Any time I know a couple from my church get engaged, I get a little giddy and feel the excitement I’ve felt for friends when I was a school girl. Which makes perfect sense when I think about it because church is really the school of life for believers. Anyway, this couple is so sweet, they’re infectious and I’m so excited to share their photos with you!
Family portraits with kiddos this little keep me on my toes. They actually used to intimidate me before having my sons who have trained me well in the four years since I became a mom. However, I still feel that before every session with young children, I need to manage expectations, mine included as I know how it feels as a mom to want just one perfect photo of my boys at their best behavior in adorable clothing, with no distractions in the background and good lighting. Actually, I’m not sure most moms have put this desire into words, and even more unlikely those words, but I feel they want something along those lines.
Before becoming a mom, I would have disregarded this photo below. But now I know better to appreciate it. Isn’t this the way it goes sometimes? Wardrobe is carefully planned. Everyone is looking great and there’s just this one thing that isn’t working for this family – this little guy hates laying in the grass. Mom and daughter look great and Dad is trying his best to comfort his son, but it’s just not happening. But fussy baby boy and all, aren’t they a sweet family? And this moment is one that should make them smile someday—remembering what they did in pursuit of the perfect photo. It’s real life and this image was a part of the set in their gallery. We never did get all four of them to smile, or just look at the camera, while they were laying in the grass in this beautiful lighting, but how could I not share this sweetness?
There’s something I love about photographing one-year olds. I love how they can look into the camera with no inhibition and really just study it with no pretense for smiles. I have some portraits like this of my sons and they’re still some of my favorites to this day.
And then they get bigger and learn how to turn on the charm for the camera (when they’re in the mood to comply, that is!) and that is just downright charming.
For little guys like this one, a ride on daddy’s shoulders is a sure-fire way to get some good father and son portraits.
And this little sweetheart just did something funny that made her mama laugh and this was the embrace in the moments that followed.
We did get a couple of family portraits where everyone is looking at the camera and content to be photographed. And that’s a reasonable expectation when it comes to family portraits with little ones. The expectation of getting all smiles is sometimes a tall order, depending on the age and particular mood of the kids in that moment. I do share some things I’ve learned about trying to cultivate a positive environment for photo shoots on my Getting Ready page and it’s definitely worth checking out before your session. I’ll continue to add what I’m learning along the way because I want sessions to go well and understand all of the pressure that comes with getting ready for a photo shoot.
And here’s the moment where this little brother and big sister simultaneously shared in big smiles—as they were looking through this park bench! I’ll take it!
Lauren and Dan are getting married next Fall and have been planning their wedding from out of town, so when she emailed me about their trip to Pittsburgh for the last weekend of October, we made sure there was time for their engagement session while they were in town, even if it happened to be on a Sunday afternoon right before a Steelers game. Little did we know what chaos we would face with the pre-game festivities and detours on the North Shore, it definitely made things interesting, but we can all laugh about it now.
We started at Riverview Park for some portraits amidst the fall foliage.
It was so quiet and peaceful there. Lauren loved the fall leaves and Dan was happy to hold her close and keep her warm.
They had no trouble kissing in public. And that’s ok when you’re being followed by a camera! At least, that’s how I see it!
I really like this low angle. It doesn’t always work, but these are some of my favorite photos from the session!
And fast-forward through a 45-minute drive to the North Shore. The detours and traffic were particularly bad that day because of the game. What Lauren and Dan didn’t know is that their engagement session that day came with a tour of Pittsburgh’s North Side! Ha!
There were flocks of Steelers fans on all sides, but they were kind and gave us some space as we made our way along the North Shore, stopping here and there for some photos.
This is one good-looking couple.
And just one more kiss!
So, Lauren and Dan were off to the big game—lucky ducks! Her friend bought them tickets as an engagement gift. I went home and watched it with some friends dressed in our Halloween costumes. All in all, what a great day! Go Steelers!
It was a pleasure to photograph Jen and Sean last weekend. Jen is due in July and the baby’s gender will be a surprise! For this photo shoot, we started at Riverview Park on Pittsburgh’s North Side and then headed downtown for some riverside photos with the Allegheny River as our backdrop. After that, we headed to the couple’s backyard garden for some more intimate belly shots. They are a beautiful couple and the baby on the way will have wonderful parents.
Here’s a favorite shot with some lens flare over Jen’s belly.
