We were outside yesterday enjoying the warm-ish temps (I think it was in the 40s–so TOTALLY going outside weather!), and Lila realized that she didn’t know what a lot of things were out there. She’s starting to remember what things are, and be interested in exploring and learning, so now–everything scares her. Twigs, pine needles, wood chips–you name it, she’ll cry if you ask her to hold it. It will just take some getting used to, I’m sure she’ll be running down the front walk in no time.

And just for further proof of her dramatic ways, no less than 30 seconds later, here is the next shot I snapped:Totally fine, and playing with my phone. She certainly knows my weaknesses!

All day long, I’ve been saying to her, “last year at this time, I was…”. It’s been such an emotionally filled day. It’s so wild to think that at last year right now, we didn’t know who we were about to meet. Who was about to steal our hearts, and bring us incredible happiness. And now, it’s impossible to think of our lives without her.

Tomorrow we are having a party for her. To celebrate the past year, and to just enjoy this crazy little girl who changed our world. We’re also going to the NICU in the morning. To say thank you to the amazing people there, without who we may be telling a different story right now.

Happy Birthday, Peanut! Get ready for your first taste of cake tomorrow! If you’re anything like me, there’s no turning back. Your dad & I love, love, love you.

We first started inside the Marketplace, to kind of ease into the frigid temps and ice waiting for us outside. The vendors were just starting to turn on their ovens and stoves, and it smelled SO good in there. People were trickling in, looking for coffee and breakfast, but it was pretty quiet for such a normally bustling area.

And yes, we did certainly shoot outside for a bit! We just shot fast.
One of my FAVES, I loooove this photo:

Another fave. Here you can see that Philippe is a FOOT taller than DeAna (she’s wearing those fabulous heels you see in the pic above too!).

And finally, you know how I save my top fave for last…oh, how I love this shot.

DeAna and Philippe, thank you guys so much for braving a February morning in Boston with me! And DeAna, to brave the cobblestones in those heels–you are awesome.

I can’t believe she’ll be one next weekend. SIGH.

My destination? Surly Johnson Sports Bar & Grill, in Raynham, MA. The owners were holding a private party for their friends to celebrate the opening of the bar, and wanted to make sure they had pictures to commemorate it.

Christian Fauria is one of said owners, some of you may remember him from his days playing tight end for the Patriots. I’d done another event he attended, a couple of years ago, and it was through the same mutual friend that I ended up here at the Grand Opening.

(Christian mixing drinks behind the bar)

These guys are a lot of fun, and I had a blast. The bar was super crowded, so it definitely was interesting maneuvering around, but the good old college days came flying back to me, and I was slipping past people before they even realized it.

(Patriots’ Offensive Lineman Dan Koppen and Christian Fauria)

(Patriots’ Linebacker Jerod Mayo)

(Mark (one of the owners), Heidi Watney from NESN, & Christian Fauria)

…ok, ok, a “real” one, as requested.

(Dan Koppen with boxer Micky Ward)

(Micky Ward, retired Patriots’ quarterback Doug Flutie, Dan Koppen, Christian Fauria, Heidi Watney, Jerod Mayo, and retired Patriots’ linebacker Ted Johnson)

If anyone lives in the Raynham area, or you’re driving through, you should definitely stop by Surly Johnson’s! The food looked awesome, and the atmosphere was so fun. I know we’ll be back.

Oh, yes, you read that right. We flew into the biggest storm the DC/VA/MD area HAS EVER SEEN.

We were staying in Northern VA with my husband’s mother & step-father, and they got 28″ of snow over the weekend. Over TWO FEET. We weren’t sure we would make it out in time for our flight home–I’m still not quite sure how we did it. They live up on a hill on a quiet country road, and it took 2 tractors, a lot of shoveling, and some finger crossing, but we made it to our flight home, with a whole 13 minutes to spare.

This week’s photo immediately jumped out at me when I took it. In this photo, Lila and her grandpa are listening to music on his phone. It was such a sweet thing to watch them together.

