A Summertime Family Portrait Session in Saratoga Springs with an Outdoor Cake Smash

What a cute family!  This mama was excited to capture some summertime portraits for a mommy & me session, and she dressed her little ones in coordinating nautical outfits to match the dress that she found for her daughter.  We had a blast running around Spa State Park for their portrait session, and the kids were all smiles.

I always love capturing a few extra special mom & baby portraits, and I love how cuddly Ronan was with his mama!  Just look at his adorable little smile, and those cute baby teeth!

We celebrated Ronan’s first birthday with an outdoor cake smash! We typically do our cake smash sessions in our Saratoga Springs studio, but due to the reopening restrictions after covid and the timeline of this session, we opted for an outdoor session for everyone’s health & safety. It did not disappoint! We did a fun little beachy theme for the birthday boy, and he loved digging into his cake!

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Getting in the Picture: My Quarantine Self-Portraits with Grayson

Recently I shared a “Letter to All Moms: Please Get in the Picture!”. I talked about how important it is to make sure we document the fact that WE WERE THERE in our little one’s childhoods. In fact, we are often so “there” in their daily lives that we never have any pictures to prove it!

I get it. I truly do! During Grayson’s first year I had only a handful of photos of me with my baby. There was nothing I ever wanted more in life than to be a mom, and I spent my days documenting everyone else’s motherhood, but I barely had any photos of my own experience with my baby.

So I set out to change that.

I took an online course in self-portraits. I purchased a tripod. I learned how to use the interval timer on my camera, and how to nail the focus when looking through my lens at the empty spot on the floor (or chair, or steps) where I would be. I joined online communities for inspiration & encouragement. I started sharing these photos, talking with other moms, and holding each other accountable for getting in the picture more often so that our babies would have memories to look back on one day, and so that we could look back on this stage of motherhood 20 years from now and remember what it felt like when our littles held our hands, sat on our laps, and curled up close to us.

And I am so glad I did!

During the coronavirus quarantine I created many goals for myself, and one of them was to get in the frame more with my little boy. I wanted to capture our daily lives. At the beginning of quarantine, we spent a lot of time indoors because it was so cold and rainy outside. This giant cardboard box became a reading nook, a hiding place, a soccer goal, a train car. So we got inside for a few photos!

Grayson’s room is the one room in the house that gets the BEST LIGHT all day long. I especially love the way the light streams through the windows in the mornings. We always cuddle up in this chair to read three books before nap and before bed, plus many more books throughout the day. Our little guy loves books! So of course that was something I wanted to document, too! Plus, look at him with his little purple ball! He always finds a ball to hold!

We have spent soooooo much time outside in the yard. He helped me with yardwork in the early spring, trying to “rake” leaves with his tiny snow shovel, and picking up stray sticks to put them in a pile. Then we started gardening, planting flowers, watering flowers, and planting tomatoes & strawberries. I do not have a green thumb, but every year I wish I did! So we’re trying it out, and he’s getting so excited to watch everything grow! Plus, he discovered that he really likes to play in the dirt — even though he hates being messy!

We have baked SO MANY THINGS during quarantine! I’ve always loved to bake, and he has been my little helper in the kitchen since very early on. We made him a learning ladder/stool when he turned one, and he has been standing and helping at the counter ever since! He especially enjoys baking, and he gets so excited and yells “Yayyyy! Baking! My favorite!” whenever it’s time to bake, running into the kitchen and climbing right up on his stool.

I wanted to document our baking adventures, but our little baking corner of the kitchen is so dark and narrow, so I moved everything to the table where we get great light through the patio doors. Grayson helped me scoop and measure. He can name and identify all of the ingredients, and he counts the eggs when passing them to me. Somehow we haven’t broken a single egg yet, but I’m just waiting for the day we have gooey egg dripping down the side of the bowl!

Another realization in this self-portrait process?
Apparently I own A LOT of striped shirts!!!

The official taste tester in the Starr household! He takes his job very seriously!

