Before They Grow Up

Every fall, my photography calendar takes a turn.

Spring and summer is filled with high school seniors, college-bound graduates, and families standing on the edge of enormous change. Those sessions are emotional in all the best ways, but when September arrives, I find myself looking in the opposite direction.

Back to the beginning.

Years ago, I taught myself studio portrait photography because I wanted to expand into professional headshots. At the same time, my own children were in elementary school, and every year I found myself buying school portraits that simply didn't feel like them.

So I built something different.

What started as a personal challenge eventually became a business. I developed a studio portrait system and photographed hundreds of nursery and elementary school students throughout Westchester County and New York City—even through the uncertainty of COVID.

I continue to photograph kids and classes and teachers at private nursery schools, and honestly, it's one of my favorite parts of the year.

Seriously, after months of photographing young adults preparing to leave home, there's something grounding about spending my mornings with three and four-year-olds who proudly tell me about their favorite dinosaur, their new rain boots, or the loose tooth they can't stop wiggling.

These are the years we don't always realize we'll miss.

It's before the complicated friendships, before the middle school self-consciousness, and before they're too cool to laugh at my jokes.

As a parent who's now watching her own little kids grow into teenagers, I can tell you something I never believed when people said it to me:

The early years really do go by in a flash.

Not because the days are short (um, they definitely are not) but because one day you look at a photograph and realize you had no idea that was the last year they smiled without hesitation.

That's why I love creating portraits that are simple enough to let a child's personality do all the talking.

No trendy props or distracting backgrounds.

Just beautiful studio light, timeless composition, and expressions that will still feel classic decades from now.

This season, I'll be offering a limited number of Fine Art Portrait Sessions for families who want updated sibling portraits, individual child portraits, or simply want to get a head start on holiday cards with images they'll treasure long after the cards have been recycled.

Because childhood doesn't wait for a convenient time to document it.

And if there's one thing photography has taught me over the years, it's this:

The portraits you'll value most aren't always taken during life's biggest milestones.

Sometimes they're simply the ones that quietly preserve who your child was before they grew up.