Family Resemblances

My little niece is so yummy, I could eat her up. Since she was born, I have enjoyed every moment. I could just stare at her all day, ok, actually, I could photograph her all day. Because she lives in Seattle, I don't get to see her as often as I'd like, which means that the time we do have together is really special.

While I post pictures on here all the time of my clients, I don't often put up pictures of my own family. And that's gotta change. With my recent post about my Northeast Tour, I was able to share a lot of family with you. So that's a good start. Northeast Tour, Part 2 is coming soon.

Elizabeth and I share some similarities that well, just make me proud. See if you can figure them out. The top picture is me with my brother around age 3. The bottom is Elizabeth at my cousin's wedding in June. She'll be 2 in August.

Can you tell that I love being an aunt? I can't wait to introduce her to hair product and show her the ways of naturally curly hair. Those beautiful curls can sometimes be a pain, but through my infinite wisdom, I plan to show her how to love them.

Picture of the Day - Twins!

Today's Picture of the Day is brought to you by

The letter "A" and the number "2"

A is for adorable and 2 is for twins Ava and Elyse. These adorable sisters are so much fun. It was great to see how different their personalities are and to watch them play together. At 12 months old, they definitely are having a lot of fun. Elyse has just learned how to string together steps to get from mommy to daddy, and Ava is on her way. She shimmy's around by holding on but I know the next time I see her, she'll be running around every which way.

Northeast Tour, 2010 - Part One

A couple weeks ago, my husband Nick and I went on a tour of the northeast. The initial reason for our trip was to go to my cousin Beth's wedding in Connecticut. We figured this would be a great opportunity to see a lot of family, have a bit of vacation and even do some portraits along the way. I say "tour" because Nick is a musician and as we hopped from city to city visiting family and friends, he played gigs of his original music. His music is best described as a combination of blues-rock and funk. But really, it is so many more genres as well. He just loves music and when he writes, it's more of an expression of a story than a specific genre. It's because of Nick's pursuit of a music career that we met 6 years ago. Thank you, I'll be here all night! More on that another time.

FYI, he just had an album release party for his third album, Year of the Ox.
Check it out at the Nick Edelstein band website.

We left Atlanta on a Friday and hit Knoxville, TN. Nick played at a place called Manhattans which is kind of funny because we would go to the real Manhattan a few days later.

From Knoxville, we headed to my hometown of Baltimore. We stayed with my parents a few nights. I had the great pleasure of photographing Noah and Eli, sons of a great family friend who I grew up with. Take a look at my favorite picture from their session here. My time in Baltimore was a real vacation. We got to see some other childhood friends, the youngest of whom was getting married that weekend.

Congratulations, Suzanna! (iPhone picture - forgive the graininess)

After three nights there, we got back into the car and went to Lancaster, PA. We visited with Nick's cousins, Anne Marie, Seve, and Sammy, and went to Longwood Gardens - beautiful place.

Despite being in Pennsylvania, we had not yet escaped the heat and humidity of Atlanta. So the rest of our time there was spent indoors with family.

This is Nick with little Sammy after a pillow-fight. I think that Nick actually may
have had more fun than Sammy playing with all his toys.
Funny how men so quickly revert back to little boys
whenever there's a transformer around.

Our next stop was New York City. We visited with some of Nick's aunts and uncles who live on Long Island. We had a homemade lunch with Aunt Annie and Uncle Leo, and Nick played a couple of his original songs for them.

At Uncle Tommy and Aunt Helen's, we had pizza and admired Uncle Tommy's garden of Bonsai.

That evening, Nick played at National Underground on Houston Street on the lower east side, where we'll be returning this Friday. Come join us if you're in the area! Some of Nick's other cousins came to that show and we had a great time listening to Nick play. No pictures for this evening either, but I did get a parking ticket. HA! Expensive souvenir.

That evening, we stayed with Nick's cousins, Donna and Henrik, and we finally got to meet their son Hunter. We've been trying to get up to New York since he was born, but it was just not possible. Skype is a good consolation for visiting in person. But meeting Hunter, playing with him and photographing him has no substitute. Look at this cutie!

