• children & families

    the rign family {mini session}

    While I only met this family recently, I’m so glad to have them as a new addition to the bsquared family. Their daughter goes to school with Timmy so I see mom every morning while waiting for the kids to go in. And it turns out I graduated high school with dad’s brother.

    I was told that Dad found the photoshoot significantly less painful than he anticipated. Always good news. For both of us. They were so good and so gorgeous. A real pleasure to photograph. 

  • children & families

    the pata family {mini session}

    The first shoot in a really, really full day of mini sessions over at Hempstead Lake State Park. A great way to start out the day with a beautiful family with little girls full of energy and fun. Had to work fast- because they were fast and because they were done with the shoot fast, too!

    Love the little tongue that kept popping out throughout the shoot.  Thanks for a great start to a long day!

  • personal

    halloween

    With all the goings on here, I can’t quite bring myself to write “happy” halloween. Although Jack did find his sense of humor (with a little nudging) and went as ‘head injury’ Jet player- ya know cause he got tackled too many times. Just fyi, Jack isn’t wearing those bandages for his concussion in real life.

    Saw Timmy’s friends Olivia and Gavin for a few minutes. It’s a tradition to go trick or treating together but we just couldn’t do it this year cause we kept it at a minimum with Jack’s head.And Halloween isn’t Halloween without some scary ass clowns. Evil tennis anyone? And a few scenes from Timmy’s school Halloween parade on Friday. Tell me he’s not THE cutest Harry Potter.

    Timmy with his BFF Jack and Jen T (Jack’s nurse) as a Ninja Turtle. Sorry Jen, but I did warn you you would get blogged. Some of my favorite teachers/staff. I’m sure you blog stalkers will recognize them. Timmy’s teacher from this year and a little lady bug who was just on the blog for her family portrait session this past week.  Hope you all had a great Halloween. I’m just hoping November goes better than October ended.

  • baseball,  personal

    well, the week started out good

    …and took a sudden, drastic slidingdownthemountainatfullspeedwithnobrakes turn for the worse.

    Had a regular crazy busy day on Monday, a fantastic massage on Tuesday at Garden City Hotel and a regular busy Wednesday. Thursday I spent the day in the city at the PhotoPlus Expo at Javits, walking the floor checking out all of the fun photography toys and products. I also took 2 classes, one of which was with my favorite photographer ever, Jasmine Star. Totally great and so motivational. Came home and it all fell apart. Shoulda just stayed in the city I think.

    John got hit in the shin with a line drive (from the biggest 12 year old on the team who regularly hits homeruns over the fence) at batting practice about 2 weeks ago and it has since turned into cellulitis. He had it once before- after getting hit in the shin at batting practice by the biggest 11 year old on the team who regularly hits homeruns over the fence- are you sensing a theme here yet?) back in the spring. Apparently, if you have cellulitis once it has a very, very high rate of reccurance. So there you go. He had been on oral antibiotics since earlier in the week for it, but when I got home from the city and took a look at his leg, I knew he had to go to the hospital right away. His whole leg was hugely swollen, rashy all around,  and a very angry shade of red. So off he went to the ER and they admitted him. Of course, there were 31 patients in the holding area and no beds available so he was in the ER overnight until about 2pm on Friday. Last time, the oral antibiotics worked mostly and when there was no further improvement he went to the ER and they gave him one dose of IV antibiotics and sent him home. Which totally worked. But this time it’s so bad he has to have multiple IV treatments every day. And there is currently no release date for him. As you can see, we are both thrilled by this news.

    I was at the hospital 3 separate times on Friday to visit John and drop off stuff and pick up John’s car. Good times. At least he has the big, private room at the end of the hall with the big private bathroom. And the other selling point was that we didn’t have FOX at home on Cablevision since they were in a price war, but John had it in the hospital so he could watch the game. We’ve since regained FOX so now it’s not so special.

    Some ugly rashy pictures to follow. Beware. (this is MUCH improved from how it looked on Thursday night) It goes from his knee to his ankle and all the way around the leg. Plus theres some on the other ankle as a bonus. The pen lines are drawn on by the doctors to make sure it isn’t spreading further.

    Ok, so if that wasn’t enough for me to deal with (plus canceling all my shoots for Saturday), Jack was pitching today for their very last game of the season (he and Patrick both got great hits in the 1st few innings of the game). The batter hit a line drive (sensing more of a theme here, people??) right into Jack’s head. He went down like a ton of bricks. The coaches all raaaaaaan out to the mound as did all the kids on both teams. They always tell the moms to wait and not run out and I resisted running my ass out there. That was really hard. All I could think is that I couldn’t go to the hospital anymore. He was moving so that was a good sign. I did eventually get the okay to go out and see him and he seemed okay (checked those pupils and they were equal) but said he was dizzy and that his head hurt. He finished pitching the inning and made a great play so I wasn’t crazy worried, just regular worried. I called the pediatrician and they said to take him to a local pediatric urgent care so we wouldn’t have to wait 4hrs in the ER (and really, no more hospital is good for me). They were great at the urgent care place- had us wait an hour to observe him and he seemed to be improving so they sent us home with instructions on what to watch for and if any of those things show up, that I had to bring him to the ER immediately. The only problem with that is that they said if he’s falling down a lot and being forgetful it’s a possible sign of a big problem. Yeah, but this is the kid who has so far this year: fallen off a moving treadmill in gym, fallen off the chorus risers, fallen out of his chair in class just switching positions, lost his folder (his major important folder) no fewer than 4 times, lost his Oakleys, and lost his sweatshirt (all of which did eventually turn up). So how exactly do I tell if he’s suffering from traumatic brain injury, or just being Jack?

    Jack with his icepack on the couch.

    So, he’s the proud owner of a mild concussion. So he’s taken some Motrin and iced his head and I woke him up several times during the night to make sure he’s okay. Poor Patrick was losing his mind out on the field when Jack got hurt. I think he thought he was dead. My pilates trainer happened to be at the game too-her son was on the opposing team- and she SO generously offered to take Patrick and Timmy  to her house so I could take Jack to the UC place. She fed them dinner (and Jack too since we came back just as they were sitting down to eat). I owe you big Karen! I think the trick-or-treating will be at a real minimum for Jack tomorrow and I have to call the dr. to find out the deal for gym next week.

    He was pretty psyched to tell all his friends and his baseball trainer that he has a mild concussion. Like a badge of honor. And as if I needed ANY other reasons to loathe baseball? Between him and John this week, I’m done.

    DONE!!!!!! There is not enough sushi, carvel, pretty sparkly things, wine, Xanax or massages that could make this into a faint memory anytime soon. And John’s still not home, and Jack still has a concussion. Happy effin Halloween.

  • children & families

    the burb family

    I’m so lucky that I have so many repeat clients, and really lucky that they like me enough to keep coming back! It’s been a tough 3 years for me with this little girl- she just really didn’t care for me or my camera and I had to WORK to get each and every shot. It was always worth it cause she’s gorgeous and photogenic. But we (mom & dad too) really had to try everything to get a good shot. This year, we totally turned the corner and she loved taking pictures and we had a great time together. And according to mom, she’s still talking about me (but in a good way!).

    And when you get a shot like this, it’s all ‘whatever’ for the rest of  the extra stuff.

    Her little brother wasn’t particularly thrilled with the shoot (but I’m hopeful that it was just cause he had a drippy-from-every-oraface cold). And if it wasn’t from the cold…well, I guess I’ll have 3 more challenging years ahead! I did it before, I’ll do it again. Not that you could tell from this first shot of him. Thanks for all your hard work (this time, and all the other times too!)