There are moments when I take a minute to be grateful for something small in my life.

Yesterday, it was the ability to drive from where I call home to the ocean in just a few hours.

On Tuesday, I headed out to spend a few days of solitude in Ocean City. There's nothing quite like being completely on your own schedule for a few days. Getting to go lay in the sand and listen to the waves whenever doesn't hurt either.

I shouldn't say I was completely alone. Yesterday evening, I was lucky enough to take maternity photos for my coworker Melissa with her husband, Finney and son, Davis. We had talked about them earlier in the year, and when I heard she would be at the beach at a time when I could go, I pounced on it.

It was both my first family maternity shoot and my first beach shoot. I loved both of them!

It was so neat to see Davis interact with his parents and the adorable baby belly that will soon be his little sister, Allie. I was so surprised when I looked through the photos and found that I had multiple ones of Davis looking right at the camera and smiling! Being only two, this is not always guaranteed. Luckily, two year olds can look adorable whether they are looking at the camera or not. We just got the cherry on top with Davis!

The whole family did a great job dealing with the sun and the wind and of course all of my directions. I was pleasantly surprised not only by Davis' smile but just how many photos I ended up using. It was fantastic.

It's clear the whole gang is excited for their new addition. Allie is so lucky to be born into such a fun loving family!

'Tis the age for marriages!

Upon reaching my mid twenties, I have found that what they say is true. My friends are starting to get married.

I really could not be happier. 

I have always been someone who loves weddings. Who doesn't love a good party celebrating two people being so happy? 

Back in April, my friends Bobby and Alison got engaged. There comes a time as a photographer when you are doing just enough business that your friends no longer feel obligated to ask you to make you feel good about yourself. I'm not sure if I'm there yet or not, but I definitely was waiting to see if they would ask me to do their engagement photos. Which they clearly did.

I'm in the wedding, so they're off the hook for that one.

Surprisingly, we were able to do all of the photos right in Alison's back yard. Her mom has a house on a gorgeous property. There were a particular row of trees (pictured below) that I could not get enough of. The light! The lines! It was photographer heaven. 

Special kudos to Bobby for wearing long sleeves and long pants in what was not the most forgiving summer day. He hardly broke a sweat. I've seen men in much less difficult weather get clammy just from seeing the camera lens.

They are so very clearly in love and found a great rhythm during the shoot. It hardly took any time at all, and we got a huge variety of shots. I loved them all and had some real difficulty choosing which ones to edit. 

Can't wait to party with them next August! 

Apparently Yashvi is not the only baby who wanted to prove me wrong. 

On Tuesday (yes, a Tuesday. There are definitely perks to being a photographer/teacher) I headed to my coworker Bobby's house to take pictures of his newborn, Charlotte. 

This is the third time I've taken pictures of an infant who was past the two week mark, and in the photography world this is considered a risk. Babies who are less than two weeks old tend to be a lot sleepier and cuddlier. Once they grow past that, they are much more alert and ready to let you know how much they do not like to be posed.

However, Charlotte proved to be an excellent sleeper. She gave me so many great shots! Again, I felt silly for having warned Bobby and Amanda that it might be a challenging shoot. 

She was a dream.

My infant sessions seem to either take hours or almost no time at all. Charlotte's proved to be the latter. She was so deeply asleep, I was able to get a great set of photos of her in a short amount of time. Adorable photos, by the way. Very easy with such a precious subject.

By the time she woke up and decided she was no longer ready for her close up, I had all the shots I needed.

Despite all these amazing things, I would say one of the most amazing things about this shoot was how well behaved the family dogs were! I would say dogs seem to enjoy the limelight a lot more than babies, but other than a few curious sniffs, Jack and Lucy kept their distance. Which, thankfully, meant that Charlotte was able to sleep!

I can't wait to see Charlotte grow up. Maybe in a few years we'll do a family shoot and the dogs can have their moment.

They always say babies and pets make liars out of us. You tell your spouse the baby finally rolled over and she sits there doing tummy time like it's her favorite thing in the world and she never wants to move. You try to show someone your dog's new trick and he sits there with his head cocked as if he doesn't even know you let alone did tricks for you a few minutes before. 

During the Asarawala family shoot, an 18 month old made me a liar.

Whenever I do a session with a child under the age of three, I warn his/her parents that most children have a limit on the number of times they can be told to say "cheese" or "puppies" and oblige. 

Oftentimes, they last less than an hour.

But Yashvi was resilient and lasted a full two hours. I was so impressed! She kept smiling and laughing the whole time. We did take a few breaks in the air conditioning and that might have helped. Honestly though, we all needed that; the heat was nothing but the humidity was something else.

We had a great time wandering around their yard, and even taking a few fun photos in their living room. We spent the last 15 minutes on the playground that's a mere 5 minute walk from their backyard and clearly a favorite of Yashvi's. 

She fell asleep rather adorably on her Daddy's shoulder on the way home. 

She may have made a liar out of me, but I got a lot of great photos out of her. I hope to work with them again!

I come from a family of teachers, and we take education very seriously. It's a privilege and it's something that will never go to waste.

When Abigail asked me to take photos of her to help celebrate her graduation from gradate school, I couldn't have been happier to oblige. Getting a master's degree while working full time in the school system is incredibly difficult. She deserves to be proud and I'm happy that I get to capture that pride on camera!

Her parents flew in from Michigan to see her walk across the stage so they got to be a part of the shoot too. Add in her husband, and we had a neat little group wandering around Johns Hopkins campus! 

