You can view more Highland Park sessions by clicking here.

One of the best things about my job is meeting super fascinating people and one of the worst things is not being able to write all about it! If you ever have a chance to meet these amazing people, consider yourself fortunate.

Pets are always welcome in your family photos. This does tend to go well for calmer dogs, but even hyper puppies can be lured with a few well timed treats. It’s a little bit like working with toddlers – you don’t need very long at all to get a great photo!

I did learn that they have a pool and might have been a touch jealous. If you saw the meme about wearing a size 8 cruise that might be me with pools. I may have taken a trip to Florida once just to swim in some really warm pools.

Aren’t they the cutest??

Thank you so very much for sharing your beautiful family with me! I hope our paths cross again soon.

Elise and her two beautiful daughters came to mini sessions at Highland Park and just squeaked in a session before the rain.  The girls were an absolute joy to work with – so joyful and full of life!

Their beautiful matching dresses are the kind of thing a boy mom envies (ask me how I know).  Single colors are absolutely classic and you can never go wrong.  I love the way Elise’s dress is the same color palette.  If you’d like more ideas about what to wear to your photo session click here.

Highland Park is a classic location for photos in Rochester. It’s a great choice because something is always in bloom and it’s centrally located. To view more sessions at Highland Park, click here.

Mini sessions are shorter sessions held back to back in the fall and sometimes in the spring. They’re more economical than a full session and are a great way to get a smaller selection of family or individual portraits. If you’d like to be notified of next year’s sessions, enter your email here.

It was an absolute pleasure to work with you Elise! Thank you so much for sharing your family with me!

Caleb and his mom were visiting family here and Rochester and we headed over to Highland Park.  Katrina shared that she and her husband work for an animal safari which was fun to learn about.  It was a beautiful spring day and the flowers were in bloom.  If you’d like to see more session from Highland Park click here. Highland Park Professional Baby Photography.

He wasn’t quite sitting up on his own yet and so we were able to prop him up and then edit out mom’s hands. That works well for babies around this age if you’d like 6 month photos but your baby isn’t quite sitting independently.

As the mom of a baby who doesn’t smile much, I thoroughly appreciated Caleb’s smiles. He was such a happy baby!

His mom wasn’t planning on being in the photos but it’s worth being prepared to jump in a few. Most moms take all the photos and don’t end up with any of themselves!

For more location ideas, click here.  Rochester has some amazing photography locations including the University of Rochester, Corbett’s Glen and the George Eastman House.

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful family with me!

Scott’s extended family gathered in Rochester in March and scheduled an extended family session to commemorate his parent’s anniversary. It’s such a brilliant idea and a great way to remember your time together, but also to take advantage of people being in the same place at the same time.

The Sunken Gardens at Highland Park is a popular photo location for good reason. Parking is nearby at Warner Castle and there are spectacular backgrounds in every direction. If you’d like more inspiration for other outdoor locations, check out How to Choose a Great Location.

October fills up like crazy and March is decidedly less popular – usually because of the weather. We really lucked out this day with warm temperatures. We were comfortable coat-less!

For more extended family location and posing ideas, click here. It’s common for people to rent houses in the area and have extended family sessions on the lake, which is brilliant. Another great option is someone’s house since it’s fewer logistics to work out. Or, if you have the brain space, you can pick a park or outdoor location somewhere.

Thank you so much Scott for sharing your beautiful family with me! I hope our paths cross again.

Julia and her mom Tammi were absolutely lovely to work with. Tammi homeschooled her two kids through middle school and has a heart for the homeschool community. Both kids successfully switched to high school – something that is encouraging when you’re out on the limb.

Highland Park is a classic location for photos of any kind and is one of the top 5 photography locations in Rochester. We especially had fun behind Warner Castle – there was some beautiful architecture there that I’d never noticed.

Tammi specifically requested some flowers, if at all possible, and we were happy to find them behind the castle and next to the Sunken Gardens.

Another great spot at Highland Park is the Highland Bowl. It has a fun, urban but not completely urban, senior portrait kind of feel to it. Julia was inspired to add this location after seeing Grace’s senior photos.

We also spent some time in the Sunken Gardens behind Warner Castle.

It was a particularly warm day, and so we had a vested interest in looking for shade. The Poet’s Garden across from the Lamberton Conservatory, was also a great spot.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to be your senior portrait photographer Julia! It was an absolute joy to work with you.

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People often view winter as the off season for location based photography but it doesn’t have to be!

Snow makes for absolutely gorgeous outdoor portraits. But what about being cold? During the winter the scheduling works a little differently. We decide on a day that’s generally good, and then watch the weather closely. On this particular Sunday afternoon it had snowed and then gone up to 40 degrees so the kids didn’t even wear coats between shots.

Of if you’re hard core like Kristine and Ken (and are out of the baby stage) or Amber and Braden, then you’re up for portraits in 17 degree weather. It only takes a few hours to thaw out after a session like that.

We chose the Sunken Garden at Highland Park because it’s an incredibly popular summer location for photography, and we wanted to show that it’s also a great winter location.

Basically winter photography is awesome, even outside.

Meaghan and Matt’s girls loved being photographed and were such a joy to work with. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful family with me!!!!

Grace’s mom Beth and I first met 13 years ago at the gender segregated Pakistani wedding of a close friend. We learned that our husbands were earning their PhD’s in the same program (which they also were learning on the other side of the curtain). A few years later we started going to the same church and her husband switched gears to become a doctor. They moved away for med school, moved back for residency, and moved away again for a permanent position and we miss them. They made the trek up from Pennsylvania both for Grace’s senior photos and a surprise birthday party for Grace. Happy Birthday Grace!!!

