newsies and news

I knew I was going to have a blast with this family when they welcomed me with hugs. I swear I've never photographed a warmer family and I secretly want them to adopt me. Maybe I can be an auntie? Pretty Please? We had a great time going through old vintage suitcases carrying scary porcelain dolls and old cameras and playing dress-up in vintage fur coats and newsboy caps. When mom mentioned The Newsies (Christian Bale at his Disney best) I new this shoot was going to be amazing. Seriously, I was meant to photograph the pre-teen set! We braved the bitter cold, the kids and their dog skating over 2-inch thick ice that covered feet of snow below it, and I just love the results! What do you think? Don't the outdoor photos almost make you want another fresh dump of snow?

But wait, there's more!! I want all of you to head over to my new website (carolinekayephotography.com) and let me know what you think. It's the reason my blog posts have been conspicuously absent over the past couple months. Every spare moment went into that baby. I'm really happy with the results and hope you enjoy looking through the galleries. I've got a bunch of other announcements, but I'll leave those to another day.

blizzard

One of my kids was jubilant over the snow. The other was not.

surprise

I've been itching to post photos from this shoot, but it was a father's day present for a lucky Cold Spring daddy. And who am I to ruin a surprise? I'm so excited to share it now that I went a little nuts on this post. PS: Can you tell what little J's favorite color is?

tinker bell

When I was in LA visiting my sister (yup, this was way back in March) I had the great luck of crashing my cousin's birthday party. Naturally, I took photos. Young girls' obsession with Tinker Bell is confounding (according to a teacher friend of mine, this obsession persists in the teenage Latina population as well...hmmm) but my 3-year-old cousin's love for the fairy is pure and strong. With an emphasis on strong. Case in point: In that last photo—the one where she looks all forlorn—she's searching the parking lot for Tinker Bell, who had to return to Neverland. In her white car. Some fancy explaining ensued.

my rock star

This is really just an excuse to try out a larger photo size on my blog. (What do you think of my tweaks?) But seriously, how groovy is my kid in this photo?

feeling nostalgic

My youngest, nearly a year ago.

{Green}

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Ruby G. Sometimes called Rube-a-dube or Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruby or (I can't help it this just comes out of my mouth) Rubalicious. This was the winter of birthday number four, before the snow gods decided to drop ten feet of white slush on Cold Spring, and we decided to take this green lovin’ kid to an awesome lime retro gas station. And she stomped like a dinosaur and pumped gas and watched yellow balloons soar until her mama and I began to worry that keeping an almost four-year-old outdoors in prolonged frigid temps might constitute child endangerment. So we cuddled her up and whisked her back to her toasty (green) bedroom and plied her with a lolli the size of her head. And Ruby lived happily ever after.

{Bright Eyes}

How can you not be taken in my these eyes? C was so fun to play with, er, photograph. He showed off his back yard, alley way, school projects. And he was super gentle with his new baby brother. Here are a few of my favorites from that day...

{12 Days of Holiday Sessions: Day 4}

I just adore the pompoms on these hats, don't you? Though the twins didn't seem to notice... More great photos from this session to post, but I wanted to make sure to live up to my one-post-a-day promise to myself.

(12 Days of Holiday Sessions: Day 3}

It was fall and these kiddos did an excellent job frolicking in the leaves, don't you think? Their graphic designer mom (she does work for Hammertown, the amazing furniture store in Rhinebeck and Pine Plains) is currently hard at work at their holiday card. I can't wait to see it!

{12 Days of Holiday Sessions: Day 1}

When I was on staff at magazines, my worst nightmare was writing headlines. I was terrible at it. A 2,000 word article? No problem. But 3 snappy words? I was paralyzed. Sadly, my inability to write a decent headline is part of what’s made me neglect this blog. (That and the hours of photo editing I’m up against.) I feel all sorts of pressure to write a snappy header and…well…I’ve got nothin’. So I’ve come up with an easy solution. 12 Days of Holiday Card Sessions. That means 12 days that I don’t have to think of any thing witty or sweet or treacle or (heaven forbid) boring. Of course, one could argue that 12 Days is boring; if you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.

And, for Day 1, I present the A Team. I adored photographing these two kiddos, who came wearing their grins. They were goofy and sweet and I could have photographed them all day! And their mom just sent me their ultra-cool xmas card, which she got from Minted.) I love seeing photos in action. Thanks for the card!

{On the Farm}

Glynwood is one of the best things about living in Cold Spring. It’s almost a bucolic cliché—the big red barn, roaming horses, heritage hens that lay blue eggs with the yellowiest yolks I’ve ever seen. This family lives on the farm: Dad farms the CSA acreage, Mom hosts play dates showing off baby farm animals and makes a mean quiche with Glynwood produce. I had a blast photographing them for their holiday card.