Julie and Binh were married on a brisk, lovely day at Holiday Valley resort. While both of them live and work at Syracuse they wanted their wedding to have a family reunion feel with friends and family having lots of things to do before and after the ceremony.

Julie ordered a bunch of flowers and then on the morning of the wedding she asked her mom to make her bouquet and her maid of honor made her own bouquet as well. She just said, pick what ever flowers you like–make it as big or as small as you want. I think they did a great job.

While the flowers were being made, the guests and Binh did some golfing.

My assistant Tara got these shots of Binh getting ready. I wish I knew what was going on in this shot, but I still love it.

I loved hanging out with Julie and all of her friends and family who stopped in to help her get ready.

Before the ceremony there was an emotional prayer circle.

I love outdoor ceremonies.

Yeah!!! Married.

I loved all the stuff the wind was doing with Julie’s veil. Poor Binh.

Gotta love those orange shoes!

I loved all the books on the table. I want to do this at my house the next time I have a dinner party.

Congratulations Julie and Binh–thanks so much for choosing me to document your wedding.

I loved this engagement session in Clinton, NY at Hamilton College. I had never been to this campus before and even though it was a cold and dreary day, I already started imagining sending my kids off to school here.

Samantha and Grant gave me a great tour and I can’t wait to photograph their wedding this July.

Humor me today okay?

On Friday my oldest daughter turned 13. I now have a teenager and everyone tells me to watch out because the teen years are so difficult. What I didn’t understand was that I was the one who was going to get all emotional. I was not the mom who cried when her kids started school–I was relieved, but now that I see an end in sight to having kids at my house all the time I am starting to feel really scared. Who will I be when I am not known as Echo or Sadie’s mom? What will I do with myself when I don’t have so many kid activities to plan my week around? It really does just feel like yesterday that Echo was 2–so won’t 5 years fly by quickly too? I wonder if this is harder because we had kids fairly young and so didn’t have a lot of adult time without kids? I wonder if it is hard because my body is dropping extra eggs and trying to make me have one more baby–yikes. Perhaps in a week or so I will tell you how having a teenager in the house slows down time and I can’t wait until she leaves home. Right now–she is awesome, just a really fabulous kid (I mean teenager).

The original intent of this blog post was to show you that when Echo was a baby I took a break from photography. Even though I majored in photography in college, when Echo came along I was smack in the middle of getting my MSW and overwhelmed by anything other than school work and parenthood. I set aside my film cameras and just used a cheap point and shoot for most of her early photos. So–the quality isn’t great, I spent no time in photoshop, and I still treasure them immensely. Do I wish I had not lost my desire to take photos during that time—yes!! I always read on other photographer bio’s how they started their interest in photography when they had their first kid, but for me, having that kid sucked my creativity out of me. Luckily, the first affordable digital point and shoot cameras were around and they didn’t take much creativity or knowledge.

AND,this is what I love about photography. I love coming back to these moments and remembering. I like how they help me to tell the stories. I like making up stories for the photographs where I can’t remember where we were. So, to help me shed a few tears about my baby getting to be a teenager I thought I would share a few moments from her first two years of life.

The photos are in random order–showing her first couple of camping trips, her love of dress up, my total disregard of how to dress her, how young we were, how much junk I let her eat back then. They are so imperfect in so many ways, and I love them.

Okay, I feel a little better now. Man, those were some tough times. Diapers, temper tantrums, spending so much time trying to get her to sleep, playing make believe when I had barely slept the night before, camping with a sticky, smelly toddler who wants to go in and out of the tent all day long. They were really exhausting times, but also crazy fun.

Have a great time with your kids this week. Take some photos of them and photos of you together with them. Maybe, break out the point and shoot instead of your phone. These are old digital photos, but I still think they are better than most phone cameras. Plus, how many of you ever take those photos off your phone?

And then when you want to get the really good shots–give me a call. I would love to capture some imperfect moments of you and your kids.

One really difficult thing about living in Syracuse, NY is that we live far away from all of our family. And by far away, I mean two plane rides away. What we wouldn’t give to be a 3 hour flight away from family. Heck, I probably would have had more kids if I knew there would be a grandma or a grandpa around to keep me sane.

