I'm gonna break it down one time.  Back in February I threw a website together and started blogging.  I had very little expectations and kind of just "went with it."  

Though it may not seem like it, behind this blog is an insecure and self-doubting fool!  I swear if I had put a $20 bill in a jar every time I pulled Joe to the computer screen and asked  "But do they look PROFESSIONAL!?" we would be halfway to Aruba right now.

Anywho, sitting here nearly 10 months later I am:

a) hopeful and excited for 2012
b) grateful to my friends and family for all the support
c) THANKFUL to have met such amazing clients and photogafriends over the last year

I've got some major business and website changes around here (ahhhh the suspense!) which will be unfolding in the next few weeks but I wanted to first take a look back at some of my favorite images from 2011.  Click the fancy shmancy slideshow below and enjoy!

Again, THANK YOU to all my clients, supporters and blog stalkers....see ya in 2012!!!

It seems like every Christmas there is one present that I am bursting-at-the-seams excited to give.  This year it was a little surprise I worked on for Joe's Aunt Alicia.  If I had to award a trophy to my number one fan, it would be a three-way tie between my parents and Alicia.  She has been so amazingly and outspokenly supportive of my work and fledgling business that I felt it was only right to return the favor any way I could.

A few weeks ago I stole her teenagers (the nice kind, not the scary kind) and we had a quick super-secret session.  My original plans to print and frame one or two of the images got squashed when I simply could not choose a handful.  So I was once again hooked up by the awesomeness that is www.mpix.com and they printed a beautiful keepsake album with about 40 pictures from the day.

On to the good stuff- here is Rebecca.  TRUE STORY-I cried when I saw this first picture.  I simply cannot believe that this is the same little girl I met years ago.  She really has become such a beautiful young woman....and Twilight compadre.  

And here is her big bro-ski Rob.  He gets extra cool points from me (like cool points from me mean anything to a 17 year old guy...first of all, I'm calling them "cool points") for being so cooperative.  See what I mean!?  These are the best brand of teenagers out there.

Merry Christmas Alicia!!!  You've got two beautiful children, inside and out.  I hope these pictures did them justice :-)

First of all, I don't mean to micromanage, but I kind of feel like I deserve some extra credit for blogging on Christmas Eve.  Am I right?

Anyway, I figured now's a good a time as any to provide some documentation for 2 of my Christmasy to-do list items from my 30 in 365 list.

#12 Obtain people's actual addresses and send out Christmas cards.

So.  We took a picture, I made a card and it looked like this:

Easy enough right?  Not right.  It took blood, sweat (literally) and tears (almost) to get this picture thanks to a certain uncooperative hound doggy.  I won't mention any names.  Here are some of the outtakes:

#22 Cut down our Christmas tree ourselves

This also proved a little more difficult than originally expected.  I won't bore you with all the stress-inducing details ("maybe we should tie it to the wall??"  "NO we are NOT tying a tree to the wall")  All you need to know is: we drove out east, cut down a tree, named it Freddy and it now stands tall (too tall) in the apartment.

TA-DA and Merry Christmas!  Looking forward to getting a little more aggressive with my to-do list in the beginning of 2012.

Guess what time it is?  FAMILY PICTURE SLIDESHOW TIME.  

DFC=Dunbar Family Christmas.  Held on Verbena for the very last time.   I'm 1 of 5 kids, my Dad is 1 of 7...you do the math, we're talkin lots of Dunbars.  I don't get to see these guys nearly enough so the DFC is a pretty big deal.

For any of my fellow photography geeks, some of the images are a little noisy, but I had my new camera and was excitedly pumping the ISO like woah.  Yay to no flash.  Very little editing on most of these, just some good old fashioned family photos.

Click HERE or on the image below.  I'll wait here while you pop some corn.  And yes, I picked that song.  Judge me.

Recognize this face?  I have a very special guest-blogger here with me today helping with Ava's session...

Her name is Claire and she is alot a bit adorable.  She is also my niece and will be here (along with her big bro and Mom and Dad) 
all this week for Christmas.  Yay!

Anyway, Claire just told me it's time to get back to business.  


Here's lovely little Ava in her very fashionable Christmas dress at our recent session:

Hello GORGEOUS eyes.

How big is Ava??  SO BIG!

There is something I love about this next picture.  I know it might not make it onto a Christmas Card or into a frame but it's just so "Ava"...her Mom and I were talking about what little deep thinker she is.  Always contemplating (very seriously at times!) her next adventure.

Merry Christmas Ava!  I had blast chasing you around (literally...my legs are sore.  yikes i'm out of shape).

Sunday was Gillies' 2nd birthday.  I browsed the dog toy aisle in Target and scoped out the raw-hide bones with hopes of getting him the perfect present.  It occurred to me that there is literally nothing Gillies wants more in the world than people food.  Specifically, pizza.  I've written here before about his routine of desperation whenever Joe and I try to enjoy a meal.  We decided to give him the present that would mean the most.  One from the heart.  A cheesy, saucy microwaved piece of pizza.  If you're wondering if we are the kind of people that make our dog wear a birthday hat and sing "happy birthday" to him, clearly you haven't been reading my blog very long.  Our collective obsession with Gillies knows no bounds.  He is chewing the hood string to my sweatshirt to shreds as I type this, by the way. 

Here's Gillies wearing the birthday cone of shame. 

I wish I had taken a video of this instead of still images.  You just cant tell from this picture how insanely his nose was sniffing and how ridiculously his tail was waggiling.  The contents of this bowl were consumed in 11 seconds.  We timed it.

YUM!

Happy Birthday little puppy boy!

I better sign off before this gets any weirder...I'll be back soon with some 30 in 365 updates!

Last weekend I met up with Andrew and company for some portraits before his Bar Mitzvah.  I have several Jewish friends and have been to Jewish Weddings, Passover Seders etc.  This, however, was my first Bar Mitzvah.   

For those of you Non-Jewish blog followers, let's turn it over to Wikipedia: 

Bar Mitzvah (Hebrew: בר מצוה‎) and Bat Mitzvah (Hebrew: בת מצוה‎) are Jewish coming of age rituals. According to Jewish law, when Jewish boys reach 13, they become responsible for their actions and become a Bar Mitzvah (plural: B'nai Mitzvah).

Boy becomes man.  Love it!  Let's roll the videotape:

Here's Andrew.  He was such a gentleman, putting up very patiently with my paparazzi shutter-snapping.  

HELLO HANDSOME.   It took a few incredibly corny jokes for me to get this smile.  So worth it!

The ceremony took place at the Garden City Jewish Center.

Photography during the actual ceremony is strictly forbidden, so Andrew's Mom coordinated early arrivals for lots of picture taking...

From what I can see, Andrew's got such a loving and supportive family that his transition into manhood should be smooth sailing.  Mazel Tov!

Meet Christian, he just turned 1!

Christian's Mom and Dad threw him a big birthday bash at the clubhouse of their apartment complex.

The theme was Mickey Mouse and Christian's Mom Jen did an AMAZING job. No detail was spared...

Christian had no shortage of incredibly adorable buddies to celebrate with!

After some mingling and playing it was time for cake...note the blue icing...you know how this ends..

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Once he got all cleaned up Christian had some fun with his presents.

Happy Birthday little guy!!!

Hi There!  I'm in the middle of a whirlwind weekend and won't be editing the rest of the images from today's sessions for a day or two, but here is a quick peek at what I've been up to...

Two very handsome young men passed major life milestones today and i was there to capture it.

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More to come!  Have a great weekend everyone...