lifestyle photography Archives - New Jersey, Philadelphia, NYC Personal Branding, Commercial and Editorial Photographer

Holiday Family Portrait Session With The Moon At Sunset

December 11, 2017/0 Comments/in Families and Children, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan

My friend Rose Mary called saying that she would love to get some updated family portraits and lucky for us, the weather was still really nice outside. On this particular December afternoon, we scheduled the session around the time when the sun was setting and the moon was just about full. They have great neighbors who let us walk through their backyard and I photographed them all, including Phil, their dog, in a field with a red barn in the background. It was chilly, but it was still stunning out there. I brought my Westcott Rapid boxes to have my Canon 600RT EX fire off wirelessly because we were loosing light pretty quickly.

I wanted the kids to have fun and do whatever they wanted within reason. So we did the standard poses, but then I asked what they wanted to do.

Okay, I told them to give each other bunny ears LOL Then it was on to poses the kids wanted to try out.

This is one of the poses their youngest brother wanted 🙂

I asked if they wanted to jump over each other…

Mom gets in for a photo 🙂

Then it’s time to get them all separately…

His karate moves….

Last shot, it’s dark, and I wanted to have something super fun, like a leaf fight or everyone throw leaves up in the air, we got in in the last shot. By then, it got colder, we all had other places to go, Rose Mary got yummy hot chocolate for us all at Wawa(I’m addicted to that now, thanks Rose!), but we all had a lot of fun, and that was what I wanted. Everyone looking great, showing off their personalities, and having a great time.

Thank you all so very much guys! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Do you want a session? Start a chat by clicking on the red button that says Get Started to contact me 🙂

6 Months of Cuteness for the L. Family

November 10, 2017/0 Comments/in Families and Children, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan

I know Molly and Clint from photographing their wedding back in October 2012. I may not photograph weddings anymore, but as with most of my clients, we hit it off and stayed friends.

They had been struggling to start a family and then they heard of a little baby who was to be up for adoption, they got to welcome her into their arms as a newborn. I know what that’s like, as we struggled for years, and had just signed the paperwork to start the adoption process as our Plan B, when our daughter finally became the miracle we were praying for to become pregnant with.

I do portraits for family and children on private referrals now and I am always honored to have these kinds of clients. These are the moments that you can’t get back and having a professional take the pictures far outweighs using a cell phone or a relative with that “fancy camera”.

Originally we were going to meet in a park along the Delaware River, but it got too windy and cold. So at the last minute, we decided to go to their home. I contemplated different areas, and then we decided simple was best. We had already planned on the chalkboard, so I wrote out her name and how old she was. She is the sweetest baby girl and loves to make sounds like she’s trying to blow them out of her mouth. I well remember this age and it’s a lot of fun! The weather was still chilly but not like it was before and so we got some images in the front of their home.

Just look at that face <3

First Halloween!

Her adoption has been finalized last month and just in time for their 5th Wedding Anniversary! Congratulations everyone!!!

Photoshoot Fun With American Grit’s Rocky For Moms

June 1, 2016/0 Comments/in Branding Photography, Editorial, personal branding photography, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan

This is one of my best friends, Lisa, my blond “sister”. I’ve known her since she was a freshman and I was a sophomore at Notre Dame High School in Lawrenceville, NJ. Our friendship continued throughout college and into adulthood. We’ve giggled, laughed and cried together. When my husband and I lived in Los Angeles, she decided to follow her dream of becoming an actress from NYC to L.A., and for a time lived with us(it was so much fun!), until she got a place of her own and it was right around the corner from our apartment. In Los Angeles is where she met her future husband, Henri. She was one of my bridesmaids, I was one of hers. She helped to plan my baby shower, she helped to plan mine.

Now she’s been living in Texas with her husband, Henri, their daughter and son. I’m back in NJ with our daughter and my husband, working as a commercial photographer, he as an editor for tv in NYC.

With a lot of ups and downs in her life, the worst being that Lisa has lost both of her parents to cancer. First her dad while living in Los Angeles. She would go back to NJ whenever she could and then when it was near his time, and to bury him. And then her mom. Click here to get the start/catch up of what happened in the Summer of 2014. And then a year ago, May 4th, 2015 she passed away.

Lisa has since fought her way back for her herself and her family in between and after. Wrote a book, her blog and website, getting sponsors, she’s just amazing! And recently been on the Fox tv show American Grit with John Cena.

BTW John, if you’re reading this, you might remember being on an internet radio show network called ComedyWorld and you were interviewed by Big Schwag and the guys on Wrestling 101. My husband was in the booth, and our friend called in and you took off your shirt. He has the full version, but here’s a link to an old compilation with the clip in it.

To read up more on how she went from being borderline obese to being a bikini bodybuilder check out her site:

She’s Losing It(main site) ( her journey-start from the very beginning to the first post on the bottom)

Just last week, she came back home to NJ for one day to visit with Jenny, Megan and I. She stayed with her brother so that she could go to NYC to be interviewed by www.bikini.com and then fly back in time to compete in the Texas Shredder.

We all got to chat, have some girl time and I took some awesome photos of her wearing one of her sponsors t-shirts, Egg Whites International. I have been wanting to take photos of her for a long time, it’s something we always did. We have a lot of fun, she’s one of my favorite people to photograph, and I love her so much. I wanted her to have great images instead of cell phone pictures with sponsor swag.

With all that she’s done and all that she’s doing now, I created a hashtag for her to remember even though, yes, she’s making these positive changes to her body, mind and spirit for her family, however deep down she’s truly doing all of this for her herself…#doitforlisa Follow her and use this hashtag to give her love and strength <3 #doitforlisa I love you and I’m proud of what you’re doing!

All images copyright Deirdre Ryan Photography.