You don’t need anything fancy to get in the photos more with your own kids. Set your phone up on the counter and press the timer, then run into the frame and love on your kids. Hand your camera off to your partner and ask them to snap a few photos of you doing something you love with your kids.

Just get in the picture. You will treasure these memories forever!

A Letter to All Moms: Please Get in the Picture!!

Dear Mamas,

Get in the picture. Stop hiding behind the camera and step in front of it with your babies. Hand your camera over to your partner, your friend, your neighbor, ANYONE walking by on the street, and ask them to please take a picture of you and your kids together.

You already know that these years go by too quickly. You already know that your children are only this little for a little while. I don’t need to remind you of any of that.

But 20 years from now when your kids are looking back at old family photos, you don’t want them to ask you, “Wait, mom, where were you? Why aren’t you in any pictures with us?”

And 30 years from now when your kids are becoming parents to little ones of their own, they’re going to want to see YOU in the same stage that they are going through. They’re going to want to see you pregnant, you as a brand new mom, you as an exhausted but ridiculously happy toddler mama. They’ll want to see you getting your hands messy and baking with your family, you running into the waves with your kids at the beach, and you cheering them on at their first sports game or recital or play. They’ll just want to see YOU in the pictures.

During Grayson’s first year, I was always the one taking the pictures. As he was about to turn one I realized that I barely had any photos of the two of us together except from our Fresh 48 session at the hospital, a few photos I prioritized on my first Mother’s Day, and some cell phone photos.

So I did three things.

• I started handing my camera off to my husband and asked him to take some photos of us just doing regular stuff together. A lot of photos were blurry or my head was cut off, but hey, at least I was in the picture!

• I started using a tripod and capturing more of our everyday moments at home. Cuddling up together after nap, learning to walk, playing on the kitchen floor. The simple motherhood moments that I knew I wanted to remember forever.

• And I booked two professional portrait sessions — one family session, and one mommy & me session. Those two photos at the top of this blog post? They are two of my most treasured photos, and both of them are hanging up in our house so that I can enjoy them every single day and remember how perfectly Grayson fit in my arms!

You can do those same three things.

Hand your camera off to anyone and ask them to take a few photos of you snuggling your kids. It can be on a special day like a holiday, but it can also be on some random Tuesday out in your garden.

Set your camera up on a tripod (or a chair, or a stack of books, or on the floor!) and set the timer, then jump in and start loving on your kids. Or capture some moments of you guys doing an activity together that you love, and just set your camera off to the side to do the work while you’re busy with the kids!

Find a professional photographer whose style you love, and talk with them about what you’re looking for in your portrait session. Talk with them about meaningful locations, things your kids do that you want to remember forever, and that dream shot that would make you so happy hanging on your walls. Be open and tell them what you want, and they will make it their mission to bring that to life for you.

So mamas, please get in the picture! You’ll only regret the photos you didn’t take, and you’ll never look back and wish you had taken fewer.

With love,
Nicole
(and Grayson, who will appreciate this many years from now!

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A Mommy and Me Session in the Boston Public Garden

Meet Jack. The smiliest, most adorable little boy who I had the pleasure of photographing in the Boston Public Garden this spring with his mama. This sweet 4 year old is constantly on the go, and we spent a playful hour together filled with giggles, laughs, and bubbles for an extra special Mommy & Me portrait session.

Boston is such a beautiful city in the early spring, and tulip season is always breathtaking. The misty weather didn’t dampen our spirits, and Jack and his mama layered on their rain gear and enjoyed splashing in the puddles in the garden.

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About Nicole Starr Photography 

Nicole Starr specializes in newborn, baby & family photography and has been serving families in New York and Massachusetts since 2012.  She has a portrait studio in Saratoga Springs, NY for families in the Capital Region, and she also works with families at her Attleboro, MA studio and on location in Boston and on Cape Cod. 

Our sessions are relaxed and fun, and we’ll enjoy an hour together laughing, cuddling, and capturing authentic smiles and belly laughs with your little ones.  

