This strong mama and I had been emailing back and forth for some time about this shoot. Her son had been in and out of Children’s Hospital getting surgery so we wanted to pick the perfect time to celebrate him turning 1. We found a mutual time that worked for us both and headed to Hale Reservation to explore. We climbed rocks and hiked trails to this beautiful beach where we splashed and played.
Birthdays are a great time to document your growing family!
Here is one of my favorite memories from this past summer and sort of a moody (because I have been) portrait... out on the rocks up in Acadia National Park visiting with family + friends... I caught Ethan in a world of his own, throwing rocks at sunset.
Oh life, it's been flying by this summer, between our travels from Buffalo to Acadia to Vermont to Cape Cod... all the while being pregnant with baby #3, I'm pleasantly exhausted to say the least! Through most of my travels I of course brought my camera... sometimes I'd bring it along if I was feeling particularly brave, but most of the time it would stay back at the ranch... and then my "photographer guilt" kicks in... some women suffer from "mom guilt", I suffer from "photographer guilt" aka "why didn't I bring my camera with me!?!".
I feel like, along the way of becoming a mom of (almost) 3, trying to balance family life and photography life, something had to give. Of course, since photography isn't a living breathing thing I need to keep alive and make thrive, it has taken a backseat to these, very needy, early years of my babies childhoods. It's ok though, I knew it would happen, which is why being a photographer was always one of my career goals, because of the lifelong flexibility it offers.
I am taking this time to really play around with photography, lighting and various editing techniques... I've also been printing a TON of my work in hopes of really learning from what I'm doing instead of just shooting and shooting and shooting and not really improving. I've decided that I need to stop shooting so much and really focus on an individual image as art... learning more about the post processing phase to get the look I have in my mind for the final product. In the end, clients want artwork on their walls, am I right? So I need to figure out what looks best, alone and together in a series.
Stay tuned!
Walking around the South End of Boston with the Cook Family was so much fun (as you can see). We enjoyed an evening stroll to Grahams favorite park right down the road.
One of my favorites from Tuesday evenings shoot in the Boston Public Gardens... Shooting young children is really special to me, there is something about them that is just so untamed yet pure... Kaitlyn really warmed up to me towards the end of the shoot, she even gave me a big hug at the end of it!
<3 melting
She wakes up at 5:30 am Monday-Friday, gets ready for work, wakes up the kids, get's them ready for school/day care, drops them off at school/daycare, goes to work managing the Speech Pathology department at Buffalo Hearing and Speech Center, picks the kids up from school/daycare, takes them to gymnastics, soccer and swimming, cooks them dinner, helps with homework, plays with them, gives them a tubby, puts them to bed, makes lunches for tomorrow, finishes up work she didn't get done in the office...and finally unwinds with her man. Those are just a few jobs of any given mom, and in this case, my sister Kristy the super-mom. Watching her in action usually leaves me puzzled, how did you get all that done and how do you still have energy?! {Don't ask me}
Anyway, she wanted to do a family photo shoot here are a few of the photos we created while they were in Boston to visit.
Peace, Love & #beingamomispuremaddness,
April K
Summer time... and the livin' is... well, it's been really super busy for me. I was happy that I could find time to have my sister Kristy and her family here to visit for a few days. She comes with Luke and the kids at least once a summer to enjoy the New England sites. It's always fun to have my gal pal and niece Kyleigh by my side and to see how quickly Cohen and Quinn are growing. The boys are both complete hams and all three of them will do anything to make you laugh. The boys also love to see their BFF Justin {and Justin loves having a good reason to watch cartoons and act like a kid again}. Life moves so quickly and I find it's very important to make time to spend on these short but epic moments. I guess it all circles back to balance, which is hard to do mid-wedding season!
Here is a little snippet of my heaven...
Peace, Love & Wet & Wild Fun,
April K
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