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

Elijahs’ Coming of Age Bar Mitzvah

I met Rebecca from my photoshoot with the Girls Auto Repair Clinic as part of my personal photography project. She liked the work that I did that she asked me to photograph her sons Bar Mitzvah.
We did his formal shots at the Or Chadash-Reform Temple in Flemmington, NJ right before the ceremony with Rebecca, Elijah and his little sister. Then the party was at Erinis Restaurant in Ewing, NJ.

What a goofy bunch! LOL

After having some time to go and have an early lunch, we go to Erinis to photograph the room with the decorations. Then everyone started to arrive, so I wanted to make sure that we had everyone nearby to get the family group pictures. We moved quickly because the best place to do this was outside and the sun kept coming in and out of the clouds and it was very bright.
Then Elijah made his grand entrance and the celebration and dancing began with the Horah!

Elijah’s grandfather does the blessing “Hamotzi and then he and Elajhs mother, Rebecca say a toast.
A fun dressing up on toilet paper activity with three teams, then once they rip the paper off, all the kids have to help clean up.
Limbo
Dancing
Photoboothing
Elijah dancing with some wonderful ladies <3

I love trying to get all of the kids in one big group photo at the end of the night before they all head home. By now they’ve all had a lot of sugar and energy in them and are either super tired or ready for more.

Thank you all for letting me be a part of your huge and special day! Mazel Tov!

Multi-Generation Family Portrait Session

October 23, 2019/0 Comments/in Families and Children, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan

I’ve had the pleasure to photograph the R. Family before, but just with five family members. This time, however, was much different.

Donna’s mom was turning 91 and she wanted all of her siblings, and the grandchildren together for a family portrait session at the house. Originally the pictures were going to be taken outside, but the weather had other ideas that day. The family came from all over for a special occasion and we had a really great time! The last setup was even on the front porch, it was raining, cold, but as you can see, well worth it.

Everything was set up in the living room, we moved furniture and items out of the way. I used a stool for some to sit on, another to stand on. Great-grandma was fine with standing for a little bit, but then needed to sit, so I grabbed a dining room chair.

My daughter was my assistant and yes, I paid her. She helped me bring everything in from the car, set up the two lights, modifiers, and then break it down, and bring it in the car, etc. We were made to feel like family and afterward were invited to have dinner. Leaving with our bellies full and faces hurt from laughing so much, we said our goodbyes as we headed back home.

Donna was so happy with these pictures, they were just what she wanted, to create gifts for the family to remember for years to come. Everything was planned ahead of time, I came to their home, set up, and while I made sure to be aware of everyone comfort, I took my time to be sure that everything was just right, and so that everyone’s personality would show through. And I think that I accomplished it.

Thanks again everyone for making this session so much fun, enjoy the photos and prints!
Interested in a session? Contact me here and let’s make plans!

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!

Want to chat and find out more about Deirdre offers? Click here to contact her!

In Remembrance Of “Jackie”

February 1, 2018/0 Comments/in event photography, Families and Children, personal /by Deirdre Ryan

My heart is heavy today.

I originally had this event on my older site that was for weddings, family and newborn portraits. However now that I’ve been back to commercial photography for some time, I didn’t put it back up as events are not my main focus.

However this is one of my many favorites.

Colleen approached me online about her mother, Dell’s, upcoming surprise 80th birthday and it was to be at the Mercer Oaks Country Club. She and I went to Notre Dame High School, Class of 1991, and hired me to photograph this beautiful event for them. It was such a lovely time filled with Irish music, dancing, food, laughter and memories.

The reason for this is that I just heard that Colleen’s father has passed away this week. You see him in these photos, dancing with her and her mother. Dell and John were married for many years and loved each other so very much. Back in Ireland, he was known as Jackie.

This is a post about the celebration of life, so I don’t want to talk about how he passed, my job is to document that and more. If you would like, you can read his obituary at the end of this post by scrolling down. Please enjoy these images from her big day with their family and friends. Thank you to everyone for giving me the opportunity to know you all and preserve this day.

Click here to read John’s Obituary, thank you.

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!!!

My Not So Tiny Tuesday Little Girl #TT

July 20, 2016/0 Comments/in Families and Children, Headshots, personal, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan

This past weekend we met up with friends of my husband’s from his high school, Cedar Ridge High that was in Old Bridge, NJ. They were all in the band, and he was a trumpet player, and I guess you could say he still is. He played the cornet, which is like a squashed up trumpet, and he has a concert French trumpet that he found at a huge flea market at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA.

Anyhoo, so we went on Sunday to have lunch at Pop’s Garage, which is right on the boardwalk. On a Sunday. Summertime. In July. Down Da Jersey Shore. In Asbury Park. Around 1PM= NO PARKING. We managed to find parking, but I got out with The Kid, put our names down for a table and sat at the bar inside so that we could eat something, because she was hungry and frankly, so was I. I had 2 steak tacos and she had a Quesadilla. We waited for the others, and they all eventually got a place to park, except for one other person because:

It’s a Sunday. Summertime. In July. Down Da Jersey Shore. In Asbury Park. Around 1PM= NO PARKING. Oh and she had TWO small kids in the car who were hungry and she found NO PARKING.I was sorry that she couldn’t join us, but as a parent, I didn’t blame her one bit!

