Hi Friends, Happy New Year!!! I have indulged in a short winter break in Smithville with my family. Now I am back and ready for my 2017 sessions and weddings! We have taken down all of the Christmas decorations, which makes me so sad. I love having the tree up with the lights and the stockings hung. Something about Christmas decorations really makes you feel the magic of the holiday season. It warms the house up and it really does bring cheer. Do you agree?
Last year, my family and I took a trip to New Jersey for Thanksgiving. While we were there, we had our family photos taken by a wonderful photographer, Nicole Saunders of Kaleidoscope Imagery. I knew our family photos were going to be in Historical Smithville NJ. I asked around for photographer recommendations in the Galloway, NJ area as and Nicole was one who I knew I loved her style the first time I looked at her website.
Smithville, NJ means so much to me as growing up, my mom always brought my sisters and I there for day trips and I have always dreamed about one day, bringing my own family here. In 2010 my husband and I were married at the Smithville Inn. He saw how much this little town means to me, and he fell in love with it too. We learned that you are able to stay in the village as they have several rooms throughout and a little barn with rooms inside. What a perfect destination for us to stay when visiting NJ and it just makes me so happy that my son (and soon to be little one) gets to enjoy it and we can share with him our wedding day memories.
I knew I wanted family photos to capture this special time with our son before the baby comes in April. I contacted Nicole about a month before we were going to be there to set up our session. She was quick in her response, understood how challenging taking photos of toddlers can be and was up for the location I suggested. Upon meeting her for the first time, she made us all feel very comfortable! She got down on Ethan’s level and started playing with him right away, snapping his photos and laughing with him. For me, being in front of the camera is so weird. I was happy that she did her thing and was confident in where to have us stand, look, smile, and interact with each other. Smithville has really cool backgrounds and I loved that I didn’t have to think during our session, she took the lead and captured all the things I love and would have wanted!
Our session was late in November. We were expecting for it to be cold…but man, was it really cold! We were all bundled up pretty good under our photo-shoot clothing but it was still pretty chilly for Ethan especially. Nicole had an awesome idea to go inside of the Smithville Bakery to share some hot coco together. Ethan LOVED that he was warm again, and he LOVED his hot coco! Once we warmed back up, we did a few more photos before the sun went down. The hour-long session went by fast. It was so nice getting to know Nicole during our time together.
I love the idea of having family photos done each year, and because I love Smithville so much I would love to continue this tradition of having our family photos there when we visit NJ and I love that we have found “our” New Jersey family photographer!
To my husband, PJ, Thank you for doing this family session for me. You know how much the area means to us and you have known I have wanted our family portraits taken there for over a year. PJ ran the Philadelphia Marathon the day before our session, you were sore and tired, but you knew this was an important time for us. You are the biggest support and most loving guy. Thank you for always loving us. I cannot wait to see what 2017 has in store for our family. April cannot get here soon enough!
Nicole, Thank you so much for such a great family photo experience! My husband and I are not usually comfortable in front of the camera so we were pretty nervous for this. We love all the images we had received and we are so glad we decided to have our session at Smithville!
Here are my favorites from our family session. If you are in the New Jersey area looking for a photographer, I highly recommend Nicole of Kaleidoscope Imagery! She’s so sweet, patient and so talented! Thank you to my friends Cindy and Tom for recommending her to us! 🙂
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