John and I had a professional relationshipin my previous life as a college internship recruiter for Putnam Investments. He worked for Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI and was a liaison for the school’s business partners. We hit it off immediately. He’s just good people. Our wives met once at a dinner hosted by Johnson & Wales. We’ve kept in touch since via random emails and Christmas cards.

When John asked me to take some family portraits with himself, his wife Amy and their almost 16-month-old son AJ, I was thrilled. First, I hadn’t met AJ yet and was excited to meet him. Second, I hadn’t seen John in years and was looking forward to catching up with him. He had since changed careers as well, so we had lots to talk about.

I drove to their home in Rhode Island. I arrived and was greeted by John and Amy. I was then introduced to Jetty, their energetic Chocolate Lab. AJ was asleep, but was just about to awake.

We started the session in the family living room. We took some shots of the family on their couch, AJ spinning in the office chair (and signing that he wanted "more"), and some shots of AJ and Jetty. I asked if there was a beach close by. "Half a mile" was the response. Perfect!

What I didn’t know was that there were construction vehicles in the parking lot where we would leave the car. Usually, I would not be thrilled with this as they tend to clutter the background. In this case, they were the best possible props. It turns out that AJ loves "diggers" and regularly visits this spot with Amy. Since it was a Sunday, the vehicles were not in use, so we were able to get some great pictures of AJ hanging out with his "diggers". My favorite is a shot of AJ sitting inside the wheel of a back-hoe. Priceless!

We took a walk along the beach next to the pier, let Jetty go for a swim, and got some wonderful pictures of the family just being a family. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I think Amy’s qoute was, "And to think I wanted a picture of him with a blue sheet as the background!"

 

 

 My personal favorite: