amanda contacted me a while back to see if i was available for a family session: she, her husband, their son, her sister and her sister's fiancee.  she wanted to get some photos for her parent's anniversary (how sweet is that?) so we met up on sunday for our session.

so one of the sometimes cool/sometimes not cool things about not meeting clients ahead of time is that you never really know what they're going to be like.  i've been lucky and have almost always had great clients who i got along with. but this clan?  holy crap.  i didn't stop laughing - mostly due to amanda's husband, ari, who is a complete cutup.  we were freezing cold and battling strong gusts, but we kept laughing and talking and it felt like i'd known them for a while; i could be my naturally sarcastic self and they could dish it right back.  my kind of clients.

thanks, guys!  can't wait to show you the rest of the photos.

i saw this on a photography forum i'm a member of and just ordered it; i am beyond excited to get it!

spy lens

i have always wanted to do street photography (taking photos of random people in the streets) but i'm too shy to do it.  legally, i can take a photo of whomever i want on a public street but i don't really have the balls to do it; i'm scared someone is going to get in my face and get ugly about having their photo taken and the last thing i want is to piss someone off.  plus, people just *know* when they're having their photo taken and then you can't capture the candid moments that make street photography so interesting.

i should get my lens in about a week; can't wait to post all my stealth photos.

the butlers are another repeat client (you can see their previous sneak peek here). i was excited when jen called to schedule a holiday session because her family is gorgeous and her boys are so much fun.  their oldest son has babysat for my kids (they adore him) and their youngest son is a ball of energy.  truly.

we walked around our neighborhood and tried to find trees that still had a few leaves on them; not much luck with that.  seems like the leaves are gone earlier this year.  but we made do with a few evergreens and a basketball court, instead.

i know.  how many more times am i going to blog about a family that i had a great time with?  who were totally fun to hang out with and who had a great family connection?  trust me, i wish i had some more adjectives besides 'great' and 'fun' and 'wonderful'.  but it's the truth.  i have amazing clients and i love taking photos of them.  take a gander at the chappell family in the field behind my house (gawd.  i'm dreading the day they start building houses back there):

how cool is this?  becky asked for a holiday session as a hanukkah present from her husband and kids. i thought that was a really good idea - and it proved to be good leverage for making the kids cooperate when they wanted to throw leaves ('hey guys!  this is mom's hanukkah present!')

i love all my clients.  i really do.  but sometimes there is a family that i really connect with and who really connect with each other very naturally in front of the camera.  the fischbein's were that family and the photos show it:

 

the first thing missi said to me when she scheduled her session was, "i hate to have my picture taken."

um, ok.

i wasn't sure what to expect.  usually it's the dads who are grumpy and don't want to do the session but jeff was a ham and kept the kids laughing with his impression of some guy on a dentures commercial. 

despite her hesitation, missi was great.  she laughed and went along with the session and i dare say she looks great.  i don't know why she wouldn't want her picture taken; if i looked like her i'd be strutting my stuff all day, every way.

over the weekend i got to do a joint session for marty and marilyn.  they both live in my neighborhood (you might remember my post about marilyn's unreal interior design talents).  marty also has artistic talent oozing from her pores as a graphic designer.  i love hanging out with these two woman because they are both so talented and they totally get - and appreciate - good design.

so we decided to all meet up in the field behind my house for the session. marilyn and her family went first and then marty and her family.  marty, aka party marty, saw fit to bring along a bottle of wine and wine glasses.  it was lovely: i took photos while the kids played in the field and the adults not having their session done sipped wine and hung out.  most definitely one of my favorite sessions.


here's a sneak peek of marilyn's family: