Shiro @ Harvard, 11/21/15

Before Chris & Jacky had their Boston Public Garden session, PhD student Shiro, another undergraduate classmate of mine, had a brief headshot session in a gorgeous stairwell in the Harvard politics building. The left is my favorite of the set. It wasn't posed -- Shiro had just stood perfectly still and smiley for too many photos in a row, and the second he relaxed, I snapped that last one candidly.  

The photo on the right was taken purely because I can never resist a bit of light leak. It's so dramatic! 

Festive Fur-Friends

This family's tree was so lovely I had to try my luck at getting it in the background of a few pet shots. I was primarily inspired by Ribsy (15 year old tortoiseshell cat), who looks so young, magical and full of wonder as she pokes around the tree's lowest branches and sniffs at the boxes underneath. 

Many treats were involved in the capture of these two images…and very, very many motion-blurred outtakes.

C&J

Chris, on Jacky

"When I'm stressed out, he leaves gummy bears on my desk for me to find."

Jacky, on Chris

"[In the beginning] I tried to flirt with him using pop song lyrics and he didn't get it."

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Chris & Jacky are near and dear to my heart, both individually and as a pair. We were at Princeton together, and they are now both pursuing PhDs (& their dreams) at the same institution. I visited them at Harvard in mid-November and found them to be living their newly begun graduate student lives with confidence and clarity. 

This was a casual session shot at the Boston Public Garden and in Copley Square in the early evening. We didn't set out with a concrete plan, and this was never meant to be a Very Fancy Production -- just something for us to do while the boys ushered me around a few Boston highlights during my visit. 

Their dynamic is lighthearted and teasing, every interaction punctuated with pointed looks and gentle chiding, which I think is communicated in these photos. And it certainly helped that I was a familiar presence -- there's a friendly ease to these images that I like to believe I had a hand in encouraging. Or maybe these boys are just always delightful anyway.