The also had all the needed accessories…

A photographer -

A maid -

and each other -

Congratulations to both of you!

Then they gave me the whopper – do anything you want.  I was talking with my friend Andrea about this just the other day.  That kind of freedom immediately makes the mind go blank!

I managed to pull it together and we had a great, and hot, night shooting in Willoughby near the Chagrin River.   They were up for anything I threw at them and the shots came out great because of that.

After walking the trials for an hour we finally ended up down by the river. It was a much appreciated too since we were all hot and tired by that point. Just splashing around for a few minutes gave us all some energy.

We made it back to the parking lot with just enough time to for the boys to flip a few tricks on their skateboards before we had to call it night.

It really was a great session. We’re already talking about getting back together this fall to do it all again!

Thanks Michelle and Lynda!

I owe these guys a lot of thanks. They brought all us all along for a fun ride on hot summer nights. Easily one of the best coaching experiences I’ve ever had. The guys I coached with were great. The parents of these young kids were great. It was just fun and that was because everybody involved was just there to have a good time.

Since I coach, I don’t often get to take any pictures of them in action and nothing was different on this night. Once the game started I had to hand the camera over to my wife. I did take the pregame time to snap off a few shots of the kids though.

This is my son looking just a little focused. Or he’s sick of me taking his picture….

The crew for the Captain’s went all out too. They had us up on the Jumbotron. Too bad they didn’t tell us how to put out team names on the board. I guess Bay Village and Strongsville played the day before us.

And that’s me coaching first base. Most of my duties consisted of yelling “run, Run, RUN!”. Occasionally, I’d switch it up to “Go! GO! GO!”

Thanks again to all the parents, coaches and kids involved. It was a great season!

Except for one big family photo I did a year or so ago with the Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins, I usually only shoot Austin and Olivia.  This time around they wanted some nice and simple family shots in their yard – and it’s a great big yard that’s perfect for pictures.

And at the end of every shoot we have a little fun – mostly to burn off some of the sugar from all the Smarties they eat while we’re taking pictures!

The whole group is six kids all under eight years old – ranging from two to eight for realz (my wife just told me I was using “actually” too much).   How hard is it to get eight kids to look at you?

Actually (doh!), it’s not as bad as that looks. I was testing out the lighting and told them to relax.

Here is what’s cool about photographer’s kids. I just put mine on the log and got it one shot.

For me, the best shots came at the end of the session. I told them to just play. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – nothing beats taking a picture of a child just being a child.

And, ACTUALLY, that’s all I have to say in the post.