Aside from the chance to visit, this was a special photo session because we decided to use the family’s farm on the water in St. Michael’s. Although a bit late in the fall season, it was a gorgeous spot. We were able to shoot a little later in the day – closer to the golden hour which is always my favorite!

Look at this little girl – some of you might have seen a few of these images on my facebook page — she’s not only beautiful, but just fearless … she almost looks right through you!

I love this one — she wasn’t so sure about me at first, so she hung close to her daddy’s leg. She’s not smiling, but that face that look right into the camera – I love it.

Right at the end of the session, caught this sweet moment with Eliza and her beautiful mom as the sun was setting.

I just revisited this family to photograph their baby boy Ethan again now that he’s on the move!  I photographed him as a newborn, and he was beautiful and completely mellow.  Here are a couple of pictures from that session.

He’s still a mellow sweet baby – but all smiles and definitely all boy! Curious, active, full of laughter and a lit-tle mischief. Wonderful to see the changes and capture them for this terrific family!

This is my favorite shot. Don’t we all remember watching our little baby crawl away from us for the first time. Look at those yummy little legs!

Now, many of you might say, why get such a huge print?  Where would I put it?  How would I use it?

FOLLOW ME ON

TO FIND OUT!

]]> http://www.karenleonardphotography.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1264 0 http://www.karenleonardphotography.com/blog/?p=1257 http://www.karenleonardphotography.com/blog/?p=1257#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:23:01 +0000 admin http://www.karenleonardphotography.com/blog/?p=1257 This is a post I did a couple of Valentine’s Days ago, but I love it, and it still holds true for me.  In fact, it’s become a tradition for me to re-post it every February.  I hope it inspires you to rethink February 14!!!

Okay, many of us have strong feelings about Valentine’s Day – love it… hate it… consider it a cynical plot by the flower and chocolate syndicates to force us to buy bon bons and roses…

Me? I LOVE IT….  and in a minute, I’ll tell you why.

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But first, what is the story with Valentine’s Day? Is it the cynical fabrication of American Greetings? Actually, no!

Although it’s not entirely clear how or why it began, the exchange of love letters on the feast of St. Valentine seems to be a tradition that is traced back to 14th century England – and possibly has links to pagan traditions of Ancient Rome.   My cursory googling yielded, among other things, a convoluted discussion of the history of the day on wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine’s_Day.

Creating and delivering love letters or “valentines” really took off in Victorian England. I sort of love the idea that the Valentine’s Day we know sprang out of the oppressively buttoned-up culture of Victorian England. All that yearning and romanticism!

What makes it a drag is that it was commercialized in America, apparently around the mid-19th century.   The greeting card powers descended and well…here we are!   All that commercialism creates another drag which is, if you have a sweetheart, the pressure to make some grand gesture of love, and if you don’t have a sweetheart, well just the stark reminder that you don’t have a sweetheart.

But here’s the thing, despite all of this, as I said, I LOVE Valentine’s Day.

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Regardless of how it began, or how it’s exploited, what can be bad about a day dedicated to expressions of love, friendship, affection, and romance!? A day awash in red and purple and pink, sparkles and lace, and sugary treats — all in the middle of the bleakest time of the year!

At its best, Valentine’s Day is about indulging in good things — showing the ones you love that you really do love them, telling them what makes them so special to you, making, sharing and receiving beautiful, delicious, precious tokens of that affection. Every card you make or buy is a little ritual of love and affection. Every sugar heart (“U R SWEET”) you slip to someone sparks a bit of delight in the middle of cold, dark winter.  Sure, we should be doing this every day, but do we??

So, I plan on lavishing some extra love on my friends and family this Valentine’s Day.  And relishing this brief interlude of electric pink, delicious treats, luscious flowers, warm kisses and giant hugs as winter plods on…!

Here’s a perfect example:  Heidi and Ben.

Heidi looked like a movie siren from the 40′s or 50′s.  She and Ben made a striking couple and we had a really excellent time wandering the grounds and taking pictures, sometimes in unexpected places!

Here are my favorite shots: We were walking back from a space I had chosen for some of the images, and I saw a shiny black metal door. The light was very interesting, and I said, let’s try something! Heidi and Ben were awesome.  I told them no-one will believe they aren’t models.  Seriously!

