Furry Friends| Maine, NH Newborn Photographer

I had no idea that when I opened the door to greet my clients that one of them would be a furry, four legged friend wearing a T-shirt.  But I was delighted none the less!  Molly is a three year old Golden Retriever and she had my heart at hello because our first “child” was a beautiful Golden Retriever named Hunter.  I thought she was purposely brought along to get in the photos but no.  She had just had surgery and couldn’t be left alone.  I knew I’d get her in front of the camera anyway… Isn’t she just the sweeeeetest!?

But I digress.  There was a SUPER sleepy, squishy, most adorable baby boy involved too.  Oh he and  his sweet parents were a dream to photograph!  I simply adore allllll of the photos that came from that day! 

Outside Cake Smash | NH Family Photographer

Most often, when I’m asked what the best part of being a photographer is, I say working in my PJs, “the people”. Okay, while it’s true that I do enjoy the lax dress code required at my computer from 8pm to midnight, I really really love our clients, watching their families grow, and the relationships we build with them year over year.

When Erika contacted me to do something creative for Oliver’s 1st birthday, I knew it was on. I first met Erika when I photographed her oldest son as a newborn. She brought viking hats and furs to the shoot, and I knew right then and there that she was going to be a lot of fun. Since then, her ideas and outfits have not disappointed. I always look forward to the themes and wardrobe she comes up with…and it doesn’t hurt that her family is absolutely gorgeous.

So with Oliver turning one in June, she wanted to do something fun and we came up with the idea of the UP as our inspiration for the shoot. (You know the movie UP – where the balloons carry away the house). A few weeks ago in the middle of all this whacky weather we were blessed with a Saturday afternoon with some mild weather. I say mild, mostly because it wasn’t 42 degrees and pouring, but Mother Nature did have a few tricks up her sleeve – mainly crazy strong wind and light showers.

…which wouldn’t have been all that bad except for the 15 humungous balloons thrashing around and threatening to actually fly off with anything less than 30 pounds attached….including small children.

We had our basket and put the kids in it, however the idea of being constrained in a basket while being thrashed by wind and balloons didn’t actually appeal to sweet Oliver, who had better ideas about how he wanted to spend his Saturday afternoon.

After several attempts of “happy baby in basket with calm balloons”, we decided to move off the the windy hill (where I had hoped to get an open shot of the boys enjoying their fake balloon ride). Sometimes the best laid plans…haha.

Fortunately Erika was brilliant enough to bring a secondary plane prop that also went with our aviator theme! Away from the balloons and wind, the boys were delighted to play!

And then the boys enjoyed a cake smash picnic together and all was redeemed.

…except that I hadn’t gotten the UP shot that was in my head. As Erika packed up the boys I asked her hubs to accompany me back to the top of the hill to take a few pictures that I would use to create the photo I had in my head.

and then by the magic of Photoshop, we had our UP shot!

Which I absolutely adore.

 

 

 

Maine Family Photographer | How many pictures do you need?

When I teach photography to hobbyists one of the principles I talk about is minimizing our photography output. In the film days we had 12 -36 chances to tell the story. With digital cameras, we now have an almost unlimited number of snaps. The problem is that we can haphazardly accumulate an overabundance of digital photos. When I’m teaching moms I ask them to give me the number of photos they need to tell the story of a child’s 7th birthday. The answer is never 300. Yet, they will easily take 300 photos at a birthday party. Snapping pictures has become the thing some of us do. We don’t socialize, we don’t enjoy, we’re too busy looking for the moment we don’t want to miss with our cameras.

I coach moms to slow down and take 20-30 good, deliberate shots and keep 10 of them. Delete the rest. EVEN IF THEY’RE GOOD. Yes, you read that right, delete good pictures. You don’t need them. You can tell a story with 10 photos. Or 20. Heck, if it’s a big party with lots of details or relatives, shoot 90 and keep 30. You’ll never need more than that. I pinky promise you wont.

