

Here’s Will, almost smiling again.  Fortunately, Sara’s smile more than compensates!

When Sara is not homeschooling or shining as a NYS certified reading teacher (if you want her contact information for tutoring, let me know!), she makes headbands for babies and girls.  I’ve used them for almost all of my newborn girl sessions.  Lucy is almost always wearing one.

Everyone did a fantastic job not rolling down the hill – though it was close a few times!