On November 12, Doc's Cafe will be closing, making way for the next phase of the Saugatuck Commons. Our family has known Yvonne since she owned Juba's at the former Peter's Bridge Market and we will miss the warmth and cheer that she and her staff brought to the Saugatuck neighborhood. I did some photos for Doc's after they opened and thought this would be a great time to share them again. Westport's Dan Woog wrote a nice piece about Yvonne and Doc's Cafe final days.
A Sunday September morning in South Salem. Three exuberant children all 3 years and younger. Lots of love and connection. At the end the 3 spun for me in the beautiful dappled light.
Great day and great weather at Puttin On The Dog in Greenwich, CT. Met lots of people, some clients came by the booth, and it was fun to see so many dogs and their people having a great time. Adopt-a-Dog puts on a terrific show. Very casual and family oriented.
More family photos from the Amelia Island trip. This is why I love black & white images. There's a timeless quality that makes them always look fresh and classic at the same time.
Most of the time I find that black and white photography is more powerful and timeless than color. But on a recent vacation to Amelia Island, Florida, we found this marvelous train yard at sunset. The colors of the rail cars and the graffiti begged for color images and I got some great photos of my boys and my sister's kids against the cool boxcars. We were almost out of light by the time we finished so I played with some filters to enhance colors. Very fun shoot.
One Sunday afternoon in August I did a photo shoot at a Westport family's beach retreat on Cape Cod. The cabin has been in the family for years. Beautiful weather, lovely light, and fun family. This was a photo session I donated to the Silvermine Arts Center benefit auction last spring. So in addition to contributing to a great cause, I was able to do the session in a wonderful spot.
What a great opportunity to revisit my clients after 5 years. The triplets have changed so much since the last photo session that I did when they were 3 years old. There was a lot of laughter, action, and caring to go around. It's wonderful to compare photos from each shoot with clients and be able to chronicle their life journey.
Just did some new photos of the Connecticut cover band NO SLEEP TONITE with their new singer. One of the band members is a portrait client and asked me to do some photos of his whole band. Great fun to do. Check out their website for more details and performance schedules.
And this is why I love my job. It was a Sunday morning in July on a bright sunny day. A client that I had photographed over the years: first the daughters, then the engagement pictures and now the 4 day old baby. Watching the whole family grow and evolve. I was so honored to be there with the new baby and the support team (both sets of grandparents and the new aunt). All sorts of new roles and a new person to love. And over the course of it all, I was so reminded of the way that babies make you stop and pay attention. And there is no schedule. And all these emotions came up in the course of a couple hour shoot: happiness, wonder, exhaustion and frustration. A new baby creates an intense microcosm of life distilled down to its basics.
I love doing promotional shots with clients who will try new things. This summer session was for a midwest music student who wanted some profile pictures for her portfolio. We did some classic shots against a backdrop and then took her cello to Burying Hill Beach in Southport to get some environmental photos that complimented her music. It was a lovely day for it and we got some great shots.
I spent an afternoon in Falmouth, MA, last summer with a mother and her two children on vacation. The session began at a local lighthouse near Woods Hole that opens for tours once each year and we all climbed the spiral staircase to the top for a view. Then we went to their favorite spot at Woodneck Beach to get photos of everyone playing on the beach. It was a perfect afternoon and the water so clear and warm it felt like being in the Caribbean.
I recently did a photo session at Greenwich Point Park for a family that won my donation to the Stepping Stones Children's Museum benefit auction. It was a perfect day for the session. Slightly overcast and a gentle breeze which kept away the bugs. I walked with the couple and their 3 boys around the park finding several great spots I hadn't known about.
Two weeks ago, I volunteered for the Dine and Design event at the Phillip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. I had always wanted to go and this seemed like a great opportunity. Well, it was even more amazing than I thought! It was a drizzly day and that made the area seem even more ethereal. Johnson and his partner had planned everything. It was so scenic and pastoral and interesting. How cool to have an underground painting gallery and a round pool and a pond with a small sculpture reminiscent of Lincoln Center. There are 14 buildings overall on the property which are all connected by paths. Because of the light rain, people would drift in and out of focus on the paths like a dream .And the Glass House has an amazing view over a valley, but then when you head down to the pond, there is just as an amazing view looking back up at the house. It is like a 3 dimensional art gallery, all thought out, and each piece planned as part of the whole. All I could think was this would be a great place to have a photo shoot with a family or friends. Any takers?
