four generational portrait shoot

A few weeks back Mike and I shot a different kind of portrait session- we did a four generational women's shoot. When Karen contacted me and asked me about doing this shoot for her I immediately asked her what she saw as her final product- one image? A book? A print? Because in my mind, and as a shooter in general I tend to gravitate to the story telling aspect of shooting. Scenarios popped in my mind about what to do for the shoot and we came up with them cooking a meal together in her home.

Her daughter, sister, mother and grandmother were all there and all helped prepare the 'sopa' a traditional Puerto Rican soup that is INCREDIBLE. (she sent us home with a doggie bag- Mike got the dessert- death by chocolate- and I took the sopa) Mike ate the dessert in the car so I got to see his face light up as he ate it. It looked good!

We had a great time and really enjoyed watching them all interact, laugh and share some sweet moments with each other. It was an emotional shoot for me watching the mother to daughter chain in action- Karen and her daughter- Karen and her Mom, then her Mom and her grandmother- no matter who you are a Mom to you are a daughter first and it was really really powerful to see that right before my eyes in so many layers... it made me really want to go home and snuggle my Georgie Girl like crazy and tell her stories about my Mom and my Nana, who I only had stories told to me about, I was really young when she died.

There was a point when they were eating and Karen was standing back watching them eat, I was kind if hidden in the stairwell shooting this and my eyes welled up watching her watching her family, all eating, all happy in her home.


Thank you for really letting us into your home and family Karen! We had a great time!
Her grandmother's hands were so expressive- I have always had a thing for shooting people's hands and I just couldn't stop





Karen and her sister kept finding bobby pins stuck in their grandmother's hair- it became quite the joke, it was like a bobby pin jack pot!



see what I mean? love her hands

Her Mom and Abuela busted out dancing (Mike busted a few moves in the back as well)

And then had some snuggle time


Karen had an old picture of her Abuela from way back in the day


While we were waiting for dinner to cook I saw there was some really pretty light that Mike and I had to rock for some more 'formal' type of portraits- although these are far from formal!

Karen and her daughter

I couldn't pick just one of these, as they all were very representative of their relationship with each other, in my opinion!