For fashion that gives a pregnant woman the ability to feel and look beautiful, head straight to Bump Brooklyn at 464 Bergen St. off Flatbush Ave in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Bump offers fashions that will take you from early pregnancy through to post pregnancy. Some of their styles, those beautiful wrap sweaters and fun tops, can be worn pregnant or not.
The owners are moms who opened their shop with the personal vision that having a family shouldn’t stop a woman from feeling and looking great. I have the good fortune to know them and agree with one reviewer who wrote that the “owners of Bump are both so adorable and friendly, not to mention stylish”. Their passion is for all women to feel and look their best.
I will be offering special photography sessions on August 29 in conjunction with Bump to celebrate your end of summer glow. So I welcome maternity ladies and families to take advantage of this opportunity. Contact me or Bump for more details.
Just last week I picked up new wedding albums from the amazingly creative bookbinder who hand crafts these unique archival albums. I have worked with Brooke Merrill Tinney ever since I began photographing weddings and documenting my clients’ families. Her albums embrace my photographs and help tell the story of a wedding day, a pregnancy, a child’s growth and a growing family. Dweller By The Stream Bindery started in Brooklyn and is now in the rolling hills near Woodstock. Every client has the opportunity to pick out the fabric of their choice and decide on the size and kind of album. Here are a few details from the current albums.
These three are screw post albums with photos inserted on the covers. Inside the albums Brooke crafts photos to go three in a row and places glassine interleaving between the pages. Even the detail of a post between the cover pages has beauty.
Aislinn & Chris looked like any other couple walking in the rain on a Friday afternoon. But, why was there a flower in her hair when it is pouring?
Why are they turning and smiling?
Let’s start from the beginning of this couple’s plans for their wedding in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn at St. Paul’s Church. A small wedding to include only family members and a few friends and with the reception at Pane e Vino, a neighborhood restaurant. We start with Aislinn and her family preparing to go over to the church while Chris and his men nervously await their arrival.
The bride and her bridesmaids even had some fun.
St. Paul’s is a beautiful old church fitting for a ceremony of meaning and love.
Family portraits could be done inside the Church.
Yes, the happy couple could smile in the rain.
For an album designed to evoke memories, I begin with a platinum palladium contact print of an infant being introduced to the ocean for the first time. In this post I am not including the many other photographs we have done over the years. Some of these photos are already on my website. But now we are at age 10. That her parents have commissioned me to document, as naturally as possible, her growth is a true gift for her.
Over Memorial Day weekend Jessica and Zev married on the hillside of Hildene overlooking the Green Mountains of Vermont. The day was one of those crystal clear blue sky days.
The children were enjoying their new dresses and added their brightness as they walked the garden path to the ceremony site.
With readings by their parents and bridal party Jessica and Zev were surrounded by supportive love as they said their vows and walked through the beautiful Hildene gardens as husband and wife.
Nancy Bishop did the beautiful spring flower arrangements and the delicious food was by Thyme Tables catering.
The cake, which the bride and groom are still talking about its great flavors, was created byIrene Maston.
One of the most important parts of the day was that this couple were able to sit on the grass and spend time together.
Whether a child is a toddler or an infant, they all experience the wonder of being among such glorious trees as blossoming cherries.
When the blossoms fully opened, the fun continued. Now mom and baby could put fallen blossoms in their hair. Another idea was to feed fallen blossoms to dad. Hide and seek were easy games with the trees so full. The blossoms were so amazing!
The cherry blossom time in Brooklyn gives families a time for the generations to come together, to introduce their babies to the wonder of the blossoms, and most of all a time to relax and play. The blossoms on this particular Saturday were just starting to open. Here are a few photos from this warm and sunny day.
Last weekend with the spring weather taking a detour to summer, the cherry blossoms opened at The Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Each year this is anticipated with wonder. These children who I photographed on Friday were introduced to the blossoming cherry trees for the first time in their lives. Their excitement was about exploring the trees and Cherry Esplanade in totality whether it was being lifted by dad or mom to explore the bark or tree limb, to walk on the new grass with the shadows of the blossoms, or to explore their toes as well as the weeping cherry tree blooms. Grandmother, her daughters and their daughters all enjoyed the spectacle. A pair of twins showed their glee.
Our city life can feel gritty at times. But we are here, so why not enjoy what it uniquely offers? In Dumbo, Brooklyn artists have made the walls and fences come alive with their paintings and thoughts. This is what one of my clients chose as the backdrop to celebrate her pregnancy with her husband. We had a lot of fun roaming the neighborhood under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.
These are just a few of the photos. I worked with both color and black & white films. The black & white images are scanned from archival fiber prints.
