the birth of maisie

I’ll never forget the day Maisie was born into this world. She followed the brilliant sunrise over the Blue Ridge Mountains and stole the show. Her mamas and I had spent such special time on the porch sipping mocktails and dreaming of how her birth would be, what she would look like, and what they would name her after seeing her for the first time.

I got the call in the middle of the night that it was time to join them at the hospital. It was Christina’s first baby and so I knew we could be in for a long day or even days. I arrived and saw immediately that she was in the ZONE. Wendy had already done such a good job of getting her as comfortable as possible. The lights were low except for the glow of the monitors, and the room was filled with the muffled heartbeat of the baby. Wendy and I worked squeezing hips and rubbing her back. We were all in a trance. I only stepped away for seconds to capture some shots. I thought we had more time. I was waiting for the sun to flood the room for the rest of her labor. But like I said, the sun rose and then it was time for this baby to be born.

She came fast for a first time birth and burst into the room and into our hearts. I was sobbing. It was my first birth in a tightly fitted n95 mask and my eyes were filled with happy tears. I’m surprised I could get any shots at all! Wendy’s reaction to seeing her baby girl born is one of my favorite series of birth photos ever. And then it was just sweet and calm and sacred and they named her Maisie.

I love these three girls so much and I was so honored to watch their family grow.

craving connection

the stern family | in the light

I met Megan when I was a teenager wanting to teach violin lessons out of my tiny apartment in college. Megan was a little girl with tons of talent who took me up on it. I taught her a few years and then moved away. Thanks to Facebook we stayed in touch and as she grew and became her own incredible person. When I came out publicly with my struggle with bipolar disorder I was flooded with so many people and their own struggles. I wasn’t alone. Megan was one of them. She opened up to me about being diagnosed, about her struggle through pregnancy, and motherhood and the darkness that she faced. I knew that darkness like it was a blanket. I found such comfort in her knowing many of my own personal battles and we bonded so many years after even physically seeing oneanother.

One day this fall, Megan reached out to me when she knew she was going to be a couple of hours away from where I lived and asked if I could meet them and do their first official family portraits since their son came into the world. I agreed and we figured out a time that would work for their son’s nap time. 12 noon. Some photographers are wincing reading that but I wasn’t worried. I knew I could shoot in the woods and the colorful leaves would diffuse the light just perfectly.

The day of I pulled into the town of Cherokee and went hunting for a place to shoot… I was terrified to find that there were hardly any leaves on the trees (thanks to a hurricane that had recently passed through). I don’t feel like I’m known for my sun flooded images (I’m usually drawn to moody black and whites), but there was nothing I could do. Seeing Megan after all of these years was so special and melted away my trepidation. To see her as a mother was doubly special. I knew that my goal that day was to show Megan the beauty that is often shrouded in the darkness that comes with having bipolar disorder and the sun was out in full force to do it.

I couldn’t believe how lovely the high noon lighting was to shoot. Their precious family was illuminated and the beauty of them at this exact stage was sparkling. I loved the bottle feeding shots we got halfway through (their feeding journey was not an easy one) and the tender snuggling with each parent. In the end the images are full to bursting with the lovely reminder of what is beautiful in her life and the radiance shining from her just as she is.

I’m so glad that my job isn’t just pretty pictures.