2012 High School Seniors are a whole new breed.  Take this handsome young man.  Not only does he have a perfect smile, he is a track star, super intelligent and he has an incredible personality!   I know beyond a doubt he will be successful wherever life takes him!

I’m sorry I’ve been out of town for the past week, but the sweet little one shown above *finally* made her arrival into this world and we couldn’t wait to meet her!  I haven’t been home yet for a full 24 hours, but the emails have been answered, the phone calls returned and I believe I am up to date on photography inquiries for maternity and newborn sessions.  If you’re pregnant and expecting a baby within the next couple months, please contact me sooner than later – my calendar is filling up fast!  I usually recommend maternity portraits between 32-35 weeks gestation and newborn sessions are best done when baby is less than 2 weeks old.  Reminder: I do portrait sessions both on location and in my home studio.  If you have any questions, use the contact button above.  I typically answer emails within 24 hours.  Thanks again for your patience!

The safe arrival of this sweet little man was eagerly anticipated by many people!  Lucky for us, he had a perfect sense of timing!  His charming personality continued to shine throughout my photo session with this adorable newborn.  I could have cuddled this little guy all day!

There is some planning in every photography session.  There are a plethora of emails exchanged prior to the session, making sure all participants are on the same page.  In the studio, I make sure I have the right backdrops hanging and on location I need to pack the right props, make sure my batteries are charged and double check the directions – whether I’m headed to a newborn photo session in Columbia or a family portraits in Towson.  But this session took a little extra planning – OK, A LOT of extra planning!   This GORGEOUS couple had to wait a but longer than usual for their little bun in the oven and I am absolutely positive she is worth the wait!  I know she will be welcomed with much love when she finally makes her arrival – just about any day now… I can’t hardly wait to meet her!

I am late to the iPhone nation, but I did recently join to masses and oh yes – I ADORE it!  My last phone didn’t use apps, so a whole new word of technology has opened up to me.  I asked for some recommendations and Pandora got mentioned a few times.  So yes, now I love my phone and I love Pandora!  When driving with kids in the car, I put on a Disney song station and my son goes NUTS trying to call out what movie a song may be from.  I have been a fan of Broadway since high school and when kids aren’t in the car, I tend to pull up songs from Wicked, Hairspray, and Rent.  One song from Rent in particular struck a chord with me this morning – “No Day But Today.”  As I worked on this family’s portraits, the words kept popping into my head:

“There’s only now
There’s only here
Give in to love
Or live in fear
No other path
No other way
No day but today”

It isn’t a secret that the momma of these beautiful kids has cancer.  But she has some incredibly gifted physicians from THE Johns Hopkins Hospital on her side, not to mention the love and support from so many wonderful people.  The moral of the story is to cherish today.  Hug your family close, tell them they are loved – with words and actions.  Shannon and I try very hard not to dwell on the negativity that cancer can bring, so it is my hope that you see the love and beauty in this family when you look at her images.  If you are wondering what you might be able to do to help, shoot me an email or consider a donation to a special charity.  Believe it or not, Shannon will be SHAVING her head on March 25th to help raise money for St. Baldrick’s Foundation.  The link to her sponsorship page is: http://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/mypage/500049/2012.   Please consider a donation for this incredible woman – or – think about shaving your own head with this incredible charity.

There is no greater compliment than to have a repeat client.  To know that my images are that important to someone that they will come back over and over again is an incredible honor!  And LUCKY me – I have been able to photograph this family a good number of times!!!  Big brother was one of my first baby planners and little brother Eli simply couldn’t be left out of the family tradition!  Here they are at Eli’s 6 month session with an added bonus when we got the whole family in for a few photographs.  I can’t hardly wait for the one year session!

When I photographed this adorable family, a couple of things were obvious.  Number one, little Olivia is BEYOND adorable and number two – her parents are completely and absolutely in love with this sweet little angel.  It was an honor and a privilege to be the photographer for this precious newborn baby and her family!

A sweet squishy face and one super adorable big sister awaited me when I arrived in Columbia, Maryland for this on location newborn session.  Our strategy was simple, give baby a bath about 30 minutes before my arrival and he would be conked out for most of our session.  Big sister was on home turf, so she had plenty of room to roam and toys to play with while I was busy with her little brother.  At a few intervals during the session, I’d have him set up for a shot and we’d bring in big sis for a few images.  When baby boy was eating or busy, I’d do some individual pictures of big sis.  It was a system that worked out really well and one of the reasons I encourage on location newborn sessions when a sibling is going to be participating.

This little girl is the kind of baby every mother dreams of.  Number one – she is gorgeous, just look at that sweet smile – how lucky was I to photograph that sweet little grin?  And that hair!  Flowers and bows and :sigh: we had SO much fun during her newborn photo session!   I can’t hardly wait for her 6 month appointment!  I am so curious to see if her eyes change to brown, like moms – in the meantime, they are a gorgeous slate grey color.  I hope her personality doesn’t change too much – she was so sweet and relaxed, easy going and slept for just about our entire photo shoot.