If I had to pick a “best” season for headshots, it’s NOW. Why? Well, let’s take a moment to reflect on Kate’s cat, above.

She is perfectly happy sitting in the sun for her headshot. If it were summer, she’d be too hot. December? Too busy buying cat treats for kitty friends. Spring? Too many new little critters to chase around in the pale green leaves (which cast an icky reflection on human skin. Ew). Fall is good too, but second to fall, NOW is a great time!

If it were summer, do you think I’d be able to get Kate to wear that GREAT red sweater?

Plus, since I come to you for headshots, you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your own home (read: full access to your wardrobe). AND, I can’t help capturing the animals while I’m there. Check out the pets portfolio on my main web site. I LOVE shooting animals!

Wait. That didn’t come out right.

Take it from a pro: the best place from which to take snow pictures is the bedroom window.

These were taken last Friday, the first official snow day of the year, but I’ve been so busy I couldn’t get around to posting them until today.

They are eerily similar to pictures I posted last year! Take a look here.

Isn’t he cute? (Sweet too! He’s my Big Cricket!)

He does have moments of strangeness though. (Mike’s making a snow angel when Gregory suddenly decides to brush the snow from his dad’s face. Ew!)

Bwaaaaa-ha-ha!

Bradley is a very reluctant photo subject these days.

But who can resist a smile on a Friday snow day!

This short squirrel movie
stars Twirly, a squirrel so-named for regularly feeding happily from the “squirrel-proof” bird feeder while doing gymnastics. When the little show is finished (be sure to turn up the sound), it will twirl back here. Feel free to leave a comment telling me to get back to work already and stop watching the twirling squirrel.



Or, for a completely different diversion, click here to read an excerpt from “Boyhood Days in Old Metuchen” by David Trumbull Marshall. In this chapter, Dr. Marshall wrote about a squirrel he was obsessed with when he was 12, circa 1877, right here in my town. I love the last two paragraphs from that chapter the best:

“I tried for a long time to take a photograph of the squirrel on the outside and the two cats and the dog on the inside, but to get the combination of two cats and a dog and a good light and the proper hour of the day and time to make the exposures, took me more than two months.

“I put my camera on a step-ladder outside of the window and rigged a string from the inside of the house to the trigger of the camera, but what with not having a white background for the black cats and what with the scraping of the string on the window-sill and what with two or three neighbors’ cats trying to catch Susie from the outside, I had some job getting even so good a picture as I did get.”

I HEAR YOU DR. MARSHALL!! Squirrels and photographs, who can resist?

DESIGN 20: FRONT



DESIGN 20: INSIDE
Message: “Ours was a Lego Christmas…Here’s wishing your 2008 will be just as fun.”



DESIGN 20: BACK
Specs: Vertical 5×7 card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread, folded in the middle.
This is my family! Every year we try to get out for some “family shots,” setting the camera up on a tripod and using the camera’s timer to get at least one semi-decent picture of all of us. This SOUNDS like a good idea, but honestly, it’s HARD! Plus, the picture always looks very posed and stiff, which is part of the problem with setting the camera on a timer. It’s like the countdown to a blastoff — very tense! So someday, I hope to connect with some other photographers and trade off on family shots!

So hard to coordinate though. Take my family as an example. We couldn’t get it together to take our Christmas card pictures until Christmas Day! But the reasons were solid. The first weekend we had planned was a total washout. The following weekend was also a total washout. And the weekend after that I was sick and not feeling like doing much of anything. So, Christmas Day, it wasn’t raining. Everyone was well. Out we went!

What I love about this design — As most of my clients who’ve visited my home know, Bradley and Gregory are obsessed with Legos. My living room is like The Lego Store. This card certainly captures that — my pet name for this card is “We All Live in a Lego World,” which is why I photoshopped Bradley and Gregory into the Lego snowglobe picture on the front.

The inside spread picture was taken the day after Christmas when I took Bradley and Gregory into New York to go to FAO Schwartz and Toys R Us to spend some of their “Lego money.” (Yes, they got Lego money for Christmas. Those kids needed more Legos like I need another Lego hole in my knee.) But, my boys were thrilled that Toys R Us in Times Square had brand new Indiana Jones Lego sets that weren’t available anywhere else! WOO HOO! (Mom’s a hero!) I snapped the picture in the 15th floor cafeteria lounge of The New York Times. It was almost dark outside, and quite dark inside too, making for interesting colors and contrasts. (Love the deep blue outside the windows.) I didn’t have any special equipment to boost the lighting, so it’s just fluorescent ceiling light, certainly not the best lighting situation. But sometimes, you just have to go with a great picture regardless of the overall quality. I LOVE Gregory’s expression. It goes so well with the “here’s wishing your 2008 will be just as fun” sentiment! And of course, Bradley’s “I’m cool” face is SO THIRTEEN! As I’ve been known to say, it’s about the moment!

BUT WHAT I LOVE MOST is the tiny little set of pictures on the back of the card. There’s one that shows Bradley and me from our 2006 holiday card, and one that shows him and me exactly one year later.
HE GREW SO MUCH! Be warned, ladies, get lots of pictures of your little boys because some day they’re almost certainly going to be taller than you! (Bradley is king of the eye roll!)

THE CONTEST: Since the 19th post (”Jack’s First Christmas”) marked the last of the holiday card posts, I’ll start today by turning off the comments on each card one-by-one. It’s only fair to give all the families as much time to gather comment posts as the first cards to be posted had. Once Jack’s card has been up as long as the first one was, I’ll announce the finalists!

