Here’s another post from the Metuchen pool from a few weeks ago. See below for more awesome pictures and some underwater ones taken my awesome photography assistant, Jack. Above, dad and daughter are playing helicopter.

I was lucky the whole family was there!

LOVE Jack’s spikey hair!

Here you go, Jack — an underwater picture of your daddy! How cool is that?

That’s a great angle for Ryan. I’ll have to remember that for our next shoot.

Grex was there too and Jack was doing a great job taking pictures of him. Thanks, Jack! I’ll be putting this one in MY album!

I took this one with the underwater camera.

But I took this one with my regular camera.

FAVE!

Here’s another one Jack took. Great job, Jack!

Love this picture of Katie having fun taking pictures with my camera! It’s so cool to take that Canon D10 underwater point-and-shoot to the pool because people have so much fun playing with it.

Check out this sequence. Grex was taking pictures of Katie going underwater holding Jack…

…and I was on the cement taking pictures of them taking pictures.

Here’s Grex’s picture.

And here’s mine! Love these!

Jack took this one too. Great framing, Jack!

This one is cool of Grex taking Katie and Jack’s picture.

Here’s Grex’s picture with the underwater camera. What a difference in the quality of the point-and-shoot and the quality of my pro camera, huh? Well, I hope you can see the difference!

Great smile, Jack! These pictures are going to be an AWESOME addition to your Wonder Years album!

This is so cool because Jack wanted pictures of him and his sister. Collective “awwwwwww.” So Katie was taking the pictures from the pool, and I was doing my photographer thing and moving all around for the best light, well, and because Charlotte didn’t really want to turn the way Jack wanted her to turn.

Look! There’s me!

Here’s the picture I got from the angle Charlotte wanted to be looking in. Love it!

Isn’t she adorable? Remember her pictures from a few months ago when everybody was calling her “mohawk baby”? She lost the mohawk!

This is Charlotte saying, “no no no.” Love it. So serious.

Jack took this one of Grex and me. LOVE LOVE LOVE Jack’s toes in the shot! That makes me smile, Jack! You’re an awesome photography assistant!

I wish I had a picture of me playing in the pool with my boys when they were little.

Jack took this one of Charlotte. Love it! (But it does point out one problem with the underwater camera — the white balance shifts wildly. See how red her skin is? And I probably took the red down several notches already in Photoshop. (Processed these a few weeks ago and now I don’t really remember how many passes of “get the red out” I gave this file.)

This just might be my favorite picture of Charlotte so far! Love it!

Time to go home. Love this sweet picture of Jack all wrapped up in a towel. Thanks again, Jack! You really were a great photo assistant! I’ll be calling you in the future to help me with more underwater pictures. How does that sound? See you soon!

Judging by the shrill screams of the kids who swam in the Mad River, that is one cold body of water! This is the third post of several highlighting some of my favorite shots from our trip to Vermont in last summer. Above, I stayed warm and dry on the bank while the kids and John demonstrated how you get to the other side. See below for more fun pictures from our day of hanging out in and around Vermont’s Mad River.

Of course, while we were there, we had to take a few family pictures with the Mad River Valley as our backdrop.

Before the swimming, there was the climbing and jumping…

…and wading…

…and falling down…

She is proving how mighty brave she is by going into that water. At this point I was figuring they’d get about knee deep before heading back to shore. That was was COLD.

Can you hear the screaming?

More screaming.

But he’s not screaming. He’s staying calm and brave.

Ta da! Made it to the other side!

Not sure if you can see the pain in John’s face, but trust me, there’s pain.

How do you like John’s self portrait with my underwater camera? It’s awesome! I couldn’t believe how clear the river was! That underwater camera (a Canon D10 point-and-shoot) has been a great investment! You’ll notice, however, that I did not get into that water. Oh no. Not me. You want underwater pictures in that cold river, you’re taking them yourself!

Paige and I are like soul sisters, staying on the river bank, happily watching the kids and John.

We got lots of nice portraits of their awesome dog, too. He’s a labradoodle — a dog breed that is suitable for people with allergies to dander and fur. Everywhere we went, people loved to pet him. He’s such a sweet doggie!

So anyway, yeah, the kids had a great time swimming in the Mad River. I don’t know how they can stand it, but I throughly enjoyed watching!

Doesn’t look so bad as I type this from this banks of this hot laptop, I have to admit.

The dog went in too, by the way — lots more pictures of him coming to a future blog post in my Vermont series.

She doesn’t look too much like an icicle.

FAVE!

Now THAT looks warm and cozy!

