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Archive for the ‘my kids’ Category

Even before having girls of my own, I was fascinated with the age twelve, such an incredible time in the process of becoming a young woman. Of course, I never imagined my “baby” would be twelve so soon!

This year Lucinda wanted a “not-spa” theme of skin care and nail painting followed by cupcakes for her 12th birthday. Like in most families, birthdays are a big deal in ours and mean months of planning for our always-at-home parties. We enlisted our favorite make up artist extraordinaire, Suzanne Kahn, to come lead a mini-workshop with the girls. They had fun learning about healthy skin care, trying out masques and learning how to do make up that is middle-school-appropriate for dressy occasions. So sweet!

Our two weeks in Maine were filled with wonderful visits with friends, delicious meals, escapes to the beach and many trips for ice cream. Oh, and work for me too!

Before my girls went to their camps we spent the day with a dear friend in the woods of Bowdoinham. My girls joined her nieces in raiding the costume basket and having a tea party in the garden….until they’d had enough of the camera and retreated to the pottery studio for hours of clay time.

The day was bliss of the simplest order: friends, art, nature, good food and laughter. It just filled me up to see the kids so free out in the countryside…truly what every city kid [and adult] needs more of!

You can see more of the gorgeous and inspiring Delilah Pottery here. And I’ll let the images speak for themselves to describe the day for you:

Valentine’s Day, 2001 was the first day I was home alone all day with my new baby. I had decided to take a Polaroid of her every week and this was week two….and it was the day I discovered what a firecracker she really was. I thought I’d photograph her with a heart and give it to my husband for his Valentine that night. Perfect, right?

Lulu knows this story well: she spit up on the first Valentine before I could take the photo, so I had to change her clothes and then make another Valentine and try the whole thing again. At that point she started screaming like a wild banshee and frankly, I was terrified. But, I eventually got the picture..and then kept going with the weekly Polaroids for over three years.

I thought on the occasion of Lucinda’s tenth Valentine’s Day I’d photograph her holding that hard earned Polaroid. The first image below is how she wanted me to photograph her and the second image was my pose.

I do love her dearly.

Happy September! Wow – it has been a whirlwind couple of weeks. I’ve had lots of time on the road with my family and visiting so many amazing, old friends. My Maine friends really know how to live – huge gardens, sun filled studios, colorful art-filled homes, good food and….chickens! I could go on and on but instead will share some favorite images now that I’m back in the urban jungle.

Here’s to hanging on to the slower pace and golden light of summer just a little longer….

Here’s the “country girl” passing the chicken to my tentative “city girl”:

Isn’t this the coolest mod chicken coop?

These lovely pots are by my talented friend Sara. You can see more from Delilah Pottery here.

the way life should be” says the welcome sign. And as I enjoy another clear day in the 70s and 80s I’m feeling that is oh so true. I’ve happily shifted locations for the juggle of family time and work and wonder if we can do this for longer than two weeks next year.

Being someplace so beautiful inspires me to bring my camera along more than usual. The Farmer’s Markets here are unreal – the bounty of summer harvests and an amazing community of farmers and creative folks from all over Maine selling their wares

This one of the carrots was taken by my nine year old. She’s been begging for me to show her how my camera works so we made the Farmer’s Market our classroom for a lesson on depth of field and exposure – fun!

Sneak peeks of family portraits on the beach coming soon….

Where did July go? I’ve been neglectful of my blog but plenty busy with family and my family of clients too. I even managed a whole week away with my hubby and no kids. Splendid.

I thought I’d catch up a bit by sharing photographs of my children when they were in a friend’s wedding recently. They were so excited, much more interested in being with the bride and bridesmaids than with me, but allowed me a few quick portraits.

Here’s one at the rehearsal – think my girls are saying to themselves “eewwww, they’re kissing!”?

My nine year old daughter and I went to a fabulous event for moms and daughters at 6th & I Synagogue the other night and I just had to post about it. Meredith Jacobs of Modern Jewish Mom fame spoke with her 13 year old daughter about the journal they’ve kept together the past few years. They just published a do it yourself journal called Just Between Us to help mamas and daughters get started. Amazing concept, isn’t it?

It was a really inspiring evening and the joint journal seems like a great way to keep lines of communication open as girls enter adolescence. We got a copy of the book and as my daughter reminded me this morning “Mama, we really need to start this journal!”

Stay tuned…

They’re calling it Snowmaggedon and Snowpocalypse. Click the link to see an amazing NASA image of the snow from space.

Down here on Earth we’re on Day Three of no school and heading into what was already a four day weekend. This calls for creativity all around. And on that note, last night I had my first request for “snow portraits!” As soon as the snow stops pouring from the sky and the winds calm down, I’ll look forward to making that happen. For now, here’s a image of my older daughter with a tape measure, getting ready to asses the first snowfall a couple of days ago:

I have been photographing like crazy lately – for pregnant clients, for clients with newborn twins, families, Eastern Market and even my own kids. I’m trying to keep up with all of the editing and haven’t had time to post recent work.

For now, I just had to post this image of my little one at Union Station last week. She loves looking at all of the trains. There are more from this outing but this one is a fave and motivated me to post after a long week.

Next week I head to Maine for two weeks where I’ll photograph families in Kennebunk, Portland and Scarborough. Summer is coming – very exciting!

I’ve never been a photo-geek but I’m working on it this spring. I got a new lens and oh, it is so lovely! I played around with it at home first to test it out. My girls are certainly used to the camera, but since goofy is the most common reaction I get [sound familiar?] I tend to prefer their more serious expressions. If you could zoom in on this you could see every eyelash – so amazing!