November 1, 2022

Crystal+Jason+Co

It is wonderful photographing people you haven’t seen in a while, especially when those people have had two children since the last time you saw them, and those two children really love your branding even though they’ve never met you or used your services, and they’ve placed your stickers all over their house. I’ve come equipped to recent sessions with two stickers: my current branding with the two fruit bats, and my old “vintage” branding that depicts two classic Halloween bats in front of a moon. Eloise and Thomas, the children of Crystal and Jason, had already placed their parents’ vintage stickers around the house. So when I tried to give another one of these to Eloise, she seemed disappointed and said, “Oh…. yeah… we already have that one,” but she was excited about the new fruit bats. But by the end of the session, Eloise had changed her tune and was suddenly requesting “four more stickers – two for me, and two for my little brother” – one of each branding design. I diligently obliged and then went back to talking to Crystal about something. When I turned around a few seconds later, I discovered both to my delight and horror that Eloise had placed all four stickers in prominent positions on her parents’ vehicles. I think I ran around stammering “I’m so sorry” repeatedly while photographing my new moving billboards with my phone. Thankfully Crystal and Jason are good sports and are okay with accidentally advertising for me for the remainder of the lifespan of their cars (or until they get some Goo Gone, whichever comes first) because they are delightful. Their children are delightful – intelligent, thoughtful, smiley little creatures. And their dog Atlas is DELIGHTFUL. All caps. Love this good old boy. Sorry about the stickers everyone, but I do smile when I go to bed at night knowing that the bats are driving around town.

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October 20, 2022

Abby+Rachel+Ansel

One of the perils of photographing a small child that you see often and are friends with is that they tend to want to sit next to you during the shoot and you keep having to move away from them in order to take pictures of them, which hurts their feelings. They also know your husband Geoff and demand to know where he is, and are upset that you didn’t bring him. We’ve been friends with Abby and Rachel for a very long time, and were so excited when they moved back to NC with their kiddo Ansel. Ansel is our buddy. We’ve shared dinners and bedtime story routines and long discussions about Geoff’s shoes. He is extremely intelligent and also hilarious, and I don’t think I’ve ever really seen him truly upset except for maybe 5 seconds when he couldn’t get the “Prog” button his keyboard to work. He is funny and very adored and he seems to like us.

When I showed up without his buddy Geoff for this shoot, he was initially confused. Why would I be there… without Geoff? Where are Geoff’s shoes? He then made a swift recovery by deciding to sit directly next to me during most of the session where I couldn’t photograph him and giggling profusely. Slowly he was bribed away from me with various things: sticks, a blanket that looks like a tortilla which I use whenever over their house as much as possible, howling with his dog Ozlo, more sticks, a scooter, some pinecones, and finally cookies. We had a wonderful time. I love this family with all of my heart and am lucky to know them and extremely lucky and thankful that they have a blanket that looks like a tortilla that they allow me to use when I’m at their house.

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November 21, 2019

Allison+Nathaniel+Andrew+Samuel // Family Photographer, Durham, NC

I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: in-home lifestyle family shoots are my absolute favorite. But, they’re especially my favorite when they involve breakfast. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because making a special breakfast has always signified to me that it’s the weekend because that’s when you have time to actually make sausage and french toast and all that other yummy stuff. So I enjoy hanging out at other peoples’ houses on Saturday mornings while they make breakfast and wear their pajamas – this is comfortable and fun for me. And sometimes it’s fun and comfortable for the kids too, particularly when their names are Andrew and their favorite activity in the whole world is being photographed.

So here we have Allison and Nathaniel, two very intelligent people with lots of incredibly fun hobbies (Allison used to make balloon animals for parties!) who have interesting jobs and a good sense of humor (plus a killer selection of vintage My Little Ponies). And we have Samuel, the very cute baby who we occasionally forced into a cowboy hat because he was wearing a bandana bib and it just felt right. And last, but certainly not least, we have Andrew, toddler extraordinaire, who immediately smiled at me when I walked in the door like he knew that I was another shot at the big time for his inevitable career in show business. Then he continued smiling directly at me throughout the entire 1.5 hours I was there. He was *this close* to winking at me pretty much all the time. He is a total ham and hilarious. When he’s not waiting for his career to take off, he enjoys walking like a penguin, working in his garden, making OJ, cracking eggs for french toast, and helping his Grandma June play the piano when she visits. I immensely enjoyed hanging out with this crew on a weekend morning.

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