Click the links below to read more of my “Late Summer in Vermont” series:
Part 1: Scenes of Late Summer in Vermont
Part 2: Vermont’s Late Summer Harvest
Part 3: Vermont’s Mad River is Brrrrrrrrr

On our trip last summer to Vermont with John and Paige, I enjoyed the brief time we were treated to fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms. This is the second post of several highlighting some of my favorite shots from our trip to Vermont in the summer of 2009. See the first post by clicking here. Above, I had fun taking pictures at the farmer’s market in Waitsfield. See below for more pictures of Vermont’s beautiful flowers and produce.

Flower growers provided plenty of opportunities for people to start decorating for fall.

In addition to produce at the market, there was also a variety of locally produced cheeses.

Since we were situated in Vermont’s Mad River Valley, it was appropriate to try some of the various breads produced using grain grown in the area. See my previous post for beautiful scenes of Vermont’s farmland in late summer.

The Clay Brook resort’s restaurant uses many spices and vegetables grown in their own garden at the base of the ski slopes. While I was taking early morning pictures of the gardens, a chef came outside many times to gather spices, tomatoes and zucchini.

The garden was a morning feast for my eyes!

I liked the fact that most of the plants were labeled.

The variety of color was beautiful.

We’re going back again this year, except this year, we’re going at the peak of leaf season, or at least I hope it will be the peak of leaf season. It’s been so hot and dry in New Jersey this summer that leaf season probably won’t be very spectacular here. I wonder how hot and dry it’s been in the Mad River Valley this summer. The perfect conditions for a beautiful fall leaf show usually include seasonably average rainfall (not too much, not too little) with hot days throughout summer turning to drier fall weather with warm days and cool nights.

The chef at Clay Brook didn’t pick any of these for the breakfast preparations on the day I was photographing.

It’s always a good idea to get up early for the riches colors in photographs. You can get rich colors at dusk too, but at dusk there’s more people around and produce would be drier from the day’s sunlight.

Someone’s been eating these I think. I saw a few rabbits hopping about.

Macro lens is a must for this kind of photography.

The garden has quite a variety!

Eggplant.

But I have to admit, I don’t know what most of the plants are.

I just like the colors.

Beautiful! Check back soon in the Vermont category for lots more fun pictures from our trip!

Click here to see Part 1 in my “Late Summer in Vermont” series.

One of the best days of the year to walk around the Princeton University campus has to be graduation day. Other than the grounds in front of Nassau Hall, the place is deserted!

For part of the graduation ceremony, Sharon and her family were standing by the gates at Nassau Hall looking in…

…because the last place you want to be is in the hot sun trying to keep your 2-year-old entertained and quiet during graduation speeches.

Lucy had an eventful week leading up to the graduation, and by the time the ceremony rolled around, she was exhausted. But I love this mother/daughter graduation picture! Sharon received her doctorate degree from Princeton. Congratulations, Sharon!

For most of the ceremony, we walked around the empty campus taking pictures of Sharon and Mike’s favorite places…

…and Sharon and Mike’s favorite little person!

Lucy wasn’t dreadfully sleepy the whole time though. She seemed to enjoy being the center of attention while hanging out in the back of the van in a parking lot. Just goes to show: you never know where the best photo shoot locations might be!

As Sharon donned her robe, Lucy sat comfortably in the back of the van.

She loved mommy’s hat.

When I took this picture, I was remembering the days when I used to walk with my sons holding their hands mostly to keep them safe. They are both too big for hand-holding now. That’s why I love capturing the little hands and big hands in my photographs.

Sharon and Mike are so much fun to hang around with! Even though Lucy was sleepy and a little bit cranky, her parents were still having a great time together and just going with the flow.

As we walked around campus, we occasionally came across other people who had the same idea — entertaining the little ones whose parents were at the ceremony. I love this picture and how it shows the elaborate backside of Sharon’s doctorate robes. As a graduate of Princeton University’s doctorate program, she will wear these robes at any university’s graduation she attends as a faculty member.

You’ve probably seen this classic Princeton University classroom in a movie or two.

Meg Ryan and Tim Robbins were in that room, along with many notable Princeton graduates, I’m sure…

…But how many of them took a nap behind the lectern?

Even though Sharon didn’t really hang out with the other graduates during the graduation speeches, she did have a very memorable graduation day. If you’d like to see the slide show, send me a message or leave a comment or email Sharon and Mike.

FAVE!

Sleepy girl, and so beautiful!

During the lineup of graduates, Sharon hung around talking to friends.

And lots of other people were walking around taking pictures and congratulating Sharon. In those robes, it’s hard not to know you must be a graduate.

I loved watching people react to Sharon in her robes playing with her daughter.

Still, it seemed like Lucy would enjoy our time better if she had a little nap. Some quiet time under the archway seemed like a good idea.

…And Lucy fell fast asleep. Yay!

Congratulations again, Sharon! It turned out to be a great day!

