This very busy family has been trying to schedule a family session for over a year, but it has been difficult between all the sports and activities to find a time when everyone could be in one place! We finally got everyone together for a mini-session at Carter Park.

Carter Park is, frankly, pretty underwhelming when you pull into the parking lot. There is a barn where they hold art camps and a small stable on the edge of the lot, and that’s all you see. But the textures of the two buildings make good simple backdrops, and there is a small pond a few steps away. If you walk a little further, you find extensive trails that wind into the forest and take you to creeks and ruins of old stone buildings from when the munitions factory was in operation half a century ago. But we didn’t have time or the shoes to explore the trails this session. By staying in the immediate area around the entrance, we could get several different settings for each of the kids and the whole family and stay in the time window they had available.

Mike, Michelle, Anna, and Rachel  haven’t changed much at all in the last couple of years, but Dom has shot up, as teenage boys are apt to do. He still has the same amiable smile, but I kept reminding him to bring his chin down for me to get a better angle on  his face because I was shorter than he was now. Anna and Rachel are still natural beauties, without the preoccupation with their appearances that seems to characterize a lot of the Tik Tok generation. None of them probably has much time to devote to elaborate beauty rituals with their busy athletic and academic schedules, which was actually quite refreshing. I was happy that they were able to carve out this portion of an hour to spend with me for their pictures!