Boys and worms

Shh, don't tell - I'll let you in on a little industry secret. Well, not sure if it's industry-wide, but at my huge company (employees: 3, one of whom is married to me, programs my website, doesn't use a camera and doesn't actually receive a paycheck, and the other of whom is not a photographer but an office assistant), ALL the photographers dig for worms when shooting photos of two and four year old little boys outside in the summer. Worms are a huge hit. Pretty much guaranteed. If I were hiring, I'd have to say - Are you squeamish? Need not apply.

These guys had such a great time with the worms we dug up. I love this shot:

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This is the fantastically-eyelashed B:

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(Here he is in 2004 at his first photoshoot with me. Don't you love the eyelashes, even back then?)

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And B's little brother O, about to have a blast racing his truck. Do you believe the dimples?

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These guys just had such a good time together. They were willing to try anything... even seeing if they could reach their toes to their mouths.

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Had to do some truck racing of course.

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And book reading:

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And the secret to getting a two year old and a four year old boy to look up and smile? Put a worm on your head. You think I'm kidding? Not so much. I washed my hands after :)

Great to see you guys! All your photos will be ready early this week. I'll send you an email as soon as they're done.

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Any minute now!

M is due with her first baby on Thursday - look at this gorgeous belly! Here she is with her husband at my first Inner Strength Yoga photo day. I'm offering reduced-price maternity mini-photoshoots every couple of months over at Inner Strength Yoga in Watertown. We had a great day of sessions today, and plan to do another one in September.

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We just did quickie sessions with each person today - 30 minutes, in and out. But I think we got some great shots! The studio is just such a beautiful place to shoot.

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On one of the walls they have this cool forest mural - I love it. Not to mention the sweet couple in front of the mural with the best expressions on their faces ever.

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So very pretty.

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All your photos will be ready as soon as I can get them to you! I know you'll have somebody whose photos will take precedence very soon...

Good luck with everything :)

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Her third - and a couple more months to go...

S isn't due until September, but we went ahead and shot some fun yoga posture pictures anyway, since she's the teacher of the pre-natal yoga class at Inner Strength Yoga in Watertown, and she's the one who organized this whole yoga photos day. They were such amazing postures!

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Do you believe she's pregnant? I don't think I could do this for any length of time right now and I'm not even expecting. She balanced forever like this. Incredible.

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S is such a wonderfully calm mom of two (almost 3!)... I think it's the yoga. Isn't this one amazing?

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And last but not least, an equally calm non-yoga one. Thanks for coming up with the yoga-studio photos idea, S :) All the rest of your photos will be ready ASAP. Have a great rest of the summer, and I'll see you in September for more Inner Strength maternity photos!

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Gorgeous smile

Let me introduce the lovely C - I was so lucky to get to take her picture earlier this week for the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE)'s Annual Heart Gallery. I've donated a session to the Heart Gallery every year since its inception in 2005, and I've met some amazing kids.

The Heart Gallery is an exhibit of portraits of children in the state’s foster care system in need of adoption. Since 2005, 75 percent of the children who've been featured are now with safe, permanent, adoptive families.

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C is twelve, and told me she's really excited for dance camp this summer.

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I'm supposed to submit my favorite five shots to the Heart Gallery for them to choose the one that'll be in the exhibit... but I'm having such a tough time!

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The problem is that C's smile is too pretty, and I just love so many of the pictures it's hard to choose only five.

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Can you see why I'm having a tough time?

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OK, last one. I loved meeting you this week, C - hope you like the pictures... wonder which one will be chosen for the Gallery?

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Since I wasn't blogging back then - here's a shot from my 2006 Heart Gallery session - I loved how sweet they were together!

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And my first Heart Gallery session ever, back in late 2004 for the 2005 gallery... I loved these guys so much. I came home and talked to my husband about the idea of adopting them, really. It didn't make sense for us at the time, but whoever did adopt them is really lucky. It's true of all these kids - they're all just so amazing, I've been so happy to get to meet them all over the years.

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Rules are made to be broken

So I have all these things I recommend to people, like when we take a little light haired kidlet outside, we don't put them in white, since the white tends to bleach out in the black and white photos. And when parents of one year olds ask about beach pictures, I'll often suggest we just stay in the back yard, since kids are so much more comfortable in their own space... no big beach bags to pack... etc...

But you know what? Rules, shmules. I'll show you why we threw the rules out the window in a sec. For now, here's little baby N just over a year ago, when he was only 11 days old.

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And now here he is, at 15 months old:

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His handsome grin:

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And with his beautiful momma (my freshman year college roommate from 15 years ago, and one of my best friends in the world) and fantastic dad:

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Rule #1 broken - white shirt worked fine in the back yard!

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Getting a lift from dad:

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And here's the beginning of the breaking of Rule #2... taking a one year old to the beach. How wrong I can be!

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Loving every minute of it!

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And my favorite favorite shot from this morning. LOVE this. Can't even begin to describe why, but I bet you can guess.

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And last but not least, a boy needs a bath after a sandy naked trip to the beach, you know?

I loved spending the morning with you guys. All your photos will be ready by this time next week!

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Happy (Belated) National Siblings Day!

Well as I was pulling the photos from yesterday's big family session off my camera and putting them on my computer, I had a TiVo'd Oprah playing in the background. Lo and behold, she was celebrating National Siblings Day on her show, and here I was looking at pictures with soooo many siblings in them. I was so excited until I realized Oprah was a repeat. From April. Oh come on! Wouldn't that have been perfect?

Nevermind. :)

I spent the late morning yesterday with these guys - two brothers and a sister with their respective families. One of the brothers was visiting with his family from India, so they were excited to grab some cousin pictures while he was in town. If you've visited my blog or website before, you probably know that I sometimes think it's a little boring to have everyone looking at the camera at the same time. Luckily, the kids are usually on my side and help me out by distracting their parents (and aunts and uncles). Here's my favorite group shot:

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For a moment they were even all interested in the same book:

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Miss A gets a kick out of her cousin L's joking around:

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I love how they're all doing their own thing here:

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Here's the fearsome foursome:

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Here's one family of four, L and O with their parents:

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And last but most certainly not least, A and C with their parents and their pup. It was great getting to see/meet you guys. All your photos will be ready by the end of the week.

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Sweet baby and his fun big brother

These guys welcomed their second son about eleven weeks ago, and I got to spend some time with them yesterday morning:

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Here's the big, almost two year old, brother A - getting a little air time:

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Here are the handsome boys together:

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A loves his dad's guitar playing:

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And climbing, anywhere he has a chance:

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Baby L loves playing games:

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And holding hands:

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And here's the remarkably well-rested looking group! It was a pleasure meeting you guys - your photos will all be ready by the end of the week.

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