Category: News

Family Portrait Season

The family portrait season is upon us. Funny how the end of the year signals the time to tie up loose ends, accomplish the goals that were set at the beginning of the year, etc. This includes recording the growth of the kids, including new family members and perhaps visiting grandparents, etc. I have enjoyed photographing this family for years, and yes there was a new little one, and the others have grown and changed. The commitment to document the family progress over the years is a worthy one. As a grandparent who photographed her kids often as they grew, I now watch my grandkids going through old albums of their parents at their age, asking all kinds of questions and hugely enjoying the experience. Here are a couple of my favorites from last weekend’s session.

More from Western North Carolina

Prepare to be surprised by sudden and ongoing changes in the weather when spending time in the upper elevations of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Our biggest surprise this time was to get caught in a flurry of snowflakes while admiring the brilliant fall foliage on the parkway. Here are a few more of my favorite images from this trip. Until next time ….

Fall in North Carolina

It’s the second week in October, and time to make my annual pilgrimage to the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. We are coming to the end of three wonderful days spent in the rural community of Valle Crucis, near Blowing Rock, and tomorrow we will drive south down to the Lake Toxaway area and spend a week there. So far, we have covered over 500 miles and tomorrow will add another couple of hundred. Here are a couple of snapshots from our wanderings up and down the BRP.

The Edge of America

Summer is almost over and most vacationers have returned to their homes. I don’t enjoy Folly when it is crowded but love to spend time there out of season. Yesterday was a beautiful warm evening and it felt good to walk the beach again. I have so many images of this shoreline, as do many of us locals, but it never tires, and they are never the same.

White Sands National Park, NM

A friend and I traveled to New Mexico to visit family in Ruidoso, and while there, we took a road trip to visit the White Sands National Park. We didn’t spend long there, since it was quite a way to travel and also it is extremely hot at this time of year, so extended hikes through the dunes were out of the question. We did enjoy the late afternoon when some weather rolled in and it cooled down a little – enough to coax us out of the air-conditioned car and explore a little. Here are a few of the images I came away with.

Three Generation Family Reunion

I had fun photographing a family of three generations who spent a week at Folly Beach celebrating the grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary. It was hot, and it’s sometimes challenging to accommodate the spread of ages in such a large group, but these guys were troopers and we came away with lots of images that will provide happy memories for years to come.

Family Portrait Photography

This is probably my favorite genre of photography. Most of the time, I don’t know the personalities of the families that I shoot, since I have only just met them. I still try and highlight obvious traits, like the mischief in a child, or the tenderness of a mother, but this shoot was different, because I was photographing my own six grandkids, all of whom I know very well. They range in ages from one to twelve, and here are my favorites of each of them.

Botany Bay Boneyard Beach

One has to time one’s visit to this location carefully, otherwise you run the risk of driving an hour South from Charleston, walking the trail to the ocean, only to find that a high tide has rendered it completely impossible to access the beach. I saw a low-tide opportunity during the late afternoon yesterday and decided to pay a visit. The weather had been unsettled and was overcast in Charleston, but at this time of year it is so changeable that it was worth a try. The beach is always wonderful, and I so enjoy just being there, but the air was hazy with smoke from the Canadian wildfires, and the colors were pretty dull, so I decided to convert the images to black and white. Here are a couple.

Teenage Tricolor Heron Chicks

While in the area, I spent some time at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm where there is a very active rookery. The squabbling and screeching of birds of all types created a deafening cacophony as chicks squawked for food and parents fussed over the chicks while defending their clearly defined territories. I guess the rules are baked into the general chaos and all the birds understand them! My favorite youngsters were the tricolored heron chicks and I was entertained by their antics for a couple of hours. All the while, the alligators loitered lazily in the swamp below, waiting for the occasional hapless baby to fall from a nest. Here are a few of the images.