The entire day was marked with pretty reminders that it was autumn, even thought it was so warm.  There was a subtle masquerade and  and travel theme throughout.  And one of the coolest cakes I have ever seen.

Many thanks to Michele and Phil and all of their family and friends for having Leo and I along and for making us feel so welcomed.

It was one helluva party!

To view Michele & Phil’s Slideshow

Click here! 

Seriously, LOVE my job.

A few weeks ago I got to meet the two of them, for the first time, at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia.  It’s a wonderful landmark and a favorite spot of mine to shoot.  Every time I’m there, it’s completely different experience than any other time. I just love that!

As most of my wedding clients know I believe that Engagement Sessions are important for so many reasons, but really it gives us a chance to get to know one another, learn to work with each other and to get fun images that tell a little bit about who they are.  But this time I can say that I learned something.

We went from the train station to a favorite pub, Plough and the Stars.  You know… tell a little bit of their story…. This is where I learned what a Dirty Hoe is.   It’s a Hoegaarden Wheat beer with Framboise.  Thank you, Meghan!  I feel it’s important to point out, that, although we had work to do, and places to go still, there was no beer wasted in the making of these photos.

I left them late that day, really happy to have made new friends and well, laugh… a lot.

I simply adore this couple for who they are, what they mean to each other and well, because they are every bit as beautiful on the inside as they are in photographs.

Meghan and John, thank you for making my job so easy and for the reminder that love is always really beautiful.

I cannot wait until your wedding day!!!

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Meghan & John also have a slideshow available from this session! You can view it here.

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Quite a few, actually.

But that’s not want I want to tell you.

I first met Jaime on December 2nd, the day my husband entered Jefferson Neuroscience’s ICU in Philadelphia.  Jaime was his nurse.  She was also my rock for those first 3 very difficult days.  To say she has a special place in my heart might be an understatement. I only vaguely remember the conversation about me being a photographer if I were to tell the truth.

After a few weeks passed, my husband was home,  rehabilitating, and one night we were talking about our overwhelming gratitude for the many people who saved his life and for the amazing medical care he got..  We tossed ideas around about what we could do as a thank you.  Maybe a gift basket?  ”OK, a gift basket….”  How does one thank someone for giving you second chances in life, right?

About an hour later, while working on my laptop, an email came in.  It started with “You may not remember me…”  Ha, right!  It was Jaime and she just got engaged.  I literally cried.  The idea of being able to shoot her wedding seemed like the most amazing thing in the world to me.

You want to hear another crazy thing?  After spending an afternoon in snow up to my knees, making snow angels and just being with them, I cannot imagine a more perfect fit for Jaime.  Tom and Jaime fit.  Perfectly.

To Jaime and Tom, I honestly cannot wait until your wedding.   I am deeply honored to be there and cannot wait to see you two start your new life together!

L’Chaim. To Life

I’m going to start off with a beautiful couple from an engagement session in Philadelphia. I already did a sneak peek of them before my leave. This is larger selection of images from that session.

When Benjie first contacted me she told me about their love story and that they’d known each other since they were small children. I spoke about that in the sneak peek post, so I’ll get onto the session. When we first met, at the Kimmel Center, in Philadelphia it was soon after Benjie had returned from her home in Thailand. She brought me back a beautiful scarf that has quickly become a favorite of mine. I was so touched by her thoughtfulness and that was just the start of a really fun day.

We shot the entire session in a 1 block radius with City Hall and Broad Street as our backdrop for several as well as the Kimmel Center (a place I love and use often for the way light plays in there and the architectural features). Both Ken and Benjie are avid photo enthusiasts and well I won’t lie… That makes things even more fun for me. Lots of ideas and spontaneity… A lot of laughter and wow, they’re just gorgeous.

My only regret of the day was not having more time with them. Seriously– I could shoot this couple all day long, easily.

So, OK, once again, Benjie and Ken…..

They have a slideshow with more images here.

I got a note from Benjie during my leave that they will be needing to change their wedding date in Bangkok due to a family emergency. It was originally scheduled for March of this year. I Know how important family can be, so….

Benjie and Ken, whenever you two kids are ready to have that wedding day, I’m there for you (as long as I’m not already booked). I mean that. It would be my great honor. In fact, any old time you want to go out and play again, I’m there!

I have been working on a limited schedule for the past month since my husband was initially hospitalized at the beginning of December.  As we both get on to the business of living our lives again, I find myself more reflective and conscientious of life’s delicate balancing act.  He’s returning to work today, which is just yet another miracle in what seems like a book of them this past month.  This is a big day.

It’s a new year… new life.

As I reflect, I am reminded, once again, how love, given and received, gives us amazing strength and courage.  In the past few years I have had the pleasure of covering beautiful love stories, but in the past month, my internal lens turned inwards as my husband’s life swayed on an precarious ledge.  It was time to put down the camera and hold hands.  It surprised me how naturally it came.  Photographers tend to see life a little differently sometimes.  I think I learned something about that too, but I’ll save that for another post.  I want to keep this post simple.

I  confess that I took my own marriage for granted at times.  I didn’t mean to, but I guess it happens when two people have been together for awhile.  Maybe it’s supposed to be that way so we can focus on other things… I don’t know.   The only thing I can say, for certain, is when a neurosurgeon looks at you and tells you that there is nothing she can do for your husband and that you need to start praying and calling family– well you change.

Deeply. Irrevocably.

You make promises.  You bargain.  You make those phone calls…

Then, at some point, you realize that you are both still breathing, still holding hands and that your best friend is still cracking jokes and smiling at you with that smile.  You realize that the sun has come up day in and out while it felt like the world was simultaneously standing still and spinning out of  control.

