…for someone with LOTS of time on their hands!

How to make them here

Janet wanted to capture her family as it is now, while it is still just the four of them. Her kids are now young adults, and no doubt will be moving on to their own lives and families before you know it. I think they all look terrific, and even though we were all melting down on the day of the session from the heat you would never know it from these images. (and a special thanks to Julie – I don’t know what you were doing behind me to get your dad to loosen up and smile naturally, but it worked!).

Here is another senior session, which I just LOVE doing. We had all kinds of crazy weather for this shoot – everything from rain to hot, humid sweltering sun. But Carly stayed cool and calm and beautiful throughout, and we captured some gorgeous images. Carly is planning on donating her hair to "Locks of Love", so this was our last chance to capture that long silky mane before her new look!

This was in this month’s issue of Martha Stewart’s Living, and I thought it looked great.

Read how to do it here

It’s back to school time, and that usually means new sneakers. Found this fun site that has a whole bunch of cool ways to lace up your shoes – might want to share it with the kids in your life!
Lace-up techniques

I can’t believe that I almost missed posting these kids on my blog…I think their session happened right before my crazy summer traveling started, and it got buried in my "to-do" pile. Anyway, I have done a few sessions for this family and they always turn out to be great and have gorgeous images. The children are so photogenic and it’s always fun for me to see how they have changed since the last time. They are growing up so fast! Their parents are well aware of this, and it’s a real treat for me to walk into their home and see how they have decorated it with photos of their family. You just know as soon as you enter that family is the priority in their lives!

Ok, I have a Master’s degree and I can’t even begin to decipher it – so this just cracked me up!

…what says "vacation" like photos of kids and sand? These are the children of my friend Faith, who were actually in Katie’s Punta Cana wedding . I took them down to the beach one day for a few fun photos. I LOVE to photograph these kids – they have the most amazing eyes. The twins always look like models, and Jared – well, here he is looking all GQ:

My last night in Pittsburgh for awhile…I’m driving home to Lake Keowee late tomorrow after I finish up some sessions. My brother is in town also, and the family was talking about Pittsburghese – a form of Midland American English covering western Pennsylvania, eastern
Ohio, and northern West Virginia, centered around, of course, the Burgh.  No one is quite sure
where the language of Pittsburgh came from.  When English is spoken on the streets
of Pittsburgh’s many ethnic neighborhoods, its speakers often borrow many words from their
native tongue. With an
already-substantial Scotch-Irish/German population, the result was to make Pittsburgh the melting
pot of melting pots, and a pure molestation of the English language. I found a website that sells bumper stickers perfect for any Pittsburgher that loves the black & gold:

You guys."
Standard greeting among Pittsburghers.

"And other things, etc."
A Pittsburgher ends each and every list with this little word.

"Get out of here."
Pittsburghese has such poetry as this: an elegant and efficient way to express surprise, disbelief or disinterest.

"Hey, you jerk, get off of the road."
The perfect bumper sticker for that out-of-towner on your tail. They won’t even know you’re insulting them.

"Hello friends, would you all like to go to the downtown district and purchase some bologna lunch meat and other goods?"
A typical day spent in Pittsburgh. (Remember Isaly’s?)

Buy them here: Burghlines

Took these this afternoon on a walk with Liz…it’s really starting to look like a house now! Time to start making decisions on the interior next week; not really too excited about that, because I am having trouble committing to the finality of it all! What if I make a mistake and hate it later? Ugh!