Now that I work as a nurse in a neonatal ICU and spend my time helping babies grow healthy and strong enough to go home with their families, I’ve realized how fun and important it is to capture the precious early moments in a child’s life.

Emily and Brian brought their new son, Beauregard, over to my home studio a mere thirteen days after his birth to capture some early memories. Little Beau was not too into the photo shoot at first… or throughout really.

However, with a little patience and after a couple feeding sessions with his mom, I was able to capture some priceless moments of calm.

I find some of the most touching moments are the ones where the parents dote on the newest member of their family.

And I always love the detail shots. Babies grow so fast; I love capturing every little detail of the beginning of their lives.

Beau’s stuffed lamb and Brian’s hands will provide a nice sense of scale as he grows larger.

By the end, he was pretty tuckered out. We swaddled him up, shot a few photos in his blue blanket and then let him sleep. Meanwhile we scarfed down some Vietnamese food, which my husband was nice enough to pick up as the shoot lasted well into the dinner hour. It can certainly take some patience to photograph newborns, but the reward of documenting the beginning of a life is definitely worth it. A huge congrats to our friends Emily and Brian on their beautiful baby Beau.

I have photographed the family of Melanie and Benjamin Kendrick for years now. It all started with covering their wedding. Since then, I have covered their maternity photos and followed Benjamin (the youngest in the photo above) as he grew. He is over a year old now and it was a pleasure to see how big he has gotten and how much personality he has developed. For this most recent session, I also had the joy of photographing Melanie’s sister Janelle and her two boys.

As a thank you for all the business Melanie and Benjamin have given me over the years, I made them a gift. I transposed the above photo onto wood for her and her sister. I love the rustic look it gave the photo. I also made a collage of the photos I have taken of them over the years and put it on a wooden box. I plan to start selling these. Sometimes it is nice to do something with your photos–something beyond the digital print.

Here is little Benjamin through his first year of life. I took a picture of him with his father’s helmet each time to show how much he has grown.

It was a beautiful day on the North Shore for a photo shoot.

It was a bit of a challenge at times to get all the boys to cooperate, but everyone pitched in to get them to smile.

And sometimes they just did adorable poses on their own.

As usual, I loved the candid shots. I think they really show the personality of the boys.

I also got a few cute photos of the two sisters together.

Thanks again for letting me capture some beautiful memories for you!

It was a beautiful morning in City Park to shoot Kristina’s senior portraits. I am glad we rescheduled the shoot for the morning since the original plan was to shoot in the afternoon, when I found myself getting drenched in a rain storm at Jazz Fest. Before the shoot, I drove by one of my favorite spots in the park to see if the flowers were in bloom yet. They made for a beautiful backdrop at the end of our shoot.

We started under the Peristyle and then moved on to the nearby stone bridge and trees.

Senior portraits are kind of a landmark moment in our lives and I was delighted when Kristina and her mother asked to have a photo together.

I liked this one because I thought it was a nice, natural moment. I have used this tree a lot for portraits and this spot always gives me nice lens flares, which give the photo a fairytale feel. It is not a suitable photo for a senior photo or a sorority application, but I gave her plenty to choose from for that and I thought it was too pretty not to capture.

The trick with trying to get more natural moments is to never stop shooting. I also asked her to do things like walk toward me or look away, which occasionally made her smile and laugh naturally.

And sometimes serious faces can be very flattering.

I wish Kristina all the best in her future endeavors.