Rachel Kate Photography Blog

Morning!

Today, in an effort to let you know that I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth and to avoid going down to my treadmill to run for 14 minutes (because that is about all I can muster of will power when I am on a treadmill) I am going to show you a whole bunch of random stuff. Just some pics that I have taken for friends for Christmas cards and even a few of a small and pretty wedding that I shot for my friend on New Year’s Eve.

Obviously I am going to start with my favorite little guy in the whole wide world, my nephew Luca. It’s been a long time since he has been up on the blog. I love this child. Like so much I can’t stand it. Even if “prick” is sometimes the only word that you can use to describe him. He is so funny and loud and strong willed and he brings me WAY more happiness and joy than I bring him…” Don’t TOUCH me, Auntie!!! Don’t LAUGH at me!!!” Which is basically impossible because everything he does cracks me up. He is the absolute best and I sometimes look at him and can’t believe he is ours.

LOOK at the child!! Could he BE any more beautiful???

These three cuties are the products of my soul mate/partner in crime, Sharon. Baby Sadie, Stella and little Robbie. She makes wicked ugly kids, right? And they aren’t even enjoyable to be around or anything like that. LOVE them. Love Sha. Gah! Can’t deal. This chub is one of my closest friends, Cassie’s. He is part Chris Farley and part I just want to eat his head. Can you stand him? Mikey is his name and I want to squish him all the time. My three nephews, Seany, Wessy and Liam.  Took this when we celebrated fake Thanksgiving with Eric’s family before I had too much wine . Pretty soon we are adding an Isla to this mix. Our first girl baby. Can’t wait. That’s Sammy! Kid rules..and my sister and brother in law Amy and Jesse. These loves are my girl Ann’s kids. Will is one of Aidan’s closest friends and I may or may not have a weird and bordering on inappropriate crush on him. Whatever, Ann has one on Jameson so it is even and not creepy at all. Will, Reece, Mary and Avery. There’s the Ann-imal with her babes. These four are my girl Lisa’s kids. Colby, Lindsay, Emily and my boy Brady. Love these babies. Colby was Aidan’s first friend in preschool and Lisa has been one of my closest friends since. Too cute. Brady…you KILL me. All of them! Back when the sun used to shine! Remember that? Lisa and her babies. And here is Susan. I grew up across the street from Susan..so many of my childhood memories involve her and her family (and her in ground pool in their back yard). She planned a small wedding to her guy, Joseph for New Year’s Eve. She called and asked if I could do a couple of hours and of course I said yes. They are expecting a perfect baby boy at the beginning of March. Such an amazing time for Susie (which is what I call her in my head) and I am glad I got to give her some pretty pictures to remember it by. 

Thanks to all of my loves!! Now I suppose I will go run on the stupid treadmill.

xo, Rachel

Welllll hellllllllllllloooooooooooooo there!

It’s been almost like forever since I have last posted, huh? Wicked long.  I have been enjoying the drastic gear shift that my job takes after the holidays and although I have missed you all, I have to say that this nice little break has been delightful. I like this time of year when I have a portrait shoot here and there and I get to play Scramble on my phone for a couple of hours every day while watching reruns of Real Housewives that I have already seen 3 or 4 times each.

I often wonder what life was like before Bravo. How did the women of our past do it? They were forced to watch things like One Life to Live and General Hospital. Poor them. No one should have to live without Brandi and Lisa and Jeff Lewis and Top Chef. THAT is a crying shame for them. I feel grateful for so many things but a BIG one is that I live in the age of reality television and the network Bravo.

This was also the time of year, right around now last year, that I had so much time to myself that I thought that having another baby might be a good idea. Did I ever tell you guys that? I think I did. I REALLLLLY thought that I could do it and further, I thought that I WANTED to do it.

Hahahhahhahhhaaaa….aren’t I just ADORABLE???  **whew** …picture me wiping tears of laughter from my eyes right now….

NO, I think I will stick to fattening breakfasts with my girlfriends that I haven’t seen in months because I was too busy and kicking Eric’s ass in Scramble every chance I get. It will be Spring before you know it and I will be back to complaining about how much stuff I have to and throwing big old pity parties for myself..I know you can’t wait for that.

