Baltimore Family Photographer | I didn’t give you the gift of life, life gave me the gift of you.

I have been literally counting down the days until this family portrait session. A fellow Baltimore photographer’s family recently welcomed into their arms and hearts a beautiful little girl from China. I was jumping for joy at the chance to document their love together as a new family of five. And what love they share! Big brother and sister just adore their newest sibling and laugh and love and play together as if they’ve known each other their entire lives. It was truly a heartwarming evening, and I feel privileged to have been able to witness it.

They met me at my favorite field here in Bel Air, MD (may it rest in peace, as 3 days ago it was bulldozed to make way for a shopping center) and I sat back with a smile on my face and a camera in my hand to watch the magic unfold.

For family sessions, I prefer to sit back and give everyone a chance to just be themselves. Silly, serious, playful, cuddly… I want to document you being YOU for your family portraits. And these guys were experts at it! No sign of PCS (photographer’s child syndrome, which my children suffer from extreme cases…. as soon as that black box comes out, they either run and hide, or roll their eyes at me and make faces the entire time)– just perfect interactions, perfect laughter, perfect love.

I know this session was supposed to be dedicated to family images, as Mom is a talented photographer, but I couldn’t help myself and had to get at least one image of each beautiful kiddo.

And of COURSE I needed one of all three. I can’t get enough of these kids– talk about adorable. And well behaved. And photogenic. And loving.

Laughing, laughing, laughing. I love it!

Ok, that little boy TOTALLY cracks me up. He’s a character.

Mom and her daughters, loving on each other.

And the boys of the family- I love the interactions between father and son.

I think this is my favorite family image of the day. I love how the apples play off the red in their outfits.

and yes, I still love silhouettes. We had to climb Mt Everest to get here, it felt like, and I was caked in mud by the time we were done, but I would say it was worth it, wouldn’t you? This was total spur of the moment, of Dad and the girls, more of a test shot to check the light….and I fell in love.

The clouds were rolling in fairly quickly as you can see, but we had just enough time to get a few family silhouettes before beginning the trek back down the hill.

It was a magical evening. I feel lucky to have been a part of it.

© lux amoris 2011