I mentioned on Sunday that the religious education director was nice enough to allow my son and daughter to participate in the food drive early since they had other commitments.  I want to tell you how it all came about because I am rather proud of my daughter.  She was all in a tizzy (she's a 15 year old girl, common occurrence ) because she was supposed to have practice on Sunday at 10 which was the exact time that the food drive was. Compounding her problem is that this week her religious ed class was moved to Tuesday which is the night she has her tumbling class.  She really didn't want to tell her coach that she would be late to one practice and have to leave another early in the span of 2 days.  So I told her that she needed to think of ways that she could compromise. I also told her that I would let her miss Tuesday night CCD since that is always the night of tumbling.  She said, "But Mom we are doing the rosary that night, I really should go."  I suggested that she (not me, in other words) discuss it with the director and see if they could come up with anything.  I also told her that the director would work with her as long as she showed that she felt that both things got priority and didn't just automatically push her religious commitment to the bottom of her priority pile.  My daughter decided to make a special trip to talk to the director and I am happy to say that it all worked out.  I am proud that she took responsibility for making it work and didn't just expect me to take care of it and that she appreciates what making a commitment is all about.  Well except that commitment to keeping her room clean, that one she doesn't always take quite as seriously :)

So on Saturday, I got the opportunity to meet and work with the Thomas boys.  With a huge storm expected today, I guess you could say that Saturday's perfect weather was the calm before the storm. And it was the perfect day for portraits: it was mild, the foliage was in full peak and the sky was overcast, not darkly overcast but softly overcast so that it diffused the light perfectly!  Also perfect were the Thomas boys, not only were they beautiful boys (unlike the male seniors that I have taken recently, I can use the word beautiful to describe them because it's doubtful they'll be reading this) but they were cooperative and fun as well.  We started off at the giant rock at the park and they were more than happy to climb up there for me (Mom was a teeny bit nervous about the little one but his brothers watched over him nicely).

Next we went for a hike through the woods and since there were sticks to collect and more giant rocks to climb on, the boys were pretty happy.

I tried to get one of each of them by themselves as well.  

Then we made our way back and as a bonus, we got to not only see some people fishing but we got to touch one of the fish, if we wanted (I, of course did not want to!)

That was the bonus for the boys, my bonus was reflection pictures!  For some reason, this dock yields the most perfect reflection pictures and as regular readers know, reflection pictures make me happy.  As does getting the chance to spend a gorgeous Saturday morning with 3 wonderful boys and their mom!

Please click here if you would like to see the rest of the Thomas brothers pictures.

Just a quick post today, it is like Grand Central Station here this morning with all the comings and goings going on around here.  Our church's annual food drive is this morning but my son has a game and my daughter thought she had practice (it got cancelled, she was not happy about that at all!) so they went out with my husband to do it early.  My other daughter is going to participate at the regular time so she'll be getting a ride in a little bit.  The birthday girl had a sleepover so there are 5 11 year olds up and about at my house, they will be picked up sometime between 10 and 11.  I also have to bring my son to Wrentham at 10:15 for his game. Whew!  So just a quick sneak peek of the oh so adorable boys that I got a chance to work with yesterday.  I can't wait to share the rest with you and tell you about all the fun we had.  Hopefully that will happen tomorrow.  Enjoy your Sunday, everyone!

Quick post today, I'm doing some pictures this morning and I stayed out just a wee bit too late (it has been WAY too long since I have had a chance to hang out with my friends and I had to make up for lost time) so just a quick cartoon this morning. With Halloween looming, I thought what could be better than Casper the Friendly Ghost?

Have a great Saturday, everyone!

Today is my youngest daughter's birthday, again!  How does this keep happening? I feel like every time I turn around this child is celebrating a birthday and getting older.  How is it possible that the child that could not wait to go to kindergarten is now partway through her last year of elementary school? She is just growing up so fast and some days, I just want it to stop, mostly because I know that I will miss this wonderful, affectionate child that just bubbles with personality.  Although I have to say that I am very happy with the way that she is growing into such a wonderful young lady, I am so proud of her every day and even prouder to be her mom!  Here are some of the pictures that I feel capture her the best (although she was looking over my shoulder vetoing all the ones that I tried to add!) The picture on the bottom right is so her, she goes through life with a "Look, Mom! No hands" kind of attitude (and says it plenty too since I would also have to say that she is my most attention needy child, probably because she is the youngest of 4 and has had to fight for it since birth!)

One other quick note, it is a weekend full of birthdays too since my mother-in-law's and my goddaughter's are both tomorrow and my other goddaughter's birthday (who had her party last weekend) is Tuesday  They all play such an important role in my life and I hope that they all have birthdays as special as they are. What's really nice is that my daughter is 7 years older than my younger niece and 6 years younger than my older niece.  My niece was always wonderful with my daughter and it was obvious that they shared a special bond.  It is so nice to now watch my daughter paying that niceness forward to her little cousin!

I saw on Facebook this morning that today is senior day for field hockey.  I had the absolute pleasure of shooting 3 of the senior field hockey players and I can't believe how fast the fall season went by, this year is flying by!  It seems like it was just last week that I got to spend gorgeous summer evenings with Nicole and Jordan.  Or a fantastic fall morning with Katie, oh wait, that one was pretty much last week.  And if I feel like senior year is flying by, I can't imagine how they feel (or their parents!).  

Here's a quick look back at a couple of my favorites of each of them.

Good luck in your game today ladies!  I consider it a privilege and an honor to have met you all and to have taken your senior pictures.  I wish you all the best and hope that senior year is everything that you want it to be.  

Well I got at least one half of my extra weekend wish. I have today off from my library job and I didn't even get a call to substitute so I don't feel guilty in the slightest (and with a 1/2 day and parent/teacher conferences tomorrow, I should get my whole extra weekend).  I think that I would have said no anyway today, without guilt, because not only am I completely swamped at home (my pile of laundry alone is enough to suffocate me, probably literally as well as figuratively) but I also just made an appointment for a photo shoot on Saturday morning so that will put a damper on the cleaning on Saturday.  

I have to say though, as much as I appreciate this day off, our family really needs a day where we all clean as a family.  My children especially need to be more involved in the process.   2 are teenagers and 2 are pre-teens so unless we make them, they pretty much do nothing around here except eat all the food in the house and watch stupid TV shows (if I had my way, I would throw the damn thing away) while trashing the house in the process. Sometimes it takes more time and energy to goad them into helping than it does to just do it myself, and lately I seem to have little of either which is really unfortunate because the reason that I lack time and energy is that I am driving them around all the time.  So not only do they not help but I am pretty much rewarding them for not helping.  I think I need to regroup and reassess but again, I can't seem to find the time or energy to take either process on properly.  Although I do have to say that my oldest daughter can be a big help but unfortunately with cheerleading, a full slate of honors classes and a strong church commitment, she is also short on time and energy.  So I guess the point of this post is that I should be a little careful what I wish for because although this pattern of having at least one day off a week is saving my sanity, it is also causing our family to drift a little more each week into the "Don't worry about it, Mom will take care of it" territory which isn't really what I want.

You may remember last June that I talked here and here about my daughter participating in her first mission trip.  She loved it and has eagerly signed up to do it again next year.  Well, they needed an idea for a way to raise some money for it and I am very happy to say that they chose one of my ideas.  I'll be the first to admit that I stole this idea, my friend works for a preschool in Walpole that does a photo shoot fundraiser every year. Knowing how successful that it has been for them in the past, I approached our religious education director with the idea of doing something similar at our church.  As regular followers as this blog probably know, the grounds of our church made a great backdrop for pictures as evidenced by seniors, Patrick and Michael.  

What was kind of ironic is that as I was mulling over this idea, there was a Gospel reading about how rich men have about as much chance of getting into heaven as a camel through the eye of the needle.  In his homily, our pastor made the point that it does not have to be literally riches or money but it may be a skill or a talent that you don't freely share with those around you.  I took that homily to heart and decided to offer my time and "skill" to this fundraiser so every bit of the proceeds will go  towards the mission effort.  And since I have the most fantastic friends in the whole world, one of my friends has also generously donated her time and skill as well!  

