The Baggiero Family: Storytelling Session

I have known Marci and Subby since I was 20 years old. (15 years..what?!) I became friends with Marci when I first started in the hair industry. I was hired as the assistant to the owner of a salon in Connecticut; she was already a colorist there. We became friends almost immediately. She brought me to get my nose pierced. We would go out in Hartford and have sleepovers at her place after. We both LOVED John Mayer, and we sat on hold for hours one morning to get tickets to his show at the Oakdale theatre. I later moved to New York City, and then to Québec, but we always remained friends. I still return to work in her salon; Reaction in Farmington, when I am back in Connecticut. So when she asked me to photograph her family at their new home, I obviously accepted with gratitude. 

There is something so incredibly special and ALWAYS unique about these Storytelling Sessions. Especially when shot at home. As most of my friends and clients know, I am a lifestyle photographer. My goal is to enter your life as it is, to blend into it so as if you almost don't even know I'm there, and then to capture it. All of it, the good, the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. For me, especially after having kids, I too often feel like life is just slipping through my hands like sand. Sometimes it feels like slow-motion; I can see it seeping through and falling, and I see it happening to a point that I feel like I might actually be able to stop it, but as slowly as it is falling is as slowly as I can catch it. It's beautiful, and the light hits it just so, and it makes your heart stop because you realize in that moment that this is it. Each little grain of sand is a moment in your life.

My hope is that these images I help create are a few of those grains of sand that we can actually hold onto.. REAL moments, in real light, in real locations; full of emotion. 

Thank you Marci for trusting me to capture a tiny part of your story together.. You have a beautiful family, and I am so lucky to be able to call you a friend. 

xoxo

J

a smile is worth a thousand words.

I am learning this craft called photography. I am making lots and lots of mistakes. I am also capturing lots and lots of beautiful moments of some incredibly beautiful people, and for this I am so grateful. Often, in photography, people ask what your focus is. Although I have not completely honed in on one specific direction, I with out a doubt want to capture people. People in all of their flaws and perfect imperfectness. Their beauty. Their sadness. Their most happy moments. Their most vulnerable. But most importantly, I want to capture their smiles. Laughter in a photograph for me is like a cup of coffee in the backyard on a warm, sunny morning in july. A sunset on the beach on a late august evening. Being curled tightly with those I love by a cozy fire in the middle of a snowy december evening.. and that first really warm spring day when all of the green seems to just have magically reappeared overnight, and the tulips and crocus have begun to sprout their heads. Capturing a real moment of laughter is like medicine for me. I can't help but smile when seeing it.

Ali and I set out on a chilly morning this past November in Farmington, CT. What we thought was going to be an hour or so ended up being a three hour excursion. We laughed. A lot. We wrapped ourselves in lots of blankets(and may or may not have changed a couple of times in the parking lot of Winding Trails). We hopped in a canoe and hoped that we wouldn't float away.

I am still learning this craft of photography. I am still making lots of mistakes. I threw away probably half of the photos I took, if not more. I took FOREVER to finish editing them(which has been a lesson all on it's own). But I take away soooo much from every shoot I do. And among the many things I learned from this one, I above all realized that I love capturing smiles. Joy. Laughter. What a gift to give someone, a frozen moment of their joy. What a gift they can give to their loved ones, their children.

Thank you Ali for coming out in the cold with me this day.. You are a truly beautiful woman, and your radiant smile is contagious. Keep sharing it.. We need more happy faces like this in the world.

xoxo