Just a preview of an amazing portrait session last evening! We had perfect late day lighting and flowering trees. These amazing and beautiful sisters were so relaxed and easy to work with. I could have continued this session for hours! Here are just two photos, many more next week! Thanks to them and their mom, who is really a special, caring person. Our daughters have had similar experiences in life, and that creates an instant bond of friendship. 

Spring; it's really here. I think I read somewhere that we had 22 storms this past winter. That's incredible. I make no apologies for saying that I enjoyed every one of them. Sure the shoveling was a hassle, the constant snow, the ice, the cold, the giant branch falling on my roof and taking out my gutter (Which subsequently led to the flooding of my basement from the last rain storm.)  (I don't count historic, torrential, flooding rain storms as enjoyable storms.) However, it was winter and it snows in the winter. We used to have huge storms growing up and I had been missing that. 

Filling colored plastic eggs with candy, hiding eggs outside in the yard against a backdrop of yellow Forsythia bushes and new green grass, still the only colors against a still gray landscape. Hiding some eggs in easy, visible places and hiding some intentionally obscured with last falls unraked leaves.

Remembering when I was the one doing the finding instead of the hiding. Decades ago, when I was shorter in stature, closer to the ground and able to easily detect an egg hidden just inside a rain gutter. And, since memories are well preserved in my mind, it's easy to stand back and be the hider and not the finder. Watching children and their friends making their own Easter memories makes simple traditions so worthwhile..

When you're a photographer, and that is what you do everyday, you're bound to meet people who, while you capture their lives, completely capture your heart. Albert is a perfect example. In the few times we have met and recently worked together on this shoot, I always come away enlightened. His humor, his attitude, his optimism is all infectious. We also have a few things in common. As people who have taught and worked with children, we both know their infinite value. We love the crazy cats and dogs we each own.  We have a dear mutual friend whom we both adore and we also both love 1980's Bruce Weber photography. The difference is, I have had my sight all my life. Just years ago, Albert lost his. I should also add that he "sees" far more than most people I know who are not blind. Helen Keller, who knows more on this subject than any of us, once wrote, "The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision."

A lot happening right now! First, here are two featured sessions, recently shot in the studio. While studio lighting has a distinct warmth and creates beautiful attention to detail, this warm weather makes me realize how much I have missed working outside. We had one outside session this week which I am just finishing up. Next week, another "Daydream" Session is being booked. (Like the one featured in the site gallery of the same name) These Daydream sessions are the ultimate creative challenge for me. The name "Daydream" session was inspired by the romantic, old movie look we really strive to re-create. I have to tap into my "inner visionary" for these sessions knowing that what I envision emotionally first is what almost always produces the best results. Most artistic endeavors are that way aren't they?  Going by that intuitive sense of what strikes an emotional chord within us, not necessarily trying to appeal to an audience but to what you see in your mind's eye. These Daydream sessions are also a lot of fun with amazing wardrobe and style.  We are really looking forward to that!
    
For now, here are some favorites picks from two studio sessions featuring two truly fun and beautiful girls. Antithetical to the Daydream sessions, these prove that less can surely be more. Beauty, thankfully, is so varied and these girls, if you'll excuse the cliche'- are truly beautiful, inside and out.