Joey, Bill, & Missy

Ooooooh you guys, I have been a shamefully bad blogger! But I'm about to make it up to you, because this post is full of some of my favorite people and a totally cute doggie, and then coming up I have a senior session for you (plus another that I'm working on), and the family portrait sessions are starting to roll in in preparation for Christmas. So it's busy, but I promise to keep you entertained and not leave you hanging again! Okay? Let's keep being friends.

Now, the fine fellow here on the right is my former boss Joey, who you may have heard me talk about and therefore know that I LOVE. On the left is his partner, Bill, and in the middle is the princess herself, Missy! Joey was leaving for a special project with our company in Florida for a couple months (SO jealous he's missing some of the Chicago winter), and I wanted to take pictures for them so that they could have them while they're all apart. Plus, sometimes your cuteness just needs to be commemorated, right?

I love when dogs get their lip stuck in their teeth. Flashy does it all the time and I call him Mr. Lippy. When Missy does it, they call her Fang. Hee!

SUCH a good looking family! And Missy was such an awesome girl about looking at the camera! Dogs can be a little touch and go sometimes, but Missy is a perfect model because she knows how beautiful she is. :)

Kisses!

I LOVE this one. Also, before I met Bill, Joey told me he looks like Morrissey. TOTALLY. Google it if you have to. (Full disclosure: I did. I knew who he was, just had no clue what he looked like. So I'm only like, 50% uncool.)

I just love how this looks like a stopped moment in time. Which it totally is, but it just looks like it's HAPPENING, if you know what I mean. Which you probably don't, since a master of words I am not. I should've just stopped at "I like it". :)

Missy is clearly the center of the universe (as all dogs are in their owners' lives, and as it should be!).

They're so cute and I'm so funny! I wish I could remember what I said! :)

OMG, she is a DOLL. Seriously, is this not the cutest ever? Missy (or Punkin' Pie, as Joey calls her) had just gone to the groomer, and she looks totally shiny and beautiful here.

This one and the next one are two of my favorites. I just love the color and the post and how good everyone looks and everything about them. Yay!

The closer view, for maximum hotness appreciation.

The whole day seemed a little overcast and we weren't entirely sure if or when it was going to start raining, so we started out inside while it was holding off and eventually made our way inside. Here's the pretty girl posing for us on the couch. She even know how to turn toward the good light! What an amazing model!

OMG, I LOVE this one. It's too, TOO cute. I love the pictures of Flashy kissing my face, since it's his favorite activity (plus, I can't get him to sit close to me for pictures without getting some kisses).

This is great. Also, Joey and Bill have some really amazing original art in their house, and this painting was one of my favorites. Joey had told me before that he was really into interior decorating, and I got into his house and it REALLY showed. Everything was gorgeous and beautifully put together, but it looked like a home and not a showroom (which I like). Someday I'm going to need to get rich and famous and hire him.

Now Joey is getting kisses while Bill gives an AWESOME smile for the camera! Seriously, I can't believe this was the first time I met Bill--I already felt like I knew him when we met, and he was just so nice and warm that by the time we left (which was FOREVER later, since I'm a talker and had no idea how late it had gotten), I felt like we'd been BFF for years.

Love this shot of Missy lounging on the back of the couch. Why do all puppies love that spot?

Okay, love this too--I swear I didn't force both of them to look over at her and smile like she's the cutest ever. They just did it on their own, because her cuteness is like a tractor beam.

FANG! Okay, everything from here on out is Missy glamour shots. She's VERY beautiful in all of them.

LOVED the colors in this one.

Apparently one of Missy's favorite things to do is to snuggle up on the pillows and occasionally bury herself ...

... like so! Joey said the little paw peeking over the pillow was totally "her".

Oh STOP, I LOVE this. She got very sleepy from all the hard work I had her doing, so she took a little nap with her chin on the arm of the couch. I just want to kiss her face right now!

I thought this was SO cute--I love pictures of dogs where you can see a little bit of the whites of their eyes, because they always have this look like, "Who, me?" This was me peeking at Missy from under a table, while she rested near her tennis ball.

Joey and Bill's house was AMAZING to take pictures in, just because of all the different colors and textures that we could use as backgrounds. And Missy posed herself on all of them! She's not just a model, she's also an art director.

Here she is on the same chair, but she's settled into some pillows for a nap. Which, by the way, I am totally jealous of right now. I'm going to take a nap the second I get home today. Dogs have the right idea.

And here's one of her same nap in black and white. It was so cute that I just couldn't resist being a tiny bit repetitive. I hope you'll all forgive me. But then, I know you will--cuteness lets you off the hook for all SORTS of things. :)

Speaking of, OMG CUTE CUTE CUTE! Missy was kind of over having her picture taken at this point, but I did manage to get this one, which I love (whites of her eyes!), and I think it's an awesome one to finish on.