I am a little sad though that we didn't do it this weekend, the colors were absolutely fantastic.  As a matter of fact, when I left church after teaching CCD, I made my daughter and her friend pose for me.  If we do this again next year, this will definitely be this weekend that we do it.

But it will still be great because as you can see from Patrick's portraits, there are plenty of trees there that are fabulous, with or without foliage.  And the grounds are bordered all the way around by wooded areas.  This is actually a shot of the scenery on the other side of the parking lot. 

If you are interested in this event and would like to know more, please take a look at the flyer or contact me here.

I feel like I say this every weekend but we had a pretty busy weekend around here.  You know that old saying, "I need a vacation to recover from my vacation", well I am constantly thinking that I need a weekend to recover from my weekends!  Most of it was fun stuff but at some point, I need a chance to actually clean my house thoroughly and these crazy weekends are just not affording me that opportunity to do so.  Not that I would rather do that than be outside on a gorgeous, picture perfect fall weekend but something's gotta give. Friday night (after spending the entire afternoon driving here, there and everywhere in Stoughton), I took my daughter to the annual Halloween dance at the elementary school.  The venue is an absolute nightmare to take pictures at so I don't really have any.  Actually the whole thing, while the kids love it, is a parent's nightmare. Luckily for me, since this is my daughter's last year at that school, this is my last dance.  There are many things that I will miss about my kids being at that school, including how cute and nice they were while they were there,  but this dance is not one of them!

Saturday afternoon was a rare afternoon game for the high school team.  It was the most perfect fall day, sunny and gorgeous with gorgeous foliage everywhere.  Unfortunately the team lost which put a major damper on things but I was able to take some action shots during the day, a much easier task than at night.  I have decided that shooting sports, especially football, is my favorite type of shooting!  And this day was especially perfect with all the blue sky and foliage that you can see in the pictures.  Hey, you may remember #32 scoring the touchdown on the left, that's Frankie, one of the seniors from last week.  I am glad that I took his pictures last week instead of this week, I'm sure that he was not too happy this week!

Yesterday, we went to my son's game and unfortunately, they also lost (they do that a lot though).  It was another great day for shooting some football.  Although it was a bit chillier, the fall colors are in full peak and are just gorgeous!

We ended the day by going to my niece's birthday party and watching the Pats win (barely).  I can't think of a better way to end a wonderful, if busy, weekend than to celebrate with this cutie!

Now if I could just get that weekend to recover from the weekend!

A friend of mine recently asked me if I would be interested in taking pictures of her and her siblings with their families.  Of course, this is just the type of thing that I love so I was all over that idea.  We went to the sheep pasture in Easton and although it was a little chilly, the lighting was perfect as well as all the fall foliage.  We started off with just the kids and then did some with the whole clan.  The kids were all so good and cooperative that we were easily able to get a couple of shots that not only is everyone in but they are all looking at the camera!

After we got these shots, we moved on to another spot.  This spot was actually picked out by one of the youngest members of the group (well she stopped there so we quickly posed everyone around her).  

After we finished up with the group shot, 2 of the siblings decided to stay and try to get some kid and family shots of their own.  We had a lot of fun wandering around and seeing some of the animals and cool spots that the sheep pasture has to offer.  We did some posing (and some adamant non-posing too!)

We got some family shots and some more having fun shots and then we moved over to the dock.

The lighting situation at the dock was perfect for portraits.  The dock itself was shaded but the light was hitting behind it beautifully!

We managed to get a really nice family picture of each family.  The one on the left kills me, the youngest daughter had a lollipop that she had taken out of her mouth for the picture, the only problem?  She stuck it in Dad's hair. 

My friend also wanted a picture of her three kids but it was hard to get them to all smile at the same time, especially since the little one wanted no part of me or my camera (she made me feel right at home, my kids want no part of me or my camera either).  This is what we got at the beginning:

But we kept at it and got a little closer to what we wanted:

Closer:

Bingo!

