I met Sean at a Doug Villano Band gig at Rivers Casino in Schenectady, NY. I asked my family friend Ian, a member of the band and a groom booked for an upcoming December wedding, if it was alright to take pictures of their band. I received permission and was super excited to see the band, dance, and have fun with my friends at the same time. If you missed the show, you can still see photos on the blog here. After delivery of the band photos, Sean decided he had found the perfect photographer to book for a family photo session.
When I arrived at Sean and his wife Stephanie’s house, it happened to be one of the second hottest days of the year in May. To keep the family as cool as possible before photo time, Sean and I drove around the small town of Kinderhook while he showed me some potential session locations near his house. It’s a beautiful community of historic sites, and the original home of Martin Van Buren, the 8th President of the United States. Sean and I headed back to his house after our short scouting trip to pick up the rest of the family.
Our session began at the Kinderhook Village Green Park, where the weekend breakfast scene was hopping with cars and customers going to and coming out of the Morningbird coffee shop. Between the hustle and bustle of cars, patrons, and wait staff, we were able to get some cute walking shots of the Carty family strolling down the sidewalk of the shop.
We saw some beautiful flowers on the other side of the street in the shade where we took some shelter from the sun and squeezed in some traditional family photos.
We made our way to the small spot of grass for some portraits of mom and dad with the kids. Mom blew raspberries on the baby Mia’s tummy to make her smile and giggle and Sean swung his son Caleb in the air for some fun laughs and bright smiles
We stopped and smelled the flowers while cooling off with a mid-afternoon ice cream at Samascott's Garden Market. Caleb was an amazing big brother and treated his baby sister to a little taste of his ice cream. None of it was planned, he just happened to be a considerate big brother with his ice cream.
We got back to the house, bellies full of ice cream, and digested a little while playing on the swings. Caleb wanted to show me his bike and Sean got his skateboard. Both rode while I photographed father and son having a ball in their natural element. Caleb, I have to say, your dad’s way cooler than my dad!! He can ride a skateboard! Although my dad used to be a pretty good roller skater back in the day 🤣.
Sean and Stephanie,
It was such a pleasure to spend a portion of my day with you, and I am so glad to meet your sweet kids. I can’t wait to see you both again and watch Caleb walk down the aisle as ring bearer at Tori and Ian’s wedding in December. Hope you have a great summer and if it gets hot enough, you know I’ll be crashing a pool party or two at your house, LOL JK.
-Rachel
To see more of their session here's a link to their full album.
Thank you to:
Samascott's Garden Market for some awesome ice cream treat on a hot day.
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