Tag Archives: bergen county photographer

And a baby makes FOUR – Ridgewood newborn photo session

Are you expecting a new bundle of joy and wondering what’s the best time to hold a newborn photo session?   Then you will love this TBT of this pretty awesome at home Ridgewood newborn photo session.

You may’ve heard that you need to do a newborn session as soon as possible after the baby is born – usually within first 10 days.  And I would definitely agree with that – if you would like to have sleepy cuddly posed baby images, that is.   A few days after the birth babies are still sleeping most of the time (although for a lot of them this sleeping occurs mostly during daytime hours and not at night!), are very moldable and that’s a perfect time to capture beautiful images of sleeping newborns.

My Bergen county photography studio, located in Ridgewood, is perfect for these types of sessions – it has great natural light (and studio lighting equipment for cloudy days), lots of space for everybody to spread out and plenty of props to choose from.  With these sessions I focus primary on the baby (and capture all beautiful details of them!) but there are also plenty of images with parents, brothers and sisters and a grandparents if they are there for the session.

If posed studio newborn images are not what you are looking for, then a great alternative is an at-home lifestyle photo session.  These photo sessions are very different from Ridgewood studio newborn sessions that I offer.  With these sessions the focus is on the family – snuggling up with the new baby in the family room, rocking her to sleep in her nursery, hanging out on a big family bed together.  If you spent time setting up and decorating the baby’s nursery, if you have special meaningful pieces of furniture or art that you would like to include in the session – this is a great session to do that.  And if you have other children then this is the session I would definitely recommend over a studio newborn session because we would also be able to capture your other kid(s) in their natural habitat – playing with their toys, reading their favorite books, monkeying around – and doing all their favorite things.  Think of this session as a family session with a newborn focus:)

I recommend scheduling lifestyle family photo sessions about 6-8 weeks after the baby is born.  By this time the baby is more alert and awake and makes more eye contact and has a lot more personality.  Some of them even smile when they look at their parent – and who would not want to capture their babies first smiles on camera?!  Waiting a bit after the birth also gives parents (especially the Moms) a bit more time to recover from delivery and get settled into a life with a newborn.

So the type of  a newborn photo session you should choose really depends on the type of images you would like me to capture.  But I promise you that you will be happy with the results no matter the session type:)

This Ridgewood family opted for an at-home lifestyle photo session at their home.  We were going back and forth about the timing of it and in the end they took my advice and scheduled it for when baby G. was about 8 weeks old.  The parents absolutely loved the images we captured!

There was lots of laughter:

and snuggles:

There were beautiful moments shared between these parents:

and a stunning little girl:

There was plenty of time for big brother G. to play with his dad:

and some quality Daddy/Daughter time:

and there was enough time hang out and read together as a family of four:

I absolutely loved meeting this family for their Ridgewood family session and cannot wait to watch these kids grow!

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Flying kids, cuddly dogs, cool street art and lots of laughter | At home family photo shoot in the Village

Being a family photographer I love when ‘my families’ come back to me year after year.  And while I do love photographing kids and families at my Ridgewood photography studio, in my mind nothing beats at-home sessions.  So when I get to photograph my returning clients at their homes I KNOW that I will love those sessions.  And when clients’ home is located in my absolutely favorite area in NYC (Greenwich Village) I know that their session will be beyond amazing!

I’ve worked with these guys for a number of years and consider myself so fortunate to get to see these grow and change.  I first met them when big brother RJ was just 3 years old (as old as his little brother was during their latest session) – and now he is a big kid, typing up poems he comes up with on his old fashioned type writer (how cool is that?!!), wearing a bow tie to a session and telling me all about life in school.  And little brother D. – is a big kid now – very different from what he looked liked when I first met him at a few months of age.  The kids grow and change and yet the parents somehow stay the same:)

As I do with a lot of my photo sessions – we split up this session between at-home and outside.  At home it was literally all fun of games: playing with Dad, jumping on the bed, cuddling with their dog, etc.  And then we went outside and explored the Village and Soho.

Little brother D. was not thrilled about being outdoors and at one point Mom told me that she ‘wanted to get happy photos of her son but could see that it was NOT going to happen’..  But guess what – it DID happen!  Not to toot my own horn (ok, I AM tooting my own horn) but I’ve worked with lots of kids and while I may not be the most patient with my own two children, I have to say that I am pretty great with others and most of the time (and those of you who worked with me can vouch for that!) can get the kids to relax and cooperate.  So I did get pictures of these two brothers happy and smiling, along with lots of other fun family photos!

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And the winners are….

It was a very intense race and I was very excited to see the results of Live Love Laugh Photos Best of 2017 contest.  So without further ado, here are the winners!

1. The grand prize winner (with 101 votes across three platforms) is Image 18 ‘Thoughtful’!  This family ran a great campaign and will receive a beautiful 16×24 gallery wrapped canvas of this stunning image!

2. The Second Prize winner is Image 7 ‘Happy!’    This family will receive $250 gift certificate towards a 2018 Signature or a Simplicity session!

3. And the winners of a Free studio winter mini sessions are: Jamie Bula and Stacey DeMarco.  Ladies please contact me ASAP at lena@livelovelaughphotos.com to schedule your session.

