Michele Calderon Photography

No, I haven’t been away!  I had a very busy fall which included many sessions and the complete redesign of my website.  Unfortunately, I lost my blog in the process of this changeover.  As technology sometimes eludes me, it took me several months to figure out how to get it back, but I am happy that it is recovered, and up and running again.

Now that I can get back into the swing of posting, I’ll start with a sampling of the babies, kids, and families I’ve photographed in the last few months.

And last but not least, I got to photograph my sister’s family and do their holiday card this year.  This is the result……she referred to this image as her “crazy family picture” rather than by its image number when she was telling me which one she wanted to use.  I knew exactly which one she was talking about:

I shot this session late in the summer and what a fun session it was.  I can honestly say these guys were some of the best behaved kids I have ever met, and we got to pack a LOT into our session!  From playing with blocks in the family room upon my arrival, to a pleasant stroll down the bike path to the beach (what a great location you guys live in), I ended up shooting until it was almost dark!  Ben was such a great big brother to his twin siblings and was so very patient with them - it was obvious the kids were the best of friends.  I meet some of the best people in my job, and truly enjoyed hanging out with these guys and having a pleasant chat with mom on our stroll back to their house.  It is hard to choose a sampling for the blog!

I did a recent session with this family who wanted a few pictures at their house with their 19 year old triplets, and Dave (who was sporting an ivory bow….poor Dave).  Much of our session went like the first image - family getting into position, and Dave running up to check out what I was doing!  But the second image was my favorite from the session….

Megan and Mike are two of the nicest people you could meet, and on 8/15/09 I had the privilege of shooting their wedding with the alongside the wonderful Kim Prochazka.  The wedding was held at gorgeous Saint Peter’s Church in Binghamton, NY, and the reception was at the Binghamton Club.  Megan had the most beautiful centerpieces on the tables, the band, Rooster House, kept everyone on the dance floor, and it was just an all around fabulous day.  Congratulations Megan and Mike, and best wishes for a long and happy life together!

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing Lucy and her family at their home.  She was such an incredibly sweet baby that I seriously forgot to photograph her at times, I got so busy playing with her.  3 months is a difficult age to photograph - babies don’t really look at the camera, and don’t sleep as deeply as they do when they are newborns, but we still got some nice shots.  Her mom wanted one of her in her favorite place - her changing table in her super-cute turquoise room decorated entirely with black and white photographs of the family dog, Tony.  Here are a few shots.

I recently spent a couple of hours photographing Matthew.  Matthew especially loves his stuffed dog, “Dog-Dog”, who ended up in quite a few of our images.  ( I later realized there are actually 2 dog-dogs - it’s always good to have a backup, as every parent knows!)  But he also loves his cars and trucks, and we spent a good deal of time playing with those as well.  Here are a couple of images!

Recently I had the pleasure of photographing Ethan at his home.  His favorite things include his tricycle and his toy trucks, and we spent a lot of time playing with those.  He also loves his 2 dogs, who were a bit camera-shy.  At the end of the session, Ethan decided to hop in his grandparents’ truck for a little pretend.  It’ll be interesting to see what his first real vehicle turns out to be!

I’ve been having a lot of sessions in downtown Saratoga’s Congress Park lately, and I recently had the privilege of photographing  Bridget and her delightful family there.  Bridget is just entering toddlerhood and is really enjoying the simple life:  walking around (she hasn’t gotten too quick yet, easier for me!), watching the ducks, and picking the little flowers in the grass.  There are so many fabulous areas in the park, we really couldn’t go wrong!  She especially loved splashing in the many fountains.  Here are a few of what we got.

I spent an enjoyable couple of hours last week with Devon, on the campus of the beautiful Emma Willard School in Troy, NY.   Devon is involved in so many activities in school that she did not have time for her senior pictures until the day after her graduation!  She showed me around all the beautiful buildings and we had a fabulous time capturing her senior pictures.  We went to study halls (I think I would fall asleep in those red chairs instead of getting any studying in…), the theater where Devon sings, and, I got to step into the forbidden Senior Triangle.

Here are just a few images.  I don’t think Devon could take a bad picture even if she tried.  Plus she was a sweetheart.  Best wishes next year at the University of Maryland!

I love this snap, taken while I was getting lighting adjusted for this dark corner:  She looks impatient, but she wasn’t at all.  Just fashionable:

A couple of weeks ago I got to hang out with Ella and Noah in their yard.  The intention was to get pictures of Ella, but I couldn’t resist Noah.  He was so much fun, and proudly showed off all his cool swingset maneuvers.  Ella was a sweetheart ~ a very tired sweetheart ~ who was a bit perplexed by the camera.  It was obvious her big brother was very fond of her, even if he was perfectly happy to ignore her for most of our session.  I think we got some great shots despite the challenges!  Here are just a few.

One of Ella and her daddy, sort of…