This is Grant. A new and lovely addition to the planet. We know he won’t remember us when he grows up but we’re happy we got to meet him. Before we met him, he used to hang out here.

So I’ve heard about this for a long, long time. Yep, your kids grow up. Fast. I remember taking a road trip with my little girl, Lindsey (or ze-ze, as we used to call her), probably a year or so after this photo to the left was taken. We drove all the way to Arkansas, just her and I. We talked, listened to some great driving music and sang. She would make up her own little songs about all the things she saw along the way. Once, just outside of Nashville, she hid behind one of the seats of our Chevy Astro while I was pumping gas. Nearly gave me a heart attack! Looking back on her childhood, I don’t remember nearly as much as I wish I did…and sometimes I think I should’ve cherished every minute with her just a bit more than I sometimes think I did. But I do know that for as much as I love her now, every single one of those minutes counted.

So my little girl is getting married now. It’s pretty surreal. And it’s all true. You blink your eyes a couple times and your kids grow up. Of course, while it’s happening, you barely notice it. But then, from up ahead a milestone rolls around a bend in the road, mows you over and you realize you’ve been beamed twenty years into the future. And the future is now! My little Ze-ze has turned into a beautiful young woman, and just like when we trekked halfway across the country—a young dad and his 4 year old co-pilot—I still thoroughly enjoy her company, and friendship. She’s got a great head on her shoulders, she’s a pretty well-traveled young lady and she’s thrown-in with a new travel companion who I believe will share her enthusiasm for what lies up around the bend and take good care of her.

What do you do when you’re a photographer and your little girl gets engaged? You capture some of the most meaningful images of your career. Taylor and I spent the day in Boston with Lindsey and her Fiancée, Jalum, happily engaged in their engagement session. I’d like to thank Taylor, who took many of these photos, for helping me capture my first child’s “lift off.” Ze-Ze <ahem> Lindsey, and Jalum’s, big adventure will commence on Saturday, June 18th, 2011…

Apples and pumpkins and hay bales, oh my! We had a fantastic time with brothers Dennis, Andrew and Adam and their beautiful families. We met up at MacKenzie’s Farm in Milton, NH for a very energetic afternoon of apple picking and by the end of the day, these little ones had us thoroughly and completely captivated!

We started a little riot on the hay ride. Not sure if these guys knew what they were screaming about but they were having fun!

…and before you ask, no, the children were not caged at any point during the session!

We are very excited to announce the launch of our brand new portraiture Website: http://portraits.birchblaze.com! Over the winter months, Taylor and I have been busy planning how best to serve our extended stomping grounds—places like the Mount Washington Valley, Lakes Region and Seacoast areas of New Hampshire, as well as Southern Maine—with our brand of natural, lifestyle portraiture. What is “Lifestyle” portraiture? Here’s our take on it, Quoting from the Q&A Page on our new Birch Blaze Portraits Website: “We believe that a portrait should be more than just a picture of a person (or people). It should give you a very real feeling about who that person is, capturing the essence of their personality. More and more, the trend in photography has veered away from traditional studio, posed portraiture. Traditional studio portraiture can have a stiff, unnatural feel to it, lacking that “realness.” Lifestyle portraiture focuses on capturing that realness.” Tay and I have always had a passion for expressing ourselves creatively, and in particular, through the lens of a camera. We believe in what we do, and are very thankful that we can now make our living doing it. Even though some degree of natural artistic ability definitely comes into play, we have also worked very hard to ensure that we are using professional, state-of-the-art equipment and are up on all the latest technical methodologies so that our finished product matches our own creative vision and real life. Read more about our philosophy and process below this screensnap of the new Site…

   Our view of being photographers is not, “We do photography,” but rather, “We are artists.” The last thing we want to do is sound like snobs, but with the invention of digital photography and processing, it has become very easy for almost anyone to buy a digital camera, download a copy of Photoshop and call themselves a photographer. Now, there are endless discussions online about when and for what reason you can call yourself a “photographer,” but ultimately, a person’s photography speaks for itself. We encourage anyone who feels a passion for photography, or even someone who just wants to take better photos to absolutely go for it. Give it your all. We would never deny anyone’s right to pursue their passion, their dream. For us personally, we set our own bar very high. Not only because we present ourselves as professional photographers, and people invest trust and dollars in us for that reason, but also because we pursue excellence in every image that we produce. It’s a matter of artistic integrity.

How Does it Work?

   We have adopted a process already in use by many premier photography studios around the world. It’s very simple, really. If you like our art and would like to commission us to photograph you and/or your family, get in touch and we’ll schedule a pre-consultation at your home. During this time, we’ll get to know each other, something that’s vital to capturing relaxed, natural images during the actual portrait session. We’ll answer questions and discuss what your expectations and goals are, as well as which of our products will best suit your decor, wall space and overall style. Of course we’ll also schedule your session and discuss location, wardrobe and any other questions or concerns you may have.

   Next, the photo shoot. We’ll meet you at our predetermined location, which might be your home, a park, playgound, grassy field, woodland trail, the beach or an urban landscape—places that hold special meaning for you and your family or simply compliment your unique personality. Sessions will typically last about 2 hours, but could be shorter or longer depending on which session you have chosen. Newborns and young children’s sessions will usually run longer. We’ll spend the first few minutes or more scouting out the location, getting our gear dialed in and shooting a few warm-ups to get us all in the groove. After that, we’ll take lots of shots of the interactions that highlight the special relationships and moments that make you and your family unique and beautiful. We’ll likely do some comfortable poses and perhaps some more traditional ones. We’re also always up for fun and unique ideas and we hope you are too, but whatever you’re comfortable with. For family portraits, it’s fun to plan an activity that you can all enjoy together; baking cookies, playing in the back yard, taking a walk, etc.

