Cat and Mitchell are two very good friends of ours. They’ve been photographed 6 times by us (insert lots of happy, nostalgic tears here) and we love love love them. Our relationship started out by us photographing them in unusually frigid weather for their engagement session in Greensboro, progressed to me jumping in a bouncy castle with Cat during a break in shooting their wedding, and now it’s devolved into me complaining about kidney stones to them at a Weezer concert. So they’re quite special to us, and now so are their children. Their son Cameron is seriously *the* sweetest and most adorable kid. Look at him. Look at him! He is constantly a smiling, happy, joyful little dude who is so sweet I could cry. He let me win at Candy Land. What 3 year old does that? He’s the best. (Note: did not let his parents win at Candy Land, definitely beat them by a landslide).
Sarah, his newfound little sister, is adorable and excels at looking cute, wearing baby Hawaiian print shirts, and staying awake until the exact moment I start eating lunch. Together, they are an unstoppable brother/sister duo I adore. We got to meet her and hang out with Cat and Mitchell for a day at Mitchell’s family’s new house in Kure Beach. This day mostly involved us discussing and worrying about rip tides, sharks, flesh-eating bacteria, and brain-eating amoebas before we finally were all brave enough to swim. Happy to say that none of things we worried about came true. However, I did break into hives for no reason and had to go in (it’s always the things you don’t see coming, isn’t it?). But – all’s well that ends well. We had a beautiful day at the coast with this family of four and we love them. Also, new family rule: no pictures ever again of any of you unless you’re all wearing matching Hawaiian outfits.
This was such a fun family session to do – I love doing extended family shoots with multiple generations because everyone’s excited to be there with each other, especially when they’re traveling from out of state (or in from India!). This shoot involved Gita and Neil, their adorable children Deven and Maya, as well as Neil’s extended family (shout out to Shilpu for finding my website and recommending me!). All of the family members were in town to meet newborn baby Maya, who is so sweet and agreeable! We had a great time hanging out around the house, putting together Legos and playing Chess. I also got to see Kiran cook the Indian version of funnel cake in a pan, which looked delicious! Deven rode his lowrider house-bike thing down the insanely beautiful hallways filled with light in their stunning house and we waited and waited for Maya to fall asleep for pictures, but she was really much more interested in whatever we were doing. :D I talked to Gita and Neil about their move to Chapel Hill from Boston, and admired their home and family. It was so great to meet and work with everyone involved and to get a glimpse into their family life this morning.
I met Paul+Emily at a party for one of our other client friends and I was so excited to hear from them when they had their second child! First, I must say, that the entire family is adorable. Like – ADORABLE. This was my very first session with an accordion AND banjo playing toddler. And when I mean banjo playing, I mean he can actually play! He knows songs! His strumming is far better than mine is! AND he does all of this while playing on his front porch in front of his vegetable garden. Literally all he needs is suspenders and he will be the cutest bluegrass child in the entire continental United States. He occasionally would get really excited and speak to me like one does to a very small cat that you’re extremely happy to see: high pitched, squeaky, squinty eyes. His name is Isaac, and I’m his #1 fan.
New to the family (and new to both accordions and banjos), is his little sister Clara. While she doesn’t have the fine motor skills to play old timey instruments yet, she DOES have banana pants, an avacado blanket, and a book called Frida Catlo which details Frida Kahlo’s life as a cat. I am 100% positive that she will also be into gardening and old timey instruments. She is super duper cute, and did a good job lying on various patterned surfaces while being adorable. The brother-sister shots on the quilt toward the end cracked me up. VERY CUTE CHILDREN. Also Ruby – the dog – also very cute, and excellent at smiling for portraits. So happy to have photographed this crew. Isaac played me a goodbye song on his drum as I drove away.