I had a wonderful time meeting Ariana and Kevin for the first time! They have a beautiful home that they share with their newborn baby girl and two gregarious frenchies, Bonnie and Roo. They’re amazing parents to children and pups alike, love traveling and yoga, and are thoroughly enjoying introducing their baby to all kinds of different music. We had fun hanging out in their yard, listening to Kevin play banjo while we enjoyed the beautiful weather (and me profoundly enjoying Bonnie and Roo’s fetch antics – particularly Roo sticking his head into the frisbee and carrying it around with his face in the middle until Bonnie would have enough and take the frisbee back like the older sister she is). It was my pleasure to document this sweet little time in their life!

My dear videographer friends at Big Dog Little Bed have expanded and are welcoming Andrea, their Creative Producer, to their team! I’ve photographed BDLB many times and we always have so much fun, but it was really wonderful seeing the energy between Janice and Andrea for the first time. They’re both encouraging and inspiring one another, and they’re truly excited and passionate about their work telling the stories of others. I was tasked with getting new headshots of everyone, documenting their process and story discovery (with help from Lauren and Jeni, our client models), and photographing their new studio setup. All of this included Bernie and Layla Bean, the BDLB dogs! Bernie, the resident Big Dog (or bigger dog in this case since she’s kind of medium-sized) is super into me right now and I’m enjoying basking in her fandom. Layla’s the resident dog skeptic who is much more like a cat. She likes me too, but really just prefers trying to keep her toys away from Bernie. It’s always fun to photograph the pups but even more fun to reconnect with this amazing local small business of which I’m a superfan. :)

These are our BUDS. Always happy to photograph them as clients but more happy to photograph them as some of our best friends. Last year we did an on-location shoot but this year we went back to their house because SamSam, their dog, felt left out and missed me too much. I don’t know what to say about these folks that I haven’t said before but it bears repeating that I love them and I’m grateful to have friends who are family down here. We watch a lot of bad movies and occasionally some good movies and we celebrate holidays and birthdays and go through good things and bad things together and sometimes I take their pictures. Their oldest son and I are buddies – we hang out at Geoff and Jon’s softball games together where he tells me important things like “I went to Target today” and asks the hard hitting questions such as “How far is your house from here?” and about 50 other questions that start with “why” in an hour’s time. Their youngest son, who has been slightly more wary of me, is now big smiles and I’m pleased to report that he voluntarily ran up and pushed me during this session while giggling and running away, which is his first voluntary interaction with me. Soon we’ll be best buds too. However, their first and oldest child, dog SamSam, will always make sure that I’m her best friend first and foremost and will bowl over all children and people in the process (I’m going to pretend she’d do this even if I didn’t give her treats).