Good thing I was ready because this happened about 2 seconds later.

Enjoy your day!  Please click here to see the rest of the pictures from the session.

I was looking through my drafts when I found this one.  I had such a busy September and early October that I never had a chance to post it!  But since today is the day that yearbook submissions are due for Stoughton and my son's football season ends next week, things should start to calm down a little bit.  I do miss the lazy days of summer though, so I thought it might be fun to revisit them.

When June ended, we picked up right where we left off as far as fun was concerned.  We started the month of July with epic beach day 1 and 2.  The second day was even more epic because it introduced me to my new favorite place, the A street pier which would end up playing a big role in my summer adventures.  I even brought one of my seniors there!

Not much rest for the weary, the next day it was on to parades and cookouts to celebrate the birth of our great nation.

As I said, A street was my new favorite place and I couldn't wait to show my hubby.  This day also provided me with new favorite picture of my kids.

And of course, we can't forget the annual pilgrimage to Block Island!

Happy Friday, everyone!  In honor of the deadline for yearbook, I have included "Photograph" by Nickelback as the Friday Night Video this week. I know that it was way after the Friday Night Video era but as I have said before, it's my blog, my rules.  Have a great day!

I faced a dual challenge (unlike the famous double bonus, the dual challenge  is not something to be excited about) with Nick. For one thing, he didn't want any part of this picture taking business and for another, his mom and I had thoughtlessly scheduled it for right before the Patriots game was due to begin (yeah, teenage boy, pictures or football?  I am not even a teenage boy and I know what I would pick).  I was up to the challenge, however, and handled both beautifully (if I do say so myself).  Not only did I get Nick home just in time for kickoff (although I really should have done us both a favor and kept us out there so we missed that debacle of a game) but I think that Nick didn't mind the process too much and may have actually found me mildly amusing.

This was the first time that I met Nick but I have met his mom before and I know a couple of his aunts pretty well and they're all just wonderful people.  They each have a great sense of humor and fun and Nick and I broke the ice a little by talking about them, specifically which one was the craziest (sorry ladies but I will use just about anything to break the ice and get a smile).  We decided that they are all pretty crazy in their own way!  I think that the one on the left is Nick thinking about it, see how much thought he gave it?

Nick told me that he wanted to major in Criminal Justice in college and see where it takes him.  He has always been told that he is a pretty persuasive guy and that he would make a great lawyer so he is not ruling that out as a career choice.  I think he's crazy though, he has a seriously awesome voice, very deep and rich, I think that he would make a great sports announcer or radio guy.  I told him that he should look into the Connecticut School of Broadcasting!  

Nick was 12th and final Stoughton High senior and like the rest, he was an absolute pleasure to meet and work with.  I would like to thank them all and wish them much success this year and beyond.  To see the rest of Nick's pictures, please click here.

So I mentioned the other day that I was glad that the football team won last week. I was glad for them but even happier for myself since I had a shoot with one of the members of the football team the next morning. I figured if they won, he would be in a good mood.  Well as good a mood as a teenage boy getting his picture taken pretty early on a chilly Saturday morning could be. And although, yes I could tell that getting his picture taken was far from one of his favorite things, Frankie was a true gentleman about the whole thing, very polite and courteous.   

Frankie seemed like a very thoughtful and respectful person.  As we were talking about the phenomenal season that his team has put together so far, I asked him if the team was really as close-knit as they seemed.  He thought about it for a moment and then replied that not only were they really that close, but that he felt that the closeness was a big part of the reason that they have been so successful.  He went on to say that they always know that they have each other's back.  I was very impressed and as a matter of fact, I think that "this taking care of your teammate mentality" shows as much, if not more, about the quality of the coaching and the experience as their record does. 

Frankie has an air of quiet confidence about him.  At one point, I told him that the way he played football, being  impossible to tackle sometimes and never giving up on a play, reminded me a little of Rob Gronkowski, (the Patriots' terrific tight end).  He just smiled a bit at that and then when I asked him if he had good hands like Gronk, he calmly replied, "Well, I catch what's thrown to me."

