When you're lucky enough, you land "lifetime clients" and you get to capture some of the most important moments in their lives. For me, that's the Vienneau family, who happen to be some of my closest friends. Back in 2012 when I was first getting into photography, Jeremy and Celine were getting married. I was SO SO new to this, but asked them if I could do their engagement photos, and they said yes! I was so excited to be able to capture these moments for two of my closest friends! I was still taking classes at the time and was able to use some of the photos for my classwork. The one thing I remember about the session was how difficult it was to instruct my friends on what to do during the session... It was also surprising to find that my friends weren't as comfortable as I expected them to be in front of the camera I figured because they knew me, this was going to be a piece of cake! I was wrong... When I turned in my assignment at school, I mentioned something about this to my professor. To my surprise, he said that it's often the people you know the best that are the hardest to photograph, as they tend to be more self conscious around you than a stranger would be.
For the session, we went to Hopkinton State Park, a place that Jeremy and Celine often went to walk their dog, Ecco and then we headed to Framingham State College, where Jeremy and Celine first met. This is one of my favorite pictures from that session, and now this picture is even more special (you'll see why later)...
From there, they got married (obviously)! While I wasn't the hired photographer for the wedding, since I was a guest, I used this as an opportunity to practice and spent the weekend snapping as many photos as I could! It was such a fun weekend and I was so happy to be able to give them the extra photos to help them remember such a special weekend! The picture below makes me so happy, I've always felt like it shows what a happy couple Jeremy & Celine are! It's always been one of my favorites from the entire weekend!
Shortly after getting married, Celine got pregnant with their first child. We were all so excited for them, and I couldn't have been more thrilled to do my first maternity session with them as my clients! It was such an amazing thing happening in our group of friends, and such and important memory to capture. We decided to do their maternity session right outside of the venue that they got married, as it was such an important place to them! This picture is a sweet moment between two parents to be!
Jeremy and Celine were the first of our group of friends to start a family and I was lucky enough to be there to capture their first born son while they were still in the hospital... I can't remember exactly, but I think he was just about 36 hours old when we met him. It was such an honor to be there in some of the earliest moments of their life as a new family! This is my favorite picture from that day, I love how this little guys daddy's hand looks so big resting on his back and keeping him safe <3
In the time that I was taking a break from photography, Jeremy and Celine grew their family by 1. They had another son, who is just as adorable as the first. This past fall, we headed back to Hopkinton State Park and did a family session. We picked the venue, for obvious reasons, with a goal of finding the bridge from Jeremy and Celine's engagement pictures... We made our way there and did our best to recreate the photo. It's a slightly different photo than the first. The other had a much wider angle, but I use different lenses now than I did then, but I think it's pretty close!
I can't wait for my next session with the Vienneau family! I'm so happy to have been able to photograph so many of their milestone moments! It's truly an honor to have clients, even if they're friends - maybe especially if they're friends, who trust you over and over again with their memories.
I have to give a special mention to the AWESOME matching shirts they had during their family session, made by their own company - Vino Vinyl. What a great idea to help avoid the night before scramble to find an entire family worth of outfits that compliment each other for photos. If you're looking for customized gear (clothing, water bottles, mugs, personalized gifts and so many other things), you should totally check out their page on Etsy or on Facebook (links below). This is not a sponsored post - I really just love their products!
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed my post! Check back later for more!