Getting on the other side of the camera | Our Mommy & Me session with Sarah Zollo Portraits

I finally got on the other side of the camera with my sweet baby boy. And you know what? It was amazing, and this very first photo means everything to me.

I have been dreaming of this exact photo for months and months and months, and my heart is so happy to finally have this sweet little cuddle captured in a portrait.

As a mom who also happens to be a photographer, I spend my days capturing all of the little moments and the big love between families. I capture the cuddles, the kisses, and the sweet way their babies wrinkle their noses when they smile. The way they reach up to hold their daddy’s hand, and the way they curl up on their mama’s chest to feel their heartbeat.

But 12 months into being a mama, I barely had any photos of me with my baby boy. We did a beautiful Fresh 48 session when Grayson was born, and a few holiday photos last Christmas. But besides blurry cell phone photos, selfies, and a couple of times that I passed my camera to someone to take a (usually blurry or decapitated) photo with my son, that’s all I have from his first year.

I have taken so many amazing photos of my son with my husband, and I love every single one of them! It is so easy to capture their relationship, and I really love looking back through their photographs and seeing how Grayson has grown and watching that beautiful bond they have.

But any photos with me in them? Almost nonexistent. And this role as Grayson’s mama is my favorite role I have ever had, which is why it is soooooo important to me to capture this in photographs!

I started taking some self portraits this year of our day to day life at home because it was so important to me to capture this stage and have some beautiful portraits to show our son as he grows so that he can see how much we loved him and adored him when he was little.

What was really missing though was a mommy & me session. I truly wanted someone else to capture these moments for us, so I decided to get on the other side of the camera when I hired Sarah Zollo Portraits in Rhode Island for a session with my sweet baby boy.

And you guys!!!! These are my favorite photos ever! I love how Sarah captured his sweet little smile, the way he hugs my cheek, those pearly teeth peeking through on the bottom. She captured his sense of wonder and curiosity about the world, his joy, and how proud he is of himself of his new skills (standing supported and butt scooting across the floor!). She captured this easy love, and how crazy happy he makes me. She captured it all, and I will never stop being grateful for making this session a priority.

So, a few things I learned while being on the other side of the camera…

It was actually really hard to find the perfect outfits for our session! You’d think it’d be easy (I mean, really — all white can’t be that hard, right?), but for some reason nothing was out that seemed just right. In the end I loved this top, and I’m obsessed with the cute blue overalls that bring out his blue eyes. I wanted to keep it very simple without any patterns or bold colors because I wanted to focus on the connection between us and have super classic portraits that I will look at 40 years from now and melt into a puddle of tears when I look at my baby boy. And these are those!

Also, photo shoot day really never goes as planned. Of course Grayson couldn’t fall asleep the night before, and while he normally falls asleep within minutes, he took 1.5 hours to fall asleep. And the morning of his session he almost boycotted his nap, too! But we made it there on time and I had a happy baby once I put his favorite song on (at the moment, it’s “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys because of the “bababa-babarbara ann” babbling part!).

When you’re caught up in the moment being a mom, you forget about things like the best angle or what might look funny on camera. You’re just focused on making your baby happy and getting him to laugh. Thankfully I had a photographer AND her assistant there to guide us and keep everything flowing naturally and beautifully. I didn’t have to point to the camera or try and get him to look their way because they were singing, dancing, and waving toys around to keep his attention and to turn those blue eyes towards the camera.

And finally, I understand how excited you guys are for the sneak peek and the gallery reveal! It was the best feeling ever when I saw these photos for the first time and when I saw how someone else sees this mother-son love. I have never seen it like that before, and it’s really amazing to be able to step back and look at this magic from another perspective.

I truly do believe that EVERYONE deserves mommy & baby portraits (or mommy & child, whatever the age!). I will definitely be making it a priority to capture this magic on camera more often with my own baby boy, and I can’t wait to offer more of these types of sessions to mamas, too.

Sarah, a huge thank you for capturing motherhood so beautifully. I love these so much, and I am incredibly grateful.

Photos by www.sarahzollo.com