The e-session of Jess and Ryan

Had a fun engagement session with Jess and Ryan at Hagerstown City Park at 8AM!!! Actually, I loved it. I'm more of morning person and like getting up early and getting things done. We had originally scheduled for that afternoon but the forecast called for strong thunderstorms. When Jess suggested the early am session, I wondered how it would go. Hopefully, they would be morning people too. I don't know if they were but I do know that they were great to work with. We moved all over the park, splashed in the pools of water, got slobbered on by their dogs and really started to feel the humidity, even at that early time but they kept a good humor the entire time. I'm looking forward to their wedding, which is not... at 8am.
Thanks Jess and Ryan!

A woman's best friend

Who says a dog is a man's best friend? Beth just adores her Boxer puppy, Riley. Although he looks much bigger than a puppy, he still had that puppy playfulness and she wanted to get photos of him at this stage. We took advantage of fantastic weather to photograph the two of them in a local state park. A pair of rubber boots, a camera and some patience was all it took for me to get great shots of a pair who are obviously "family". 

Riley still has too much puppy in her to sit still for long. The secret to photographing pets or people who have no patience for formal portraiture is to let them be themselves... in this case, a water loving, world exploring Boxer puppy. The instructions for Beth were to smile, not to look at Riley or worry about what she was doing, and just have fun with it.... and she did.  Beth got Riley to sit for a few "portraits".  Most of the time, Riley was just eager to move and she was strong! I grabbed hold of her leash once when she slipped away from Beth and nearly got dragged into the stream.

When I asked Beth if Riley was pulling her arm out of  her socket, Beth would just laugh and say "that's Riley!" 

Finally, a quiet moment. Is it my imagination, or is Riley finally wearing out!?

This is the kind of image you get when you put a french fry in your lens hood to try to get an "up close" photo of  Riley!