Last summer, in late August, we went to Vermont to capture the vacation lifestyle of our friends, John and Paige. We had a great time but I never had a chance to blog the pictures and, well, NOW is as good a time as any!

This is the first of several posts highlighting some of my favorite shots from the trip. Above, I hiked up the mountain around 4:30 a.m. so I could be in position when the sun came up. See below for more!

I was a little nervous once I got up the mountain. I guess next time I should bring something with me in case I need to scare off a bear or something. I LOVE how the pictures came out! The blue haze in the valley added a depth to the scene that was intriguing.

We were staying at the Clay Brook resort which was designed on the outside like an old barn. On the inside, though — not barn-like at ALL. Modern, comfortable and has everything you’d need on the mountain.

We were there in 2009 during the last week of August/first week of September. There was a very subtle touch of color in the leaves which made Paige and I long to stay all the way through mid-October. For this year — I’m getting chills just thinking about this — we are going up to see the leaves in October. We’ve been planning this for a YEAR! By the way, isn’t that cloud above the mountain so interesting?

Most trees weren’t showing this much color when we were there, but this little red maple was fully red. It was a young tree that had been recently planted and was probably dropping its leaves early to reduce transplant stress. Trees are smart like that.

But my favorite place to be in Vermont at this time of year is not at the top of the mountain. The color palette of late summer in the valleys and farm land was stunning in late summer. And that’s why I waited a whole year to blog about these images. I wanted them to be relevant to the season, and last year, by the time we got back I had thousands of pictures to go through. By the time I went through them all, it was November!

We were hiking along the Mad River Trail.

It was a gorgeous day. I’m so thankful that I was in that place at that time with great camera equipment to capture the beauty and have it to look at now to remember what a great time I had with my family and Paige and John’s family. I am truly blessed to have such great friends and such great photo clients.

This image of Paige and her son walking in the Mad River Valley is one of my all-time favorites. I love images that capture a scene and tell a story of family relationships too.

I took this shot in case I someday needed to remember where I was. I HAVE to go back to that trail in the fall!

I kept falling behind the group, finding interesting details to capture.

It was nearing harvest time.

The children enjoyed inspecting the corn.

I LOVE this picture! It’s one of those perfect pictures that capture the essence of late summer.

I took this picture while riding the ski lift to the top of the mountain. At the time, I was so excited to be in a position to capture the scene that I was completely fearless of falling or dropping any of my camera equipment. I realized later that not only was I not strapped in, but turning around and digging through my camera bag for various lenses and things and NOT paying attention to how far up I was, or how far down I’d fall.

All’s well that ends well.

John and Paige were standing in front of their favorite Vermont places, the Village Creeme Stand in Bristol, Vermont. Best ice cream in Vermont if you ask them, and I agree, it was excellent!

We had a fun afternoon at the Shelburne Museum and got plenty of beautiful pictures there. More coming in future blog posts!

We were lucky the day we went to the Shelburne Museum because a balloon festival was planned. When we first got there, it was too windy to launch the balloons, but just as we were walking toward the car to go back to our apartment, the balloons started to rise! Yay!

While we were waiting for the sunset launch of the balloons, I was wandering around checking out the scenery.

That one was my favorite balloon!

That was a cool picture too.

Little touch of sunflare in this one, but I like it.

T-shirt seller at a craft fair had the light shining on this one. I loved it! Lots more Vermont pictures coming soon! But let me know if you’d like to see John and Paige’s awesome slide show from our trip. It was by far one of my all-time favorites!

Click here to see part 2 in my “Late Summer in Vermont” series.

My photographer-friend, Chelo, had her baby this morning. Lots more pictures below!

He is so adorable! He was born this morning and I was so happy that I could visit Chelo and Anthony and their new baby in the hospital.

I love this picture.

He is grandma’s first grandchild, and this is her first look at him!

First time grandma touched him.

First time grandma held him.

I love this picture.

Isn’t he the most perfect baby you’ve ever seen? NO photoshop on this picture at all. Nada. Nothing. Wow!

Yesterday was Chelo and Anthony’s wedding anniversary! Sweet gift, huh? I love that! I also love the “It’s a boy!” balloons in the background. Oh, and incidentally, in Chelo’s blog pool, you might notice that I was pretty close in my date/gender/weight guesses!

This is a heart-melting picture if I ever saw one!

Check it out! The baby has a heart-shaped birthmark on his chin! Are we in LOVE with this baby, or WHAT?!

Such tiny feet.

I’ve known Chelo for a long time via photography forums and blog comments and emails and I’ve referred her scores of times when I was booked but today was the first time I’d ever met her in person. Gotta say, she’s really cool for letting me come take pictures of her new baby. I’m SO glad to have finally met her and Anthony, and her mom and of course the baby!

