How did I manage to let the entire summer go by without sharing with you? I truly have no idea. Literally, I am sitting here wondering how I didn’t show off a few of the families I met with before autumn hit (has it hit yet?).
Well, better late than never?
Here’s a small collection from a few sessions I had over the summer…
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
This year’s mini session event was supposed to take place at Horn Pond because the it was such a great location for Linda and MIke’s Family Session a while back. Prior to leaving for a trip recently though, I visited the pond to be sure it looked right and well, it did NOT! The water had risen so high that while it’s a beautiful place to visit and walk, I knew it wasn’t going to offer us much by way of environment to work with for mini sessions.
I drove around until it got dark that day trying to find a new spot. I decided to go with Menotomy Rocks Park and it worked great! We had beautiful weather too which certainly didn’t hurt. And it was also very nice to see everyone’s faces out from behind their masks in the fresh open air!
I’ll be doing another mini session day on November 6, so if you’d like to get in the mailing list for info, subscribe at the bottom of the homepage and I’ll make sure you get the details.
Here are some favorites;
(CLICK TO ENLARGE)
Linda got in touch with me after high school friends and clients Alison and Beth kindly recommended me to her for a session with her blended family.
I arrived early at our meeting place, Horn Pond in Woburn. I hadn’t been there before and wanted to scope it out before starting around with the family for their session. Our meeting time came and I didn’t see the family - I knew there was Mike and Linda, their golden retriever Jax, and four nearly adult kids with a fifteen year old being the youngest.
I spotted such a family, but they were being photographed already. Something seemed weird to me. Was that my family and had they brought a friend to take photos during our session? Or maybe they’re just playing around before I find them? I was so confused! Perhaps it was just a coincidence that another family with grown kids were having a session at the same time.
I kept side-eyeing the group with that other photographer though. That dog! Along with sending the names and ages of everyone as I’d requested, Linda also sent me a photo of her dog, Jax. Golden and white-faced. That was the dog!
Then as I milled around awkward and confused, I heard some of them say “Summer!” which is Linda’s daughter’s name. That’s when I knew for sure, THIS WAS MY FAMILY!
I approached them and we discovered that the photographer who was working with them had also been waiting for a client named Linda. Apparently the photographer had not really introduced herself or asked for everyone’s names before jumping in and starting a session with the wrong family.
“Well, thanks for warming them up for me!” I joked with the photographer and we had a good laugh.
The family and I marveled at the bizarreness of the situation as we made our way to the first spot for a photo, and Linda said “Somehow it didn’t seem right!” She felt the personality of the imposter photographer didn’t match up with what she expected from someone recommended by Alison and Beth, two of the funniest women you’ll meet. Linda also noted that the other photographer was posing them in a way that didn’t seem to match with my style of shooting.
As we stood pond-side for our first shots, I said or did something goofy or funny and Linda said, with some relief “OK, yes, this makes much more sense!”
We had a delightful time, and I discovered beautiful Horn Pond in the process!
Happy New Year!
If one of your goals for this next decade includes finally getting your photos displayed in your home, this write up is for you!
One of the most exciting things to see when I return to clients’ homes for an annual shoot is photos from past sessions displayed on their walls or on tables in frames. In this fast-paced world it’s so easy to take those digital files and tuck them away and never get around to printing them and enjoying them.
A while back a friend of mine asked for help with laying out her photo wall. It was a lot of work, but I had a blast going through her photos, helping her choose which to go on the wall so that in the end, the story of her family ran the length of her staircase.
I thought I would share some pointers in case you wanted to take some photos from a session with me, and create a display with them. Of course, if you have the drive, you can take photos from your personal collection and apply these rules too, but for this example, I’ll use photo from all one shoot I had recently.
Choose an anchor photo. The anchor photo is the largest photo, or one of the largest photos, and tends to be centered among all the other photos in your wall layout. It should be one of your favorites. In the example below, I chose two siblings having a moment.
The goal is for your wall to tell a story. Avoid an entire wall of people looking straight out at the viewer and create visual interest by choosing photos with a variety of expressions, crops and compositions.
Consider a photo that is a break from the expected but still contributes to the overall look. In this layout, the photo of the hands holding the pinecone accomplishes this.
Make sure your subjects fill the frames differently. Don’t fill your wall with a bunch of full-body shots. Have some with medium crops (waist up), tight shots of faces, and looser shots that show the subjects within an environment that tells a story or adds to the overall effect of the collection.
What you’ll need -
brown craft paper (comes in a roll)
painter’s tape
frames in a variety of sizes
prints of your photos (they can be small 4x6s for the time being, and printed at home. They don’t even need to be in color.)
hanging supplies for when you are actually working on the wall.
toothpaste
Gather up all the frames you want to use. In my home I prefer simple frames so the focus is on the images, but variety of styles can be can be great too.
Do a search online for “photo wall layouts” or explore Pinterest using the same search words for layout inspiration. I found the layout I used in this entry HERE.
Once you have your frames, lay them out on the floor in a rough layout of how you’d like them to be on the wall. I start with the largest frames, then balance the whole wall out by adding the smaller frames around them.
Place the photos (remember, they can be just small quick prints at this stage) on the frames on the floor. When you’ve made a final decision of which photos you want in which frames, you’ll know how large each photo needs to be printed according to the frame it’s with. Consider taping the small photo to the glass of the frame for safe keeping once you’re sure you want it in that particular frame. Remember to print your photo to fit the size of the mat within in the frame, not the frame itself.
