tonight :: five frames

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

same night storytelling session: the Phillips Family, Québec

A few months ago, Teri contacted me for a Storytelling Session with her family. Being an ex-pat photographer herself, I was flattered and honored to capture her gorgeous American-inQuébec family for her!

This was one of those sessions where you get home immediately following and mean to choose only a few to send to your client, but you just can't help yourself from going through all of them.. and blogging it at one o'clock in the morning. I can still feel the damp grass all over my legs.. A sunny summer evening with Teri and Scott and their two gorgeous children was exactly what I needed right now. 

Thank you both for letting me into your life and helping you tell a small part of your story together. 

xo

Jennifer

Bienvenue au Monde Béatrice!

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited into this beautiful family's home to capture some of the early moments of their third child and only daughter, Béatrice's life as the 5th member of the family! Safe to say, as always, they stole a little piece of my heart while I was there. They were so much fun to photograph! Elyse was so relaxed and collected as her husband Alexandre ran around with the two boys Léonard and Hubert. It was all so natural and I really was able to get a sense for who they are as individuals and as a family. 

These are the kinds of sessions that keep me passionate and grateful for having photography in my life. These are real memories frozen in time and I am always so honored to be chosen to give these gifts to people. 

Merci tellement Elyse, Alex, Léo, Hubert, et la petite Béatrice d'avoir m'invité chez vous. Cette journée était autant un cadeau pour moi que pour vous.. xoxoxo

mommy love.

Going through images for a journal submission, and I stumbled across these gorgeous shots of my sister-in-law and my incredible nephew. How I missed them in the first place, I have no idea.

The love here is so strong, so present. Mommy love is immediate, unconditional, and indestructible. What would the world be without mommy love?