July 13, 2023

NC Family Photographer

There’s nothing better than roaming around your backyard at dusk in the summer as kid. When you don’t have school the next day, every night is the weekend. And if you’re lucky, you have lightning bugs, s’mores, lemonade, two dogs, enormous trees, a giant river, and some friends who join you for a game of Ghost in the Graveyard. I could not have been happier to capture such an evening up in Roanoke Rapids with this beautiful family! It was the perfect night and I went home happily smelling of campfires and deet. I went up to photograph Sasha and Brandon, who have the most beautiful property overlooking a huge and beautiful river where Brandon likes to fish. Sometimes he’s joined by Cooper, who alternates between fishing and swinging in a hammock and goofing around with his younger sister Everly. Cooper and Everly are super great kids. They were a total joy to photograph – both camera hams, both friendly and fun, both SO sweet to me and welcoming. Everly loves doing cartwheels and running around. Both older kids love taking care of Isla, the youngest, who follows both of them like a hawk (well, maybe a little bit slower than a hawk because she likes to wear her older brother’s Crocs and then kind of carefully teeter through the yard). All three kids love hanging out at the river enjoying s’mores and time with their parents and dogs. While we didn’t catch any fish, we did catch some lightning bugs and some great memories on camera (okay that was kind of cheesy but it was a fun night).

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July 7, 2023

Amber+Nick+Evie+Quinn // Raleigh Family Photography

It was so fun reuniting with Amber and Nick! Last time I photographed them, Amber was pregnant with Quinn, and now Quinn is an active and spunky child who really just wanted to play hide and seek instead of taking photos but who begrudgingly permitted photos anyway. She is a highly entertaining force who enjoys art, microscopes, animals, and baking. After taking a nap at school when she was younger, Quinn developed the habit of waking up at 4am, so Amber would supply Quinn with a variety of baking ingredients to occupy her. No recipe, just a bunch of different things that you could hypothetically make a cookie or a pancake with. Quinn would mix a bunch of things together to her satisfaction, and Amber and Nick then developed the tradition of actually baking whatever it was she put together and eating it (or attempting to eat it, depending on the ingredient combination I suppose). I think this is absolutely delightful. So now Quinn loves to bake. She’s still experimenting. Nick says that most of her experiments end in a crepe-like quality, so I suggested adding Nutella to the ingredient line-up, which was a stunning success according to Quinn, Amber, and Nick. Evie, the older sister, however, did not try it, which I think is potentially a safe route to take depending on experiments you’ve eaten in the past.

Evie is a total delight. She’s in high school between her freshman and sophomore year, and typically that age of people is not thought of as delightful, but Evie really is. She is kind and considerate and smart and enjoys Nirvana and the Ramones and taking Japanese. She loves her dogs and plays instruments and enjoys playing with Quinn. She’s a super good kid and I had a great time getting to know her. She has a picture of Dolly Parton holding a kitten in her room and I think that’s the best. She called Nick’s taste in music “Dad Rock” and now I realize that the term “Dad Rock” is used to describe music I listened to in high school instead of what my dad listened to in high school, and that was a startling realization on my end. Moon and Theo the Dogs also joined us – Moon is a quiet elder doggo and Theo is fluffy chaos energy and I love them both. It was so great photographing these guys all together in this moment. They are a creative and amazing family.

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July 4, 2023

Sara+Sam+Julian // Holly Springs Family Photographer

These folks (and their cats) are near and dear to my heart! I met them back when they were a husband and wife photography team, photographed them after they had changed careers and before they had Julian, then photographed them most recently in early 2020 when Julian was just learning how to walk. Now Sara has grown her astrology business into a super successful career and has published books and planners, Sam works for a major company, and Julian is not only walking but flying between rooms. It’s been so fun to see the changes in all of them throughout the years. Their adorable cats, though, have held steady and are exactly the same and still very adorable. Biscuit and Miss Poofy (see if you can determine who is who) made appearances in exchange for treats and head scratches and were very good models. Julian is a little wild ball of 4 year-old energy that is friendly and sweet and LOVES cats. He also loves making tea in the backyard out of sand and water from the swimming pool, gardening, and reading. He’s a super successful reader who just picked up on reading himself – one day his parents just found that Julian was able to read – and I imagine that one day they’ll wake up to find that Julian has also picked up on calculus by himself, or maybe astrophysics. He’s just that sort of kid. He gave me lots of hugs when I left and asked if he could get in my car so I could take him to Marbles.

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