i met up with one of my favorite families for some halloween/ fall portraits. okay, so it was quite hot out that day and there weren’t many fall leaves… but still! this is the third time in less than a year that i have photographed Lucia. she is beautiful and is always so happy!! she is growing so fast too! for this session, she was sitting up all by herself and is developing such an adorable personality! we definitely wore her out with 3 outfit changes and lots of sun…. but she still did great!

here is Lucia all dressed up as a devil for halloween…. and yes, her ultra crafty and festive mom did make this costume….. dress, tail, horns,pitchfork and all! i am super impressed! Check out her Etsy website here: Pink Savannah

clearly, that was just a costume…. because she is really an angel. seriously, look how angelic she is!

last but not least…. one of my favorites from the day…

Jason!
recently an old friend from college (i think i can say that since it has been well over 5 years…) contacted me asking to do some head shots for his brother, Jason. Jason is a school teacher but has decided to try out modeling as well (with good reason as you will see!). Though probably a bit nervous in the beginning, he really warmed up and we had a lot of fun walking around Fishtown and finding interesting places to photograph.

when my friend, Mike, first asked me about the portraits and how much it would cost, i knew right away that i would prefer to barter for some of his fabulous artwork. i have always enjoyed his work and i am so happy to have yet another print to add to my collection! be sure to check out his website HERE! some really great stuff!

anyway, here are a few pics from the day::::

i like this next picture because of 1- the cat and 2- the guy in the background. that man in the background had walked by us carrying a cage with what appeared to be a live squirrel in it. i have no idea of his intentions…. but it was quite interesting and a bit creepy.

here is the man…. unfortunately i noticed him a bit late and didn’t get a great shot of the animal he was carrying…

i had this idea to climb a nearby wall that i thought would have a great view of the city. so, we busted out our climbing skills [to those that climb, i'd say it was 5.6/ 5.7 move ] and ventured up the wall. turns out that the view wasn’t all that great… but it was fun anyway. you can see just how tall the wall was in the background on the left of the photo. eventually a guy with a badge came over and told us we were going to be arrested if we didn’t get down. now that would have made some interesting photos!

Jason jumped down ahead of me which allowed me to get these….

thanks again, Jason! best of luck with your new endeavor!

this past weekend i met up with the a great family for some portraits at the beautiful morris arboretum. seriously, what a beautiful location on a gorgeous day! well worth devoting a day to exploring if you have never been there before. it was surprisingly crowded as there was a fall festival/ scarecrow contest going on. we had to move around lots of people for portraits, but we made it work and it really wasn’t a problem. i had such a great time doing these portraits. teenager, John, was so mature and easy going for the photographs. thanks so much for that, John! also, John’s parents, Shirly & Dan are so in love! they were so cute together. i loved it.

On our walk around the arboretum we found this really cool…errr… sculpture/ hut/ thingy… not really sure what it was…. but we liked it. up close it was quite spectacular. It reminded me of a birds nest which seemed perfect for a family portrait.

lots of love!

John adventurously climbed this tree for me!

though the arboretum doesn’t allow dogs, a friendly neighbor was able to bring the much loved yorkie, named Laddie, for a family portrait just outside the park. Laddie helped to make the family portrait complete.

okay, so i know these last two seem morbid…. but we actually found this leaf while doing portraits. i held it up to Shirley who, from afar, thought it said “dream” on it. she then suggested taking a photo with it which i thought was great.

Thanks again to all 3 of you! I know that being followed around a garden by a woman with a camera isn’t your typical Sunday…. but you all did great and I had a fantastic time!

a little while back i had the opportunity to take some photographs for LymphDIVAs. Lymphedivas makes fashionable compression apparel for breast cancer survivors with lymphedema. They had donated and custom designed a bunch of sleeves to Hope Alfloat, a breast cancer survivor dragon boat racing team. Since my mom is on the team and since I love Hope Afloat, oh and because Lymphedivas is really great, I donated some time and photographs for them to use on their website and otherwise.

Follow THIS LINK to view the blog about this on their website.

Also, here are a few pics from the day:

the lovely ladies of hope afloat

warming up for a race…

the custom designed sleeve

the owners of LympheDIVAs, Dr. Howard Levin and Judy Levin, and the women of Hope Afloat wearing the new sleeves

so it has been nearly a year since i first met with this fun family. it was so nice to see them again this year. it was fun to see how John Paul has grown and also to see how they decorated their home with many of the photographs from last year. i truly love the way that they have them displayed. it made me very happy.

anyway, as usual, John Paul was full of energy and excited to play in the yard and in the park. he loves to climb and goes to some very impressive heights…. quickly, i might add.

the session took place in Hammonton, NJ. we also visited the new senior center near the beautiful Hammonton Lake. to our amusement, there happened to be an idle firetruck there as well. we decided to utilize that for a few fun portraits!

all in all it was a beautiful day! i had a lot of fun. many thanks to Laura & John for continuing to ask me to preserve these memories for you. You both are great!

here is John Paul just after i arrived. he is a big mickey mouse fan and enjoys doing “the hot dance” (one of my nephew’s favorites as well)