   The fun continues… after your portrait session we’ll schedule your viewing/ordering session. We’ll come to your home and you’ll get to enjoy your images in a larger-than-life slideshow set to music! Then, in the same format, you get to choose which images you’ll have made into prints, storyboard collages and gallery canvas wraps for your wall. There are lots of great new products that will showcase the beautiful art we’ve created together, complimenting and enhancing your home decor at the same time. During your viewing session we’ll guide you through what’s available and how it will best work with the images you’ve chosen and fit your home. You’ll receive your portrait art 2 to 4 weeks after placing your order.

   It’s important to us that people notice our deep commitment to producing photographic art that holds beauty far beyond any other artwork you could display in your home. How so? Because it’s art created from the most precious people in your life, your family. We want to thank you for taking the time to read through this information and we think you’ll enjoy viewing our new Website and our galleries. We’d love to hear from you and apply our creative process to you and your family’s history. We are centrally located between the White Mountains, Seacoast and Lakes Region of New Hampshire. We regularly visit and photograph in the communities of Wolfeboro, North Conway, Jackson, Meredith, Laconia, Gilford, Rochester, Dover, Portsmouth, Newington, Rye and Hampton, New Hampshire as well as Southern Maine. Visit our “Hello” Page and we’ll get started!

“Babies are such a nice way to start people.” ~ Don Herald

In November we had the opportunity to photograph my cousin’s beautiful baby Carley. And may I just say that you haven’t lived until you’ve experienced such nummyness! I’m slightly enamored. She was a trooper for most of the shoot and she hung in there long enough for us to end up with some fantastic shots. Much props to Mom, Keaghan for keeping her in her “happy place”. We’re looking forward to 6 months…

These were her little moccasins. Very cute!

I LOVE this face…so plaintive. I think she may have been nearing the end of her patience here, but I suppose it isn’t easy being green. ;)

THE END… ~Tay

Ok, folks, I know, I know… yes, it’s been a while…So sorry about that, really. It might have something to do with the major remodeling project we have going at our house right now (as in, completely ripping out our floor, right down to the dirt!). But anyway, we have still been shooting and this post is proof! Rhonda Demone is a photographer from Nova Scotia who contacted us a few months ago and booked a shoot to coincide with her Family’s vacation in North Conway. We got together with Rhonda, Brian and the kids last week for the shoot and had a blast! The kids were awesome and thanks to mom being a photog, were used to being in front of the camera. We had a great time and want to thank the Demone’s for choosing Birch Blaze! Here are some of our favorites from the session…

Here’s one of those shots that was kind of like an inbetween shot, but with this treatment I think it takes on a very poetic feel:

What a beautiful and fun family! We had a great time and hopefully, one of these days we’ll drive up to Nova Scotia and say hi. Thanks again Rhonda, Brian and kids, and your image disc is on its way!

Hey Guys! It’s been a busy spring for us so far and it’s not going to relent anytime soon (it’s me, parenthetical Kerry, by the way). I’m leaving tomorrow morning to go for a 4 day, 3 night excursion with my Son Dylan’s 6th grade class. That’s right, 4 days, 3 nights, 20+ 6th graders… pray for me. We’re going to be visiting Portland Maine, Boothbay Harbor and Acadia Nat’l Park. Gonna stay in hotels with pools and feasting on lobster, so I’m told (how come they never had trips like this when I was in school?!). We actually just got back from Portland, where we attended our 3 day Bible convention. It was stupendous and we got to see a lot of friends we haven’t seen in a while. We took the kids out for their first ever visit to an authentic indian restaurant in the Old Port, the “Hi Bombay,” which I like to say in a conversational tone as if I hadn’t seen Bombay in quite a while. Our waiter was cool and the food was great. We walked around the Old Port’s cobblestoned streets afterwards. Gotta love the Old Port. We didn’t take very many pics ’cause it just wasn’t that kind of a trip, but here’s a few that were fun…

My dah’lins (as our friend Richard would say).

Dylan was all about the pool…as any self-respecting 12 year old would be.

Meet Dylan “The Frog” Struble…

This is Taylor’s Cousin Allison’s Husband Chris and thier soon-to-be middle Son (just kidding!) Quinn. Doesn’t he so look like a Quinn?

Quinn rockin’ the snap-brim!

Oh yeah, here’s my crazy Nephew Alex!

See ya next time! -k

Love, muse, inspiration, model, hero, partner-in-crime, best friend, soul mate…anam m’anama, that is, “soul of my soul,” –in Gaelic. Yes, I do know how lucky I am! I get to wake up, go to bed and spend most of almost everyday with the person I described in the first sentence of this paragraph. Taylor, who is also my beautiful Wife—together with my kids, my Mom, my Sister and my parents-in-law (yes, my inlaws!)—make my world a most amazing and wonderful place to be. The only thing that could possibly make it better would be if my Dad was still with us. He would have loved Taylor….

Tay and I decided to step outside yesterday to taste a little preview of summer’s golden hour. It was a good day…

–k

Ok, a little background…Taylor’s Father, Peter (aka Petey Pajamas, in some circles…you didn’t hear that from us, ok?), besides being an ace builder/carpenter, is also a pretty fantastic bass player (I should know because we’re bandmates). We were hangin’ with the folks-n-law last night, and Pete asked me about posting some photos of some of his bass equipment on his favorite bass forum. The forum thread he wanted to post on was entitled, “Rigs of Doom.” (a ‘rig’ being your amplifier and processing gear setup) So, we thought, with a name like Rigs of Doom (which is an awesome name for anything, especially if you’re a bass player!), you’ve got to have a photo worthy of that title. Tay and I were up for the challenge, so here’s what we came up with (Petey Pajamas was pretty pleased…):