At-Home Family Session.

I’d been in conversation with Mom about doing photos of her sweet family at home that weren’t “cringe-worthy” (my kinda client) and weren’t painfully posed or orchestrated for Dad or Baby Girl. She wanted to do the photos at home (yay!) and I am SO GLAD SHE DID because their home is gorgeous!! They have a beautiful color scheme that’s filled with colors and textures and I just love it. Plus they have insanely great carpets. Like, the softest and fluffiest of all the carpets. So on these carpets I photographed the preciously cute Baby Girl army-crawling herself around, wide-eyed and curious, and eating some book pages while her parents tried to read to her. She also liked to eat her Mom’s necklace a lot (teething stages, amirite) and stare fixedly into the camera (she is a great model). PLUS LOOK AT THOSE PANTS. I would 100% wear those sweatpants now even though I am 90% confident I already had some iteration of them in the 80s. Mom and Dad enjoyed cuddling with Cool Sweatpants Baby Girl a lot and turning her upside down to make her giggle. When they’re not doing turning their kiddo upside down for giggles, Mom is an incredibly creative and stylish woman who enjoys decorating their home and writing. Dad likes video games, technology, and cooking. I absolutely loved working with all three of them – we bonded over lots of similarities, but mostly our deep and undying love for October. And October people stick together.

Martha and Justin are dear friends of ours whose wedding we photographed way back in 2011 (!!) and whom we’ve played many games of Killer Bunnies with ever since. Martha’s from Chicago and Justin’s from Minnesota, but they met in Chicago. Martha left to attend Duke, and Justin joined shortly thereafter… and they both became Durhamites through and through. Here they adopted a cat and later had a real human child named Emilia, who is the friendliest and most adorable kid on earth. She is a fantastic hugger and excited ALL THE TIME! and also loves pizza. She is also incredibly patient, especially for a 2.5 year old. I’ve seen her look lovingly at pizza that wasn’t hers (while clapping) yet remaining seated (!) and just politely sitting there until her pizza arrived. I’ve seen grown adults who can’t do that and have zero chill when it comes to waiting for pizza (namely my husband).

Now they are sadly (to us!) moving to Minnesota, and taking their knowledge of amazing food with them (Martha helped us discover the joy that is pupusas, and, of course, El Cuscatleco). We will miss them greatly. They wanted a family session that documented a little bit of their time spent in Durham at the playground in Central Park and The Parlour, where Emilia makes the best ice cream eating face. It’s like the face you would make to imitate a tiger, only instead you’re just eating ice cream. I love her. And them. When we visit you in Minnesota you have to promise you’ll take us to see Prince stuff. xoxo.

A little ditty… ’bout JEFF AND DIANEEEE (sorry guys, I had to. It pops in my mind every time I think of either one of you.) We became friends with Jeff and Diane through our other friends Beth and David! We knew them from little get togethers and what not, and then spent a week with them in St. John when Beth and David got married. We got sunburned and drank some tasty tropical drinks and played board games and hung out in hot tubs and gave zero $&#*s. And for those of you who hear my often-repeated warning story about how you should always wear a lifejacket when you snorkel, this is the “other Jeff” who was snorkeling with Geoff and me during my near-death experience! Besides being good at tropical vacationing, Jeff is really, really good at identifying lots of obscure bands and beer, and Diane is really, really good at making crafts and cookies. She can sew like a crazy woman, and her skills are much admired far and wide. Then we went to their house to meet their daughter Cora, and found out that all of Diane’s family can sew like crazy women and are ALL really, really good at crafts. Cora, while absolutely adorable in every possible way, is not good at sewing yet because she’s not even two and you shouldn’t given needles to toddlers. She is, however, really good at swings, riding in wagons, and applying sprinkles to cookies. It is Diane’s family tradition to go insane regarding the amount and variety of Christmas cookies they produce every year, and this year Cora participated happily with Diane’s sister and her kids (Toby the dog was also really happy about this because Cora’s fine motor skills are still developing so she drops a lot of food and Toby swoops in like the cutest little garbage disposal you’ve ever seen). We’re sure as she gets older that Cora will become most excellent at both crafts and craft beer, making both of her parents very proud.