I think Delia was flirting with me when I took this picture.

The next day Charlie wrote to tell me about Jack. He put me in touch with his mother and we scheduled a time to take Jack’s picture.

I have never worked with a family dealing with autism before. I really had no idea what to expect. Was Jack going to hide from me? Was he going to scream? Was he going to throw things at me? Was he going to smile? I imagined the best and the worst.

Jack was playing in a small playroom off the kitchen. He was sitting on his toy box so I sat down on the floor across from him and snapped the first picture.  As soon has he heard the click of the shutter, he got up up, walked over to me, and sat down right in my lap. He wanted to see the picture I just took on the back of the camera.

I was a better experience than the best experience I had imagined.

The first was Farrah and John’s engagement session. I typically don’t use many photos from the first 5 minutes of a session (everybody is still getting warmed up) but this one (I think it was the third click of the shutter) turned out really well. The rest of the session was awesome too, but I thought I’d “sneak peek” this one.

The second session was little Jack. I’ll write more about Jack later but I will say this, after I took the first picture of him he immediately sat down my lap to see the back of the camera.

Finally, I met up with Erin and Brandon to photography Ellie.  I will admit, I was nervous. This was my first newborn session but Erin, Brandon, and Ellie were very patient with me as I “Forest Gumped” my way through it. This is one of my favorites because she actually smiled a little for about two seconds.

I hope everyone is having a beautiful week!

Erin just recently moved to St. Louis but wanted someone with a similar style as her wedding photographer back east. I am especially flattered they chose me for their maternity photography because of the caliber of photographers with maternity photography experience on The Knot.

Erin and her husband Brandon come over this past weekend. They were so patient and accommodating as I tried out some ideas. I’m really excited to photograph their new daughter over the next year.

Erin wasn’t interested in the usual bare belly pictures. She likes the candid and natural style of my wedding photography.  But I’m happy she let me take this one!

I’m excited to see the little feet that will go in these little booties. It’s also neat that this blanket is one of Brandon’s family treasures.

After we finished shooting at the studio we went over to the City Garden. I love it when the weather in February feels like weather in April.

I’m excited to take this photograph again…. with their daughter holding their hands between them!

Sitting on his parents’ lap, smiling, AND looking at the camera is something that is just not on his resume… but that’s okay. It’s not on mine either.