Baby Samuel (Main Line Newborn Photographer)

Get ready to fall in love as you look at the pictures of this sweet baby boy!

Even with two lawn mowers working tirelessly in neighboring yards, he was completely at peace being outside in the warm breeze. I'm thinking that if his mommy or daddy need a little break they should take a nap with him in the hammock. He really seemed to like that!

Since my son just turned one, it was so nice to get to spend a little time around such a precious newborn. I am so happy for my friends Eric and Laura who are Samuel's truly blessed parents. Their "firstborn", Bentley, also seemed pretty happy to have a human brother to protect (see the last shot).

Eric and Laura - Thank you for allowing me to capture these sweet moments for you! Though the nights may be mostly sleepless right now, soak up the beauty of this time for it passes quickly.

Another Deserving Family (Philadelphia Area Family Photographer)

Last week I had the sincere pleasure to meet and photograph my third family of Need a Smile winners. To say that this mom is deserving of having this session done with her boys is quite the understatement. Her sister nominated her and here (in her words) is why she felt compelled to do so:

"I would like to nominate my sister. She adores your work, and has always raved about friends of her's who have had sessions done through your studio. It has been a long two years for her. She had her youngest son, Aidan 7 weeks early, and while Aidan was in the hospital, the business she and her partner built burned to the ground. There was no insurance to cover the loss, and there have been financial struggles since then. Her efforts in life have revolved around taking care of my parents. Our father, who has gone through two amputations in the last 18 months, and spent months in hospital and in therapy, had come home only to suffer another set back of a stroke. My sister is the one who has spent hours upon hours running my father to all his appointments, sitting bedside with him either keeping him company or giving him a quick shave and cut, a trade she learned in high school but never pursued. She is the person who ran our mother back and forth to radiation and chemo when she was diagnosed with colon cancer this past year. My mom had a heart attack soon after and my sister is the one who took care of her. She paid attention when the nurses would visit my parents at home and if a problem arose on the days the nurses weren't at my parents', she is who handled it.
Its easy for me to say that Chrissie handled my parents due to me and our other sister living so far away, but in reality, she did it because it's who she is. She did everything in her power, to get the Veterans department to recognize my father disabilities, and was able to get him a grant to have his home handicap accessible. She found the contractors to do the work, and my parents home is currently under construction.

She is a "basketball mom" to her oldest son, there for every practice and every game. She is currently over seeing a coat drive, for the needy and homeless, that her son started, as part of community service for his confirmation. Her youngest has also been in need of some special services for which she has had to work with CHOP and get him to appointments. She has a pretty full schedule to say the least.

She herself has had two cancer scares in the last six months.

She would love having the boys pictures done by you. She deserves this, more than any other person I can think of! I can't think of a better gift for her!!"

And, I couldn't agree more! So here is just a snapshot of some of the images from our session together.

Ocean City Family Session (Philadelphia Area Family Photographer)

Awhile ago I was contacted by a friend to see if I would be interested in photographing her extended family at the beach. We were exchanging text messages and I have to admit that I thought it was a case of autocorrect when she said it would be about 50 people. Wow!

Of course I accepted the challenge and made the arrangements with her lovely mother in law to get all the details worked out. For weeks I thought through the possible arrangements of 46 people in a single shot on the beach. When the day finally arrived I was excited and admittedly a little nervous about getting that many people into one shot on the beach where conditions and surroundings can be unpredictable.

Unfortunately, the weather decided to make things even more interesting. About 45 minutes before our scheduled time MAJOR thunderstorms began to roll through. High winds and a lot of rain were pounding the area. Soon there was flooding. Weather reports said the storms would be fast moving, but after awhile, it was still raining. My client called and asked what my thoughts were about trying to do it inside their beach house. I headed right over because I knew how important it was to get the pictures done since family was there from overseas and Alaska, and that evening was the only time everyone would be there.

It took some furniture displacement, corralling all the little kids that were having a ball running around the empty room, and some wading through the flooded street by almost half the family, but we worked together to make it happen.


It was such a pleasure to work with this wonderful family! Even in hot, humid conditions, everyone was really great.

Thank you for trusting me with capturing this rare moment. I can honestly see why all of you enjoy getting together as often as possible.