dc sessions | teenagers | friends

whoa. i am just now finally getting this session completed and blog post ready. forgive me friends! these are my wonderful friends who housed me during my whirlwind DC trip a few weeks back. i can't even do justice to what a great time i had. how much i truly enjoy Jessica's kids, and Jessica and her husband. i can so clearly remember being Max and Anika's ages, dragged around to dinner parties and meeting endless close friends of my mom's. sometimes the dinner parties were fun and i enjoyed myself, and sometimes i just couldn't wait to get out the door. i remembered all this as Max and Anika sat nicely with us, on a saturday night no less, for dinner. computer time sacrificed and friend time. all to sit and chat with one of their mom's old family friends. ah, the circle of life.

onto the session. my first with teenagers. i will admit i was nervous. but they were hilarious and at ease, though they may not have felt like it in the moment. there's no denying that Jessica and her hubby have done well, fostering some serious love between these two kids. keep in mind, they're almost 16 and 12, and hugging?! smiling?! like i said, Jess needs to write a manual.

enjoy! xo isabel

i set up camp, and i saw.

there's this chick, Shannon Leith, who is totally awesome. she's a photographer on the other side of the country and she inspires me. sometimes, i look at her light, airy pictures and i think, i could never get those. but in my whole "i'm not going to feel down on myself anymore!" transformation, there is no room for this sort of doubt. so today, with my morning cup of tea, my camera, and Leo in his pjs, we hunkered down in the one spot in the house that i don't totally hate. the sun-drenched road rug. i sat in the middle while Leo played around with his doctor's kit, camera close by. and i thought, i'm just going to let the this all sink into me. i'm not going to search for things, but rather i will just let things show themselves to me. and see what i see. that's when i happened to notice all these words around me. i mean hell, in a kid's play room you can find an endless amount of letters, numbers and words on anything from books to puppy dog toys. but these were just little...composed images that just jumped out at me. so i shot them, and moved on. tried for the one shot deal, the best shot IN camera, and that was it.

something about the lightness of it all, the bold colors. it really made me long for spring, but also eased my heart a bit. it's close, spring that is. i imagine each winter i'll get better at being a photographer in the deep dark coldness of it all.

Leo had his little stethoscope, checking my heart, making the little thumping sound with his mouth. because the batteries are dead. and i just picked it up, the camera, and pressed the shutter. i thought i'd get nothing. instead i got this picture that makes my heart drop with love.

and then we went to my sister's house, which i was glad for. a change of scenery and new faces to point my camera at. except that let's be honest, despite three children being in the house, Mary was the only one my camera saw. oops! she's so big now and on the verge of a lot. scooting around with her long feet, which she's also just discovered.

i love looking at all these pictures together. they're so light and airy and vibrant. i love these pictures because i love them. despite the fact that i am only slightly worried that you all might think i'm crazy for taking pictures of words...

xo isabel

lazy sunday. . .

maybe sunday will be my clean up day on the blog. end of the weekend and i was trying to think what to put up here today. and i remembered a few shots recently i had taken. so, here's an odds-n-ends post. the big kid noticed the light on baby michelin here.

these are from a couple of weeks ago. my sister in law was showing me the recipe she was going to use for my nephew's birthday cake, and my niece was seriously so into this magazine. it was such a like mother like daughter moment.

and this last batch are just some i've been able to snag recently of the little man.

goodnight, and a happy sunday evening to you. i'm off to try and knock some more best picture nominees off my list!

xoisabel

the kind of repeat i like

my favorite thing ever happened today. back when i first started my biz, i offered a bundle of free sessions. Eliana was 6 weeks old when her parents scooped up the opportunity. and i can't begin to tell you how flattered i was when they asked me to photograph her 1st birthday. and let me tell you, it was a blast. with many more pictures to go, i couldn't resist sharing this little moment. snapped when i followed mom upstairs to wrangle Ellie into her party outfit.

i can't wait to share more from this lovely celebration. xo isabel