Avanti & Bill ~ Engaged!

I met up with Avanti and Bill this past Sunday for an engagement session in Beacon Hill. It was a gorgeous day for the beginning of March and you could really feel spring in the air. Bill is a friend of Marc's from Northeastern. He and Avanti live in New York currently but they wanted to shoot in Beacon Hill, which is where they were living when they got engaged.

We met up in Quincy and took the red line into the city. When Bill suggested this plan I was so excited... train blur shot! The first train that came in to the station was going so slow that it barely blurred. I was bummed and decreased my shutter speed even more for the next one. The next one came in so fast that it blurred wonderfully but created a wind tunnel and blew poor Avanti's hair all over the place. Hmmm.

This was the best of the bunch but I must confess I helped it a bit in Photoshop...








At Bill's request, we spent some time trying to recreate a certain iconic album cover... any guesses?

Avanti requested some 70's style processing and I thought this photo was an appropriate choice...






At the end of our session, Bill and Avanti treated me to brunch at the Oak Room.


This was one of my favorite parts of the day and not just because I had the most delicious Fairmont benedict on my plate. A lot of the time, my favorite photos tend to come from the end of an engagement session. While I always try to help people feel comfortable in front of the camera, most really start to relax at the end! You start getting things like this series where Avanti is trying to "fix" Bill's smile... I love it!


Cheers!

Ali & James

On Sunday, I met up with my photography girl group (Molly Bergeron, Alanna Scully, Sarah Hildebrandt and Emily Dingee) to do some shooting. I met Molly almost six months ago when I commented on her blog (!) and I am so thankful that I did. She introduced me to these girls who are all so creative and excited about photography. We try to meet up regularly to bounce ideas off each other and shoot!

We headed out to Springfield, MA (Lana's neighborhood) to practice with some tricky church lighting, chat over lunch and do an engagement session with Lana's friends, Ali and James. The session was in Forest Park... which is where Marc and I had our wedding reception (at the Barney Estate!)

Here are some favorites of Ali and James -




















Thank you to Lana for coordinating and to Ali and James for being so comfortable with our paparazzi-style shoot!

Amber & Jeff ~ Engaged!

A few weeks ago, I was sitting at Post 390 with Amber and a couple of my other closest friends. The server came out to take our drink orders but instead of asking what we wanted, he asked "who's name starts with M?"

"Umm, mine does?" I said, unsure. He handed me a champagne glass decorated with pink and black polka dots and inscribed with a big "M." My first thought was WHOA this place is fancy - they give everyone their own glass? By this time, my friends "E" and "S" had received similar glasses. We all looked down and noticed what was written on the base...

"will you be my bridesmaid?"

So cute! Of course we all said YES and toasted to Amber & Jeff's upcoming marriage. I can't wait to celebrate with you!

Amber had asked me to do an engagement mini-session so that she and Jeff could get a photo to put in their hometown newspapers. Easy enough, right? HAH. Fast forward to yesterday afternoon... Amber, Jeff and I are running around in the frozen marsh hoping we don't fall through the ice, hiking through the woods and getting stuck in pricker bushes. We took a few breaks to warm up in the car but WOW it was chilly. These are the results of our adventure:





A favorite...








Marc saw this picture and asked me (jokingly) if we went to New Hampshire for the shoot. Hard to believe this was taken in Quincy!

Jessica & Vaxhid ~ Engaged!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

I am very excited to post this next set of photos. I met up with Jess and Vaxhid in Boston's Public Garden last Sunday. I've known Jess since college... we were both RA's and had lots of other crazy adventures together. I was thrilled when she got back in touch with me (YAY Facebook!) to inquire about engagement pictures. Jess and Vaxhid are so sweet to each other and very photogenic... I had a hard time picking my favorites:

















This next picture cracks me up. It's hard to read the sign but it says "Please keep off the lawn." We didn't see it until after we took a bunch of pictures. Haha. As an accountant and former RA, I am usually a rule-follower, I swear...




Love this...






Some silhouette/sunflare action:


We headed over to Beacon Hill for a change of scenery. I loved all the gorgeous brick:




Jess and Vaxhid, thank you so much... hope you enjoy!