I’ve been waiting to work with Mary Catey for about six months. This girl quite busy and with this kind of look and versatility it is easy to see why. Mary Catey can go from sweet and innocent to naughty vixen in the blink of an eye and has an incredible gift of expression with those piercing blue eyes.

For those technically inclined, this series was lit with 2 300ws strobes fired with 1 shoot thru and 1 reflective umbrella for just the right kind of contrast. I was able to get the white background on just those two lights.

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James has been a friend of mine for over a year now. We worked together for a while at a local company here in Albuquerque. James is the type of guy, while always professional – I could always talk smack to about football (and he is so easy going, he can easily be forgiven for being an Oakland Raiders fan), talk photography with (and can sometimes be forgiven for being a Nikon user) and is just tons of fun to be around. (See even now, I’m talking smack in this blog post, and I’m never going to hear the end of it…hehehe) Not to mention, we’re both “westsiders” here in Albuquerque which is something of a “thing” so we’d walk past each other at work and… well, the goofy white folks that we are, throw it down for the “westside” — which is hysterically funny because we’re both dorks… Maybe… you just had to be there…?

When he and his wife announced the arrival of their adopted baby girls earlier this year, the first thing I did was launch a campaign to “shoot his kids” despite the fact that shooting kids (other than my own) isn’t really my specialty. We’ve been planning this photoshoot for a couple of months now, but because of our conflicting schedules, haven’t been able to get together until just last weekend.

I learned a few things about shooting his kids during our session:
1.) They’re really, really adorable. These girls are just too cute for words, and I’m not saying that because James is a buddy of mine nor because he followed my instructions to not put them in Raiders gear when he brought them to my house.
2.) Working with small children is like working with really small animals. You have to be fast. Unfortunately I was too busy oooh-ing and ahhh-ing over the girls (not typically an occupational hazard, I’m not a “kid” type of person, which is why this isn’t my specialty) and one of them got cranky and angry with me and… you can see it in the outdoor photos. James and Stephanie, you’re going to have to come back over. We’ll reshoot.
3) They’re freakin’ adorable. I think I may have mentioned that already though.

Congratulations James & Stephanie, you both should be so proud and yes — I do think that the Raiders/Redskins cheerleader outfits would be unspeakably cute… Absolutely.

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When the Andersons called me from Colorado, they knew they wanted something a little bit different, and a little bit fun. they were coming down to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a family reuinion and wanted to capture the beautiful scenery but didn’t want the “same ole, same ole”.

So when it came time to talk about wardrobe, the first recommendation I made was, “So… I ‘m going to suggest you all NOT wear jeans and white button down shirts. You’re individuals! Celebrate your individuality and be spontaneous, celebrate your lives in color.” At first, my suggestion was met with silence on the other end of the telephone line, and then a quiet “that’s exactly what we were planning on wearing,” followed by a reluctant acceptance. Sure it’s true, I’ve endorsed and even recommended that families don the standard blue-jeans-white-shirt apparel that has become so prevalent these days with environmental portrait photography.

After the Andersons and I started our session at Elena Gallegos Park up in the NE Heights and they saw a few of the early previews in camera, mom turned to me and said, “You know, you’re right, I’m glad we went with the colors”. Without the stiff starch of the shirts and the near military uniformity of the group, I noticed that the family actually seemed more relaxed and able to enjoy themselves than perhaps they may have been had they been precisely matching. The girls were silly and playful and even dad and granddad were able to let down their hair or rather… brush back their hair, as evidenced in the photos…

As we wrapped up the photo shoot and started walking down the trail, we encountered another professional photographer walking in the other direction with a large family in tow, outfitted in dark blue jeans and black button down shirts, marching in a single file procession, almost painstakingly. Mom turned to me and mouthed a silent thank you.
You’re welcome Anderson family, you’re all, quite welcome – I had a great time!!

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