Always a great joy and privilege to photograph the next generation of cat lovers in the United States. I’ve known Melissa and Jackson for quite some time (we photographed their weddings several years ago and Melissa was my very first sale at Familiar Dolls back in 2020!). We keep in touch by talking about cats and running into each other at Target. Our cats are super important to us and so it’s with great joy that I see Melissa and Jackson imparting their love of the feline community onto their daughter. In typical cat fashion, Pluto and Toffee joined us for a lot of this shoot by watching whatever I was doing from 10 feet away, and in typical almost-toddler fashion, their daughter crawled excitedly toward them whenever she could (because they’re CUTE). When we weren’t admiring cats, we were busy admiring ducks or herons, books, bubbles, water tables, and plants on walks. Happy to spend a morning with this beautiful family!

It is a JOY to be reunited with the one, the only – Bread Boy and his family! If you don’t remember Bread Boy, he’s been on the front page of my website for some time – joyfully holding up an enormous stack of bread. I had never seen a toddler so excited. I feel like Bread Boy’s values live in all of us: a sincere love of carbs that exists outside the confines of time and space. I was very excited to see Bread Boy again after all this time and to photograph a recreation portrait of him and his bread stack, and let me tell you, he was just as delightful as he was a few years ago, and just as excited about bread. And the best part? He has three younger brothers who he’s training to also love bread. Okay, so the baby can’t eat bread yet, but the other two can, and I’d say that Bread Boy has some competition. What a delightful little crew of kids. They’re all so friendly, so polite, so good at rescuing bugs from the dangers of trampolines, and so quick to share the vegetables they’ve grown in their garden. It was so wonderful to photograph these boys in their home, surrounded by bread, of course.

Yesssss! What an honor to work once again with the amazingly talented Amanda of Raleigh Birth Photography. If you’re pregnant and looking for someone to document the day you give birth, Amanda is it. She’s not only an amazing talent, but an extremely calming presence – even when she’s shooting Nerf guns the size of a bazooka at her own children. AND SHOOT NERF GUNS WE DID! I have quite literally never seen so many Nerf guns in my life. When I arrived, they were laid out in an impressive arsenal on their couch. According to local lore, Amanda has refused to participate in any family Nerf Wars – until now. Yes, this was Amanda’s very first Nerf Wars, which she valiantly fought alongside (or against?) her husband Joe and three children, Michael, Lucien, and Fiona. That’s right – I’m not really sure who was on who’s team, or if there were any teams at all. It was just kind of a free-for-all of styrofoam ammo flying and me ducking for cover between shots. A good time was had by all, and afterward there was costumed dancing (Lucien [skeleton tutu] dances with the Carolina Ballet, and I actually saw him in last year’s Halloween program when he performed in Dracula!), Lego building (Michael is a skilled and esteemed Lego builder, and he has the multi-level McCallister’s house from Home Alone to prove it), and sorting through a Caboodle full of miniatures (Fiona has an entire Caboodle [yes, a Caboodle!] full of miniatures, and it’s my DREAM. Mini Reese’s Cups. Mini boxes of chicken tenders. Mini sodas. Mini cats. Mini bottles of Red Hot. I had to drag myself away). We ended the day with a good old fashioned “Draw on the Garage Door with Chalk” session, and it could not have been better. Love this vibrant and always fun family.