Family portraits Holly Springs Archives - Carolyn Scott Photography

It’s always a wonderful experience working for another photographer, especially one so talented as Victoria. She does amazing family photography work and I was so happy to get the chance to photograph her in front of the lens with her family. But the BEST part of this session was working with people from another country, which I absolutely love doing! I learn so much. Victoria and her husband Alexander are Russian, and they moved to the US just a few years ago. They just recently bought a house and wanted to document the new house, their family, as well as Victoria’s mother Natalia who was visiting from Russia. They have three boys: Svyat, Seva, and Serafim, as well as a dog named Alfonse and two cats named Tim and Philip (the very bestest cats). Svyat and Seva are fluent in both Russian (which they speak at home) and English (which they speak in school). But Serafim, the youngest, speaks only Russian.

I thought maybe Serafim might be a little afraid of me, not only because 50% of four year olds I photograph are outgoing and the other 50% are a bit wary, but he has the added challenge of me speaking a different language than him. But oh my goodness – NO. He constantly joked with me! He is HILARIOUS – a practical joker and just an overall extremely funny boy. And it was amazing how much we could communicate with just our facial expressions and kung fu moves/noises. I absolutely love him, he is great and kept me laughing the whole time. Svyat and Seva (who speak English as well as any American kid) were GREAT helpers who followed my directions so well and helped me translate to Serafim when needed. They are all truly amazing kids and I’m so impressed by this family’s love and sense of humor.

2 nice things said

Halloween is quite near and dear to our hearts. My birthday is in October, and I’ve usurped Halloween as my own personal holiday since I was born. Then Geoff and I were married on the 23rd with a Halloween-themed wedding, and basically Halloween all year, Halloween all the time, Halloween Halloween Halloween. We met Melanie and Ryan some time ago, and they are ALSO Halloween Halloween Halloween in ALL THE BEST WAYS! We were unfortunately unavailable to photograph their wedding but they’ve returned to us now with their sweet daughters Scarlett and Raven and booked us for a Halloween family session and we were SO EXCITED!! Their decorations are quite impressive, and we’ve learned we need to up our outdoor game a bit. They also have the most fabulous and wonderful collection of tiny little Halloween houses that light up and have moving ghosts and they’re all very elaborate and spooky. We had Christmas houses like this when we were little, but had I known Halloween houses existed, my parents would’ve been in trouble.

So we hung out with this Halloweeny crew at their place, checking out their decorations and running around the house playing! Scarlett is a brave and strong girl, who doesn’t flinch when her dad turns the corner wearing a terrifying clown mask, but instead attempts to block him with a Wonder Woman arm maneuver while still trying to hold onto some M&Ms. Raven loves the Zombie Man in the yard, and the giant inflatable spider down the street at a neighbor’s. She also adores the Chucky dolls upstairs in their attic, but isn’t quite okay with the terrifying clown mask yet (we’re working on it). Both children love their Halloween balloons, candy-dispensing mummy head, and the giant rubber rat sitting on top of their play kitchen. They also enjoy telling Alexa to play “This is Halloween” but forget the Danny Elfman part so Alexa plays the Marilyn Manson version and the kids hide. Melanie and Ryan enjoy horror movies (surprise!), getting their pictures taken with Robert Englund, collecting wonderful horror movie art, and being our heroes. Cheers to this spooktacular family of ghouls and ghoulettes! We are so happy to have been a little part of your boooootiful Halloween season.