Rachel Kate Photography Blog

Ahhhhhhh…….I am officially caught up with ALL of my editing.  I don’t think that I have had NOTHING to edit for over a year and although I know it will be short lived, it feels pretty awesome, I have to say. There are album designs looming up ahead, but for right now, I am going to bask in the glory of this feeling of completion.  I am coupling that with the feeling of crazy excited anticipation about my upcoming trip to Vegas and I can safely say that right now I am in a great mood.  This mood is bolstered by the fact that I believe I am in decent shape in terms of clothing to pack for my trip.  This was not, in fact, the case about 48 hours ago when I almost put my plane ticket on Craigslist because there was nothing besides yoga pants and the three tops that I have had in rotation for the entire winter lined up and ready for my suitcase. Oh, yes, I did have a really cute pair of leopard print heels ready and waiting for their first trip on an airplane but I was limited as to whether or not I was going to pair them with an Old Navy black roll-top yoga pant or a Victoria’s Secret heather grey/rose combo.  I am seriously, seriously at the end of my winter clothing rope and lately standing in my closet debating what to wear is bringing me down to a new all time low.  I kicked the shopping up a notch, made it my mission for the better part of the day yesterday, and for someone who really does not enjoy shopping all that much I feel as though I came out victorious and can now attend the trade show with my friends rather then standing with my face pressed up against the glass at Logan, sniffeling and waving good-bye to them in my yoga pants and leopard heels.

I met with Melissa and Joe not long ago at the studio to get some practice in before their April wedding sneaks up on us.  I’ve known Melissa for awhile and I am so honored to be shooting her wedding.   We had one of those rare, warmer days to shoot on and we actually got to head outside and make the most of it. Melissa was a trooper, as you can see, these two will soon be a be a mom and dad and I love that we got to not only have a little practice session before the wedding but that we got to document this amazing time before they become a family.

Love this. Melissa comes from family of 3 of the most photogenic girls I have ever seen.

I can’t wait to see the eyes on their baby. Don’t they both have awesome eyes?

Thanks guys! I’ll see you in a couple of weeks for the big day!

xo, Rachel

I am on editing and blogging FIRE. Don’t you agree?? Feeling very accomplished these days.  All business all the time (except for this morning when I spent the majority of it at Niko’s with Lisa and stuffing myself with florentine benedict and loving every second of it).  My goal is to have everything on my todo list crossed off before I board the plane that will fly me to Vegas a week from this Saturday for WPPI.  Sooo excited…

Today I will share with you my buddy Thomas Maguire.  I haven’t seen him since he first arrived into the lives of my friends Tom and Tricia and he really is wicked cute.  They came to visit me at the studio and it is funny, I remember at the shoot thinking that he really liked me and was full of smiles for me but when I took the time to look through what we got he was actually giving me the hairy eyeball for most of the shoot. His expression was totally “I am SO not buying what you are selling, lady…move along…”  But he, like so many other of my suspicious yet unsuspecting babies underestimated the speed and prowess of both myself and my camera so you guys will get the impression that we are best friends and that is really what I am going for here.

My favorite baby age to shoot, no doubt.

I mean, how cute??

And I know that Tom and Tricia didn’t bargin on being in the photos but I love these and it is my blog and I can do with it what I please.

Thanks guys.  So good to see you all:)

xo, Rachel

Good early afternoon to you.  I have been trying to think of things to write about for today’s post and honestly, the best I can come up with is why doesn’t any of the deodorant companies in the world have the knowledge, ability, wherewithal, something to put a nice little weight in the bottom of the deodorant package? They are so freaking top heavy (men’s Degree in particular) that every time I reach into the linen closet (where we keep our deodorant) to get anything I end up knocking one over and it is like the world’s most annoying game of domino’s and in lieu of domino’s it is grooming products and pill bottles.  Just a little weight right there in the turn handle thing would make all the difference. I think I am going to write a letter.

 Anyway, the real reason for today is my baby went and grew up on me. I cannot believe that it has been a year since I started shooting my boy, Connor.  He turned one and he brought his mom and dad to visit me in the studio for his last session of his first year. He kills me and I cannot even stand how now when he sees me he toddles over and just gives me an obligatory hug totally unprompted. 

We shot in the studio, like I mentioned but then I stopped by their house for our chair photo which we have done at each session.

Ummm..how about his finger and his eyebrow??

I could eat him alive.

Seriously, Connor???

Like, this is what he presented me with as a parting gift for a year of photos. Couldn’t have asked for anything better.

