The time off has allowed me to catch up on yard work and spend more time with the kids. This weekend we had our semi annual family portraits taken and I may be the first father of a 2 and 5 year old to say this but I had a great time. You are probably wondering how this is possible?
Here is how it happened. Missy and I ran across some photos our friend Kristin had posted on facebook. The pictures were absolutely amazing…unlike anything we had seem before. We were completely blown away. It turns out Kristin had done some modeling for her friend Andy (photographer).
Check out his stuff here…it is amazing http://www.todesphoto.com/
Missy got in touch with Andy to figure out dates that would work best for both parties. Andy asked where we’d like to have the pictures taken and we decided to leave it up to him. Thursday evening we received an email from him asking if we would mind meeting him out front of the random tea room (http://therandomtearoom.com/home.html) on 5th street in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia around 10 am for our shoot.
We agreed and on Sunday morning we bundled the kids up and made our way down to Fairmount. Parking was tough to come by but we eventually found a spot a block or so away. As we approached our destination Andy was easy to spot. There aren’t many people hanging out on 5th street at 9:45 am on Sunday morning with several cameras and a kitchen chair.
After our brief introduction we decided that we would need to work quickly because there was no telling how long the kids would last in this cold. The first pics were taken in front of an orange fence on the sidewalk. As expected Emily was all in and Johnny was reluctant (matches their personalities).
The looks that we were catching from passersby were interesting to say the least. Can’t imagine what they were thinking? (Interesting side note…during our 45 minutes or so we had to have seen 20 different people out walking their dogs. Need to determine the dog to person ratio in Fairmount).
Following this we made our way up the street to a small vacant lot converted to a park(?) that featured a huge mural painted on the side of one of the building. Emily in particular enjoyed this time as Andy asked her to stand on a chair for the pics. I haven’t yet met a 5 year old who didn’t love to stand on a chair. By this time Johnny was beginning to warm up to Andy and seemed a little more willing to cooperate.
For the final segment we walked a couple of blocks up to a very beat up looking green garage door. Emily again had a ball as she got to sit on my shoulders and ham it up for the camera. At this point we decided to cut the shoot short as it was just getting too darn cold for the kids (and me).
We couldn’t have been happier with the way the pics turned out and our experience in general. Andy took a seemingly ordinary setting on a frigid day and turned it into a collection of unique pictures and memories that we will cherish for years to come. In case you haven’t guessed I would highly recommend Andy to anyone looking for a photographer. He is first rate across the board.
This week will be the last of my hiatus from training. Jess and I are signed up for the Ocean Drive Marathon on March 28th of this year. Not sure what my goal is for this race as of yet...I'll have to wait and see how the knee is feeling. I'll plan to play it by ear the first month or so and then take it from there.
www.todesphoto.com
