"He was a rower. He was very hot."

The title of this blog is a quote from one of my favorite movies, 500 Days of Summer.  I think it's appropriate because the subject of my blog is a rower, and also, devistatingly handsome.  Cory is a senior, at Lakota West High School.  His plans are to attend Ohio State University and be a part of their rowing team, in the future.  It was such a pleasure to take Cory's senior portrait.  Some people are just naturals when it comes to getting photographed.  Cory is one of those people. 

Pretty as a Picture

This summer, I had the pleasure of meeting a beautiful young couple, Raven and Michael.  Raven and Michael were expecting their first child, and had ask me to help them preserve the memory of Raven's pregnancy with some maternity photos.  I can remember thinking "Wow.  This baby is going to be stunning."  Well, Little Miss Rowen arrived a few weeks later, and she is even more gorgeous than even I could have imagined. 

Family Tradition

One of my favorite things about being a parent and having a family of my own is creating "Matthews Family Traditions".  My daughter makes this easy because if we do something fun, by god, she remembers.  We started the tradition of making caramel apples, last year.  Neither her or I had made caramel apples before, but it was fun and surprisingly easy.  Even last year, Kara was a great helper.  She washed the apples and unwrapped the caramels with me.  This year she graduated to helping me put the sticks in the apples, as well. 

Oh what would I be doing without my precious Kara. I can't imagine how boring my life would be without this little girl in it. 

The Fast and Furious Firebird

If you Google the name Brady Holmer, you will get 1,660,000 hits, and you will see pages and pages of articles involving cross country and track.  Brady is an extremely accomplished distance runner for Lakota West High School.  He has been nicknamed "Forrest", as in Forrest Gump, because the boy loves to run.  He just recently placed first in the East Invitational with a time of 16:22. 

Brady and his family have been friends of mine, well . . . since birth.  His mother Gayla Holmer babysat me as a child, and I got to return the favor later on with Brady, when I was a teenager.  Brady is far from being a baby now.  He's quite grown up and quite handsome, which made taking his senior pictures very easy.  I enjoyed my time shooting, on location, at Lakota West High School and at Keehner Park, in West Chester.  It was an awesome day and always a pleasure to reconnect with friends.

Jalena Jalena Jalena

As a mother, I know how extremely disheartening it can be to give birth to a completely gorgeous child only to find out that this child has absolutely no interest in having their picture taken.  Let's face it, not everyone likes to have their picture taken, especially 3 year olds.  I know because I have a 3 year old myself.  The beautiful Jalena was, like most 3 year olds, more interested in having fun, at the park, than having her photo taken.  Her mother, Leah, and I, forged ahead, and I think with our combined efforts, we pulled off some pretty decent pictures.