I always do photography sessions with the awareness that I’m helping a family create a journal of memories. But this session was special because the family is moving back to the Netherlands while their daughter is staying here to finish her senior year of high school. The mother wanted to do a session with her daughter and their two dogs in a favorite place so they would have an album to take with them. The day was 90 degrees and wonderful as we hiked around a beautiful orchard they enjoy in Easton. We walked and talked. They played and laughed. It was a magical time filled with love and connection.
This was a destination photo session on Nantucket at Sconset Beach. It was a breezy August day, I featured some shots in color because of the way the girls' bright outfits stood out against the sand. I love sessions at the beach because it is a natural place for kids to feel free and the wind energizes everyone.
Here is a family that I have worked with for years. We started locally, in Westport, then I did a photo shoot at Torch Lake, Michigan a few years ago to capture memories of a special house that had been in the family for years and was being sold. Now the family has moved to Florida and they were having a retreat in Naragansett, Rhode Island for a month last summer. It was the perfect time for a new photo session. We explored the modern house that they had rented, kids played on the beds and threw water balloons. It was a very foggy day when we went out to spend time on the huge rocks on the point. The rocks created many very cool backdrops for pictures and the fog made everything feel very ethereal. In the afternoon, we went to the beach that they love to go to. The kids flew kites and played in the water and had a full fun day.
I had a great destination photo shoot last summer in Falmouth, Massachusetts. This Westport family was at their annual Cape Cod retreat, visiting grandparents and enjoying familiar places and activities. The session started at the house where everyone loosened up with hoola hoops and wiffleball. Then we drove to the local club where the family sails and hangs out. We found some nice spots to do family portraits and then took advantage of the driftwood and rocks along the beach to do some individual shots of the kids.
We had a wonderful photo session in January with a local family whose little girl had been born in a snowstorm 8 days before. It was a lively group and the winter morning light through the windows made for some lovely shots. We got a lot of variety even through the entire session took place in one room.
Shooting Pictures for the Pound was a delightful experience for me. May 1st was sunny and warm. Dogs, kids and parents were all in a fun spring spirit. We had big dogs, little dogs and even a chicken! New puppies full of love for everyone and faithful senior dogs just happy to be with their owners. All of it was connected by the love that people had for their animals. There was a lot of hugging and kissing and chatting and playing, and even a singing/howling a cappella moment that I wish had been on video.
We Einarsens are a huge pet family, and warmed my heart to have us all there. My husband, Paul, managing the image files and my boys, Connor and Carson, helping wrangle wandering pets and kids. But seeing all these people and the animals that are so much a part of their lives made me see Boomer and Gravel, our shelter dog and cat, through refreshed eyes. It made me thankful that I could do something to help other strays find loving families like these.
Thanks to Earth Animal and the landlord, we were able to set up a temporary studio in the empty storefront next door which helped contain energetic dogs and roaming children. We scheduled 23 sessions but the event was so popular with walk-ins that we had to extend the day and ended up shooting 37 families and their pets, plus Perry from Adopt-a-Dog. In the end we raised over $2700 for Westport Animal Shelter Advocates to use for improvements and supplies at the Westport Dog Shelter. I encourage everyone to contact and help out with their great work.
A fun shoot with Lydia, a pregnant mom, and her son, Lars. It was a lovely sunny day. Lars was full of energy and joy, and there was a great connection between mother and son. I shot while they played around in the beautiful light streaming through sheer window curtains. Then we went outside for some photos in their big, open yard. When Lars finally tired out, Lydia and I went back inside and captured some wonderful photos of her in the beauty of her pregnancy. We explored some yoga poses. I photographed her playing her cello. And she draped herself in fabric; dancing against a black backdrop. It was a really special session.