Thank you guys so, so much for letting me come to your house and take pictures of you! It was SO much fun, and I loved getting to hang out and see where you live and meet your pride and joy, Missy. She's so cute and sweet that I had to take "dying of cuteness breaks" while I was editing and make Billy look over so we could awwww together about how cute the pictures were. Love it! Joey, I can't wait until you're back from Florida! Call us up and we'll make brunch happen!

Carson

Awww, you guys ... get ready for some SERIOUS cuteness. Carson just turned one and he needed some pictures to commemorate the event with Mommy and Daddy. And he's just SUCH a doll. You're going to love him, so I won't keep you waiting. :)

It took Carson a little while to get used to me and I think that here, he might have been plotting his escape through the glass door. But I love how the sun lights up his little hand, and it reminded me that his dad kept commenting that he was doing the Austin Powers/Dr. Evil finger to the mouth. It was really funny. :)

And here is the beautiful family, and that's no exaggeration. They were SO sweet, and they have the cutest little boy, and a lovely home, and they're warm and fun and you can tell there's just so much love there. And now that I've said all of that really sweet and sincere stuff, I can also say ... I'm TOTALLY jealous of Angela's hair. OMG, it's gorgeous. How does she make it look so beautiful while chasing a one-year-old around? I'm SO impressed. :)

Awwww, I love this, probably because one of the things I remember best about my own childhood is that my dad would carry us to bed on his shoulders every night. My dad is a tall dude (about 6'2"), and we didn't have super high ceilings, so I must have been pretty little but it had to have been seriously awesome for me to still remember it so vividly. And hopefully Carson will have those memories too!

Awwww, aren't they all CUTE? And Carson looks like he's got the beginnings of a "rock out!" hand going on!

Mommy was SUPER good at getting Carson to laugh and be happy, and one of his favorite things was being held up in the air (and the other one being spun around). It was so cute to watch them play together. :)

Having a little rest on Mommy's shoulder ... seriously, are they not THE CUTEST? I just loved how much of the affection came through the pictures.

And another in color. Again, I've said it before, I LOVE having water nearby. I never really realized how much it adds to your life (and pictures).

Oh, this. THIS! This is an interlude to show you what the beach looked like where we were in Winnetka. GORGEOUS. I mean, it really and truly looked like this--no crazy Photoshop on my part, just sparkly blue water and a gorgeous little row of clouds. And it was completely quiet (although the bacteria levels that day might have contributed, although that would sort of ruin the illusion). :)

Loved this too--father and son, a beautiful day, coordinating shirts ... what's NOT to love?

And for the big finish, we put him on the swings! Which, obviously, he loved, and my favorite thing about this picture is that if you look to the left, you'll see just a little bit of Gene's face and see that that big huge smile is all for Daddy!

So cute! (I am such a broken record, but it doesn't stop it from being repeatedly true!) And look at those little teeth!

LOVE. He is SUCH a doll, and so happy. And I think he finally started to forget that I was there, which is always the goal when you're the photographer--you want people to look as natural and happy as if there WASN'T a huge lens pointed at their face. :)

And one last little shot of the happy fam all together at the park!


Seriously, this was such a nice way to spend a Saturday morning--like I said, they were really a great family to be around and it was a beautiful day, and I loved getting to capture how they interact. This was SUCH a quick shoot, probably only about an hour (because, let's face it, one-year-olds have better things to do, like play and eat and nap ... I wish I was a one-year-old!), but I was really proud of all the great shots we got, which is totally a testament to my wonderful subjects. Carson was so happy and obviously well-loved, and Gene and Angela were so welcoming and accommodating and sweet, and I know they'll have so many more happy years ahead of them!

Thank you so much for inviting me into your home and your lives for the morning! I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them! :)

Double the fun!

So Andy is my friend from way back, and I was really excited when he got married and I met Marlene and I LOVED her immediately. It's always such a huge relief when your friends marry someone you really like, you know? And then I got excited when I found out they were moving from Seattle to Indianapolis, even though I'm not there anymore, because Chicago isn't that far and I visit all the time. And then there was MORE excitement when they found out Marlene was pregnant, and AGAIN when they found out they were having twins! It's almost too much good stuff to handle, but I'm managing.

Their babies names are Miriam and Adelaide (so cute, I totally approve, so now Andy and Marlene can sleep at night), and they were born early. As far as I can tell, everything is fine now and at four months old, they're just now about the size of newborns, which is super tiny. I think it's weird that actual people can weigh less than a sack of potatoes, but they're proof that it's possible.