HOWEVER, it is great to have fun places to visit with the kids when we get to see family. Some family is in St. Louis, and some are in Omaha, NE (much cooler towns than you might image if you haven’t been before).

And–the favorite place to visit when you haven’t seen the sun in months—Arizona! This time, I set up some sessions while I was in town—an adorable baby session with my sister-in-law, and some horse sessions (a first for me).

Here are some of the actual sessions–sprinkled in with some pics of my kids thoroughly enjoying the sunshine.

I rarely get a non-smile photo of my youngest Sadie. I told her to be serious here.

One year old sweetness.

Favorite.

Dogs and baby–an obvious combination for cuteness.

A beautiful family.

My oldest Echo at an Arizona horse ranch–with the resident visiting small dog.

She turns 13 next week and my emotions are worse than when she started kindergarten.

I too struggle to get the “perfect” sibling shot. That is why I like to call these shots perfect.

This is what a horse does right after it gets groomed.

Curious.

One of my fabulous mother-in-law’s (yup I’ve got two) with one of her horses.

I can’t wait for my next Arizona visit.

So, I don’t know about you, but this winter is starting to get to me. The sun might be trying to peek out from behind the clouds today, but I swear I am suffering from some major lack of sunlight blah’s.

Luckily in the winter I mix things up a bit and take on sessions that I don’t really have time for in the summer–like head shots and band photos. And, thank goodness for some seriously adorable babies and kids to smile at me or else I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t get out of bed each morning.

Here is a big mix of what I have been up to recently.

First some head shots for a beautiful, smart young woman who is starting her own business.

And then there was this adorable little guy.

I think he was showing off his muscles to me here.

And, funny adorable boys.

And more babies with big sisters.

And, let me tell you–if photographing a dad singing Insy wincy spider with his daughter doesn’t bring a smile to your face, I don’t know what will.

And adorable sisters.

And finally I did some photos for a local band, The Jeffrey Peppers Rodgers Trio

So–here is wishing that March bring some sunshine for all of us, but if not–give me a call. I’d love to photograph your cute kids.

Next up—a travel post–yeah!

Happy Valentines Day to you all. I hope you find time today to get into a few photos with your kids–they will want those photos later on, and let’s face it you are not getting any younger.

Now, here are some of the beautiful families I have photographed recently.

I usually try to take the month of January to step back from my business and see what worked out and what didn’t work. To figure out where I need to impove, and to define what I am best at. The problem is I get distracted easily.

A distraction to get out at Green Lakes and pick up my camera and photograph something outside of my norm was a good distraction and lots of fun.

Enjoy.

Winter for me means babies.

This little one was too old for sleepy newborn shots, but on the upside we did get some adorable first smiles.

What a sweetie.

Thanks for having me out at this special time.

Okay–here is part two of this amazing wedding. I think you will see lots of my favorite things–laughing, a tent reception, a bluegrass band during cocktail hour, acrobatics, lots of dancing and singing. I think I will let the photos do the taking.

Liz and Connor thank you so much for choosing me to capture these moments.

Since I spent all weekend at this wedding I thought it was only fair that I showcase it in two blog posts.

Liz and Conner got married in New London, NH where they had spend their summers vacations. All the guests stayed in cabins (or camps), they had a little golf tournament the morning of the wedding and it seemed like a big fun family reunion. I don’t often travel for weddings, but I was persuaded to travel for this one because (a) I had photographed the brother of the brides wedding last summer and it was really fun (b) the location and laid back vibe of the wedding seemed right up my alley.

The cabin that the bride got ready at was pure camp–wood paneled walls, rocking chairs, stone fireplace–loved it.

My second shooter Tara came on this road trip with me and we had a great time. She even got to become a part of the story when she had to leave the guys to hunt down the grooms suit which he couldn’t find. Luckily we found the suit and Tara rushed it over to Connor.

Love dad’s first look of his daughter.

Connor got ready at an equally cool cabin.

A few of Tara’s shots of the golf tournament. There was much excitement when there was a hole in one.

I loved the lace on this dress.

The guys took a dip after golf–what a perfect day.

mother daughter love.

Blueberry cottage.

so beautiful and classic.

lakeview cabin

Next up–part 2.