Mini Family Session Remix

We're breaking our blogging mold today by sharing one big post as a recap of the last few months of mini family sessions we've been doing. What's a mini session, you might ask? Basically it's a shorter version of a traditional photo session where families shoot for only 20 minutes with us and the shoot yields a fewer number of delivered images. Typically, we schedule a marathon day for ourselves when we do minis so that we can shoot 15-20 families in one weekend. We had a mini marathon scheduled for June in Somerville, Mass and the weather didn't cooperate. Wouldn't you know it that the rain date got rained out too. So what were we to do except reschedule everyone at various times of the year during our travels to New England and also take advantage of the studio for some sessions during the rain. Everyone was so flexible and wonderful in scheduling again so basically what would have taken 2 days ended up getting scheduled in a three month span. Now that you understand the back story let me gush a little bit about these beautiful families. I'm part of an online parents group that I joined a few weeks before our daughter was born. The group capped off around 200 women and basically we share bits and pieces of our lives as parents and people and show support for each other in our various journeys. It's an incredible group of smart, talented, strong, thoughtful and compassionate women. When several of them reached out to me to photograph their families, I opened up the opportunity to the group to plan out a mini session marathon. Getting to meet many of these families and children whom I've only met online was such a treat. I'm sure you can relate to the phenomenon of online friendships and how interesting the dynamic is when you know so much about some people but have never met them in person. I tell myself it's sort of like pen pals of old. :) I'm needing to end this post so I'll end with this: never have I been given so much joy as I am gifted as when I photograph families. The love is immeasurable and eternal and it's such a gift to document. If that's not an impetus for creating art I don't know what is. Thank you, S1TM's for showing up with so much love.

2014 - IN REVIEW

For those of you still hanging around at the end, let's start with a high-five for being able to process all those images. We are well aware that this little annual tradition of our images in a yearly review format is entirely too big. Believe it or not, this is a highly edited version of some of our favorite images for the year. I suppose that's what happens when we shoot more than 50 weddings in a year, not to mention even more portrait sessions. There is just so much LIFE and LOVE that we get to witness! It's such an honor, guys. Now you get to read our little acceptance speech of gratitude. First of all, none of these photos would be possible without the beautiful clients we get to have in our Summer Street family. Their lives and love are our constant inspiration, and without that we'd just be taking photos of pretty things with no substance. Next up, our team of dedicated photographers. Of course Matt and I started this whole crazy business, but we've picked up Chuck and Abby along the way as our sensationally talented Associate Photographers, and much of what you see above is their talented work as well. Next up we have the privilege of working with some of the finest in the industry as our second shooters and assistants for some weddings; Ashley, Katie, Deb, Bella, Dan, Olivia, Ellie, Jean and Vina - your talent behind the lens is clearly phenomenal and we're honored to call you peers. We are hybrid shooters (film and digital) so we have to thank our talented film lab, Richard Photo Lab, for their expert work in the dark room. This year we hand-trained a new talented digital editor as well. With the influx of a new market in the Midwest, Matt and I needed back-end support to help us deliver beautiful, consistent images to our clients in a timely manner, and we knew bringing an in-house editor to help us would be just the thing. Laura is now part of our team and has been an integral part of our back-end this year and helps all our images become what you see on our site. Talk about a talented group!

We have captured love in many places this year. From sandy beaches to historic estates. Ornate houses of worship and cathedrals in the woods. Childhood homes and mountain tops. All across New England and the prairies of the Midwest, we've gotten to step back and capture lives full of love. We've been able to tell their stories through photos that they will cherish for years to come. We are completely honored to call this work, and we toast to you all for supporting us along the way. Here's to 2015!

*In the mood for more photos? Previous years in review: 2011, 2012 (part I, II, III), 2013*

Ashley + Jamie = Max

This session makes us so happy. You may remember Ashely and Jamie from their classy wedding in the mountains of Vermont back in 2012. In addition to this job being our livelihood, we are filled in so many ways from the relationships we make telling love stories. Making friends along the way is really the cherry on the sundae, and this sweet family is just that. Ashley, Jamie and their sweet son Max have become dear friends of ours and when they asked us to capture this fleeting moment  in their family life, we were all in. We joined them at their darling apartment in Cambridge to grab some photos of Max doing his sweet baby thing, and after slipped over to Fresh Pond, which is just steps from their house to capture some photos outside of the three of them (and keep Max awake since it was nearly bedtime!). We are loving the images from their session and hope you enjoy a peek at this beautiful family too.

The F Family

When Laura contacted us just a few days after giving birth to capture her newborn's photos, we were impressed. I don't know about you, but most mothers of brand new babies that I know rarely have time to take a shower, let alone invite two perfect strangers into their home to photograph their 12 month old and their 12-day old. Yes you read that right, a 12 month old and a newborn. Irish Twins, as they say. When we arrived to photograph her sweet boys, the house was calm and bright. Perfectly bright in fact. Little baby C was an absolute dream to photograph as he quietly laid on the bed with no fuss. We later got to meet his one year older than him brother, little H, who was a ball of energy in the best way possible. We've enjoyed every moment of getting to know this lovely family, and can't wait to photograph them as their little ones grow.

The S Family

It’s not all that often that we get the privilege of taking family portraits. Like most of our work, we try not to take these sessions too seriously, especially when there are kids involved! Maybe our approach is relaxed due to the church directory family photo forever stamped along the wall of my parents house…me with overgrown bangs slicked back with more jel than the early 90s deserved….my brother, bowl cut and all, with one eye almost blinking…. Yep. That’s probably it. Those formal photos can be nice, but let’s be honest….kids look their best when they are in their element. The S Family has plenty of energy to go around with two spritely twin second graders and one adorable little brother.  We enjoyed a summer saturday morning together at one of our favorite parks enjoying some croquet, swings and the good ole game of tag. It started sprinkling rain as we were wrapping up, which we think just added to the fun.