the holidays, like all of last year, seemed to fly by. i made a valiant effort to not work over the last two weeks; that was, for the most part, successful. it’s surprisingly hard to not work. and even harder to get back to it.

so before i dive into my backlog of emails and images, i thought i’d throw out two things that i did do. before the break, i photographed my son’s hockey team. two words: freaking cute. that’s my son Brendan on the bottom right.

you can see the whole lot of them here. his team is loaded with talent, so, look long and hard, this is the future of the NHL.

and just because i didn’t work, doesn’t mean i didn’t shoot. i actually reconnected with my love of shooting just to shoot (the new gear could be responisble for this) and had a great time pointing my camera at my personal world. here’s a look at my last two weeks in 36 frames.

you’ll have to click the jump to see it.

i fancy myself a portrait photographer first and foremost. it’s a remarkably difficult thing to make a portrait. i confess to failing to achieve what i set out to do on most occasions. when you’re working with adults, it’s quite difficult to get them to put down their guard and reveal something about themselves in an honest way. they’re always trying to dress it up for you. it’s not that way with kids. they don’t know they’re supposed to hide anything, to suck in or puff up.

more often than not, kids just are who they are.

meet oakley.

i first photographed oakley when he was only 6 weeks old (left) and again, a couple weeks ago (right). i love the honesty in his eyes in both these images. i love the way he seems to be waiting for an answer to a question he can’t quite ask yet.

oakley just celebrated his first birthday last month, and i had the distinct privilege of being there to capture him on the big day. doesn’t matter the emotion – they were always unreserved and honest.

enjoy.

you can see the full gallery by clicking on the image above.

it was awesome fun.

thanks to jake, blake & kaley for introducing me to Rockey Mountain and Ft. Augusta. it was a blast. check out the full session here.

noah, age 2.

you can see a couple more images from the session after the jump.

…oh, and I learned that an empty dining room with beautiful light prompts little girls to dance like there is no tomorrow.

i’m not finished with the processing, but i’m pretty stoked about the results so far… here’s a little sneak peek.

so, here we are.

after a slow winter, it seems things are picking up. i hope to be posting some images from a really fun session i did this weekend and i have a trip in late April to Canada that should yield some gold. but, to get us started, i thought i’d share something a little closer to home – my favorite portrait subjects, brendan & sarah.

these are my kids, ages 4 & 2.