This is Miriam, and I love her pretty lips. It was a little hard to get everyone together, which you'll see, because the babies still need to eat and nap a lot (they have it MADE), and out of necessity, they're on sort of staggered schedules. So when you see a bunch of one baby all in a row, it's not because I have favorites. They are equally sweet and adorable.

This is Marlene (I am completely jealous of her hair, don't even get me started) and Miriam. Miriam is in the green flower outfit and Adelaide is in the pink strawberry outfit. I'm trying really hard to keep everyone straight, but Andy and Marlene think the girls are identical so when they get older, if they can't tell which one is which in the pics, they're just going to divide them in half and assign them to each girl anyway, so I feel pretty okay about the whole thing. :)

Here's Miriam's pretty eyes (which she totally gets from Marlene), and she was keeping it together really well for someone that had just had her pacifier ripped from her mouth. I know when you take mine away, buddy, watch out.

This one is especially for Andy. He was talking about how much he loves their eyelashes.

Adelaide makes an appearance! I love this--it just looks so documentarian.

Adelaide waking up and preparing for cute mode, and seriously, get ready because here it comes:

What?!?! I love this, and it's so hard to pick a favorite but I think this might be it. I love how she's holding her little hands. :)

And here she is again, with Daddy's finger. We were looking through pictures from when they were first born and they were kind of using their hands as scale, so hopefully this continues the tradition, along with the girls' tradition of being completely cute and precious and photogenic.

We got them together for a minute! Miriam wasn't especially thrilled with the whole thing, but she managed to squeeze in a few frames. Adelaide was totally looking at her like, "Girl, what is UP with you?" And I find that it's really fun to talk and make up captions for babies and what they're saying. I totally get why someone thought Look Who's Talking was such a good idea and why it did so well. You should try it. Also, I find that when I voiceover for them, Andy and Marlene's babies are kind of ghetto! Who knew?

Oh WOW, I love this one too and it makes the short list of favorites. I'd have to look at the color file to tell who it is, but maybe it's best left as a mystery so the girls have something to fight over when they get older. Because seriously, who WOULDN'T want this picture to be of them with their dad?

I snuck one in of just the two of them, although the babies are totally implied. One of the things I was really hoping to do for Andy and Marlene was get a picture of all of them together, but it just kind of wasn't happening. That's the awesome part about being friends with your photographer though--we'll have lots more chances. :)

Ooooh, I love this too. I picked up a basket at JoAnn Fabrics and then asked permission to put a baby in it. And let me tell you, Adelaide was totally down. I'm pretty sure she was willing to adopt it as her new bed.

A classic shot.

An equally classic shot, but in a different way.

Oh, Miriam was so not having it. And I love how adult her expression is, and how you can just tell exactly HOW irritated she is. And I totally know that look--it's the same one I get when I'm in crowded places and people stop in the middle of an aisle or walkway to like, send someone a text and there's no other way around them and I'm like, can't you make different choices? And Miriam is SO not down with the choices that we're making, and we are cramping her style.

Marlene and Adelaide, and again, I love how they're such proud parents and how you can see the love.

And I just thought this shot was so beautiful. Marlene is the prettiest mom in the world. She's going to be picking the girls up from soccer practice (if they take after Dad) and she'll be looking all cute and perfect and all the other moms will be looking all ragged and wearing sweatpants with hair falling out of their ponytails and bags under their eyes and stuff, and they'll be like, "I hate Marlene! How does she always look so gorgeous?" But that's like an okay kind of hate to be on the receiving end of, and then they'll get to know her and they'll be like, "Man, I want to hate her because she's so pretty but she's just so nice, I can't help it, I love her!" And the other moms will still be slightly jealous when Marlene makes the best cookies and brings Capri Sun to practice and the kids like her the best, but you won't even be able to tell because they'll just like her so much.

And finally, I think this is a hilarious picture to add your own caption to. Miriam is so funny--you can totally tell what's on her mind at all times because she's so expressive with her face.

Andy and Marlene brought the girls out for lunch with me and Billy once we finished taking pictures, and it was like ... a revelation for me. They said they were bringing the Baby Bjorns and I was like ... okay! But I had no idea what a Baby Bjorn actually did. So I got us a big table with room for them to sit baby ... seats? Holders? I don't know anything about babies, I admit it. Anyway, turns out Baby Bjorn is like wearing your baby as a backpack on the front, and aside from Miriam having one bottle, they slept the entire time and didn't make a single peep. It was like they weren't even there--so crazy. I didn't even know babies could chill out for that long.

Obviously I don't have a TON of experience photographing babies, but I did enjoy it so much and I was pleased with the results. I hope Andy and my Marlene love them too! And I can't wait to do it again--they're perfect little models. :)