Want to see my newest baby boyfriend????? Baby Jake is the product of my two friends Andrea and Joe. I LOVE this baby. He is totally one of those baby jerks that come out looking NOTHING like their mom who just went through 9 VERY LONG sober and fat months to bring them here. He is the most perfect little mini me of Joe it is borderline comical. And he was sweet and nice to me…and for that I love him and I kind of wish he was over here right now so I could hold him in my lap while I typed this post.

He has a mohawk, too. ‘Nuff said.

Seriously…could he be any sweeter?? Gah! The wrinkes on the forehead. KILL me. Jake’s “Call Me Maybe” impression on the left.
Stop. Just stop it, Jake. Love Andrea. She is just one of the most laid back, easy to be around, enjoyable people I know. 

 

Congratulations you guys!!! LOVE you baby Jake!

xo, Rachel

 

Hi there.

I know…it’s been a week now since I have last posted. Last week at this time I was polishing of my last wedding blog of the season. I was happy…feeling accomplished with another season under my belt and so, so proud to share the wedding of my client/friends Tyler and John.

I hit publish and then I walked over to my couch, turned on my television.

And I sat there for almost 2 days. It feels like 10 years ago.

I have started a number of posts in my head. Usually at night when I wake up and the first thoughts I have are about what happened at Sandy Hook. I know I am exactly like the rest of the mothers and parents and teachers and people in this country and I know that nothing I have to say about this tragedy will be news to anyone. Which I why I have just chosen to leave my blog alone for this week. This obviously affected me..it affected and still affects everyone and me announcing that I cried or that I am sad or that I can’t stop thinking about those families doesn’t change a thing.  If I DIDN’T feel that way then something would be wrong with me. I am not special for my views on it. My heart and prayers are with those families.

I have taken one million extra seconds over the last week to be thankful for what I have and to touch my children and tell them I love them. I know that my kids are not mine. That even though I made them and they are half of me, they are no more mine than they are yours. They are my gift, my privilege, and every second that I have with them is a part of that gift. Every second is not granted it is gifted. That is how I now see time with my children..and for that reason, those 26 lives will be honored every time I choose to take a second, a breath and live in the moment with my two beautiful, precious gifts, Aidan and Jameson.

I wish all of you..everyone who has been on this ride with me this year the very best holiday. I wish that you will be warm and cozy surrounded by those who love you and who you love the most. For those of you with children I wish that you will forever remember the look on their faces when they wake up on Christmas morning…that you will hold them and love them and spoil them and you will realize that your biggest gift is not something you can touch, but instead moments..unwrapped each second with your beautiful babies. You are blessed.  I wish that you will all eat way too much delicious food and drink almost too much delicious drink and you will feel happy. I wish you one million content moments..moments when your cup runs over and all is right in the world. I wish that that these moments, these gifts, pass slowly and I wish that our memories will last long.

I am thankful for all of you..all of my clients, my beautiful brides and handsome grooms. My adorable babies who make me swoon and funny kids who make me laugh. I am thankful for those of you who visit me here, who have a sense of humor and who don’t judge me (at least I don’t think you do). And mostly,I am thankful for my beautiful family and friends who I did not do enough in this lifetime to deserve.

Before I shut down RKP for a long winter’s nap (like 2 weeks or so…) I will share with you my last shoot of 2012.

Meet Hank and Lane. My identical twin boyfriends that stole my heart just last week.

They are 3 month old baby heart stealers and I love them. Their parents aren’t so bad either.

My buddy Hank is on the left and Lane is on the right.

Hank. We hit it off early on. Sweet Lane.  I mean…I can’t even stand these babies! Hank. Lane.
How about this baby with an attitude??? Their mom is a DOCTOR. With TWINS. I am no longer allowed to complain about things like the Elf on the Shelf. Lara’s great grandmother made these..so sweet. Gah!! Thing One and Thing Two!!

Such a pleasure! Have a very happy, healthy holiday season!

xo, Rachel

 

Welllll helllllo there.

I have been waiting to write this blog post for a long, long time. My last wedding of the season just happened to be the one that I was looking forward to the most all year. I love all of my weddings and I am pretty much weirdly in love with and harboring a crush on pretty much all of my clients so to say that I am looking forward to one wedding over another isn’t really accurate. But Tyler and John’s wedding was special and I am completely fine with admitting that there wasn’t a single second of it that I wasn’t loving the hell right out of it.

