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Random #6 (with a side of Vegas, baby…)

 

While those shoes may not necessarily be made for walking, they are definitely made for suffering in silence all in the name of looking cute and that is exactly what I intend to do with them while I am in Vegas. Ok, I am willing to be honest, and the suffering in silence part is a stretch, I will be complaining out loud, but I will still be looking cute while I do it. And I will most definitely be in Vegas.  In a few short hours I will be on my way and it seriously feels like Christmas morning. 

While I sit here and avoid packing (need to get on it…why can’t I start it??) I am so incredibly pumped to be inspired this week, to learn, and to have so much fun with some awesome people. I am also wondering just how many Advil Liqui-Gels it takes to knock out a human just about my size because the idea of the plane ride is not exciting me nearly as much as the prospect of wearing my shoes. I’m sure 5 or 6 wouldn’t even do the trick, but they are all I’ve got here.  Alka-Seltzer cold medicine or children’s Tylenol are my other choices and I am putting my money on the Liqui-Gels.

Have a good week, everyone. Wish me luck!

xo, Rachel

Melissa and Joe

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

Baby Peter

Hi. Monday again. It ALWAYS seems like Monday, doesn’t it? I don’t actually know who I am kidding because I waited until right now, when both of my kids got off the bus, to sit down and write this blog.  It is like I have a magnetic force field and my boys have no option but to be in the same exact room with me. One right now as I type asking me who I think is the only person that his golden headed G.I Joe guy would lose a fight to (my response was “Superman” and he looked at me like I was simple) and the other one needing a cup of coffee from the Keurig which is STILL placed beside my desk on my office floor because the never-ending kitchen renovation is just that, never-ending. Appropriate for an 8 year old to be drinking a cup of joe? Probably not. Stunting his growth or something like that, but honestly? It is buying me 30 seconds of quiet while he watches the Keurig magic unfold in front of his eyes so I am OK with it.

I had the pleasure of photographing a new little friend, Peter, not that long ago at the studio.  He is a little guy but so completely full of spirit I had to laugh.  I’ve never had a baby actually yell at me, like, full out yell right in my face, and Peter totally did.  It is so funny to see a baby that little with a mind so already his own.  He was a sucker for his dad so we got lots of him smiling, thankfully.  Such a doll, not surprising when his parents were as great as his.

Here are a few of my favorites.

All of the moms who come to my studio are rocking heels. I’m like… Really? Don’t mind the yoga pant/Ugg ensemble I’ve thrown together in honor of the occasion…” I am hopeless…

Love this one.

 

 

 

Thanks, buddy!! You can yell at me any time, I won’t take it personally:)

xo, Rachel

Thomas

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

Kathryn & Mike (aka my two new favorite people)

I love my job. I just do. It is no secret, I make this known often, but I still have a hard time believing that I get to do what I do every day.  I cannot imagine my life in an office. That was never an option. But I did, for a very long time, imagine myself as a 65 year old bartender with bifocals around my neck that I would need to pull up and on in order to see the balance on a check, with a raspy voice and age-inappropriate jeans calling everyone “hon”.  That was the vision I had for myself not that long ago. Yes, I am a full time mom, and a college graduate but my psych degree and hard earned knowledge of how to make the world’s best scrambled eggs was not exactly parlaying me into a career on any level.  Bartending sustained my sanity and my bank account for years and there is not a single part of me that would change all of those years for anything.  Although, did the thought of punching in at 5 and out at 1 for the rest of my life excite me? No.  That I decided to go after the only thing in the world that I could see myself doing, make a full time career out of it and still feel total and complete passion every time I get behind my camera is completely and totally unbelievable to me. 

When I first made the decision to start out on this journey I had the opportunity of seeing a master speak.   One of the things that Jerry Ghionis said that stuck with me was to fall in love with your subjects. Just for a little while, fall in love and see the beauty in who you are shooting.  I do this and I find it comes easy to me.  The thing that I find MOST rewarding is to find and fall in love with what is not the physical beauty that my subject possesses but rather their internal beauty and capturing that to the best of my ability.  I am lucky on many levels but I am super lucky when it comes to the amazing people I get to meet and share a little bit of their lives with.  I have made what I very much consider to be friends, people that even if we didn’t have a business relationship with I would CHOOSE to hang out with and consider myself privileged. I am lucky. And I am feeling blessed and I felt the need to share that.

