Photo Session Date: May 30, 2010

Photo Session Location: Winchester, Virginia

Photo Session Details: This past weekend my wife and I threw a little family birthday party for my two-year old daughter. Naturally there was cake (home-made by my wife of course), decorations, food (hedgehog watermelon!) and presents. However, the “hit” of the party was my brother’s dog, Butters. Visiting from north of Baltimore, my brother and his girlfriend brought their dog along and my children absolutely loved her. I know that any day now I will probably begin to hear the words “Daddy I want a dog”. Maybe in 10 years….

Photo Session Date: April 3 – 4, 2010

Photo Session Location: Winchester, VA and Linthicum, MD

Photo Session Details: Now that my girls are getting older (23 months and 3.5 yrs), I am beginning to have a lot of fun re-igniting holiday traditions I once did as a child. My wife and I planned a little easter egg hunt for them in our backyard on Easter eve. We filled some plastic eggs with small goodies (toys, treats, money) and hid them around a fenced section of our yard for the girls to find. Once I let them loose out the porch door there was no stopping them! Of course we had to make sure the 3 yr old didn’t find all the eggs, but the younger one held her own. The next day we traveled to Linthicum, MD where my mother held another small egg hunt for them (along with their second-cousin Joe…the youngest of the group). The kids had a lot of fun, and naturally went into a sugar coma during the drive home after having snacked on their goodies for most of the day.

Photo Session Date: February 25, 2010

Photo Session Location: The National Aquarium in Baltimore, Maryland

Photo Session Details: Growing up and living near Baltimore for 25 years, I have been to the National Aquarium many times. Yet each time I go I am always amazed at the wondrous fish and animals they have on display there. My personal favorites of this visit were the new jellyfish exhibit (my wife wants a jellyfish tank for display in our home after seeing it), the sharks (I never get tired of sharks!) and of course the dolphin show (wow, they are smart mammals).

Photo Session Date: February 8, 2010

Photo Session Location: Winchester, Virginia

Photo Session Details: Snow, snow and more snow has fallen this winter in Winchester, Virginia. Even the snow lovers have grown tired of it, but my children seem to enjoy it every time they go out to play. My three-year-old has spent time trudging through snow almost as tall as her, throwing snowballs at Daddy and sledding in a make-shift laundry basket. This is my 21-month-old daughter’s first experience with snow, and while apprehensive at first, she soon began running through the paths I have shoveled through the three-foot high drifts. I will admit even I got in on the fun for a bit, digging my first snow tunnel in over 20 years!

Photo Session Date: December 24-26, 2009

Photo Session Location: Winchester, Virginia; Pasadena, Maryland and Saxton, Pennsylvania

Photo Session Details: The excitement of Christmas used to be unbearable as a child. I remember the days inching along as it grew closer to Christmas Day. A week seemed like a year, a minute on Christmas Eve night like an eternity. That excitement faded as I grew up and entered my college and bachelorhood years but has been invigorated by having two children who are becoming old enough to truly understand the special time of the year that is Christmas. My goal as a camera-toting father is to capture some of that excitement through photography. The photos below are this year’s results.

Photo Session Date: Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2009

Photo Session Location: Linthicum, MD

Photo Session Details: Every Thanksgiving Day for the past 20+ years, my family has been shooting off model rockets between turkey dinner and the serving of pumpkin pie. What started out as a one-time novelty using a build-your-own rocket kit (courtesy of Estes) has turned into a yearly hollowed tradition featuring unique and crazy rockets constructed by my father, brothers and cousins. The rockets are launched safely from a baseball field and have resulted in some very humorous stories from year’s past. I will let the photographs tell the rest of the story from this year’s launch.

Photo Session Date: September 12 – 17, 2009

Photo Session Location: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Photo Session Details: My family has been vacationing in Myrtle Beach, SC for 25+ years. It feels like a second home to me as summer does not seem to be complete without spending some time on the beach, dining and playing a few rounds of miniature golf. Now that my children are a bit older, they were able to make the trip (an eight hour drive) down south for a family vacation.

Since their father is a photographer, I always have the camera in tow as we spend some time on the beach or visiting local attractions (like the Ripley’s Aquarium as you can see in the above photograph). I am sure once they are older, my kids will tell me to “put the camera away, Dad”, but until then I’m going to keep on shooting!

Below are some of the select photographs I took this year:

Photo Shoot Date: 2009

Photo Shoot Details: These are two photographs I took of my daughters this year in black and white. I believe some photographs lend themselves to black and white given the mood and emotion of the moment. The “asleep” photograph above is a personal favorite as it captures that truly peaceful moment of “sleeping like a baby”.

Photo Shoot Location: Natural Bridge, Virginia

Photo Shoot Date: March 2009

Photo Shoot Details: I took these photographs of various animals during a recent family vacation to Natural Bridge, Virginia. They are excerpts from a visit to two animals parks:

• The Virginia Safari Park where you can ride your vehicle through 3 miles of windy road feeding a variety of wildlife
• The Natural Bridge Zoo which houses a diverse collection of friendly animals from llamas to elephants

While the visit was primarily to entertain my two daughters, I found myself photographing a variety of the animals up-close. I believe the photographs show how animals have personalities and exhibit emotions just as we do. Take a look below at the goofy look on the giraffe’s face, or the solemn bored expression of the monkey behind bars and tell me that these creatures do not think and feel as we do.