If you haven’t been playing all along, you can still win the big prize of a free family session! It just takes a little strategizing: you have to visit the blog everyday and you have to figure out which cards you posted comments on and which ones you missed. You don’t have to say something nice about the design, a simple “awwwww” will do! Several people are in the running for the big prize but even if today is your first day on the blog, you can still win, so KEEP PLAYING! (If you’re wondering where your friend’s card is, some clients’ cards aren’t posted for privacy reasons.)

REMEMBER: post one comment per day on a different design to WIN!

Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!

Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!

What do you do when you’ve locked yourself out of the house? TAKE PICTURES!

Above: 2 o’clock moon through my October Glory red maple.

I often think of winter as boring because of the bare trees.

Above: two red maples. Foreground: my Red Sunset red maple.

Because looking up at sticks in the sky just gets kind of old after a while. But I like these pictures so much, maybe I’ll rethink that!

Above: Foreground: I have no idea what kind of bush this is. Background: my neighbor’s red maple.

Interesting — there is absolutely no wind today. Check out how my purple leaf plum is growing in the direction of the west. I’m not sure why it’s doing that. Could be reaching for the most sun exposure, or perhaps this is the direction of the prevailing wind and the tree’s just used to flowing that way. (I think the prevailing wind comes from the northwest though, so that really doesn’t make much sense. I’m betting the tree’s reaching for sun.)

Aristocrat pear bud this season. Yes, the same one from this famous little “year in the life” slide show of a few years ago.
(That slide show takes a minute or so to load, but it’s SO worth the wait.)

Two days after a little snowstorm, Gregory wishes for more, and is thankful I’ve locked us out of the house so that he can play in the playground at school. Note to self: keep spare key in pocket.

DESIGN 19: FRONT



DESIGN 19: INSIDE
Message: “May your holidays be merry and bright.”

The card was signed under the little picture.



DESIGN 19: BACK
Specs: Vertical 5×7 card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread, folded in the middle.
Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!

What I love about this design — TALK about a keepsake! Mom and dad will NEVER forget Jack’s first Christmas card. At least I hoped they wouldn’t when I was designing it! I love the Christmas lights on the front, and the cute pictures of Jack in his little Santa hat are just ADORABLE! He’s so cute with mom and dad in his derby on the back too.

This post marks the last of the holiday card posts, well, there is ONE more, but you can’t vote on that one because it’s MINE! One-by-one I will disable comments on the cards that have already been posted, up to the point that Jack’s card is up as long as the first one was. Then the tallying of comments will begin! If you haven’t been playing all along, you can still win the big prize of a free family session! It just take a little strategizing: you have to visit the blog everyday and you have to figure out which cards you posted comments on and which ones you missed. You don’t have to say something nice about the design, a simple “awwwww” will do! Several people are in the running for the big prize but even if today is your first day on the blog, you can still win, so KEEP PLAYING! (If you’re wondering where your friend’s card is, some clients’ cards aren’t posted for privacy reasons.)

Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!

Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!

…except maybe this cute picture of my little basketball friend!

He’s on the sidelines at every game watching his big brother play on the same team that my Gregory plays on.

No games this week, so instead, just a little reminder of Gregory’s favorite thing: Saturday at the basketball court. Happy Valentine’s Day, my love!

This is the routine: Come home. Check window. See squirrel inside birdfeefer. Run outside. Throw football. Fix feeder roof.

Throw football again. Then, come inside and relax, only to check the window again a few minutes later.

Look! A little chipmunk under the feeder!

Isn’t he cute? Awww…

DESIGN 18: FRONT



DESIGN 18: INSIDE
Message: “May your holidays be joyful and bright.” The card was signed under the little picture.



DESIGN 18: BACK
Specs: Vertical 5×7 card on archival linen with the inside design spanning the inside spread, folded in the middle.
Do you know this family? Help them win a prize by leaving a comment about their card design!

What I love about this design — LOVE the colors of this card — the reds of the girls’ dresses, plus the greenish-brown-tinted front with distressed borders and that pretty yellow inside. But what I love most is the fact that there are actually not one, not two, but THREE pictures of these girls on this card. And it’s no accident that the message on the front of the card says “peace.” The girls dropped by my house one morning in their beautiful holiday dresses with mom’s goal of a back-to-back picture for their Christmas card. We shot for about an hour. Those three pictures were the only three I considered even acceptable! It was TOO FUNNY, like a comedy scene actually, and the main reason I don’t shoot traditional posed children’s portraits! I believe that the girls are looking at my cat walking in front of them in the cover shot. When I saw that beautiful picture in the mess of hundreds of blooper shots, I think I may have actually screamed! And there was peace in my heart.

Click here for contest details, but be sure to click your browser’s “back” button to get back to this post so that you can leave a comment about THIS card design, especially if you are commenting in order to help your friends win the prize!

Cheers! And thanks for visiting the blog!

When The Oprah Show needs a jaw-dropping focal point for a room-remodel, they call the same company I use for printing photographs on canvas.

At least, that’s the rumor I heard. The segment, Nate Builds a Dream House, will be on today, so be sure to watch!

The canvases shown here are not on Oprah though. These are in my clients’ home. Special thanks to Tracey and Mike for letting me come over to photograph their wall displays! The montage above is made up of six 12×12 canvas wraps. These have natural canvas edges, a design choice we made partly because the original images didn’t have a lot of room for cropping on the top and bottom.

This one looks stunning in black and white. Sixty inches wide by 33 inches tall, it has the image wrapped all the way around the edges. These gorgeous canvasses are considered the Norman Rockwell of home decor these days. It’s great because not only do you get beautiful art for your home, you also get treasured heirlooms that can be passed down for generations. I LOVE canvas wraps! Can’t wait to see the one on Oprah today!

Thanks again, Tracey and Mike, for letting me photograph your beautiful home!