I have no other way to described this other than “the stars aligned” for this shoot. Those of you who have young children know how much fun preparing for a photo session can be. 🙂 Now add 3 brothers all with in a 4 year span of each other and their crazy mother who is a photographer and all she wants is a nice fall portrait of her beautiful sons…its a disaster in the making. But…I did it!!!! I was all by myself too..no kid wrangler or my personal therapist when I attempt to do this every year aka daddy. My oldest who is 6 yrs old came home from school and I said lets go play in the leaves. I quickly grabbed some clothes for them to look somewhat decent in. Nah…took him out of those – my oldest is always the first to model what might work because getting my 4 yr and 2 yr olds into clothes…happens once a day and I wasn’t going to chance them quitting on me before we even started. So finally light bulb moment grabbed 3 vests that I knew would compliment one another and their white turtle necks to keep them warm. Dressed them and we were off. Realizing that sun was going down, I knew we had to get there and no dilly dallying…my oldest knew what I was up too and kept things quiet. The other two…not a clue; we were just going to go play in some leaves. So we get there and I said hey boys look at the yellow leaved road…they are very into The Wizard of Oz right now. Just as I raised my camera I said go out and find the Wizard of Oz at the end of that road ( not a real road) but you should probably hold hands..right? ” Ok mommy” and they were off. click..click…click and squeels of excitement in my head..did I actually get them to do it all together, no fighting, no crying and no screaming ( from me usually..lol). Quick look at the back of the camera ( chimping as we call it) and bam I knew I got something. Phew…from there they went and turned around still holding hands and walked back smiling and even some eye contact…again thank you stars for one thing a photographer wants of her own children. Especially when she does it daily for other families..thank you! Ok I did a little bribing after that, they were getting hungry and I said ok 15 more minutes of fun playing in the leaves and mommy will take you to McD’s…well they jumped in the air…threw leaves and went discovering and playing more. I got another 20 min. out them before the sunset and we were on our way. My boys were just so much fun to photograph on this quick last minute shoot and the colors were fabulous. Its so hard to judge when we will have peak foliage here in Metrowest Boston…but this time I timed it right. So yes I took a few hours off in the busiest time of the year but it was all so worth it…for my peace of mind and love of my boys. They are growing so fast right before my eyes. Thank you for letting me share the inspirations in my life with you. The sweetest part of the whole thing; my 4 yr old woke up this morning and said “mommy, thank you for taking us to see the leaves yesterday. I had a lot of fun and I smiled for you too.”….sigh life is good!

Here are some favorites from the Swift Boys Fall Shoot…img_0029_cimg_0038img_0053cimg_0193cimg_0219img_0207img_0211img_0146cimg_0048img_0244cimg_0096cimg_0064cimg_0231cimg_0203img_0010