June 17, 2019

Author Headshots in Durham, NC

I am always SO EXCITED to do author headshots because it’s quite an honor to take the photo of someone’s mug that will be appear attached with one of their biggest life achievements and it makes me happy. Also I like seeing my work in a book because I like books. I particularly like nonfiction books about horrible disasters, which is why it’s SO WONDERFUL that Rachel found me. Rachel is being published by Penguin Random House (!) and her book is called In The Waves. Without going into spoilers (buy her book!), she essentially went on a mission to figure out why The Hunley, a Civil War-era submarine, mysteriously sank back in the day and killed everyone on board. Here’s an article The Smithsonian did on Rachel and her research (complete with video of Rachel’s CSS Tiny replica). Rachel also loves nonfiction disasters, and she’s the first and only person to have ever gifted me a book on cholera. I think we were meant to meet. I will update this page upon Rachel’s book release to give a link to how you can buy and read it!

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June 12, 2019

Kathy+Andrew+Alden // Raleigh Family Portraits

Ohhhh remember baby Alden from last year who loved to stare into your soul with intense, prolonged eye contact? He turned ONE during this session (happy birthday, Alden!) and now stares into your soul slightly less (disappointing but age-appropriate). Now when he looks at you, it’s quickly followed by a clever little smirk like he knows everything about you from previous soul-stealing baby sessions and is definitely going to use it against you in the future. His smile is hilarious and almost looks like he’s incredibly proud of himself… the type of smile that happens right before you’d get a big head nod and he’d open his mouth and say, “Hey bro,” except he’s a baby. It’s incredible. I’d be confident too if I knew how to successfully fish for cats at the age of twelve months. Also, his parents are Kathy and Andrew, whom we love, so obviously this helps to bolster his self-esteem. He’s cute and charming. We did a lot of activities and so by the time we busted out the adorable water table that Alden’s parents bought him for his birthday, he was way tired, and I can say with hands-down certainty that Kathy was the person who enjoyed that table the most (this may have happened even if Alden wasn’t wiped out… Kathy really loved that table). We’re so glad we were there to document this little future-cat-lover (and hopefully extremely good secret-keeper) turn one.

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June 10, 2019

Sarah+Paul // NYC Couple Session

Just before I start this blog post, I’d like to state for the record that if you’re looking for the person to thank for the bats on the website, IT’S SARAH. She’s my bat designer extraordinaire even though and clearly excels at drawing really, really cute ones.

Sarah and Paul are our wedding clients from a few years back whom we love and cherish and have maintained a friendship with while bonding over our mutual love of guacamole, mid century modern furnishings, mountaineering disasters, and complaining about Game of Thrones. They had been living in Durham and we were quite thankful to have them here. Then they lived in London for a bit for Paul’s work, and we visited them on our way back from Italy! Then they came back to Durham for a bit, but when the opportunity came for them to move to NYC for another bit for Paul’s work, we encouraged them to go even though we were sad because living in NYC is, we feel, an important cultural experience to have… and since Sarah and Paul are so good at jet-setting and cultivating travel and new experiences, we know they’d get along great, and so they have!

And now we visit them in NYC! And take their pictures! They were so gracious to let us stay with them in Brooklyn and introduced us to literally the best gluten-free pizza I’ve ever had. We were happy to roam around the area quiteeee early in the morning (sorry guyssss) to take pictures of them, and they were patient while Geoff and I gazed lovingly into the cat cafe (Sarah’s afraid of cats but it’s okay, we’re still friends). We’re so happy for them to have this experience of living in NYC and even though we miss them, they’re only a text message about people dying on Everest away.

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