There are so many reasons that this day and this celebration was special. But the top two would be Tyler and John. These two men have a way of bringing out the ABSOLUTE BEST in the people that surround them. I was so looking forward to being the one to capture their love and their day and I feel honored that they chose me to photograph the most important day of their life. I love that they got married. I love that we are living in a place and a time that they can and even though marriage equality has a way to go in this country, I love that the path we are on is the right one and I love that I walk proudly down it next to some of my best friends in the world and next to these two amazing men.

While everyone who is lucky enough to be near Tyler and John get the benefit of their humor, their generosity and their kindness they are 100% a product of their two amazing families and getting to share time with them on that day in November was moving. As a parent, the only thing that you want is for your kids to be safe, to be happy and not to hurt. You want to know, at the end of the day, that you did all you could to set them free to be who they are with all of the tools they need to stay safe, happy and not to hurt. The tears of pride that rolled down Tyler’s dad’s face as he watched his son stand in front of all of the people who mattered most and marry the man of his dreams were a confirmation of all the hard work that he did as a parent. I have to imagine that it wasn’t always easy for Tyler and John, I may be wrong, but I think that their had to be some hurt in becoming the confident, successful men that they are today. And I have to imagine that as their parents, there had to be hurt knowing that they couldn’t shield and protect their children from that pain. That their kids had to walk the road and that the only thing they could do was give them the tools to navigate through a world where there is still, sadly, ignorant discrimination against PEOPLE (because everyone who is gay is a PERSON for the love of God and all things holy) who are gay.  Watching Tyler and John’s parents watch their boys get married..to be safe in the fact they their children are whole and confident and in love and will be forever..was touching. I felt so overjoyed for them..to know that, yes. They did it. Their babies are safe, and happy and they don’t hurt. It is all you can ask for as a parent and they nailed it.

I have honestly never seen a couple with the ability to make people as HAPPY as Tyler and John do. When you are near them you just want to be HAPPY..they bring that out in people and that is pretty freaking amazing, if you ask me. I consider them my friends and knowing that there is a possibility that I will cross their mind in the years and lifetime that they have together when they look at their wedding pictures makes me feel good. My little internal cup was running over the entire day and I feel that that was pretty much the feeling of everyone who was their to celebrate with Tyler and John. It was so much more than a wedding. It was a CELEBRATION and it made me thank my lucky stars that I get to do what I do for a living.

John is on the left and Tyler is on the right. God, I miss them. Tyler’s 1,000 watt smile. It lights up a room. SO. IN. LOVE. WITH. THIS. PICTURE.
Looking good, John. Love this. We went for a walk around the block before the sun disappeared all together. My favorite way to shoot. I am so in love with what we got that day. Love. Ah!! My favorite!! Ah! My other favorite! I am madly in love with Tyler’s dad Mitch. Such a great person. Their details were awesome. Dear God, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE make it so that my boys love me as much as John and Tyler love their mothers. Thank you in advance, Rachel Friggin BEST. PARTY. EVER. This cracks me up. John’s awesome mom is named Gloria. So, naturally they had the DJ play “Gloria” which, I have decided should be a wedding requirement, like cutting the cake or saying I Do.  That is my Ashley and Dan on the right. I shot their wedding 3 years ago (gak! my life is flashing before my eyes). It was so good to see them.

Thank you 1 million times. Thank you for letting me be a part of this amazing celebration. I am borderline frighteningly obsessed with you both and I hope that I haven’t scared you off and that you will still get drinks with me every now and then.

CONGRATULATIONS!! xo, Rachel

 

Hi!

Weird afternoon posting…but I promised my girl Alison that I would get her blog post up and running today and I am not going to break my promise!

You all know and love my little Jake and his little sister Taylor. I went up to their pretty house that I covet the other day and very much enjoyed my time with the awesome family, like always. Even if Jake has turned on me and it will be approximately 2 years before I get him back fully…still love him.

Can you blame me?

Gak! Taylor!! One of those babies that makes me think that onnnneee more wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Love this. Taylor has some moves.

Love you babies! So good to see all of you