I’ve been photographing my friends here over in Holly Springs for so many years – from when Sara and Sam were just a couple, to when their son was super little, to now when he’s in his school age years and obsessed with towers. The towers are new to this year. He loves towers of all types, but mostly towers that include sirens. One of his favorite activities is pretending he’s a tower with a siren, which involves standing completely still, arms above his head, emanating a high-pitched noise… all while making his parents find the base of the tower somewhere in the room, which is always invisible. The siren impressions are quite accurate and impeccable, and he can tell you about all sorts of famous towers with sirens all over the world. When he’s not talking about sirens, he enjoys talking about cats, reading, and playing video games.

Miss Poofy the Cat loves him and is totally cool with the siren sounds and the tower building. It was an honor to photograph her beautiful poofy self again, along with some photos of Biscuit, the super cute tabby with the orange who poses with very cartoon-wide eyes when offered treats. Bandit, their third kitty, did not make an appearance for this photoshoot but she sends her kind feline regards. Also a joy to photograph some of Sara and Sam this year making cookies for their annual Cookie Week at their house, where they bake a ton of different types of cookies (a delicious and wonderful tradition!).

This was my first time meeting and photographing Casey and Cole and they were simply wonderful! Casey and I had been in communication for a while for other reasons and it was great to finally meet in person and attach a face to a name. She and Cole have been together since the 8th grade and now they’re married and living with their two hilarious dogs, Bean and Garbonzo. Bean is the black and white older sister and Garbonzo is the brown younger brother who enjoys pestering his sister as much as possible in the best way. They love each other and their parents very much and are always together (and with their little ghost squeaky toy). They were great at posing for photos (the dogs and the humans) and I loved capturing some photos of them at home doing what they all do best – reading, playing music and board games, taking a walk, and cuddling on the couch. Eventually we bid the pups farewell and took off to American Tobacco Campus in downtown Durham for some photos of just Casey and Cole. It was bitterly cold this day and they were absolute champs despite a lot of shivering. It was so fun getting to know them despite the frigid temps, and I love the pictures we came away with!

I was so happy to reunite with Katy and Jereme and their two kids, who have the #1 eyelashes in the tri-state area – nay – the world. And maybe they don’t appreciate their insanely beautiful eyelashes yet but someday they will be like wow, what a gift. In the meantime, they’re breaking boards apart in taekwondo class, swinging in the backyard, showing me throw pillows in the shape of their mom’s face, jumping on couches and in cribs, playing hide and seek in the yard, and doing kid stuff where they aren’t worried about how wonderful their eyelashes are. There’s also some pretty intense/incredible smiling from Little Brother. And I got to hang out with Katy and Jereme, who are rad people with good taste in sports (baseball) and movies (Donnie Darko) and dogs (Sammy the elderly and precious Schnauzer). It’s always fun to hang out with them because they have a great sense of humor and don’t get offended when their kid only wants me to push him on the swing and not them and then proceeds to make frowny faces in all the photos where they’re pushing him on the swing because I was busy trying to photograph the family together (what can I say? I am a #1 swing pusher).