Newport Blues | Rhode Island Family Photography

When Matt first decided to leave his fellowship and go back to general OB-Gyn, he put his CV on one of the med-jobs websites, and within 48 hours we had heard from approximately 25 different recruiters calling for positions.  One of the first people to call though, and one of the nicest and most helpful was Lee.  Turns out Lee was just down in CT so knew the area pretty well.  The recruiters typically ask “what does your spouse do” so that they can have information when they are presenting you to a hospital for a position and so that they know what they are going to have to be moving in case of relocation.  When Matt told her that I was a professional photographer and gave her my website, she almost immediately contacted me and asked for a session.  She said that she loved my style and it was what she had been looking for for her own family.  One of her oldest boys was soon to be going across the country for school and they had not had family photos done in almost five years.  So we set up a time for a session on the ocean with her and her four kids.  This was really tough on me because it required me to go beach hopping to find the perfect location for their shoot 😉  Ah…you gotta do what you gotta do.  We finally settled on Sachuest (Second) beach in Newport and were rained out our first time but the second time, even with small chance of rain, they hopped in the car, drove two hours and met up with me.  And I have to say that it turned out really really well.

You have to love a family who not only loves each other, but is also just *fun*.  This family was definitely FUN.  Four kids 14-22 so they have had a long time with each other and are just incredibly goofy.  I mentioned on my facebook page that I could do an entire separate gallery of outtakes from their session.  This is a bigger sneak peek because I have so many favorites…

Chicago part 4 | Rhode Island Family Photographer

Ahhh…we have reached the last of the Chicago sessions.  I had SO much fun on this trip.  Didn’t want it to end!!  (Okay, the dent that the car company claims was on my rental is a bit of a downer but the rest of the trip was awesome.)  My last session was with the utterly gorgeous Gretchen (another photo board girl) and her family up at Northwestern University.  Now I clearly don’t have a good grasp of what some schools look like.  When I pictured Northwestern, I pictured it similar to Northeastern which sits pretty much smack dab in the middle of Boston.  Instead, I found myself driving through beautiful Evanston, IL with tall trees, huge yards, gorgeous properties and all of it situated on Lake Michigan.  The campus was so beautiful and while we only made use of a small part of it (which was good considering the almost-unbearable humidity and mosquitoes) it was still fabulous.  Gretchen and her family were gorgeous, the surroundings were gorgeous, can’t really go wrong!

Chicago Part 3 | Rhode Island Newborn Photography

You hear me talk on here often of “this forum / message board” that I am on.  About three and a half years ago, a bunch of us were on the Nest.  The Nest.com is a spin-off of the Knot which is a wedding planning website.  The Nest is where you are sent after you get married.  There were a bunch of us on there and we started discussing photography, photographers, etc.  There were enough of us on there that were interested in it, that we spun off and made our own board.  And since that point 3.5 years ago, I have become part of this wonderful community of gals.  We have seen lots of people come and go. Our board has had as many as 200 members and as few as 50.  The regulars that have stayed all three and a half years probably number around 40.  As you can imagine, we have all become pretty tight on there.  I have met over 50 of the girls in real life.  I have gone to get togethers with those in my area, I have traveled to Las Vegas for a girls weekend.  I have gone to the Outer Banks for a girls weekend / workshop.  And I have traveled to photograph some of them.  This last category is what Morgan falls into.

Morgan has been on the board for a while, over a year.  We became friends as we all do and then she told a few months ago when she was about six months pregnant that she wanted me to come out to Chicago to do her newborn session.  Now timing a newborn session is tricky enough because you never know when a baby is going to arrive.  But timing a newborn session that is several states away?  Even more difficult.  We set the date for two weeks after her due date.  That way we figured even if she went late, the baby would be no more than a week old.  This was a great plan.  Morgan even “discussed it” with the baby, telling her how important it was to stay in until her due date.  That was until she decided (ahem!) to take a four mile walk around Lake Michigan with her husband.  Needless to say, later that night, she was in labor.  THREE WEEKS EARLY.  FIVE WEEKS BEFORE I WOULD GET THERE. I was a little nervous.  Five weekers are typically not easy to photograph.  At all.  They don’t sleep much, they don’t sleep as deeply, they don’t bend, etc.  In fact, they tend to cry and scream and be awake (and cross eyed) at lot.  But fortunately, Quinn is the daughter of a photographer.  Though it took a little bit to settle her, settle she did.  And very well.  And very deeply.  It was perfect.  No, she didn’t curl as much and no my hats didn’t fit her head and yes she was much bigger than most babies but she was still utterly precious and perfect.  We did some more typical newborn shots and then several family shots.  I have some of my favorite family newborn shots from this session – there is just something about that emotion that the first brings.  🙂  (The photography Gods must have been smiling on me that morning – I even had no traffic into the city AND got to see Wrigley!)

So Morgan and Steve, enjoy her.  She will be big before you know it.  🙂

Chicago Part 2 | Rhode Island Family Photography

Saturday night I got to meet one of my fans!  That sounds so…something…but really, she is a fan on FB!  Bernice had contacted me earlier in the week when I had a spot open up for a Chicago session.  She is a photographer herself (you can see her work HERE) which always makes me nervous!!  Don’t get me wrong.  I love other photographers, but photographing one is a world of nervousness – even for me.  (And my entire weekend was filled with photographer sessions!  Eeek!)  Anways, Bernice being a photographer, is never in front of the camera herself with her family.  Like so many of us we have plenty of evidence that our kids exist.  But we have no visual photographic proof that WE exist with them!!  So she set up a family session with me while I was in town.  We met in the adorable little town of Naperville outside of Chicago and did a fun family session in the downtown area.  We used alleys, walls, stairs, everything fun that photographers like to do.  (That is one nice part, you can tell another photographer “yes, really, go stand in that alleyway” and they are going to do it because they get it!)  Then we ended at an ice cream shop (as all photo sessions should).  I got some awesome shots of all of them together and of course by themselves.  That’s easy to do when your family is as beautiful as this though.  It was so great meeting you guys, enjoy!

Chicago Part 1 | Rhode Island Family Photography

The beautiful Okema and her family were the first of my Chicago shoots this past weekend.  I have “known” Okema for three years now on a photography forum we are both on and I feel as though I have watched her gorgeous daughter grow up on there.  Well on Saturday I finally got to meet them in person for the first time!  We had a great session in Oak Park just down from the Frank Lloyd Wright historical district (many many houses I could live in there!!)  We started out at a small tucked-away park and when the mosquitoes got to be too much headed for a more urban look.  Not only did we have a fantastic time, I absolutely LOVE what we came away with 🙂  She has already seen these but for everyone else, enjoy!



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