Liz & Dave: Merry Christmas!

It is now December 13th, count it!, and Christmas is a mere 12 days away…and luckily I can be sitting here writing about it as opposed to shopping because this year, I embraced the fabulousness that is Amazon Marketplace. Granted, 2 years ago this time I was on the phone with customer support because they lost my ENTIRE order 2 weeks before the holiday…but I got all my gifts reimbursed and resent for free, so all was not lost. Regardless, this year I was on my game and about 90% of my gift purchasing is done done done, which left me plenty of time for last minute Christmas shoots.

Liz and Dave, aka, ‘mom and dad’ have been behind me since day one and love and support me like no other, which is good, because it takes incredibly dedicated parents like these to let their camera wielding daughter direct them all over the streets of Winchester in hopes of that perfect Christmas Card shot, which I think we got…in between all the uncontrollable laughing that is : )

They just couldn’t keep it together!

Light up the room smile : )

Perfect Christmas Card….?

Bingo : )

Thanks mom & dad!
xo Emily

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All photos and text copyright © 2010 Emily Smith.

Alex & Nick

I lost count of how many coffee’s and sodas I drank today…but I’m feeling all aflutter and I’m hoping it’s the caffeine and not my going into anaphalaxis or something… And on that note, I started reading Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult last night and it characterized the main character as having a tendency to catastrophize, and I thought it was a strange maladjustment to have. But then I got to thinking about some of the more wild hyperboles I tend to shoot off every so often and then became overly-sensitive that perhaps I catastrophize, in which case…I’m strangely maladjusted. Ugh. Is that even a word? Catastrophize. I’m getting the red squiggle in my spell checker. Anyway, so long as Shaun doesn’t come home to find me twitching on the ground I’m sure all will be fine…but to be safe…I think I’m going to get a glass of water ; )

Anyway, today I want to share part two of the Thanksgiving shoot which I am very excited about. Nick, Alex’s boyfriend, was also invited to dinner and he arrived just in time to jump in on action. I don’t need to reiterate how much Alex is a natural in front of the camera (check out the previous post), but if Nick didn’t enjoy being photographed, he hid it veeery well. I could go on and on about how sweet they are and what a cute couple they make, but the photos speak for themselves.

So cute!

This pose was Nick’s suggestion…and I’m so happy he did!

I feel like there is something so Mary Tyler Moore about this one…like at the end of the opening sequence when she’s in the middle of traffic and tosses her beret into the air. It makes me think of the city at Christmas. Love : )

Thanks for being so awesome you two!

Alex and Maddie

I have such a wonderful family, and they are by far what I am most thankful for in this life. I feel so extrememly lucky to be able to spend time with them, particularly around the holidays. This Thanksgiving my aunt and uncle invited Shaun and myself, mom, dad and grandma over to enjoy a feast of feasts at their beautiful home out in central MA. It was the first year I hadn’t been served turkey, although in it’s place were two perfectly golden capons (don’t google it…just don’t…but take my word for it that it’s DEVINE and hope that someday, someone makes one for you) and then something called ‘corn casserole’ that was like a mix between creamed corn and corn bread and it was so good that I skipped the mashed potatoes so that I had enough room for a second helping of it : )

Another reason to be thankful is that my two gorgeous cousins, Alexandra and Madeleine, agreed to a photo shoot that afternoon, pre-food-coma, of course, and they rocked it. Not only are these girls unbelievably gorgeous, but they absolutely love being in front of the camera. Makes my job easy! BTW, all these photos are taken on location at their home…talk about beautiful landscapes!

Here the girls are sitting on a very small brick bridge that extends over a koi pond. Sadly, the koi (and the pond for that matter) weren’t doing too well due to it being almost December. I’ll catch some better shots of them this summer!

Can either of you get any prettier?

And of course a gratuitous foot photo because I just like that : )

Ladies, you rock….and I hope we can do this again soon!

