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

The Russo Family Mini Photo Session at Hilltop Park in Bordentown, NJ

October 18, 2019/0 Comments/in Families and Children, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan

Tera and I have known each other for a long time, she worked at my daughters’ grade school and her younger sister and I were in the same grade. So when she won my session during a fundraiser I was so thrilled! And of course, I wanted to make sure that the images came out amazing because Tera’s sister is also a photographer.

The day was beautiful if not just a little bit on the breezy side, not surprising since the park overlooks Crosswicks Creek and the Delaware River. Their adorable little dog is Elijah and as sweet as can be! So, of course, having each of the girls holding him for their individual photos was the natural thing to do.

I love how they came color-coordinated, yet still being who they are, with their own personality. Sure having them ask to do goofy things at the time may have seemed strange at the time, but the end result is that the pictures came out looking like they do this sort of thing all the time, and are completely relaxed and at ease.

Thank you guys for such a great time and I hope that you love and cherish these for years to come!

Also thanks to my husband for helping me with my gear when the wind tried to blow it away!

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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 🙂

Mother, Painter, Tattoo Artist Environmental Portraits

January 6, 2017/2 Comments/in Branding Photography, Editorial, Lifestyle Photography, personal, personal branding photography, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan

My friend and neighbor Julianna is an amazing woman, mother, artist and now a tattoo apprentice at Ceremony Tattoo Society in Philadelphia, PA. She already has a name for herself in the art world for her amazing paintings and drawings. She was also a featured artist with Grumbacher, a famous maker of art supplies such as paint brushes, oil and acrylic paints and more. And now she is about to take on the tattooing world as well.

Follow her on Instagram to see her sketches and finished tattoo work. Her flash sketches are simply amazing, and she’s taking on clients to practice her work on.

As Julianna was preparing her needles, ink and machine, we caught up on what’s been going on. Our children go to the same school, I’m friends with one of her daughters and her husband Joe, also a well known artist.
These two were taken with the iPhone SE as she works on a client 😉

Photo by Julianna Menna

The above image is the freshly completed black and white tattoo with a hint of white ink in places. I believe that this was her fourth tattoo that she’s ever done(?). This is why I know that she is going to become very well known very soon, and she is in the right place for it.

After Julianna completed the gorgeous tattoo, she proceeded to clean up the work area. Everyone in the shop left for the day, so it was just us, chatting while I was taking pictures.
And then she let her beautiful red hair down….However this wasn’t working for me.
I wanted to see more of her neck tattoo that she had done by Raph Cemo, so I had her put her hair back up again.
She moves like a dancer….

We moved to the work station, and I preferred this better.

I shot these using my Canon 6D , the Canon 24-70 f2.8mm L lens, Canon Speedlight 600 EX RT Flash, and the Canon Wireless Speedlight Transmitter ST-ES-RT . Normally I would have my Photek Softlighter with me, but I didn’t. So I bounced the flash that had a Stofen Diffuser on it. I have more ideas for her and her co-workers if they’ll let me, in the this amazing space.

A HUGE thank you to my good friend! You are going to go so far in this natural transition of your art and medium as you continue to grow in your creativity. I can’t wait to get together soon.

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Studio Portraits of a Beautiful Family

April 7, 2016/0 Comments/in Families and Children, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan

People do ask if I can photograph their family and I can of course! Normally, I prefer to shoot in natural light outside, but with the bad weather we had here in NJ, an indoor session was what this family wanted.

Such a beautiful family! The boys were great! The youngest was acting his age of course. You need to be patient and try all the tricks in the book and work quickly, never stop shooting, or look away. Eons ago, while in art college, I worked for Expressly Portraits in the mall. There I learned how to photograph all kinds of people and work with them. I quickly learned how to be patient, and hone in on customer service skills. Unlike those days, I don’t need to rush my clients, I take my time, relax everyone, and work with everyone.

I got the shots my clients wanted, plus some great ones of the parents. Thank you for choosing me to be your photographer!

Mom wanted a photo of her and her “baby boy”.
His little brother didn’t want to get too close while standing up, so after this, I had them sit down.
Their mom and dad suggested they do something they like to do in the car, and it worked!