All in all, we had a great time! There was one other child, he was 8, while our kid is 9. The food was really good, and then afterwards, we went to The Silverball Museum which was right next door. I’ve been wanting to go here for ages and it did not disappoint.

We then went for some ice cream, walked around and of course I had my camera and flash. So I snagged a few shots of our beautiful child <3

As a parent we do anything within reason for our children, and this is my reason for succeeding in my business. It’s why I rely on local and large businesses to come back to me no matter how small the job is.

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!

A Printed Portrait Speaks Volumes To Those In Need

December 8, 2015/0 Comments/in Families and Children, personal, Portraits, Volunteering /by Deirdre Ryan

Over the weekend I had the honor to volunteer at Chosen 300, at their soup kitchen on Spring Garden in Center City Philadelphia, PA. The event was for Help-Portrait, is about giving people who otherwise couldn’t afford photography a portrait, a print to take home with them. This event happens once a year in December, a global event, put together by photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists, and countless volunteers and donations. I had heard about this a while ago and I could finally make it this year.

My husband was able to join me, so we drove into the city from NJ. We met in Center City and lived on 15th and Locust, so coming into Philly is like home to us.

When we first arrived, we cleared out the tables and chairs to set up our photo stations. People donated their photo printers, snacks for us to eat, and many of us(myself included) brought in frames to put the printed images into. Then once we set up, we all tested our lights on each other.

Photo by Kristina White.

This is me being shot by Jaleel King, photo by Kristina White.

This gentleman was my first client, and he was a HUGE Cowboys football fan in Eagles country!

We had to have some fun by putting some Eagles in the photo, and of course, The Eagles won the very next day!

Here he is with the photograph in the frame that I took and he chose. Looks great! Photo by Kristina White.

This gentleman had never had a portrait of himself wearing a suit other than the uniform he wore when he was shipped out to Vietnam.

Photo by Kristina White.

This is me with my client with the image he chose in a frame. Photo by David W. Ryan.

In between clients, I got some quick shots of some behind the scenes.

This is Jaleel King showing his client the portrait he just took on the back of his camera.

Makeup artist Niki Brennan making a mother of two feel very pretty.

Cathie Berrey-Green of BG Productions working her fun station to making the kids and mom have great portraits.

When Carrie showed the mother the printed portraits, she cried, because she loved them so much. We all were crying, it was very emotional, that is why we do this.

This spunky little 3 year old young lady was such a treat! She was a little shy at first, but I got her to warm up to me.

Especially after asking if I had stinky feet, and she said yes! Then I asked if her grandmother had stinky feet, and she said, yes! I got her giggling lol

This young man was quite and reserved, but I could tell that he loved to be outgoing and friendly.

He was 6’7 and I’m 5’0, I tried a few with him standing but I preferred the ones I showed here. Photo by Kristina White.

This gentleman was also 6’7, so I had him sitting down too. He lost everything he had to a house fire, including family pictures.

I had a quick moment so I shot this portrait of one of the photographers who was there.

At the end of the day, we all got together to take a group photo. Photo by Kevin High. I am so happy that I could participate for this worthy cause to give back, make new friends, and meet new people. Plus, we were able to get back home in time to see our little girl play in her first basketball game of the season, and her team WON!

Thank you everyone!!!!

Portraits At Dusk

November 22, 2015/0 Comments/in Families and Children, Headshots, personal, Photo Gear, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan Commercial Photography

The other day I had my nine year old daughter help me test some new lights in our backyard. It was dusk and the temperature was dropping. I had her sit down in front of 2 of my speedlights, each with a softbox and I wirelessly triggered them. She wasn’t feeling that well, but at the same time wanted to have a little fun.

There were a couple of little birds playing the in pine tree above us and she was watching them.

After this was taken she was ready to go back inside. I’m really happy with how this one turned out, and I love the others too for different reasons. When she’s feeling better I’ll take her out again.

Photographers are always testing new ways of photographing, before we go out and use them with our clients, we do this first. And if we have children and significant others, they are most often our test models. Aren’t they lucky? 😉

Elijahs’ Coming of Age Bar Mitzvah

Multi-Generation Family Portrait Session

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

In Remembrance Of “Jackie”

Holiday Family Portrait Session With The Moon At Sunset

6 Months of Cuteness for the L. Family

My Not So Tiny Tuesday Little Girl #TT

Studio Portraits of a Beautiful Family

A Printed Portrait Speaks Volumes To Those In Need

Portraits At Dusk

Rotary Club Member

Branding Photography

Copyright

Mailchimp

Yelp

The Latest