There can only be one Grand Prize winner but I love all images that made it to the final round and want everybody to be able to display them in their homes. So all finalists in my Best of 207  contest will receive a 35% discount on a 16×24 gallery wrapped canvas of their ‘finalist’!  Contact me by Feb 28 if you are interested in purchasing it.

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Best of 2017 Contest | Bergen County Photography

Did you know that YOU can win a studio mini session?  Just enter a comment (scroll all the way down to do that) describing why you want to have a mini session and your name will be entered in the drawing!

It is time for one of my favorite business traditions –  Live Love Laugh Photos’ annual “Best of the Year” Contest!  This is my NINTH years holding it – I love being able to give back to my clients through this contest, and each year they tell me how much they appreciate me conducting it!

I took thousands pictures last year and had to enlist my trusty friends in the photography business to help me narrow down images to the top 25.   Now it is up to you to decide which image gets the title of the Image of the Year at Live Love Laugh Photos – and an AWESOME prize that goes along with it:)

THERE WILL BE FOUR WINNERS:

1) The image with the most votes wins.  To vote, cast your vote using the poll below (scroll all the way down to the end of the post, past images) and ‘like’ your favorite image in the ‘Best of 2016′ album on Facebook and on Instagram. The winner (an image with the most combined votes) will receive a 16×24 gallery wrapped canvas (valued at $500) of the winning image.

2) The Runner up will receive a $250 gift certificate to be used towards a Simplicity or a Signature session in 2018.

3) TWO random voters will receive a FREE kids winter studio mini session valued at $300!   It can be YOU!  See below on how to enter in a drawing for a mini session.

HOW TO WIN A STUDIO MINI SESSION:

There are THREE ways to win a mini session.  In order to increase your chances of winning you should do all of the following because each of the following will earn you an extra entry in the drawing:

On the Blog:

  • Leave a comment on the blog describing why YOU want to win a mini session – scroll below the images to do that.

On Facebook:

  • Share the ‘Best of 2017‘ album on Facebook – here is a link to it.  To do so just click on the ‘Share’ link to share it on your wall. You can write a nice comment as well:)  Just make sure you let me know that you shared the album – otherwise I won’t know that you did and you won’t be able to participate in the drawing.

On Instagram:

I will randomly select two lucky voters from across all three platforms and these guys will receive mini sessions!

BONUS:

Everyone is a winner because if you book a new Simplicity or Signature Session while the contest is running (by February 15) you will receive a free gift valued at $250 with your order!  So if you are thinking about having a session with Live Love Laugh Photos anytime in 2018, NOW is a great time to book.  Keep in mind you can hold your session anytime in 2018.

Please note:

  • Voting will run till the end of day on Wednesday, February 14.
  • I will announce the winners on the blog on Thursday, February 15.
  • Please keep things fair and vote only for one image – IP addresses will be monitored.
  • I reserve the right to disqualify entries or terminate/modify contest if necessary.
  • This content is not sponsored by Facebook.

And now without further ado, I present to you my favorite images of 2017!   Check out the finalists, cast your vote (using radio buttons below all images, FB and Instagram) and leave a comment below for the free session drawing.

Image 1: Jump for Joy

Image 2:Upside Down

 

Image 3: Family Play Time

Image 4: Big Smile

Image 6: Mommy and Me

 

Image 6:What are YOU Reading?

 

Image 7: Happy!

 

Image 8: An Afternoon At Home

 

Image 9: Bubbles

Image 10: Blue Door

 

Image 11: Going for a Bike Ride

 

Image 12: Sisters

 

Image 13: Family

 

Image 14: Brothers

 

Image 15: Daddy’s Little Girl

 

Image 16: On the Playground

 

Image 17: Spring

Image 18: Thoughtful

 

Image 19: A Day on the Farm

 

Image 20: Great Expectations

 

Image 21: A Boy and His Penguin

 

Image 22: Santa Baby

 

Image 23: Glamour Girls

 

Image 24: Scrunchy Nose

 

Image 25: Grandma’s Hug

 


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Fun Bergen County extended family photo session with long time clients | Ridgewood photographer

You know what they say  – “man plans, God Laughs?”  That is what happened with this Ridgewood family photo session with one of my oldest clients.  For their extended family session (they had family visiting from out of country and wanted to get images of everybody together) we thought that it would be nice to split the session into two: we would start downtown with a session with  the immediate family of three – Mom, Dad and one of my favorite girls in the world – G.and and then head over to their house for the extended family portion of a photo shoot.   Well that’s not how it worked out (we’ve got a smoked chicken to blame for that!) and instead we ended up photographing four girls downtown.  It was definitely a different session from what we had it mind but probably a more fun one – there was lots of hugging and laughing and jumping and ice cream eating:)

 

 

and then we did go back to their Ridgewood home for the second part of the photoshoot – and there was more hugging and laughing and even some pool diving:)

I am seriously very lucky to have such amazing clients – who come back to me year after year after year, allow me to watch their kids grow from adorable toddlers to beautiful girls (and boys), who laugh with me and give me hugs when I need them.

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