{PORTRAIT} Rain, Rain, Go Away - Arnold Portrait Session

When I left my house to meet up with the Arnold family, the sky was blue and there were SOME clouds in the sky to the East but nothing to worry about. Then, as I turned West and got closer to the shooting location, it looked like this one black rain cloud had decided it would hang out over our shooting location and dump rain. At one point, while I was sitting at the park (where I had arrived early to get set up), it just poured and I couldn't even see through my windshield. I debated about calling the Arnold's and cancelling because who would want pictures in the rain for their Christmas card portraits? I understand rain can make for creative pictures - but not when it's for Christmas card portraits!

I decided to wait it out (and I kept forcing the weather application on my phone to update to ease my concern) and this one black rain cloud FINALLY passed. It was a little gray afterward but there was blue behind it and I thought "I can work with this but will THEY be ok with it?" The ground was wet and this meant wet knees, humid/sticky air (it's Florida) and wet doggies (oh yeah, I didn't mention we also had two dogs, right?).

Luckily, Barbara and Ryan were cool, calm, and collected and the pictures came out fantastically! Not one complaint about the humidity or the wetness and everyone really pulled together to make this a fun session. Once they had a chance to get over the initial excitement of being at the park, Bailey and Emma posed like princesses and never once hesitated to give hugs or kisses. What a great pair!

Now, enough blabbering and enjoy the pictures!

{PHOTOS} Art Can Be Anywhere You Look

While in NYC, Hubby and I realized we needed a few toiletry items and went down to the local Duane Reade to get them. When we returned to the apartment, the door was locked - as in not even the key in our hand would unlock it. We made several calls to the leasing company to ask for assistance & they said they couldn't be there for at least an hour, so we decided to walk down to Katz's Deli and kill some time (and get some good GRUB)!

The lesson we learned along the way? Anywhere you go in New York City, art can be made out of the normal, every day, mundane item. 

For example, this picture is a roll-up door for an empty shop. Who knows how long this art work will last, especially in the city where anything can be here this morning and gone by tonight, so I thought I'd take a picture for posterity of this wonderful piece of art.

And here's the door in context with it's surroundings. Absolutely beautiful.