Geoff and I photographed Erin and Jessica’s wedding 10 years ago in 2015, which is so hard to believe! They’ve since had an AMAZING daughter, and this year I was tasked with photographing some multigenerational photos with Erin, Jessica, their daughter, and Jessica’s mom Elizabeth. We had an incredible time at Blackwood Farm Park in Chapel Hill. We took portraits, a picnic was packed, freeze dried mangos were turned into mustaches, and races were won and lost on a hill with a lone tree. Erin and Jessica have been in my CSP life for so long and I was feeling all the feels working with them again and interacting with their intelligent, hilarious, and kind-hearted daughter. She kept everyone laughing and on their toes. We exchanged photos of our cats. Love all these women and the joy they all brought to this photo session.
THIS CHILD. I have photographed Sara and Jackson several times but this is my second time photographing them with their son. He cracked me up the first time with his boy band looks and his tiny white tux, and quickly established himself into the CSP Photo Hall of Fame with his “Hey ya’ll” car from which I can only assume he’s picking up girls for the prom. Anyway – his hair is shorter now and he’s about a foot taller somehow and he was not in a tux this time, but the enormous smile and infectious enthusiasm for both life and stuffed animals remains! Not only that, but he’s an advanced birder as well, telling me that cardinals come to their bird feeders and incorrectly but enthusiastically misidentifying a crow as a vulture. I love it. Mad respect. Now he enjoys celebrating alongside his parents, so while they sipped on champagne to celebrate their 10 year houseiversary, he sipped on sparkling apple juice, quickly decided he hated it, and we had to switch to flat apple juice instead. There is zero alcohol in his glass despite him looking like he’s on that level of enjoyment. He is top notch in the entertainment department and I adore him and his parents.
Most of you who have been following me for some time know that I frequently work for Janice of Big Dog Little Bed. When I went to photograph her and her husband Sean a couple of years ago, Janice mentioned in her questionnaire that Sean plays on a sandlot baseball team called the Durham Dirtbags. Geoff, who has played baseball for most of his life, was on hiatus from a team and looking to join a new one, and loved the idea of a sandlot team, especially one named the Dirtbags. And because of my work for Janice and BDLB, I also know Tyler, who told me that Geoff was welcome to contact them for the team. So I already knew 2 lovely people on the Dirtbags before Geoff joined them a couple years ago.
Fast forward to now, and I’m happy to say that we know and love all of the Dirtbags, and we’ve become a bit sandlot-obsessed. This is a group of genuinely amazing people who are funny, kind, supportive, and – most importantly – just want to have fun playing baseball. They’re goofy and weird and have welcomed my mascot and merch-loving self to the games with open arms. So when the Dirtbags were invited to Austin to play some sandlot teams down there (The Texas Tallboys, East Austin Ramblers, and the Meat City Smoke), we enthusiastically went – Geoff to play baseball, and me to root for team and photograph them all having fun together. It was a great, silly, fun time. We did not see any bats (the mammal) but we did see a lot of bats (the wooden type). I bought a shirt with a worm wearing a cowboy hat on it (thanks, Nightcrawlers). The Dirtbags won and lost – but technically we were all winners. Life was good (and bigger) down in Texas.