We are away, visiting my husband’s family – it’s become a great tradition. The girls get to see their boy cousins, and we spend some time in cooler environs than our usual swampy DC. The girls went to camp for a week, and celebrated the Fourth in grand style with songs and a parade, all at the Chautauqua Institution – a pretty neat place. Then, on the Fourth itself we went to a really excellent small town parade in Mayville New York – complete with fire trucks, cheerleaders, performing dogs, horses and (my favorite) Shriners on go-carts. After a cookout with extended family, we stayed up to watch the fire flies come out across the pasture. Saw a firework or two but then the girls conked out! It was a nice day. I hope yours was too!

ITEM ONE:  MSNBC’s Correspondents’ Dinner After Party

From time to time, in addition to my work as a portrait photographer, I work with a colleague of mine, Tony Brown, who is an amazing event photographer.  (Check him out at www.imijphoto.com).  Not only is he a great friend and colleague, but he works some pretty cool gigs.  Hence my opportunity to shoot the MSNBC After Party following this year’s Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington DC.

The Italian Embassy in DC decked out for party.

Okay, maybe events like this are only cool to dorks like me – former lawyers who live inside the Beltway – but last year it was a seriously star-studded event:  Alec Baldwin, Jon Bon Jovi (i might actually have passed out had I been there), and all kinds of MSNBC folks.  A little less star “wattage” this year, but still not too bad…and a flat-out good party to boot.

(Do you like this photo of the vodka bottles?  it’s one of my favorites from the night, purely from a photography standpoint!)

Held at the Italian Embassy – a cool modern building decorated with sleek italian leather furniture mixed with 4th century marble sculpture and massive oil paintings –  Rachel Maddow reprised her role as bartender for the night but with some added flair – her own bar complete with neon sign.

Rachel Maddow offering up a cocktail she concocted.

Rachel tended bar all night long (like 5 hours), and was amazing!  I don’t know her background, but she must have spent a fair amount of time behind (or in!) a bar at some point because she clearly knew what she was doing.

The Correspondents’ Dinner was headlined by Seth Meyers from Saturday Night Live.  Several of his castmates showed up at the party as well.  Here are Bill Hader (at left; also seen in Forgetting Sarah Marshall) and Fred Armisen.

They also had photo booths at the party that guests could go in and get those set-of-four prints of themselves. Can you guess who this is, peeking out? I didn’t know who it was when I took the photo, to be honest. Turns out, it’s Bristol Palin – fresh off the set of Dancing with the Stars stint!

The real excitement started when Bristol’s MOTHER showed up! I still find it fairly bizarre that Sarah Palin would actually show up at MSNBC’s party, but she did.  And it was like Justin Bieber just walked into a roomfull of tweens — except with more screaming (okay not really). The instant she came in she was surrounded by a huge throng of people. Whenever she moved it was like an amoeba of sequins and tafetta and tuxedoes rolling through the crowd.   I took this photo of her with MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts (on right) and his partner, and afterwards she leaned over to me and said “what is your name?” and I told her and she said “Karen, it’s … an … HONOR.” I was like “really?????” an honor???? I snapped your picture at a party. I appreciate that you acknowledged my existence, but really….

Let’s see, who else was there: Sean Penn (actually really nice), Jane Lynch from Glee, Terrell Owens, John Legend (I love-love-love him), and lots of young stars and starlettes who I’m too old to identify but vaguely recognize.

Andy Samberg of SNL

Terrell Owens

gorgeous starlette??

John Legend

22222222222222Then, of course, a whole bunch of MSNBC and NBC reporters and pundits were there: Andrea Mitchell, Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell, Elliott Spitzer. And some politicians, including one of my favorites, Ed Rendell, former mayor of Philadelphia, governor of Pennsylvania and head of the Democratic National Committee.

Ed Rendell

Having lived in Philly when he was mayor, I love that guy. So, I went up to him and said “I just want to thank you. I lived in Philly during your tenure as mayor and you made it a great place to live.” He was talking to some women from Pennsylvania at the moment so we said hello, and he said (in that typical self-effacing politician way) “At least she didn’t say ‘I heard you speak at my 6th grade graduation! I get that a lot these days!’.”

And – one of the best parts –  CEE LO GREEN was the entertainment for the night.  So fun, I almost forgot to take pictures!!!