FAVE!

FAVE! We were trying desperately to get him to open his eyes for me, but he was a sleepy baby when I was there. Chelo said he had been awake earlier, but that he was pretty conked out when I came in the afternoon.

Love this one too!

Anthony: “Hmmm, I wonder where my son will go to college.”

From a father’s point of view.

I think I should stop writing captions and just let the pictures speak for themselves. But I just gotta say — this is going to be the most photographed baby ever!

Isn’t he just the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?

Such perfect skin!

The hospital room was pretty dark, and I wanted to capture the quiet nature of the moment, so I exposed the pictures to capture the ambience of the room.

Anthony was trying to get him to wake up for me. No such luck. But we get to see him again in a few weeks when I get to take more pictures of the family at home!

Congratulations Anthony and Chelo! May you have many wonderful days of snuggling with your beautiful anniversary gift!

How to take great underwater pictures? Give camera to kids. Voila! Ok, but there are some actual tips in this post, so keep reading…

The first tip for great underwater pictures is to get into the pool.

Helps if you can swim as good as Haydon can.

Look at him go!

The best underwater pictures happen on bright, sunny days when the water is clear…

…and when the kids are comfortable and happy, like Haydon.

He can easily go underwater and hold his breath. Great job!

Helps a lot if you have a friend nearby too.

Go under, and look directly at the camera. Don’t forget to smile or make a goofy face!

When you come back up, it’s so fun to chimp! (Chimp = “look at pictures on back of camera.”)

If you’re the underwater photographer, look for ways to make a shot especially interesting, like this one that Rebekah took. I love the reflection!

She loved it too!

The other half of the family was there too.

But I couldn’t get her interested in my underwater camera. Maybe next year.

I love it when I go to the Metuchen pool and hand my underwater camera to friends. I never know what’s going to be on the camera when I get home!

I am so impressed with the swimming skills of the young people of Metuchen! I wasn’t able to swim underwater until I was 7 — the summer my brother threw me in the deep end. I came up screaming and crying like a maniac but 10 minutes later I was a FISH! Thank you, Joe!

I am also impressed with the people who can dive off the diving board. I always had a fear of jumping into things headfirst. I did eventually learn to dive off diving boards, but it always made me a little nervous. In this picture, I love how her hands are in the perfect position. Nice job!

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time at all, you’ll know that I LOVE pictures of dads playing with their children.

When I give the underwater camera to people to play with, I often end up with some cool, artistic shots. This one, for example, has such a calm blue color, and yet the turbulence of the water is intense.

Whoever took that shot — nice job on the underwater action! That’s not easy to do!

I was on the side trying to get a family picture for them. Love this one! It’s so playful and sweet.

I’m guessing their older daughter took this one. Love it!

Thanks for letting me post your awesome family day on my blog! Email me or leave a comment and I’ll send you the full size jpgs!

I am so glad we joined the Metuchen pool this summer. In summers past, we didn’t always join — so many excuses: no money, no time, too much trouble to get there. But this year, Grex was old enough to be on his own in the pool, and it was a great way for him to get some much needed exercise.

And so is the Grex!

We love that underwater camera too.

Grex took this one.

And this one.

Those are my feet! Happy feet!

I took that one. That underwater camera is kind of like a Gump camera. You never know what you’re gonna git.

That’s ME, courtesy of the Grex.

Just think — before the summer began, he wouldn’t even jump off the side of the pool. I mean, there’s this wide metal drain thing so it’s not like you can just jump in. You have to jump OUT and IN at the same time, so it takes a little guts the first time you do it.

Go Grex!

NOW look at him!

I wanted to see what would happen to the camera if Grex splashed as much as he possibly could. Note to self: next time I try this, it might be a good idea to wear a bathing suit as opposed to street clothes. I got SOAKED. (Which felt really good since it was so hot out.)

See those blue goggles? Those were Grex’s favorite ones. He left them by the side of the slide one day because you’re not allowed to wear goggles down the slide, and when he came back up the ladder, the goggles were gone. Boo hoo. If you found them, we’d love to have them back!

That’s a wrap for today!

On the front of Charlotte’s newborn announcement is a line of very subtle type that says, “Welcome baby girl, we loved you before we knew you.” I love the photograph we used on the front. Charlotte is being held by both mom and dad. I took the picture in evening light on their back deck with Charlotte’s dad wearing a black t-shirt as our backdrop as he held her.

Here’s the back of the card. I love the sequence of photographs that show Charlotte’s family picture with her big brother’s various expressions: looks to me like jealousy, curiosity and happiness. The actual card also included the family’s last name, in case you were wondering about that. I love this design! It’s so elegant and I love the soft rose color we used as a tribute to Charlotte’s middle name.