Kathryn and Mike came to my studio back in November I think to talk about their April wedding. I started laughing the second they walked in the door and my face hurt by the time they left.  The relationship was instantaneous and by the time we talked a contract I was about 2 seconds away from saying “Oh, the hell with it,  I’ll pay YOU to shoot your wedding.”  Creating a relationship with my couples is the number one MOST important thing to me when it comes to shooting a wedding and when I click with a couple the way that I did with Kathryn and Mike I know that getting to shoot their wedding becomes just as important to me as it does to them.  I met them for their engagement session in their neighborbood and it was like seeing two old friends (they are probably reading this and thinking that I am officially super psycho photographer, they are all “yeah, I mean, it was nice to see her and all, but good God, she is bordering on crazy at this point…”) and tiptoeing to their front door to double check the locks. Regardless of their stance on my mental health, I very much enjoyed our lengthy walk around their hood and my only regret of the afternoon was that I had induldged in too much wine during the weekend to in good conscience join them for a drink when we were done.

Here are some of my favorites from the afternoon.

 

 This might win as my favorite of the day.

 

 

 

 *sigh* wish I had legs like that.

 

 Love it.

 

Thank you so much, you two. You rocked it out. You get a solid 88% in my book.

xo, Rachel

Connor turned ONE!!

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

Baby Jake

Ahhh….Monday morning, sun is shining, I am well rested and most importantly VACATATION has FINALLY come to an end. Good God, that week just felt like a month and a half.  You all know that Ilove my boys with all of my heart but the fighting, bickering, tattling, strep throat, cough and ear infections really were not what I consider a good time.  It is behind me now and I am happy.

I honestly can’t think of any funny stories this morning, I think my brain is filled up with all of the things I need to get accomplished today so I won’t bore you with my internal debate as to whether or not to have a third cup of coffee (should I? should I not…I am leaning towards having one. The only thing holding me back is the trip downstairs to get the half and half.)  Instead I will share with you one of my new boyfriends, Jake.  Jake belongs to his awesome parents, Alison and Paul and they live in a beautiful house and are just starting their life together as a nice little family of three. I got to visit them last week and it was totally one of those visits that I could have sat down and chatted for hours about all the ways we are connected ( I think if we tried hard enough Alison and I could have discovered that we are actually long lost sisters, it was crazy how connected we were) and about the color scheme in her house…loved it.

Jake is awesome and was such a laid back little rockstar for our shoot. Let us put him anywhere, looked right at me the whole time and didn’t cry once. So very enjoyable.

 

Looove this.

I like how his leg is sticking up like that. Isn’t he kinda of perfect?

 

Makes me happy (like vacation being over happy).

Thank you guys! SO great to meet you and Jake, stay cool kiddo:)

xo, Rachel

Baby Allie

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

Katie & Teagan

So, today is new appliance day. That is exciting. It means the renovation of the kitchen is winding down and really, I couldn’t be more happy about it. Tomorrow I will have a counter and may even make my kids a decent meal. If tomorrow also happens to be kitchen sink day I will be overjoyed and will actually feel grateful for washing dishes. The past weekend was floor weekend and that it is over and behind us is a very, very good thing. Cruising right along…

I am so psyched to show off my girls Katie and Teagan. I met them last year when I did a family shoot out in Wrentham and when their mom got  in touch with me to shoot them again it made me happy.

I love these girls. Katie is like the perfect girly girl. She is what I imagine when I think of why I would ever want to have a girl. So sweet, smart and helpful.  And Teagan is so damn cute and funny I couldn’t really stand her. Like, everything she did was too much. Her expressions, her sturdy little body, her hysterical smiles. Just too much. They came down to Abington for a little studio love and of course I am digging what we got. I just love these girls…

Olivia, their mom, gets an A +  for wardrobe. Well done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is why she kills me. Too much I tell you.

Thanks you lovely ladies. You totally made my day. Katie, I couldn’t have done it without you:)

xo, Rachel

Alyson and Eamon-wedding perfection…

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