I love the Rylander family! Mike knew me when I was a wee lad fresh off the boat from Ireland almost 22 years ago. Sara and I went to high school together and have been close friends ever since. Sara has always been a huge supporter of mine and my photography over the years. She also makes the most amazing cakes! So go check out her website Totally Sweet Cakes!  This past Saturday week she dragged her entire family two hours from Atlanta to have their family pictures taken by me. I am pretty sure that is the first time anyone has done that!

Her girls are amazingly smart, and WILD. They were so much fun to take pictures of. Zoe has the most amazingly blue eyes, I love how they stand out in every picture of her. My 4 year old son and Zoe are so similar in personality, they could get in a lot of trouble together. It is fun to compare stories about them. At one point during the session I was chasing her, as she was chasing a butterfly. I love unexpected moments like that.

Avery is so tall and so smart, she reminds me so much of Sara. It was surreal to see how similar they are. She has a really special relationship with her mom and that was pretty awesome to watch. Mike is also amazing with his girls, he is a very luck guy.

Thank you both for making the trip down. You guys have a beautiful family and it was awesome to spend the afternoon with you, lets not wait 4 years between visits from now on.

Zoe got distracted and started chasing a butterfly!

I had a great time with Kate last week when we got together to photograph her Senior photos. It turns out Kate and I have a lot of the same friends. Some of my family’s most favorite people in the world are also some of hers! Kate is amazingly tall, which kept me on my toes, literally! She plans to attend UGA after high school, which will be awesome for her. Athens is a beautiful town and has so much to offer. Kate thanks so much being such a good sport and making our session time a lot of fun, I wish you all the best.

Aaron and Kristen had a beautiful wedding at the Green Bell Barn in Perry Georgia a few weeks ago. The weather was perfect and the location was wonderful. There was not a bit of stress about this wedding day. Aaron and Kristen both know exactly how to enjoy their special moments together and I could see from the way they went through the day that they cherished each moment with family and friends. The whole day was about spending that time together as a family and watching their friends have a good time. Thank you both for letting me capture your wedding day, I wish you both the best on your life journey together.

I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting Mimi a few weeks ago for her Senior Photo Session. The first thing I noticed about Mimi was her wonderful smile, she set the tone for the whole session and that was to just have fun! I took her on an adventure through the woods for her picture session, she was not expecting that, and encountered all sorts of wild life (a bunny rabbit!) and it made for some good laughs. She plans to go to nursing school to study cardiovascular medicine. I explained that this was perfect as I have high blood pressure and will need a good doctor when I am old and grey. Mimi also just received the Nece Hopkins Memorial Scholarship which is an awesome achievement! I wish you the best in your life journey Mimi. Thank you for allowing me to take your pictures.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with this sweet family a few weeks back for their little girls 1 year pictures. Ellie was so full of personality and was very much into exploring all that was around her. During the entire session she was always picking up something off the ground to inspect it, I found it very cute. My most favorite sessions are those with couples who are experiencing that first year as parents. It is exciting and scary all at the same time for them. It makes for fun pictures to capture the sweet moments of love and laughs in the time we have on a session, but those moments during that hour make for a lifetime of memories in pictures.

Last weekend the weather was just perfect outside! It was also a perfect morning to meet up with David and Kelli to hangout and take engagement pictures. We headed to downtown Perry which is one of my most favorite places to take pictures. David and Kelli are just a fun couple to hang out with! They had lots of awesome ideas and I love it when a couple shares their creativity with me. I am so looking forward to capturing their wedding day this summer!

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Lauren for her senior pictures last week. Lauren was so much fun to hangout with, she kept scoring cool points with me the more I got to know her. She attends the same high school I graduated from and she loves soccer as much as I do. She also was about to go in for surgery on her knee the very next morning and was a total trooper for the session, not one complaint out of her! This is one tough girl. Thank you Lauren for allowing me to take your senior photos and I wish you the best on your life journey.

My dear friend Kate had a beautiful baby girl a few weeks ago and I was asked to come take pictures of her at their home. One of the first things I noticed in their living room was the above sign. If you know Kate you know she is full of LOVE! (she ends all her emails like this) and she has a wonderfully contagious laugh. I thought this sign in their home represents who they are as a family so well. I also loved seeing the pictures of prints from our previous sessions hung on the walls, this made me smile.

I LOVE! seeing a family interact with a new member of the home, I know that feeling personally, its not something you can describe, you just feel it. Seeing Kate with Alice and just letting her motherly LOVE! take control was beautiful to watch. It is also fun to see her big brother (Tom) be exactly that…..a big brother. We talked about how grown up the first child seems to get right in front of your eyes when you bring a new baby home, it just seems to happen over night.

Kate, Kevin & Tom, baby Alice is beautiful, thank you for allowing me into your home to spend the morning with you all and capture these first moments together as a new family of four, may you all Live Well * LOVE! Much * Laugh Often.

Having friends in our life that Jackie and I could grow to love and share our up and down moments on our life journey was something we prayed for over the years. So about 5 years ago a friendship was kindled between the Hogan family and the Edwards family. We took a child birthing class together and we watched our first born children, who are 6 months apart, grow together and become the best of friends. We joke that one day they will get married. They have also been a source of encouragement for me with my goals of being a photographer. I have had the wonderful blessing of capturing life moments for them as their family grows. So I was very excited to be able to capture Finns’ first pictures over the past few weeks. He is absolutely beautiful. His big sister loves him so much, and seeing it in person is truly a heart warming moment everyone should witness. The below pictures were all taken over the last 4-5 weeks.

Desmond and “Uncle” Stephen having a moment with baby Finn.

Maternity sessions are so much fun, there is a feeling of excitement in the air from the expectant parents. Having two boys myself I know this special feeling. Sessions usually take place a month before the expected due date so that just adds to the excitement. I had so much fun with Kenzie and Tyler. They were up for my sometimes crazy ideas, and were great sports about laying in the itchy grass until I got the prefect shot. Thank you both for humoring me in my quest for perfection. I am excited for you both and wish you the very best as you go on this journey together. It truly is an exciting and wonderful time in your life journey, bringing new life into the world. Thanks for letting me capture this time in pictures for you.