If you have four kids, like I do, you’ll endure (ahem) attend 72 birthday celebrations before they reach adulthood. If you took 300 photos at each birthday event, you’d have over 21,000 pictures to sort through when you want to walk down memory lane. That’s gross and downright irresponsible. And that’s just birthdays, let’s not forget all holidays, vacations, graduations, and if you’re into photography, you’ll bring your camera to every other birthday party and bbq you attend. Stop. Just stop. (that’s not me, that’s your computer’s hard drive begging you to shoot less and delete more).

As a professional photographer, I delete good photography every day. Gone. Deleted. Wiped off the face of the planet, forever. Actually I delete more than I keep. I’m a ruthless deleter, but that’s because I believe so strongly in the the ones I keep. I love them. They’re, well, keepers. They are photos that tell a story when strung together with other photos, and sometimes they tell a story on their own. You know how they say a picture is worth 1000 words, those are the pictures I want to make, and keep, and look back on. I don’t want 50,000 photos to dig through. Do you?

Your Daughter, Your Dress | Wedding Dress Mini Sessions

One (very) warm summer night last August Erin and I had the best time playing dress up! Or rather, we got to photograph some sweet little ladies playing dress up!  When we put out the idea of these sessions we were overwhelmed by how quickly they filled up. There is something very sweet about seeing your ‘mini’ wearing something that you may have dreamed about when YOU were a little girl! We partnered with Erica who owns The Rad Botanist and had flower crowns and tiny bouquets on hand.

When we first started kicking around the idea of these sessions I pulled out my own wedding dress and played around with my little girl. At first my whole life flashed in front of me seeing my 5 year old in a big old wedding dress. Formals, and Proms and Weddings OH MY! Did I really want to imagine my pre-schooler in a strapless gown?! But watching her giggle and try to twirl in it, and pretending to be a ghost with my veil brought me right back down to reality…to her this was a big game of dress up. She asked a lot of funny questions–such as ‘why is this dress so dirty?’. My answer was that a wedding dress with a dirty hem is the sign of a lot of dancing and a really good time! She also wondered how I was able to use the bathroom with such a poofy dress?…ahhh the wonderings of a 5 year old! 🙂

We knew once we got the girls in the gowns they wouldn’t be able to move around very much, so we would open up the dresses and then load the little lady in! There were a lot of laughs while were doing this, and boy were all of us sweating! It was really special to see not only the gowns, but wedding day jewelry, veils and shoes come out! I love that we even had a few photos of MOM in their gowns to take a photo with.  Of course I made whomever came get in the photos too despite protests about not being camera ready! One little lady even ‘made’ her Mom put on the wedding shoes and a crown. Mom and I laughed that she felt a little silly, but a year later looking at that photo still makes me smile, and I hope it does the same for her.

I will let the photos speak for themselves her…the pictures tell the story of a fun game of dress up for the little girls, but also a really special night for the Moms.

Thank you to all of you who let me share this night with you and play dress up. Someday when these girls are old enough to actually wear their own gowns I hope you pull out these pictures and remember how little and silly they were, and how Moms dress was so much fancier than anything they could have imagined. 🙂

Our 2017 Wedding Dress Mini Sessions will be held the evening of Sunday 8/20. We have a limited number of spaces available,  sign up here

-Lynn

Pint-sized Wildcat Fans|ME, NH Newborn Photography

Don’t let big sister’s sweet little face and precious blonde curls fool you for a second.  Shortly into our session dad unveiled some NH Wildcat hockey gear.  Of course I had to mention that I was a UMaine Alum and therefor a fan of, fierce Wildcat rivals, the Maine Blackbears (GO BLACKBEARS!!!).  Without skipping a beat, dad turned this sweet little girl and said, “What do we think about the Blackbears?”  And with true gusto she replied, “THEY STINK!”  Somehow, we managed to put aside our differences and have a fantastic shoot.  It hurt a little, but I even found the wherewithal to photograph the Wildcat gear 😛

Well, I’m JUST as behind on my blogging as Lynn!  But its seems quite serendipitous that I follow Lynn’s last post of beautiful birth photography with the same family’s newborn session!  In all seriousness, it was pure joy to have them in the studio and capture their sweet family!

I do it for the snuggles,

~Sarah