I met up with Sarah’s family for their annual family photography session at the end of August, and as always, it was amazing and fun seeing how much the girls have grown this year! They always have the PERFECT matching dresses, this time featuring colorful ice cream treats - I wish they made it in my size!
We enjoyed a quiet morning running around barefoot, with Duxbury Bay as our beautiful background. Here are some favorites!
First thing’s first - I have missed you all so much! What a weird year, right? It has been a rollercoaster, complete with loop-dee-loops and feeling like we’d jumped the track at times. I know I’m not alone in having experienced loss in recent months, as well as unexpected joy of an incredible summer with my kids.
With two weeks to go before the school year kicks off and we starting thinking of all things fall, I am excited to have a couple fall photography session offers, as well as information about sessions in regards to Covid-19.
Based on recommendations and to practice safe physical distancing, all late summer and fall session for the remainder of 2020 will be held outside. This can be at your home, a beach, a park, or any other agreed upon location.
I will wear a mask and will be using zoom lenses to ensure we are keeping a safe physical distance.
I will not be available to travel to Rhode Island this fall. Sessions in Massachusetts will be limited to the South Shore area around Scituate and Duxbury. Connecticut sessions will be limited to the Newington/Hartford area or the Shoreline between New Haven and Mystic.
Now for the fun stuff!
These mini sessions are available locally in Newington and West Hartford, for kids and teens ages 3-18.
This year, we’ve missed out on a lot. Let’s embrace the mess and the weirdness, and document this year for your kid(s) with an incredibly special mini session!
“Better Than School Portraits” will take place outside and I encourage you and your child to think creatively about how you’d like to remember this year. Feel free to bring a couple things to personalize your session! A few ideas:
Bring their backpack and a first day of school outfit and make it a “back to school” session
Wear their sports uniform or dance costume they didn’t get to wear, bring an instrument they play, a favorite book or toy
Get dressed up and make it a special, feel good experience! First communion outfits, birthday outfits, Christmas pajamas - anything is possible!
Keep it simple and come as you are!
Cost: $175
Includes:
20 minutes of photography
Private online gallery of edited photos for viewing and sharing
Digital files to download and keep for personal use
$25 print credit
Additional prints are available for purchase (a la carte style) through your online gallery.
If you have more than one child, I will fit all kids into one mini (which will result in fewer pictures of each child), or you can opt to add on an extra 10 minutes to your session for $25.
Mini sessions are shorter and simpler than full hour sessions. We stick to one scenic location and maximize every minute of our time together!
“Better Than School Portraits” Mini Session Dates and Locations
Fri August 28 - Mill Pond Park, Newington 4:30pm // 5pm // 5:30pm // 6pm
Sat August 29 - Elizabeth Park, West Hartford 8am // 8:30am// 9am // 9:30am
Sat September 5 - Deming Young Farm 8am // 8:30am // 9am // 9:30am
Click here to book your mini session.
Here are some fun photos from past late summer/early fall sessions - you might recognize some of these sweet faces! And keep scrolling for fall family session info!
Fall family sessions include:
60-90 minutes of photography on location
Online gallery for viewing and sharing your photos
Unlimited number photos
Digital files to download and keep for personal use
$50 print credit
Family sessions typically take place at a local park, beach or otherwise agreed upon location. During our session time, we focus on getting an assortment of relaxed portraits and playful candids, including the entire family, portraits of each individual child, siblings together, parents/partners together, parent and child.
Connecticut dates (Hartford County or Shoreline areas only):
Sat August 29 - 5pm // Thurs Sept 3 - 5pm // Sat September 5 - 5pm
Thurs September 10 - 5pm // Fri September 11 - 5pm // Sat September 12 - 8am + 5pm
Thurs October 1 - 5pm // Fri October 16 - 5pm // Sat October 17 - 8am + 5pm
Massachusetts dates (South Shore area only):
Sat September 26 - 8am // Sun September 27 - 8am
Sat October 10 - 8am // Sun October 11 - 8am + 5pm
November will not be scheduled to allow for postponements and rescheduling as needed due to weather or other circumstances.
Shannon Sorensen is a family and small business photographer based in Central Connecticut. She is available for newborn, children and tweens, family, senior, engagement, and anniversary sessions; elopements and intimate celebrations; creative entrepreneur and small business branding; personal branding and product photography.
Fall sessions are happening, just in time for the holidays!
I sent Lily off to her first day of second grade this morning, and now it feels like fall, my friends. Labor Day weekend is upon us, we’ve had a handful of cooler days, and I am starting to think of sweaters and apple cider donuts and my favorite time of year that stretches out to Christmas. Yes, Christmas!
So, of course this made me think of family photos and cards and the fact that we’re overdue for our own photos. I have a whole wall of pictures from almost two years ago. And that feels like a lifetime ago, especially when you have little ones.
It doesn’t matter if it’s been one year, two, five, or you’ve never had family photos done. There’s no time like the present to capture sweet memories with your favorite people!
Like previous years, I will be scheduling sessions in both Massachusetts and Connecticut, around the South Shore and Hartford County. I have a selection of locations you may choose from, ranging from coastal and beachy to park-like and woodsy. You may even opt to have a more documentary-style session done at your home!
Family sessions start at $500 and include an hour of photography on location, an online gallery, and download access to your digital files for personal use. Dates are booked on a first come, first served basis.
Sessions are booked for Saturday mornings between 7:30am and 10am and afternoons between 3pm and 6pm.
