place and time...

i love where these two are in life--the hope, the promise, and the love that encompasses them. i love the way they look at each other; their soft and sweet kisses and gentle touches. i love the way their eyes shine with glimpses of the future.

our photo session lasted over three hours and by the end of our time together i felt very connected to them. what great sports they were to allow me to drag them from spot to spot around the city.

i wish i had an assistant to hold a reflector because by the time the snow melted the sun was pretty strong. but in the end i think what we captured together was genuine and spontaneous which is, after all, what young love is all about.

thanks guys for being so fun to be around! i hope you love the images as much as i do.

gracie and tommy

it was a perfect afternoon: sunny, warm and great light.

these kids are so photogenic and were at total ease with me and my big camera. gracie was a bit shy at first and stingy with her trademark smiles but with mom around she opened up quickly. i kept the 85 1.4 wide open in order to get that bokeh i crave so i did have to do some exposure adjustments in Lightroom but it was worth it. the result was just perfect for gracie--soft and sweet...just like her.

tommie was busy playing ice hockey so it was harder to get his portrait. but when the cookies came fresh out of the oven he quickly dropped the stick and offered a few smiles for me.

the light coming into the house was just perfect in several rooms but my favorite shots were taken in the kitchen. just simple family moments and simple smiles. perfect!

i liked so many of these shots that i just have to post my favorites!

let me know what you think--please drop me a comment!

dreamy special day with my boy...

i can't think of the last time i had a one-on-one day with my youngest son. this week was the first in what i hope to be many.

we held hands, played and shared lots of smiles at the park. afterward we went to my favorite breakfast place and shared a bacon and avacado omlet.

i remember many days like this with my oldest son. secretly i had wished for more time like this with my youngest but wasn't sure how to make that happen. now my older son's been invited to spend the day with his friend from school every other monday (we split mondays!). perfect!

lately i have realized just how quickly time is passing. he's growing up, changing and becoming a little boy--no take that back--a big boy. he's so influenced by his brother and so overshadowed. at times it is hard to really get to know him. he follows and his brother leads.

but today we just got to know each other a bit. we sang songs and let the wind blow in our hair. for today--time stood still...for just a moment.
the autism usually influences his mind and i lose him to blank stares and echolalia. but the planets aligned and he opened up to me and the camera. these shots are precious to me as they are about as intimate a look at him as i have had in a while.

i treasure each of these photos and the time we spent together on this dreamy february day in colorado.

an inspirational saturday...

i will do just about anything to avoid writing. trust me--as i type i am perched next to a bag of sun chips and they are tempting me to abort my mission of completing this task. for the past few hours they have won the battle.

my fear of writing stems from reading so many wonderfully written blogs (especially my friend lori's:) http://weebleswobblog.blogspot.com/

her writing puts my two degrees in writing and literature from penn state to major shame. not that i begrudge her the kudos for her amazing talent-it's just that the older i get the more i am learning to stick with what you are good at. and for me-it's not writing.

photos are my "thing" and photos are my "voice" these days.

so let's get to it-shall we?

saturday i got to do a photo session with an amazing family. i will try to keep the verbage down and show the emotion with the photography but i must give some background first. this family has three beautiful children, two devoted parents and one selfless aunt--all whom i met during my time at their home. the children consist of a way-too-cute, and curious, almost-three-year old (max) and his identical twin sisters (cici and penny). the twins were eating a few months back and cici choked on a piece of canned fruit. she lost oxygen to her brain (sort of like a stroke) and has an anoxic brain injury as a result. she spent several months at the children't hospital (where her mom and dad only left her side on two occasions) and, although she is now home, she requires round the clock care. she eats via a feeding tube, is more than likely blind, and needs oxygen at night. the family chose life for her. they never complain about their situation and remain hopeful that within a year she'll show signs of improvement. absolutely possible... but for now it's a long and tiring battle.

i am honored to have spent the morning capturing their family. it was challenging as the lighting wasn't ideal... and we couldn't take cici outside for very long. my goal was to capture the love, the devotion and the amazing character within this home.

so--let me see if my pictures can do the rest of the writing.

please take a moment to read about this family: http://colofisch.blogspot.com/


(max in the tree)


(penny)


(cici and aunt mary)


(cici with aunt mary)


(dad and penny walking in the yard)


(penny)




(the whole family)


(mom/dad and the twins)


(cici)


(daddy embracing cici)


(cici's identical twin sister penny)


(mommy, daddy and cici)


(cici and daddy)


(cici and mommy)