Rachael & Jordan // Calais Vermont, Engagement

I spent the evening of my birthday in the most quaint Vermont village called Calais with these two gorgeous people and their adorable french bulldogs, Stella and Evie. Their wedding is coming up in September, and we had originally planned doing their engagement shoot later on in May for a bit more foliage and fleurs, but with me expecting my third baby at the end of the month (9 days from now to be exact!), we decided to make it happen a little earlier.

There is just something about those first spring days in Vermont, especially on an overcast day.. The green of the grass just pops and you stumble across these beautiful little plants pushing up through last years dried leaves with this renewed sense of life. You can smell the earth all around you, the winter is just washing away. There is a slight chill in the air but that spring warmth is breaking through it and it's almost as if you can feel everything beginning again. 

This session was a perfect introduction to Rachael and Jordan and their sweet and gentle complicity. Rachael's family is the sweetest; before leaving her mom gave me a jar of their family made honey and Rachael and Jordan gave me the most delicious birthday cake from a local Montpelier bakery. After the shoot, Rachael dropped me back in Montpelier, where they live and where Mathieu and the girls were waiting for me, and I, although tired, just felt so happy and alive. Being able to immortalize these precious little moments in time for people like this is truly a gift, and I will be forever grateful for every opportunity I have to do so.

Thank you, Rachael and Jordan. I am so looking forward to coming back to this simple, gorgeous place and capturing your big day in September!

xoxo

J

Jamesia // Summer Skin

You just know the moment you meet someone with a sweet and gifted soul. When I met Jamesia for this session, I immediately apologized for the cold weather, and she just laughed and told me she was so happy to be able to spend this time at the beach with me that the cold didn't matter. She was even game to let the waves crash over her while lying in the sand. Can you say dream client?? I feel so honored to have not only met this gorgeous person, but to have been able to share this special experience with her, just the two of us, at sunset, on an empty beach by the sea.

She left me the sweetest thank you card and gift; a beautifully framed picture of a gorgeous mermaid, and when I realized that the gift was in fact for me and not a package she forgot on the beach, I felt my heart grow. To be able to do something to make women, people, feel good about themselves; to feel beautiful and empowered through art truly is the greatest gift.

My heart is full looking back over these images tonight, and I await with patience and excitement the sessions to come this August. 

Thank you again Jamesia for trusting me to capture your gorgeous soul.

xo

J

Summer Skin

Squeaky swings and tall grass
The longest shadows ever cast
The waters warm and children swim
We frolicked about in our summer skin

I don't recall a single care
Just greenery and humid air
Then Labor Day came and went
And we shed what was left of our summer skin

On the night you left I came over
And we peeled the freckles from our shoulders
Our brand new coats so flushed and pink
And I knew your heart I couldn't win
Cause the seasons change was a conduit
And we'd left our love in our summer skin

-Death Cab for Cutie

Summer is a time of the year for me that represents the peak of all things light, alive and free. As a child those gorgeous July nights were so long and overflowing with promise. We stayed out past sunset with friends, catching fireflies in jars. We would escape to the beach on weekends, or (because my parents were also feeling that summer freeness) we would take off for a few days during the week and head down to the shore.

At the end of August we always vacationed at least two weeks in Rhode Island, and did nothing but live, sleep, breathe, eat the beach. Salty skin and hair, sunburns and freckled noses, clamming and muscle foraging on the rocks. We would spend hours in the salt pond collecting shells and catching crabs. We never ever left the beach before sunset. It was, and still is my mother's favorite time on the beach. (And therefore mine as well). Everyone packs up and heads home, the waves calm a bit, the seagulls pick up the scraps families left behind and the water almost feels warmer than the air.

This time of the day at this time of the year for me symbolizes change; the embracing what lingers of that sweet summer light that dapples in our hair and on our bronzed skin, the freedom of all that screams summer. And it is, for me, a time to be documented.

If you are called to it; if you too yearn for those long summer days and feel that same heart ache when late-August creeps on in on you because you know that September is just around the corner and it' s a sort of bittersweet ending to the most beautiful time of the year, then you will want to keep in touch with me, I promise.

The Beautiful Woman Sessions

"A consequence of female self-love is that the woman grows convinced of social worth. Her love for her body will be unqualified, which is the basis of female identification. If a woman loves her own body, she doesn't grudge what other women do with theirs; if she loves femaleness, she champions its rights. It's true what they say about women: Women are insatiable. We are greedy. Our appetites do need to be controlled if things are to stay in place. If the world were ours too, if we believed we could get away with it, we would ask for more love, more sex, more money, more commitment to children, more food, more care. These sexual, emotional, and physical demands would begin to extend to social demands: payment for care of the elderly, parental leave, childcare, etc. The force of female desire would be so great that society would truly have to reckon with what women want, in bed and in the world."

-Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

When I asked Terisa why she wanted to do this session with me, she simply responded,

"I just turned 35 years old, and I don't think I've honestly ever felt more secure with myself and my body. And I want to remember exactly how I feel, right now. This is my birthday gift to myself."
 

My heart and soul goes out to all of the beautiful women out there who have worked hard to take their power back and to love themselves against all opposing factors. We aren't necessarily trained to comfortably embrace our sexuality; our wild, our fire. Being true and honest and unforgivingly authentic isn't always made easy for people, women especially. We are scorned for it; accused of being selfish or made to feel less-than because of it. I applaud you all, and I encourage you to answer those calls when they come.. you, your daughters, and everyone around you deserve that version of you. And if ever you want to document it, you know where I am. 

xo


#thebeautifulwomansessions

Louis // 4 mois

Quand on a la privilège et la chance de photographier les clients plusieurs fois dans un period de leurs vies si précieuse que comme juste avant et après d'avoir eu un bébé, on réalise pourquoi la photographie est si important. Je suis tellement ému par cette belle petite famille; leur histoire d'amour et leur chemin de devenir une famille de trois. Quel honneur d'avoir été choisit pour immortaliser cette belle period de leur vies. 

When given the privilege and the chance to photograph clients multiple times during a period of their lives as precious and magical as just before and after having a baby, you realize why photography is so important. I am so moved by this beautiful little family; their story of love and how they came to being a family of three. What an honor to have been chosen to capture, to freeze in time, this beautiful period in their lives.

Merci tellement Anne et Joe de m'avoir fait confiance. xoxoxo