At Home with John+Anna.

We have been so lucky over the past few years to gain some family portrait clients who make us feel like we’re part of their own family and we just love them so so much that we could squeeze them all to pieces. This is one of those families. Last year we met Anna, John, their daughter Lou, and their pup Keva, and they ran around and we photographed them being adorable. Lou was talkative to her parents, but was semi skeptical of us as most two year olds are (why are these people in my house?).

Fast forward a year and a half, and we suddenly and inexplicably gained all of Lou’s trust, and she immediately launched into a detailed speech regarding tigers, dinosaurs, and pajamas with feet upon our arrival. She sometimes prefers to eat breakfast while wearing a helmet, and insisted on having a temporary tattoo to match Mr. Geoff’s real tattoo. She also has a new little brother, Gus, who is just as friendly, only without words. He prefers spending his time chewing on giraffes and smiling happily at everyone.

We crashed Matchbox cars! We made pretend nighttime with a tent! We gave a full sleeve of temporary tattoos to a 3 year old! At some point a very scary monkey also made an appearance, and we might’ve asked if John and Anna would give us ice cream (they did). It was the best day.

Also, if you’re curious, Anna is a professional illustrator and does some pretty rad artwork of adorable kids and pigs and once drew a picture of myself, Geoff, and our two cats riding in a Viking ship.

 

Lifestyle Headshots.

Maggie+Humberto // Durham Engagement.

When Maggie and Humberto sent us an e-mail, they told us that they wanted to have their engagement pictures taken inside Food World. I think I text messaged Geoff first, before responding to the e-mail, with something along the lines of, “WE GOT AN INQUIRY TO TAKE PICTURES INSIDE OF FOOD WORLDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” to which Geoff responded, “YESSSSS, FOOD WORLDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!” We felt it might be inappropriate to respond to Maggie and Humberto in all caps with that many exclamation marks, so I curbed it as much as I could, but I think there still be might be some caps in there. Food World, for those of you who are unfamiliar, is an international grocery store in Durham. We actually stumbled across it while we were eating snow-cones at Pelican’s one evening; you can see Food World shining on down the hill. We needed cheese, and we figured Food World sounded like a grocery store, so cheese must be in there.

Cheese was indeed in there, but so were pinatas. And bags of rice. And fruit and vegetables that I couldn’t identify. And bags of Japanese candies and cookies and fish that still had their eyeballs. Every flavor of Jarritos imaginable! Bags and bags of dried peppers that I also couldn’t identify! Basically, we walked around Food World in stunned, international silence. It was incredible. Since then, we’ve obtained the knowledge of how to use some of those dried peppers to make General Tso’s, and regularly take out of town visitors on pilgrimages to Food World because it’s amazing. We still don’t know what most of the fruit and vegetables are, and we have yet to purchase a pinata, but small steps, people, small steps.

So the true pinnacle of our photography career was achieved Maggie and Humberto asked us to have photos taken in there. We were so happy someone else appreciated Food World as much as we do. And we were so glad when Food World graciously granted us permission to shoot some engagement pictures inside (always ask permission!). Maggie and Humberto also introduced us to their pastry counter and their taqueria inside! This was something we previously overlooked in our sheer joy to just be inside Food World. Later we also took Maggie and Humberto into downtown Durham and we had fun there, too (because they are awesome people!). But not quiteeeee as much fun as we had in Food World (because Food World).