Love you, buddy. Happy Birthday.

xo, Rachel

So, obviously,  OBVIOUSLY, I was getting just a little too ahead of myself. I thought that the kitchen remodel (what is funny to me is that EVERY time I try to type the word remodel I type remodle and I have to go back and fix it. Like, there is no conditioning whatsoever, I do it EVERY time) and all that went with it was winding down and that was premature and just plain silly of my to assume considering for the most part everything has gone smoothly up until this point.  Monday was appliance day…thought that was going to be just pure satisfaction. The end of having to go out into my cold mudroomish area in order to get anything from the fridge. Accessible bliss.  Hmmm..nope. The fridge is most definitely too big. How?? Why?? Why didn’t any of us think to consider the depth dimension when being talked into moving up a size because the larger  height dimension fit just perfectly? I am certain it is because the very nice sales lady made it clear that moving up to the next size affected ONLY the height but, who knows, that could have been a dream and I kind of feel bad pawning off our stupidity on that very nice woman (who I still think is to blame but whatever).  And ok, so that is dealable. Yesterday we waited around all day for the counter guys to appear and provide me with a place to put my Keurig (not that on the floor directly next to my office chair is bad, but I am looking for normalcy in my life at this point). And they arrived bearing a beautiful counter in a completely different stone than what we ordered.  Nooooooo…… We did not want Rosa Grey. It is pretty and in someone else’s home it would be beautiful, but everything about my pretty new kitchen hinges on the glass backsplash I got (and loooove) and Rosa Grey is just not it’s friend or mine, for that matter.  If I could figure out a way to accurately type all of the whiny noises I am making when I think about how much more this extends this project I would insert them here but I am afraid that they will not translate well in blog speak so I will spare you my attempt. To top all of this off, it is February vacation. Nuff’ said.

Now that I am done venting I would like to change the subject to the busy few days I had while we we exiled from our house for the floor portion of our project.  I had what, 5 shoots in like three days and met some awesome people and a bunch of new little friends. I will share with you my girl Allison who is five months and adorable.  Love me a big house with lots of sunlight and a happy baby so it really was a recipe for a great session when I arrived at their home.

Here she is…

So cute.

This might be my favorite.

Thanks so much guys! Allie, you did so great!

xo, Rachel

Verge of a snowstorm, cup of Honey Dew french vanilla (I know, not my usual, but every now and then I need a little Honey Dew in my life. That Honey Dew is also the home of the cinnamon stick doesn’t hurt and I am happily inhaling one right now as I type), and a whole bunch of Alyson and Eamon’s wedding pictures to blog. Sigh…love this day. There is a part of me that doesn’t want to blog this wedding because then it will be over and then I will have to blog on top of it and I never want to post anything on top of my beautiful friend Alyson on her wedding day.  I had the honor of shooting her marriage to Eamon early last month and this is the last wedding that I will have to post until the end of March. I am loving that I am going out of my 2009 season (technically she was married in 2010 but I don’t consider her part of next wedding season) with her images.  Working a wedding surrounded by my close friends makes it that much more awesome and this wedding was just that. Awesome.

The before stuff is always my favorite, but of course when you deal with Alyson you should automatically factor in the loss of an hour because the girl can’t function unless she is at least an hour late for anything. As much as I was worried that I would miss out on some of the getting ready stuff, there was really no reason to worry in the end. We did it Alyson style and I wouldn’t change it now for anything.

Alyson is a beautiful girl on a regular day. There is no denying that. On her snowy January wedding day she literally took my breath away.

C’mon.

Looooove.

Gorgeous.

Kat Hannafin was my shooter and she had Eamon and the boys waiting patiently for Alyson and the girls to finally arrive. Eamon isn’t so bad himself (big secret:).

The ceremony was held at Granite Links in Quincy.  These ceremony photos make me even happier than my cinnimon stick does.

Love. Love. Love.

Have to put one in of my girls.

Mmmmm…

Then it was off to the Florian Hall in Dorchester for the reception. Alyson had a vision and the place was transformed. Nice shot, Kat;)

This photo made me laugh out loud when I saw it. How funny is the perfectly place light fixture? Have you seen the website for “photo bombs”? Total light fixture bomb.

Have to put one of my pretty sister-in-law Jess in here.

This is what happens when boys drink  beer at a reception.

This is what happens when the photographer drinks a beer at a reception. That Cuban Shuffle, man. I can’t help myself.

After what may have been the world’s longest reception, it came to an end.

Perfect ending to a perfect day.

Love you guys.

xo, Rachel