a night out with friends | aka | i turn things into photo shoots

this summer has been so freaking bizarre. i feel like just as soon as the room stopped spinning from the whole stolen camera thing i came down with hand foot and mouth. ew. how the eff did i get hand foot and mouth. and yes, it is as disgusting to have as it sounds. i feel like i've hardly seen anyone and all of a sudden we're on our annual cape cod trip and then boom - school. after a year of trying to connect, i did finally see one someone. my friend holly (who you should check out here and here ) and her adorable kiddo baylen, met us in harvard sq. one lovely late summer evening.

we hit wagamama, which proved too difficult to try and photograph once they gave all 3 kids chopsticks. then we hit the new pinkberry in harvard sq. which i only just discovered exists. and is just so damn delicious and makes me feel like i'm being healthy and like it's ok to feed it to the kids when they maybe kinda sorta didn't eat the world's best dinner that night.

and then it just sorta turned into a photo shoot with bay. he looked like a little baby vampire to me.

and i just couldn't get over his gorgeous golden brown curls.

we (hub and i) admittedly feel a little out of place in our hood, still, but holly is just awesome and if she lived next door to me we'd be so good at bitching about the same things together!

after playing past sunset, we trudged to the train, sweaty and sticky with yogurt. the perfect end of summer gem of an evening.

xo isabel

he turned six | personal | medford ma photographer

i'm in a foggy haze. summer ended, fall has begun, the boy turned six and then started first grade, and some other here and there stress bombs. one thing i am so very excited about is all the family sessions i have coming up. fall gets busy busy and it's filling up faster than i imagined. i have a lot of worky work to get through. but sometimes, when i get stuck, it means i have to do some personal work. like a photographers version of getting up from your desk and stretching your legs. it relaxes me. it reminds me what i love about photography. an awesome picture fit to print.

i knew the boy was going to get his cherished upgraded scooter, the Maxi Kick, *seriously, these scooters are so awesome i can't even rave enough about them. i wish they'd pay me for how i try to sell them* so we went out for one last scoot on soon to be mini boy's scooter. these are the photos i get out of the boy these days. but i love them, and i love him. he's hilarious and quirky and weird and hilarious. he loves the beatles and wants to take guitar lessons. he reads like a rock star. he loves first grade.

and then there was this beautiful, absolutely perfect august night. 6 years removed from the first moment i met the boy. from the first moment i smelled his sweet skin and heard his sweet cry and felt him wriggle in my arms, outside of the alien like belly i had going on. in a cruel twist, someone seems to have brainwashed him into thinking he doesn't need me anymore.

i mean, look, kid, if you want me to drop you in the middle of a field with a few bucks, your scooter and brown dog, we'll see who's really right.

but anyway. that night, i reached down to grab his hand, to cross the street. he went for it and at the last moment recoiled. he looked up and said "i can do it mom, i don't need to hold your hand"

um WHAT?! WTF?! who told you you didn't need to hold my hand? you most certainly will hold my damn hand until it's old and wrinkly.

anyway.

seeing the joy in these faces. on these scooters. that out of body, heart pounding, eyes welling, goosebumps feeling. your two sons. happiest when together, even though they drive each other and everyone around them nuts.

6 years. for 6 years i've been the luckiest mother on earth.

to have a kid who poses like he's pooping in my photos.

winner one and winner two | two session giveaway

wow. hold on a second. let me catch my breath for a minute. that was amazing. your comments had me laughing, crying, shaking my fist at thieves, and laughing again. because seriously, who CAN concentrate when a cat's around and why can't mommy have a penis?!!? what i didn't expect was how hard it would be for me to not just say "well shit, i'll just give away 88 sessions!" lucky for me, the internet lords have come up with a site that will randomly pick the numbers so i don't have to. so, if you want to be mad at anyone, go yell at random.org

i am so very excited to announce the two winners!!

first up, we have : Katie Roman August 11, 2011 at 7:01 pm # Edit

My family has never had professional pictures taken! We have a 4-year old, a 2-year old, and a 3-month old. The other day someone asked us for a picture of our family…and we didn’t have one (not even one we had taken ourselves). We went to MIT campus and asked a stranger to take our picture…which he did, wishing us a fun vacation–we were not on vacation! =)

and second winner is : Tirzah August 12, 2011 at 2:58 pm # Edit

I thought I’d sneak in for one more entry since it’s almost noon and my little guy is napping. I agree with the PP….I would love to win, and then pay some love forward as well!

Congrats you guys!! email me at furiephotography@gmail.com and let's get your sessions set up!

i really can't thank everyone enough for participating. i truly wish i could give to everyone and also really, really hope i still get to meet some, if not all of you and your awesome families. and because no post is any good without a picture, henry says congrats!

1/125 f/1.4 iso 2500 @8pm (also, i'm going to start including stats again with my shots. if there are readers out there interested in technical posts etc. please say so in the comments! lemme know what you guys want!!)

xo isabel

the whole story about my camera | paying it forward

well, originally this was going to contain the whole sob story of what happened to my dear, sweet camera and all the beautiful images i took while we vacationed in california. but then i realized two things. one, most of the very few people who read this blog have already heard the story 100 times and if they hear it again their ears (or eyes in this case) might bleed, and two, time to move on. the short of it? well. i was traveling with two kids, stressing out that we were going to miss our connecting flight that would bring us from NYC to BOS, and after i wrangled most things, my dear sweet camera got left behind in the dust. under seat 31E on delta flight 206 from SFO to JFK. i realized it quickly enough that delta should have been able to easily retrieve it, but in just that short amount of time, the camera had been stolen.

but! this post shouldn't be all about all that sadness. trust me, i've cried enough tears. it's about what happened next. my friends and family rallied around me with such great force and strength and love. a donation fund was set up for me (what?!?!?) and my mom, my sweet guardian angel, who i love more than i'll ever be able to put into words, saved my ass. SO! what does this all mean?! it means i'm back in business! and i'm playin with the big kids y'all! my mommy (imagine me saying that like a spoiled valley girl, it's way funnier) believes in me and my talent so much that she bumped me up to full frame. d700 baby. oh, it's so good.

if you're like me you're thinking "well, shit, that ended up pretty damn alright for her" (mind you, the loss of those photos felt like someone died) and you're right! it did! so, because i can't hand write a thank you letter to every person who donated (trust me, i cried and know who every.single.one. of you are!) i thought of something i could do. someone donated, and i wrote to them "this is absurd, i'll never be able to repay you or thank you!" and their response was "sharing your beautiful photos every day is thanks enough"

need a tissue? no? just me? ok...

so i'm giving away two sessions. two FULL sessions. see? just like this fancy flier says:

how to WIN:

in the comments section tell me about the last time you can remember having a family photo taken of you, or the last time you were photographed as a couple for all you lovebirds out there. the more hilarious the better, though it doesn't really help your chances, it just gives me something to laugh at.

you can comment twice a day. giveaway will be open until FRIDAY @ NOON. winner will be picked at random and announced Friday evening. so be sure you already like furie photography on facebook so you don't miss it! it might be YOU!

good luck! xo isabel