We had a great time and even though it was one of those days that proved summer really was on its way, no one complained about the heat. I did do my best to take some photos in the shade though. No need to be hot unnecessarily! 

It was clear just how proud Abigail's family was of her, and with good reason. It was especially neat to be able to take photos at the place where she had earned her degree. She was able to tell us stories and even some of the history of it. 

Congratulations on such an achievement, Abigail!

I've been looking forward to this photoshoot for a long time.

I had the privilege of taking baby shower and maternity photos for Andrew and Jen and let me tell you, all the exposure to Evelyn before her arrival made me that much more excited for it to happen!

Not surprisingly (have you seen her parents?) she turned out to be a beauty of a baby. Her daddy happens to be quite a talented photog himself, so I was already seeing a lot of great images on the web. I knew that was a subject I wanted to get photos of!

Being that we live in Baltimore and the weather is unpredictable, the day dawned a little bit chilly. We had thought about taking her outside since there was a beautiful flood of buttercups, but we decided she might be a little happier with us if we kept her nice and toasty.

It certainly paid off because little Evelyn slept beautifully for most of her shoot. I loved the Moses basket Jen chose, and the blanket inside was so soft, I think even I could have slept comfortably in there.

Even when she woke up, baby girl was content just to look up at us and make all kinds of cute faces. 

I loved spending time with her. And the best part? I get to do it when when I'm not taking pictures of her. 

What a day!

I knew going into this wedding that it would be interesting and new since it was my first traditional Indian ceremony. Even knowing that, I was not fully prepared for the experience. 

My first thought when I realized this would be a traditional wedding was "color" and I was not disappointed. It was such a joy to capture all the colors and fabrics of the day.

I think the second most memorable aspect of the wedding was just how happy it was. Indian weddings can last up to four days, with a number of ceremonies to celebrate the new couple. I was only a part of one of those days, but it was full of celebration. Everyone is just so happy to see each other and so happy to to see someone they love get married. Both sides immediately embrace each other as family. 

As a photographer, I function behind the scenes, but I was made to feel nothing but welcome and appreciated.

It was a long and full day, but it went by so quickly. Dhar and Sukrhitee are going to be so very happy together and I'm so glad I got to capture their special day.

Every couple I do an engagement session for gets into the swing of things as we proceed. It doesn't matter how awkward they think they are going to be in front of the camera, eventually a rhythm just takes over, and before you know it, we're done!

I don't think I've ever had a couple get that rhythm down as quickly as Sarah and Sean did. They were in full engagement photo mode!

I seriously had to ask numerous times if they had done a photoshoot before.

This was actually my first repeat location and I was a little nervous about it. I want every couple to have a unique experience because they are unique people. I don't ever want one of my clients to feel like they are one of the masses. I've done two shoots in Fells Point before, but in completely different areas. This shoot took place in Sherwood Gardens, a tulip garden in Baltimore in which I had shot an engagement session just over a year ago.

My butterflies were all for nothing. I should have realized that a completely different couple can make a location feel like a completely different place.

We spent just over an hour wandering around the gardens and choosing places to shoot. I'm fairly certain that if it weren't for the fact that almost all of the flowers are tulips, you wouldn't even know it was the same place!

We had a great time chatting and walking and shooting, and they made my job easy with their ability to pose and move with hardly any direction. 

Best wishes to Sarah and Sean on their wedding this fall and more importantly, their marriage!

Let the wedding season begin!

Weddings are long days hour-wise, but I can't help but love them. It's an entire day full of love and happy people.

How could I not want to take pictures of that?

The day dawned beautiful, sunny, and mild. An absolutely perfect day to kick off one of my favorite times of year.

Jessica and Michael kept their wedding local- all within the city limits. We started at the Tremont Suites to get photos of the ladies getting ready. Imagine my surprise when I arrived to find all the bridesmaids dressed and ready to go! I'm not quite sure I've ever witnessed the bridesmaids being ready ahead of schedule. A quaint park across the road set the scene for a beautiful first look moment. This was something I hadn't done before, but it really is a neat thing to do. I got so wrapped up in the moment, I had to make sure to keep my focus!

Their ceremony was at the chapel on Loyola University's campus. We took the majority of our formal pictures here because the backdrop was perfect. Having some goofy groomsmen made this part particularly fun.

The Belvedere Hotel hosted their reception. If you've never been there, it's an incredibly charming historical hotel with amazing details. Talk about photo opps!

The reception began with sentimental, touching moments like the speeches and the first dance, and then moved on to quite a party. It was clear everyone had their line dances down!

One thing was constant throughout the day- just how happy Jessica and Michael are. I loved capturing their big day and can't wait to share the rest of the photos.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending my friend Jen's baby shower and capturing some of the sweet moments there.

We teach together and at the last minute, decided spring break would be the perfect opportunity for a maternity shoot.

To be honest, I had been hoping she would ask. I loved taking pictures at her shower and knew we would have a great time with a maternity session.

I could not have been more right.

Jen and her husband Andrew are one of those couples I've talked about before when discussing engagement sessions. They are just so comfortable with each other. Every photographer has a style, and I have found that laughter is one of my favorite things to shoot. A couple who is comfortable with each other and are able to laugh at themselves tend to turn into my best work.

There is nothing quite like capturing the genuine happiness on someone''s face in the middle of a laugh.

It doesn't hurt that they are expecting their first child together and their happiness about it is simply overflowing.

Needless to say, it was a very fun and happy time. Plus, the props Jen brought were a-dorable.

The cherry on top? I still have more to look forward to. When Baby Evelyn makes her appearance, I get to take her infant shots. I cannot wait!