Howard Family: Shipyards, Smiles & a Sunny Day!

When my friend, Alison, contacted me about doing a photoshoot for her and her family, I jumped at the chance! Despite all of the time-wasting tendancies associated with facebook, I have to credit the social networking site with allowing me the chance to stay connected with so many friends from high school - Alison is one of those friends! She and I were band buddies, proudly playing our clarinets (yep, if Jon and I had met in high school his football-playing self may never have interacted with my band-geek self!) and going on a lot of awesome trips together with the beloved Ms.Behenna (an amazing band teacher!) Now, years later, Alison is married with two beautiful kids - Colton and Sidney and an awesome husband, Bob.

I headed out to a new location - Britannia Heritage Shipyards in Richmond and, even though the sun was blazing that afternoon, we found tons of awesome shady spots and so many great backdrops that it was incredibly hard to narrow down my choices for the blog but here they are! Thanks so much Alison and Bob for letting me be a part of documenting this awesome but, I'm sure exhausting, stage of your lives as a family! (It was good preparation for the three year old stage that's coming quickly for me!) I had a blast!
I was super impressed with both kids ability to keep their eyes fixed on the camera - definitely not an ability all kids possess!

These siblings are so cute together :) I love the protective, loving older brother look that Colton is sporting in the bottom left picture. Reminds me of my brother! Fast forward 12 or so years and that's going to come in handy!

As we wandered through the Shipyards we found lots of great shady spots for photos and both kids were super patient and willing to smile in almost all of them! I was definitely able to capture a lot of different looks from Sidney - the joys of being 3 :)

I definitely recognize the 'headlock pose' in the top right photo - classic big brother :)

I absolutely love their co-ordinating outfits! The bright colors worked so well with the backdrops at this location. I also love Sidney's pose in the top right photo - for a 3 year old who moves around a ton she sat still super well in the family shots!

Love the kids expressions in the kissing photo below!

Some more of the handsome Colton and funny sibling interactions ;)

A gorgeous family and a gorgeous day :)

Time for some individual shots - Alison and Bob, you have gorgeous kids!

Being 3 years old, Sidney loves to move around so I figured this little sequence would work best for showing off some of her best shots. She was such a ham for the camera and I LOVE the dress!

A few more of the kids :) At this point we were probably an hour into the shoot and they were still hanging in there!

Some shots of mom and dad - such a great looking couple :)

Love this blue backdrop! At this point, Ben, Jon and Jacob, who had come with me as we were off to a BBQ afterwards, had found us (even though I tried to run past them so Ben wouldn't cry) and Ben started inserting himself into some of the photos of the kids. I left those pictures out but it was pretty funny! He and Sidney were becoming friends :)

A few of the kids just being kids - Colton got some pretty great air :)

As we headed back to the entrance to the shipyards we got a few more family ones in front of the boat and I snapped a few quick ones of Alison and Colton just to make sure we had all possible combinations!

Thanks so much Howard family for a wonderful shoot! I had a great time getting to know your kids and I can tell that they are so loved! Alison, it was so great to reconnect with you after a number of years and I wish you and your family all the best! Hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed hanging out with your beautiful family!