I can’t believe it is winter again!  After a freezing cold late November portrait shoot on the High Line a few weeks ago, I was reminded that just because it is cold outside, it doesn’t mean you have to go indoors for portraits and loose the beautiful natural daylight.  Just plan ahead with a few layers of clothes, and you are good to go.

One of my favorite winter portrait sessions of 2013 was back in February on a cold Sunday afternoon. I went with Alissa Schwartz to Red Hook, Brooklyn to take some portraits for her to use on her business website, and it was a great success!  She had done her own location scouting and had found a variety of buildings to fit with the feel of her business – Solid Fire Consulting.  She wanted to convey a dynamic, enterprising feel, full of energy and fun, and she had picked some perfect colors as backgrounds to brighten up a gray winter day.  And she kept on laughing, despite the snow flurries and cold fingers and toes.  I think that is one of the key factors that makes great portraits – you can tell when someone is having fun.

Below are some of the photos from our afternoon ~ and then check out how the photos were used on her website.

Instagram = fleeting photos;

I have fallen hard for Instagram ~ in a photographer’s world of large photo files and overshooting and working with tons of photos every day, it’s allowed me a place to quickly document the small moments in a day that give me pause. And in New York, those moments happen all the time.

But not many people these days have the patience to go through a person’s entire feed of photos – you discover someone on Instagram and you probably scroll through a few pages of their most recent photos. Someone’s beautiful photo taken a year ago stays hidden to most. So there is a sense of impermanence.  And one thing that often gets lost in the speed of the mobile photography — letting a photo stay with you, re-visiting that photo that moved you to understand why you clicked ♡like, or to take a photo of that moment.

The city, too, is full of fleeting moments – fast paced with movements and a rhythm that creates a symphony all around us.

Here, a page of some city moments to keep re-visiting.

I have to share some of my favorites from this family portrait session ~ we’d been watching the weather all week to set a time to avoid a summer thunderstorm, but instead it started raining right when I arrived…  turns out that a little rain makes for some very fun family photos!

In May and June of last year, Claudio and I photographed some beautiful out-of-town weddings in Washington, D.C. and Tennessee.

I want to wish a very Happy One Year Anniversary to these wonderful friends ~ your weddings were stunning and so much fun!

A Capital Wedding ~
Washington, D.C.

A Country Wedding ~
Bethany Hills Camp,Kingston Springs, TN

A Nashville Wedding ~
Nashville, TN