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Rae Barnes is fabulous.  Simply fabulous.  She is responsible for shaking up wedding and portrait photography in this neck of the woods.  My sister commissioned Rae to photograph her wedding in Lake Placid and from the first image I saw on her blog I was hooked.  I still remember it.  My sister and her new husband were crossing the street outside the church with the high peaks in the background and I was trailing behind them holding her dress.  I knew I had to have her for my wedding as well, and she kindly obliged!  And although it was my family who pushed me to turn my love of photography from a hobby into a business so that I could share it with others, it was also Rae in a million ways that she probably doesn’t even realize.  So, when she and her amazing husband had baby number one, little miss Claire, I thought and thought and thought about the perfect gift to send to them.  Adorable outfits, perfect made-in-the-USA wooden blocks spelling out Claire’s name, a cable-knit baby blanket, something less fun but more practical like a baby monitor or a million diapers – nothing was just right.  So I asked myself, if it were me, what would I want – photo’s of my new family of course – that’s why we do this!!!  We work outrageously hard to tell other people’s stories- to create amazing images that capture a moment in time that can be relived forever and passed on from generation to generation.  No one deserves that gift more than the people who create those images themselves.  That and the fact that I stalked her blog daily searching for images of all three of them, only to be disappointed   So, I headed up to Saranac Lake early this morning.  Not as early as we wanted – we were aiming for sunrise but it was cloudy this morning with chances of rain so we headed out a little later when Claire is usually happiest instead.  Rae and Chris chose a beautiful camp on the Lake that has significant meaning to them for the location.   I haven’t had time to do much to these images – but I didn’t want them to have to wait even a day to get a peek, so here they are…

The boathouse in the background is where Chris proposed to Rae

Right here, in this spot…

This one might be my favorite of the day…but I’m not sure

Or, it could be this one…yup, I think it’s this one.

Sweet family moments…

Claire’s nursery is awesome (you wouldn’t expect anything less from someone with Rae’s design skills) and she found three perfect frames to hang above Claire’s crib…All three are currently emply, and I think these are all good candidates…

Another one of my favorite’s by the lake…yup, that’s the boathouse again in the background!  At first I was going to photoshop out the picnic table and two docks thinking they were distracting, than I realized that they create a line drawing your eyes from the new family, to the boathouse where they got engaged…so I left them in

Obviously Chris makes this face on a regular basis!  The things fathers do to make their babies laugh!

Chris this one of your ladies is for you!

Last one…I had to include this one…it was at the very end of the shoot and Claire was getting hungry…not that I could tell (although Rae and Chris certainly could).  She was such a good baby that I can’t remember if she was laughing or fussing in this shot.

That’s it for now.  Round two will take place sometime in late August.  Hopefully at this same location!  Thanks to all three of you for letting me be a part of your morning!