NEW LOCAL WEEKDAY EVENING MINI SESSIONS
Weekday evening mini sessions can be booked Monday through Wednesday, within Hartford County, between 5pm and 7pm before Daylight Saving Time on November 2. These time slots may be used for family sessions, kids, maternity, seniors, and anniversaries or engagements. The price for these local sessions is $250 and includes 30 minutes of photography, digital files and online gallery.
It’s my joy and honor to capture these yearly milestones as your family grows and changes. I hope you see you on the other side of my lens this year!
I had the joy of photographing sweet baby Nora a couple weeks ago at home in Stamford, Connecticut. She arrived several weeks early and had quite the NICU journey, by the time I met her she was about two months old! She has her mommy and daddy (and many more family and friends) wrapped around her finger and we had such a nice morning together.
Roshi, her mama, commented that it was the first time they really got to hold her and feel her skin. Since she was in the NICU for so long and it was winter, she was always dressed and covered and so they didn’t get to spend so much time doing skin to skin. It’s little things like that we might not even realize we take for granted with babies. Just feeling how soft their skin is, and getting to just spend time holding them and enjoying them.
Here are some favorites from our session together. She was awake for most of the session, so we adapted and started out with some sweet, snuggly family photos, and then headed downstairs to do her portraits once she dozed off. It’s funny, as a photographer, we talk about how we want the babies to be nice and seepy, but we are on their schedule, not the other way around! :) And I personally love getting some photos of them awake. This girl was just as enamored with her parents as they were with her.
Shannon Sorensen is a newborn and family photographer based in Newington, Connecticut, and travels throughout Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts capturing relaxed, heirloom photographs of family life and milestones. She photographs all newborns at home for your convenience and comfort. For inquiries or more information, feel free to contact Shannon anytime! Most newborns are photographed within the first 14 days after birth, and sessions can be scheduled anytime during your pregnancy leading up to the days after your little one arrives.
What do you want for Mother's Day?
Every year my husband asks me this and every year I stammer and wrack my brain and end up mumbling "Uhhhh I don't know, breakfast something something quiet day something something I don't need anything."
I don't really need anything. We're healthy and happy. I have everything I need. But what's the point of Mother's Day but to honor the women who are so special to us, in whatever role they fill in our lives. And to be celebrated. Am I the only who for some reason feels guilty for being celebrated? How silly is that? I grew two humans! That wasn't easy! It's still not easy. haha
With Mother's Day a couple weeks away, I can think of no better gift to give than time together taking beautiful photos of mamas and their babies. Whether your babies are tiny or in high school or grown up, or you want generational pictures and include your own mom, or your babies are covered in fur and keep your feet warm at night. There are so many ways to be a mama, and they should all be celebrated and honored!
So, when you are asked what you want for Mother's Day? Send them here. Have them email me at hello@shannon-sorensen.com. Or if you are the one doing the shopping, I can send a printable or physical gift certificate to give alongside that awesome breakfast in bed!
And if you book a documentary family session with me now through the end of May for the remainder of 2018, you'll receive a free 5x5 coffee table book featuring your favorite 10 images (a $90 value) from your session! This offer is valid for family, motherhood, fatherhood, maternity and anniversary sessions - it does not include newborn sessions. Contact Shannon for session pricing and details.
There is no better time to capture memories with your family!
I can't wait to hear from you!
Shannon Sorensen is a newborn and family photographer based in Newington, Connecticut. She joyfully serves families throughout New England. Email hello@shannon-sorensen.com for inquiries.
This morning I'm excited to share this sweet family session with you. It is all things kids and maternity and family photography that I love. Miss Gracelynn and her parents met me on a gorgeous Saturday morning in Duxbury at Shipyard Lane Beach and we all ditched our shoes and felt the wet sand squish between our toes for the duration of the session.
Addie was in the last few weeks of pregnancy at this point and we talked about having young kiddos and how freaking exhausting it is to be pregnant the second time around. It's so bittersweet nearing the end of pregnancy. You are excited, but also faced with the reality of 'oh my goodness we are doing this again and all the diapers and sleepless nights and hormones and leaky boobs' and to boot needing to also stay focused on the kiddo who has had my whole heart the past couple years.
Oh my, it's complicated. Beautiful, but so complicated.
I wonder daily if I'm ruining Lily's life. I know I'm not, but bringing a sibling into her life will not be without bumps. And there's the feeling of uncertainty in changing up our family routine. Four and a half years of just the three of us and I've gotten so used to how we work as a family, our dynamics and that will all change. And when Lily expresses that she doesn't want anything to change, I know deep down she's excited and it'll be wonderful most days, but oh, it digs a knife in my heart and twists it around ever so slowly.
But then I get to hang out with families and watch them grow and see all the fun they are having, siblings playing, family snuggle piles, and I can't even wait. Everyone tells me that the moment you see your baby, the love grows. Your heart expands and you immediately see that you are not dividing your love, but doubling it.
So to the mamas out there who are having their second, third, or bless you, fourth or more, I raise a glass (of water) to you and give you a hug in solidarity. It is not easy and for all the fear and anxiety and uncertainty for what's to come, my hope is that we can embrace the beauty and love of motherhood, whatever form it takes in our lives, and give ourselves some grace that we are badass and capable of so much more than we'll ever know.
And now I'd love to share some of my favorites with you of my time with Gracelynn, Addie and Jason!