Love, Emily

Shaun

Being the new husband, Shaun has the lucky job of following me around in my craziness and posing for play photo-shoots when there isn’t anything more interesting (hehe) to take pictures of. So, last Saturday morning I woke him up early and told him to get dressed because we were going to drive around and find the perfect expansive brick wall with just one, here me…ONE park bench. Oh, and of course he had to bring his trumpet too, because what’s the good of a brick wall, a park bench and no trumpet? That’s right.

So after driving around Salem for an hour or so and finding no brick wall with the perfect single park bench…I had the fabulous idea of driving around Haverhill looking for just the same thing. We wound up in some run-down industrial park that had the most incredibly decrepit brick buildings and chain link fences (as well as various signs that explicitly stated we shouldn’t be playing around in the vicinity, oh well) but NO stupid park bench. My god. So I just started clicking away and here’s what I got:

I took this across the street from the train depot and was standing in the middle of the street just as a cop went by. Incredibly thankful that I got the shot and that I wasn’t reprimanded. I mean really…check out that perfect little sunburst on the bell of his trumpet.

I had a love-affair with the jazz scene and beat-poets all through-out college. This one takes me right back there….

I snapped a series of Shaun sitting up against this awesome building. There is quite a bit of new development occurring in downtown Haverhill right now, and everywhere you turn there is one brand new, fresh brick structure for every run-down one. It’s a neat juxtaposition. Anyway, the sunlight was diffused perfectly at this location and I could have stayed there all day. If it weren’t for the photos, it would have been for my enjoyment of creeping out the lady eating icecream in the front seat of her car, watching and getting all flustered that I was within a foot of her car, croaching around with my camera like a weirdo.

Shaun got hungry and vetoed any more photos that day, but as we were driving through the other side of the city, I found some AMAZING alley-ways with old-time advert paintings on them and will have to shoot again there sometime very soon.

Thanks Shaun, and you know there is waaaaay more where this came from : )
xoxo

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All photos and text copyright © 2010 Emily Smith.

Aiden & Damon

Right before Halloween, I had the pleasure of spending the whole week with my impossibly adorable nephews from out-of-town. My sister and brother-in law and the boys were out for my wedding, and I have to say, for all the excitement involved in planning and executing the entire wedding extravaganza….I was just as excited, if not MORE, to spend quality time with these loves. I must have poked, tickled, smooched and nuzzled these boys so much over the course of the week that they thought their Auntie Emily might need a little trip to the loony bin in place of her honeymoon : ) It kills me how big they are getting. I remember driving 14 hours in an all-too-small pick-up with my mother and father to see these boys about 2 days after they were born…and when I say they were each the size of a small football, that would be an over-exaggeration. You could fit both of them on your lap, easily, with room to spare, and OH my GOD was their skin paper thin, velvet soft and smelled like perfect.

Now they are 15 months, rough and tumble, and look like perfect mini version of mom and dad. Spooky, but amazing. Meg and Ozzy, you did good : )

But enough ranting about how perfect they are. See for yourself…

Hello eyes : )

This one’s my absolute favorite. Look at those chubby little fingers!

Yeah, I can’t really handle the cuteness.

When Aiden discovered the Rhododendron, he started what I can only describe as “doggy-paddling” through them…every so often glancing back to make sure that daddy was watching. He was so proud about his discovery.

It breaks my heart into a bazillion pieces that you guys are on the other side of the country, but my camera and I will see you soon enough : )

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All photos and text copyright © 2010 Emily Smith.

Welcome!

Welcome to my photoblog and online portfolio! On this blog I plan to share with all of you my journey in becoming a portrait photographer. I promise to always share with you my enthusiasm and creativity, a thoughtfulness of composure, and the true measure and magic of a single moment. But above all, with every image I want to impart the gift of discovering, and stilling for all-time, snippets of life by mixing a smidge of technical know-how with a good amount of amazing light, and most importantly, heart.

Thank you all for visiting : )