Me, Donna, Nick and Hunter

The next day we headed to Philadelphia. Oh, in case you're keeping track - still no relief from the heat and humidity. The northeast was having a heatwave - perfect!

Nick played a quick show in Philly. We got to see Nick's cousin, Lena, and my cousins DH and Betsy (thanks for dinner!) We immediately left after the show and hit the road.

Next destination: Simsbury, Connecticut for the wedding. But not before some unwanted excitement on the road... stay tuned for Part Two of our escapades.

Are you exhausted just reading about the trip? Don't worry, the beach is coming soon. :)

Picture of the Day - Atlanta Maternity Portrait

So I get a call from Rachael on Friday saying that she's pregnant and due in about two weeks. She knew it was last minute but she really wanted to document this time before the baby comes. And of course I said yes!

I love photographing maternity portraits. There is so much excitement and anticipation during these sessions that it's palpable, and contagious.

The baby's room is all ready for the baby and so cute. They used chocolate and pink in the room and an elephant theme throughout. An adorable mural above the crib with different patterned wall paper and fabric in the design of a family of elephants is just perfect.

Jeff and Rachael's love and excitement for the arrival of their baby is so lovely. Can't wait to meet the baby soon!

Support us with your vote - again & again

Creative Loafing is holding their annual Best of Atlanta survey to find the best things, food, places and businesses in Atlanta. Support us by voting for us in the Poets, Artists & Madmen section, page 2 of the survey.

BEST PHOTOGRAPHER

Throughout the last 4 years, we've been honored to receive 5 awards including Best Established Visual Artist, Best Local Visual Arts Website/Blog and Best Photographer. Help us this year by giving us your vote. You can vote multiple times by registering with different email addresses.

Thanks so much!

Picture of the Day: Father & Son, Baltimore Family Portraits

Growing up in Baltimore, MD, my family was extremely close to another family. We shared holidays and beach vacations in Ocean City, MD and Nags Head, NC. Because my brother and I were exactly the same age as the two oldest in their family, we also shared pre-school and religious school on Sundays at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. We loved spending time with them, playing in the backyard and eating our moms' delicious food - lasagna, brownies, grilled hot dogs and corn pudding.

On my "northeast tour" (with Nick playing gigs throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic), we stopped in Baltimore and I photographed a family portrait for Amy, the oldest, who has two little boys. It was so much fun to do this session because Amy and I have known each other for so long. Seeing their beautiful family, realizing how much she and I have grown up, and documenting this time in her family's life was so meaningful.

Here's my favorite from the whole day: Noah being tickled by his dad, Jeff - PURE JOY.

PUBLISHED! Professional Photographer Magazine

I am so excited, I can hardly sit still.

I'm in the July issue of Professional Photographer Magazine!!!

This national trade magazine has been an amazing resource for me as a new business owner, and even now, 7 years after I opened my studio, I still learn so much from it. Everything from the art of photography to operating a studio to the latest new camera gear is covered. I have always looked up to the photographers who are profiled and included in the magazine, and I dreamed of the day that I, too, would be included. Reaching that point of experience, skill and knowledge to be included has been one of my goals from the very start. So to get here is oh, so sweet.

If you remember, last year PPMag wrote a piece about my photo essay in New Orleans. And this time, I was asked about our SpokesMAMA campaign. It's a huge honor to be asked about an advertising campaign that I created (with some initial ideas from Rod Evans). SpokesMAMA has been greatly successful in spreading the word about our studio. The concept of taking word-of-mouth advertising by the reigns and guiding it along is not new but finding the best way to do it is the tough part.

The current SpokesMAMA Contest is for photography of your child's first day of school (kindergarten or first grade). Unlike our other contests that are based on the age of your child and include a portrait session, this session is all about photographing the emotions and details of this exciting day.

Apply to be the SpokesMAMA - First Day of School.

Read the Professional Photographer Magazine article.

Thanks for spreading the word about SpokesMAMA and continuing to support the studio!

And a specific thanks to Shelly, Angus and Gemma for letting me use the lovely image of Gemma reaching for her daddy's hand. So sweet.