baby belly: Liz and Jason

"My friend, you will be wonderful. You will be tired and emotional and overwhelmed. There will be times where you might ask yourself what you have done(don't feel bad about it.. Totally normal). But then, in the middle of all of the chaos and sleep deprivation and sore nipples, when she is curled up in your arms, you both will look at her and look at each other and the love will fill you so high it will pour from your eyes. And you will know that all is exactly as it should be. My friend, you will be wonderful. "

Life is made for making mistakes. We make mistakes to learn. To truly be living our lives means to be growing and learning and stumbling from time to time. Our friendships are built for this, we are built to learn from each other, to support one another in tough times, and to share in our joys and sorrows together. My friend Liz is a incredible woman. So, naturally she married a incredible man. I have learned so much about friendship and love and courage and determination from these two. But you want to know what I think the number one lesson I have learned from my 25 year friendship with this girl is? Life is funny. Laugh. Laugh at yourself. Laugh at your mistakes. Laugh at others' mistakes as well, for they are just stumbling around this life as we are. Life is to be taken seriously, but only some of the time. Without the ability to laugh, what would it be??

Thank you Liz for teaching me this valuable lesson over the years, and of course to you as well Jason for joining in and exemplifying the ability to be sensitive and serious, as well as lighthearted and funny. And thank you both for inviting me to take these photos of you at this incredible turning point in your lives. May you both teach your daughter all of the ins and outs of life, love, responsibility and kindness, but may you(as I have no doubt that you will), teach her about the importance of laughter in this silly life. 

la bedaine: Anouk et Simon

Il y'a plusieurs moments dans la vie qui doivent être capturés. Pas juste pour partager sur facebook, mais pour garder proche de notre cœur, pour conter les histoires de la vie plus tardes avec nos petits-enfants et leurs enfants, etc… C'est toujours un honneur de faire partie des moments comme ça pour les autres. Ca me donne tellement du bonheur quand je click 'share' sur une gallérie pour un client. Mais quand c'est la famille, c'est encore plus profond.

J'ai eu le beau cadeau d'être la photographe pour capturer ce moment d'amour, d'espoir et de beauté pour mon beau frère et sa belle copine. C'est un histoire d'amour qui pourrait être assez compliqué, mais non, elle ne l'est pas. C'est simple: l'amour gagne. Dans tout les cas, dans tout les situations, c'est l'amour qui gagne. 

J'espère que le jour où ce petit garçon, que nous attendions avec beaucoup de patience et d'amour, le jour où il sera assez vieux pour voir ces photos et comprendre l'histoire entre sa maman et son papa, c'est exactement ça qu'il va voir…

L'amour a gagné.

 

la bedaine.

Voilà, c'est mon premier blogue en français...

AVERTISSEMENT::: ça va probablement être plein d'erreurs, d'articles féminins avec des sujets masculins, un mélange d'anglais et français, mais je pense que les images vont parler pour eux-mêmes...

J'ai arriver au condo à Véronique et Gabriel dans l'après-midi. La journée était gris et sombre, pleine de la pluie, la neige encore entraine d'essayer fondre. Bien, pas un choix.. on prend les photos à l'intérieur.

Mais, finalement, je trouve que c'était le meilleur situation pour ces photos. La lumière était parfait, et il y'avait même un mur foncé avec le quel j'ai joué beaucoup. Vraiment un super bel après-midi pour honorer la beauté d'être enceinte pour le premier fois, les derniers moments seuls entre homme et femme, et l'anticipation d'arrivé du bébé.

Félicitations à vous deux, Véronique et Gabriel. Merci tellement de m'avoir invité dans votre maison pour vous donner cette souvenir. C'est vraiment un honneur. J'ai hâte de voir la petite face bientôt!

"procrastination is the thief of time."

As many of you who are reading this might have noticed, I just recently re-launched my website.

Moment of truth: I purchased my new site over a year ago now. I had been working on it regularly over the last 12 months, but every time the time to launch seemed near, I would find a reason why it wasn't ready yet. My galleries weren't representative enough of me as an artist, my logo wasn't polished enough, I wasn't sure if the mapping was efficient enough. (I was actually really really scared to put myself out there as a photographer)..

And then, I got my annual bill to renew my site. 192.00 USD. And I hadn't even launched the f@*#ing thing. Awesome. So I paid my bill and gave myself a one day deadline. I sat down for a few hours that morning and I cleaned it up as well as I felt I could... and I launched it.

Is it perfect? No. I mean, what is? I realized I had been sitting around waiting for this thing to be the perfect representation of me and my work, but the truth is, there is no such thing. Perfection doesn't exist.. but honesty does. I am NOT perfect. BUT I am, in each moment of every single day, the most honest version of myself I can be. And I am always changing. What I am tomorrow won't be the same exact thing I was yesterday because I am growing. And learning. And I will share it with you. And that is enough.

So I took my procrastinating ways and I told them to piss off. And I said to hell with my imperfect logo, it's good enough. And I launched it.

And it feels pretty damn good.

"Procrastination is the thief of time. " -Edward Young

Samuel.

I am playing catch up on my blogging tonight, as I sort through images to use in my galleries on my website. (I know, I said that it was ALMOST ready before the holidays! It's coming. Promise. I haven't given up…) This new born lifestyle shoot was not just with any baby. This is Samuel. This is my nephew. He might possibly be the most beautiful baby boy I have ever known. I have been away from Connecticut for two months and upon arrival at my parents, I was greeted with a recent photo of him on the refrigerator. Oh my, how he has grown! I can't believe how much these little loves change in those first few months. Those first few years.

I showed up at my brother and sister in-law's home one afternoon last November with a couple of cameras and a whole lot of time. Samuel was is no mood to be put down and posed, so I just followed Marisa around as she rocked him, and sang to him, and changed his pee-pee diapers. He cried, and Marisa tried to figure out what he needed. Hungry? Tired? Gassy? It all came back to me so quickly, those feelings of becoming a mom. When you have read every book on every subject, but still, nothing can compare to just taking that time to get to know him. Because he is the only one like him. He is yours, not you sister's or you cousin's or you best friend's. The author of 'what to expect' had never met him when she wrote that book. He is the only him. And he is yours. Wow. So I did all I could do, and I smiled as an intense feeling of gratitude overcame me while I watched this beautiful moment unfold before me.. A brand-new Mommy and her brand-new son getting to know each other a little better.

I can NOT wait to see this little love bug while I'm here.