I love these pictures of the Joneses in Philadelphia… I’ve photographed some of them before but this was the first time we got the whole family in some pictures.  We met up one chilly, overcast fall morning.  The kids were great: easy smiles and mischievous grins, clearly enjoying life with mom and dad.

On a technical note, on this particular morning the sun was nowhere to be found.  It was actually fairly dark, and while I do love using natural light whenever I can, sometimes you have to be ready to use a flash, otherwise the images can end up flat and people have raccoon eyes, full of shadows.  Thankfully I always have portable gear in my trunk, and we made our own light!

Sure, it’s easier to wait for a sunny day for portraits.  Does that mean you should always do it?  No way… J & T’s mother wanted some portraits of her boys, and it just so happened that due to scheduling, we could either choose to shoot on Tuesday (when it was wet), or wait until Saturday (when it was going to be cold).  We chose wet, and got great stuff.

We decided to start the shoot in New Hope, and work our way across the bridge into Lambertville, NJ.  J & T have a ton of energy and personality, which always makes for fun pictures!

In November I shot these portraits of “E” on a warm Thursday.  She’s got these beautiful eyes that you can’t help but love…

Here are a few favorites from a shoot I did a while back.  Even though it was late autumn, sometimes we get lucky with a lot of sunshine and warmer weather… these fun, energetic kids took full advantage of the day and had a great time running around.  All I did was keep up. :)

You might recognize baby “A” from her 9-month portrait shoot back in August.  We got together again a little while back for her one-year portraits, and made these fun images.  It was coooold but the light was beautiful, and this rad little girl was a trooper!  Most of these were taken around Peace Valley Park near Doylestown.

I have almost never seen a 1-year-old who smiles this easily.  I met her and her parents in Chestnut Hill on a sunny but rather chilly morning, but the cold didn’t stop her from being pretty much delighted with just about everything she saw!

Another fun morning family shoot.  As much as I love the warm light we get when shooting in the late afternoon, there’s something about morning light that’s just… different, and wonderful.  These three were so photogenic, it made my job easy.  Find the light, let them hang out and laugh together, and BAM!  There’s the image.

These kids were all kinds of fun.  Quick with a smile, ready to run around and goof off, just… happy.  I met up with them (and their parents) at Ridley Creek State Park a few weeks ago.  It was a great shoot, and that was confirmed when their parents emailed me a few days later saying that the kids had a blast as well.  That made my day!

Check. Out. These. Blue. Eyes.

I met this lovely family for the first time this summer when we got together at the Moravian Tile Works in Doylestown to take some 9-month portraits of their daughter “A.”  She was totally chill and happy, and we took advantage of some of the beautiful textures available.  Here are some of my favorite images from the shoot.

We got up early one Monday morning to chase the light.  These pictures are rather special to me since the lovely lady in these pictures is my sister Holly.  This session was supposed to be an engagement shoot… over 5 years ago when Dennis first proposed.  Schedules fill up, weddings are planned, “I Do’s” are said, kids happen, and before you know it, it’s 2011.  Anyone else know the feeling?