I also HAVE to post one additional image. I would have used this for the project, but it was technically taken last week, on Friday, when we first got to VA. This is Lila with her great-grandmother, and they’re playing peekaboo. I can’t get over how much I love this photo.

That’s about all for now! I have a couple of shoots coming up this week, I’m so excited. I took a bit of a break during and after the holidays, and can’t wait to start up again. So you will be seeing some new work shortly!

I didn’t shoot much last week, because I was busy preparing for our trip. So this is a quick shot I grabbed of my daughter while we were playing one day. Her head is definitely distorted from the lens (for you non-photogs, she was super close to the lens, so I zoomed way out to fit her in the frame–she’s not normally bobble-headed!), but I still love the way she’s looking at me.

I will have this week’s post up within the next day or two also, because I already have some great images to choose from, taken while we were away this weekend.

I’d say Happy Monday, but you may throw things at me. Instead, I’ll just keep this short, and post!

This week’s photo is one of my all-time favorites. It is not technically perfect, in any way–in fact, it’s quite imperfect. But the story it tells, is perfect.

This is an image of my daughter, with my parents. She’s turning one next month. She had a rough start in this world, and to see her, playing with her grandparents almost a year later brings me such joy. She’s never been what people call an “easy baby”. But she is coming into her own these days, and couldn’t be more amazing.

(My mom will probably kill me for posting a photo of her in her slippers, haha!)

This photo was taken of Lila doing one of her favorite pastimes–throwing herself on the couch. She loves to stand up and look out the window, and then throw herself on the cushions. Never fear–I’m always sitting on the couch with her, barricading her in. This is a good example of why I love wide angle lenses! And of shooting from the hip. Big fan.

Happy Weekend!!

This post has been a long time coming! I’ve been putting it off for a few reasons: first, to get through busy season, and make sure my clients were all taken care of. Then, the holidays were here, and it was our daughter’s First Christmas, so we had a lot of fun events and things to do for that. Also, I had plans to incorporate a new endeavor with this post, so I wanted to make sure we were good to roll with it before posting.

Now that things have calmed down, I am finally going to blog my favorite session to date. You read that right! I am STILL feeling the inspiration from this session. This is going to be a very photo-heavy post, fair warning.

I had an idea late last summer to do a more custom shoot. I LOVE all of my amazing kid and family clients, but I was itching to try something where I picked the locations, the time of day, the whole shebang. I even begged my gorgeous cousins to be my models for the afternoon. I bribed them with my daughter, so they couldn’t resist. I knew they’d be perfect for my vision–not only would they be dressed perfectly for this late fall afternoon, but they’d be up for anything, which boded well for the locations I had in mind–oh, you’ll see what I mean!

On to the photos! Eeek, I’m SO excited to finally be sharing these.

This first set may or may not be right off a state highway. Meaning, we were parked on the side of said highway.

There are about a billion of this next series, I could. not. stop. shooting. It may have been part swamp, but it was pure magic.

One last one for my wonderful aunt.

Sass & K, thank you both so much for coming to hang out. We are SO definitely doing this again! Start thinking about your wardrobe for a snowstorm shoot now. Love you both!

**One last thing. I’ve decided I would like to incorporate more work like this into my portfolio. SO. I am having a mini modeling call! I am looking for people (male or female) who would be interested in a shoot like this. We would discuss styling ahead of time, and I would pick the location and time, and general overall vision. Mostly candid and natural light driven. Obviously, it would not be the same as this session, given the time of year. But I have some fabulous and fun ideas for wintery shoots, and I can’t wait to see them executed.

If you are interested, please email me at: megan@meganjanephotography.com, and please include a photo of yourself. Serious inquiries only, and you must be at least 15 years old to be considered (under 18 requiring parental consent). And yes, there are certainly heavy discounts involved.

Happy Weekend, everyone! Get out, enjoy those mid-40s temps while you can!