My daughter is a cheerleader so I have been to most of the games and it has been a lot of fun to watch this team as the season unfolds.  But after meeting Frankie and hearing him talk about the team and the strength of their bond, I will be rooting just a little bit harder!  Please click here if you would like to see the rest of Frankie's pictures.

So last week, I got this text from Anthony's mother, "I just saw that the temp on Saturday morning is going to be 20 degrees.  YIkes! Should we do this indoors?"  Now this represented a bit of a problem for me.  Actually a couple of problems: One, I don't have a studio so indoors is not an option (maybe in my next, how'd I get to be so rich life) and two, the cold and me, we aren't such good friends. As a matter of fact, we hate each other.  Well, the cold probably doesn't actually hate me but man, do I hate it!  But Anthony's mother was kind enough to offer to allow me to take the pictures around their house, figuring that even if we didn't take them inside, at least we could come in and warm up.  They had a really nice woods at the end of the street and I am happy and proud to say that Anthony and I did not even need to come in and warm up.  As a matter of fact, he started with a jacket but abandoned it pretty quickly.  Although I have to say, he took some care in picking out the jacket and he looked pretty good in it too!  He looked pretty good without it too, leading me to believe that he looks good in pretty much anything!

When I asked Anthony what he wanted to study in college, he answered definitively that he wanted to study music production.  When I asked him to explain a little to me (I am a total music neophyte), it quickly became obvious that Anthony knew exactly what he was talking about.  After a little more conversation (okay, I admit it, I may have grilled him a bit), Anthony told me that he has written and recorded several songs.  This was one seriously impressive kid, even more so because he seemed like a really nice guy as well!

Anthony also knew about the importance of light and had a good eye for what would make a good spot.  He also  remembered wandering around these woods as a kid and thought that there may be an old barn around somewhere but wasn't sure where.  Really though, he lost me at old barn, this photographer just loves old, rustic barns!  He was a good sport and put up with me as I looked around for it.  I am happy to say that we found it!  We weren't too sure if it was someone else's property though and since we are both law abiding citizens, we didn't linger for too long!

When we walked back to his house, the light was just fabulous so Anthony obliged by posing for "Just a few more".  Famous last words!

I would really like to thank Anthony for being so pleasant and nice, I have a few teenagers myself and know that Saturday morning at 8:30 is not their favorite time to be up.  And to be up and outside taking pictures in the freezing cold with a smile on his face?  Well let's just say that Anthony is getting some serious consideration for my good sport of the year.  Please click here if you would like to see the rest of Anthony's pictures.

It seems like just about everything about taking Abby's pictures was effortless.  I happened to run into Abby's mom one night at the high school football game.  She mentioned that she was looking for someone to take Abby's senior pictures and that she had heard that I did a pretty good job and asked if I were available.  I told her to give me a call and we could see if we could make our schedules work.  She called me the next day and told me that Abby was free that Thursday.  My son usually has practice on Thursdays but it was moved to Friday night last week.  Abby's mom mentioned that they lived right down the road from Pequitside Farm and wanted to know if we could take them there.  Since I had recently driven by there and wondered if it would make a good place, I was loved that idea. But I have to say that as effortless as the planning was, Abby herself was even more effortless.  Oh, you need me to smile?  No problem.  I should look serious for a few?  Gotcha. Just be pure gorgeous?  I got you covered.

Besides making it all look so easy, Abby was also really nice and super cooperative.  She didn't blink an eye, no matter what I asked her.  Whether it was wandering around the entire place (and I do mean the ENTIRE place), lying on a picnic table or just in general being a real sweetheart, she took it all in stride. 

Abby totally reminded of a celebrity but I can't think of whom. But I decided that's a good thing because one of 2 things could happen, she may love the actress and take it as a compliment or she could hate the person.  And that seems like kind of a high risk/low reward proposition to me. Wow, I can rationalize just about anything, can't I? Anyway, if you would like to see the rest of Abby's pictures, please click here.