Photograph the whole collection on the floor. Immediately email that photo to yourself.
Slide the brown packing paper under each frame one at a time. Cut the brown paper to match the size of the frame and make a quick stick figure sketch of the corresponding photo onto the brown bag (or, just take a copy of the photo that’s on the frame and tape it to the brown cutout).
Use those brown cutouts to then lay out the wall, using the photo you took of the frames for reference, and taping the brown rectangles to your wall with the painter’s tape.
Move your brown paper placeholders around until they feel right on the wall, being careful to leave breathing room around the frames. Consider the height of the frames as well. Do you want to add more frames later? Is there room to do so? Will little ones be able to reach them where they are currently placed and is that a concern?
To figure out exactly where to place the nail on the wall, dab a spot of toothpaste on the teeth of the frame hanger, and gently place the frame where it will ultimately go, leaving a toothpaste mark on the brown paper. You can then hammer the nail straight through the brown paper, right where the toothpaste is. Then simply removed the brown paper and replace it with a frame!
When I want to update my wall, I will often add photos to the frames currently hanging, leaving the previous photo behind the new one in the frame.
When Lizzi got in touch with me to ask if she and her friends could hire me to do a fRamily (family made-up of friends) session, I was ALL IN! Five families, the parents all buddies from college, were bracing themselves to say goodbye to one of their families before they moved away.
The group hired me to do some big group shots, then we used the remaining time to get individual family shots, candids of the kids, some siblings pics, and any other group shots requested.
While I felt for them losing part of their group, it was such a great idea and I was so happy to be there to shoot some photos for this tight group of friends!
I’ve been photographing William and Avery every year since they were wee little ones. Brand new humans. I enjoy it every time. Sometimes the biggest challenge is finding a location that helps me and my clients get the best photos. I wants a place with lovely vistas and great backdrops, but not an environment that takes away from the people I’m photographing.
Many people like to go to the scenic mill in Sudbury, but I prefer this little spot down the street from it. On the two occasions I have been, there have been no one else there. Just like I like it!
William and Avery are now four (and a half, Avery will point out), and on this day they not only met me later in the day when the light was nice but the little people were more tired, but they’d also gone to a birthday party earlier in the day.
They are what I call troopers.
I’m really happy with the results. The light, the colors, the nice little moments. It was a good day.
Heather comes up with great photo shoot ideas for her family sessions. You can find a few shots from last year’s Family Photo session in the wrap up gallery, where her daughters Alana and Nadia are riding bikes in their pretty dresses and showing off their soccer ball skills - also in their dresses (which makes them young women after my own heart!).
A few weeks ago I got an email from Heather saying she had this idea about having the family session in the snow; shots of them sledding and having a snowball fight, etc. We would need to wing it a bit, we both agreed, since the session depended on weather. I was in!
Weather and scheduling worked in our favor and on Saturday I went to their place and had a ball watching them have a ball…while making snowballs.
The highlight for me was when we were setting up a shot of everyone throwing the snowball in my direction and Alana claimed “I have terrible aim!” then promptly nailed me right in the face. It was pretty much perfect!
I was flattered when BostonVoyager.com got in touch with me asking if I wanted to be interviewed for their Thought Provoker series. I'm not sure I'd call myself "thought provoking" but it was nice just the same!
You can read the article HERE
These were shot before Christmas but I wanted to share them because I'm so grateful to Rumana for being a repeat offender to Cydney Scott Photography. Maybe that title doesn't quite work - what I mean is she's hired me many times since Aayan, her oldest son, was six months old.
Then again at one year old. And then Aayan turned two and Rehan was on the way.
Then suddenly Rehan was one !
It had been a while though when I got a bittersweet email - they were moving away and wanted some photos at their home, and also, they now have a spunky little girl named Samira who was just about to turn two!
Samira kept me on my toes which I love. Nothing better than a feisty girl who knows what she wants, Aayan had the same sweet, gentle demeanor as always, and Rehan, the "middle child" has such a twinkle in his eye.
I'll miss you guys!
Autumn was busy and fun for Cydney Scott Photography! Here's a peek at some of those sessions. We had twins, we had grown siblings, we had extended families, dancing, tree hunting and even a few beloved family dogs! We can't forget them!
As a kid, my parents would take my brother and me to a small neighborhood in Cape Cod called Tahanto, where we would spend a week or so. I was really small, so I don't remember much beyond the feeling of happiness I had being there.
Amy and I are from the same town, and her family frequently would visit the same neighborhood at the same time as us. Looking back, this was probably intentional. I remember riding bikes, and I remember wandering alone, just us kids, to a rusty-yet-enjoyable playground not to far from our cottages. I especially remember walking at night, both our families, to get ice cream. The excitement of walking in the near dark, and getting a special treat, while my brother and Amy sang a song they'd learned, maybe at school. It's on the tip of my tongue...something about gooseburgers? Pickles were involved (man, that's gonna bug me).
There was also a parade in that neighborhood in the summer which we participated in. Somewhere there exists a photo of myself and Andy, Amy's younger brother, wearing clown costumes, and another of my brother and Amy dressed as cavemen. Their costumes were made possible with seaweed and, I think, pillow cases. Apparently I remember far more than I thought of those times.
Back on track here (get on with it already, Cyd). Thanks to FB, Amy and I have been connected for a while now, and I was psyched she picked me to come and photograph the many generations of her family on the day of her mom's birthday. (click to enlarge).