Grace chose Highland Park for her location, which is a popular spot for photos because of the variety of backgrounds including buildings, trees, flowers, stairs and gardens.  To learn more about how to choose a great location, click here. We started off at Lamberton Conservatory, then walked over to the Highland Bowl.  I love the Highland Bowl for it’s urban look.

When you’re taking photographs in a group, changing the background, posing and groupings of people gives plenty of variety. When you’re taking photos of just one person, bringing a few different outfits adds a lot more interest to the photos. Also if you have a puppy you can include them too.

Beth and her husband Matt totally surprised the kids with the puppy. She posted a fantastic video on Facebook of their reactions – Grace said she had no idea.

Photographing dogs is not super different than photographing toddlers, except for that they care way less about me and way more about the treats that are in their moms’ pockets. Nala was very, very excited to be alive and a little quick work with some treats and clicking the shutter at just the right time worked out to some really nice images.

After Nala was picked up we walked over to the Sunken Gardens, another well loved photo location. The key to the Sunken Gardens (or anywhere really), is finding the shade and bringing the light back in. That way you can avoid dappled light and harsh shadows.

Beth snapped this behind the scenes shot – you can see my terrible posture and my trusty lighting umbrella adding in directional lighting while Grace hangs out in the shade.

When I asked her if she had any plans she started talking about the weekend. When I clarified that I meant college she laughed at me. I love this – no need to rush adulthood.

Beth had some very bittersweet emotions about these senior photos. I can only project how I’ll feel that way in a few years. It really is a huge milestone. Grace took the opportunity to troll her mom a little with these images.

Thank you so much Beth and Grace for trusting me with these images. Spending time with you was such a joy.

I first met Jaime and Peter a year ago when they’d just come home from an extended stay in the hospital due to Westley’s premature birth. He was one of the tiniest humans I’d ever seen – perfect in every way and completely proportional but just very small. You can see his newborn photos here.

You would never know it now. He caught right up.

Parents often are concerned about how their kids will do during a photo session, but think of the photographer more like a guide. The session should be relaxed and all about accommodating your child. We let Westley do his own thing and then encouraged participation periodically. It’s all about keeping the baby happy!

We met at Highland Park, which is near Jaime and Peter’s house.  He was definitely ready to run around and explore!

Putting babies up on things can be a useful way to keep them in one place for a minute or two. He was distracted by being on the park bench, which he thought was a pretty interesting experience.

Jaime had seen this idea on pinterest and wanted to recreate it for this photo session. Quick tip – if you try this at home be sure to take the glass out of the frame to eliminate glare.

One of my personal favorites is having the kids in the foreground and the parents in the background. You’d think it would look the same each time but it always turns out a little bit differently.

Thank you so much Jaime, Peter and Westley for spending the past year with me! It’s been such a joy to watch him grow.

Kyle and Julie chose Highland Park for their family photography session.  Highland Park is one of the Top 5 Outdoor Photography Locations in Rochester.

I was looking back at some newborn photos of Ava and she still looks very much like herself (and also just like Julie!).

Julie said that she is a happy, smiley baby but tends to be more of an observer when someone is trying to take photos of her.  While Olivia was smiling away, Ava was more pensive.

But we did get in a few smiles, or at least happy facial expressions during a lively game of peek-a-boo.

Another good angle with less outgoing children is to take photos of them either being serious, or doing something else such as toddling or bubble blowing.

Or you can just embrace the calm.

Or get some passionate cheek kisses from your big sister.

Julie brought along some bubbles, which Olivia thought was pretty much the best thing ever.

And while Ava wasn’t a fan of being thrown up in the air, Olivia was 100% on board.

Thank you so much Kyle and Julie for sharing your beautiful family with me! It’s such a joy to watch them grow.

I remembered the Lilac Festival when I hit a mile long line of cars on my way to meet Jamie and Peter at Highland Park, a park which is one of the Top 5 Locations to Photograph People in Rochester. They’d forgotten about it too, but had the fortunate situation of being within walking distance of the park. As you can imagine, the park was flooded with people eager to eat funnel cakes and photograph each other in front of flowers.

But we were undeterred. We started out up on the hill by the conservatory so we could see some blooming trees in the background (tree identification is not a strength of mine, sorry!!).

Westley is an observer. He takes a little while to warm up because he’s too busy watching to smile. A little upside down action was in order.

And a couple tosses in the air.

The tulips along South and Resevoir are gorgeous but hard to actually photograph a person in front of because they’re so low to the ground. Height is important when you want to catch flowers in the background, and it’s what made this tree so perfect as a background instead.  We tried a couple iterations of tulip photography – including putting him in the tulips.  They look level with the ground, but they are in fact in a trench, in case you were wondering.

When a few other people left this spot, we moved in. This tree is right on Reservoir in front of Lamberton Conservatory and blooms in mid to late May. Mark you calendar!

The over the shoulder shot is one that was born during his newborn session, and then replicated for his 8 month session, and now this session.  The series will be complete shortly – how time runs away!

After the blooming tree (a magnolia?), we crossed the street to the small garden tucked in the back of the hill.

I love that smile!

Thanks again Jamie and Peter for sharing your family with me. It’s been such a joy to watch Westley grow!