Then you make more promises, but this time to each other.   To be grateful.  To live life and remember that love is precious and needs to be cared for.  You reminisce and look forward, just like you did as your love was beginning.

Marriage starts with one brave and courageous leap of faith met by another.  Then it grows and evolves and if you are very lucky you get a second chance to remember how beautiful your love is.

So here is to the new year… new beginnings, love and life!

Happy New Year!

May you all be fearless and embrace life.

Or as my husband says “live everyday like it’s shark week.”

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

BY MAYA ANGELOU

Bre… Perfectly comfortable with who she is!   That’s beautiful.  Phenomenally beautiful.  And she has one lucky sailor who will have a little something to remind him  just how lucky he is!

The tattoo on her foot says “More than all the stars in the sky.”

It started thirty years ago. THIRTY YEARS AGO. That’s when they met as children in Thailand. They grew up with parents doing what good parents do: Keeping their children on track and telling them not to rush things.  School comes first.   And so it was that Benjie went to the US to study and Ken, to Sydney, Australia.

Ten years later, Ken moved to the US to be with his beloved.

I don’t want to give too much away though… This is just a teaser post, after all.

Isn’t love absolutely beautiful?

My story is actually not my story at all. It’s Noah’s.

I met Noah as everyone was coming together to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. It’s the coming of age, in the Jewish faith. I have been to quite a few but this one had a few notable twists. For one, Noah is Chinese and was adopted by two Jewish  men.  Secondly because this was a Secular Jewish service and I’d never been to one before.

Noah’s Bar Mitzvah presentation began and as he spoke I took in the faces that surrounded him.  There was so much love in that room.  Everyone listened and laughed and looked on with pride.  I want to share an excerpt from Noah’s presentation.  These are his words.

“Let me tell you a bit of my life story:

In case you didn’t notice, I have two dads, so my personal adoption story is a little unusual.  First my father Glen (who I call Dad) completed my legal adoption from China.  Because of the laws there and in the U.S. he had to do it as a single parent. But like my sister, Eve, I was given my Abba’s (that is, my other father, Youval’s name) to show that he was also going to be my father.  About 7 years ago, when the laws in Pennsylvania changed to allow it, they did a second parent adoption, and so now they are both Eve’s and my legal parents.

I was born in the city of Chungsha, in the province of Hunan, China, in the year 1997.  I have no memory of my biological parents because I was only a day or two old when I was taken to an orphanage. The day that I was born must have been very sad because my biological mom couldn’t take care of me, probably because of the one-child rule.  She took me in the middle of the night to a hospital and left me on the front steps, knowing I would be found quickly and taken care of.  From the hospital, I was taken to a local orphanage.  I personally have no memory whatsoever of my life in the orphanage, where I lived until the age of 2 and a half.

The one-child rule in China dates back to 1978 and states that a family is not allowed to have more than onechild.  The Chinese government made that law because of overpopulation, and they wanted to slow down the population growth rate.”

My assistant and I made eye contact and I was relieved to see I was not the only one fighting back tears.  He was honoring his mother and acknowledging a law that many of us in the US have a hard time understanding. Noah understood this as her sacrifice and I could not help but think that if she could see him today she would be relieved and really proud. Not only was Noah an intelligent  and handsome young man, but one of  good heart and compassion. I think she would be happy to know he was not only well taken care of, but respected and loved.

I mean really loved.  By everyone I met.

I could go on and on about how special I think this family is or how fortunate I feel for being able to get to know a little about them.  This is Noah’s story, but  when he spoke at his Mitzvah, he became a man, a Jewish Man who was now a part of my life as well as everyone else who came to celebrate that day with him.  This may not be the day his story began, but it did mark a very special beginning.

ברכות נח

Mazel Tov, Noah. I can’t wait to see where you take your life!

Glen and Youval did a beautiful job organizing some fabulous talent and I think they deserve some mention here.  I would highly recommend any of these people if you are considering an event in the Philadelphia Area.

The private party was held at a wonderful restaurant in Villanova, PA (the food and service was phenomenal) Azie on Main

The cake was amazing. Truly.  It tasted even better than it looked.  Aux Petit Delices

The magician delighted adults and children with his wonderful magic and humor.   Kevin Bethea

The face painting was out of this world.  ”Gemstone” of Peanutbutter is pictured above and her painting took on a surreal three dimensional look. It was pretty fabulous.

If you would like more information about Secular Judaism, Glen was kind enough to share this link with me: www.shj.org

So it’s no real surprise that I enjoy combining two things I love and still get away with calling it work.

Make that three things. Mayi is not only a gorgeous girl, but an absolute pleasure to work with. So, yeah, let’s just say I got to combine three things I love into one lifestyles session.

Brightview Farms is where my mother keeps her horses and if you asked her why she’d likely tell you to look around you. Although she has Andalusians herself, the farm is used for breeding race horses. Everywhere you look, you’ll find foals staying close to their mothers or a filly dashing across the rolling hills and endless pastures before it’s time to go in for the evening or two colts exerting their boy-like behavior with one another. It’s about 300 acres of heaven really.

For this shoot, we wanted to show Mayi in a more natural setting but it was important to accentuate her sense of style. The ever amazing makeup artist, Wenya Chang,  joined us and helped in so many ways. Like throwing sticks for the dog who kept entering the shot in hopes Mayi would throw it for him. Wenya is one of the finest makeup artists in New York, but I won’t lie, she throws a mean stick too.

We started inside one of the main stables and then worked our way outside. Due to time and a rapidly setting sun, we didn’t use nearly enough of the property. I could have shot her in that place the entire day. Easily.

Please meet Mayi.