I’ve tried blogging these photos probably six times now. The problem is this stupid text box. It’s too big and not big enough, all at the same time. So I will try and keep it simple.

I’ve been good friends with Amy for a long time — probably around 12 years now.

Her birthday is the day before mine. We both spent years scooping ice cream at our local homemade ice cream store.

She’s one of my closest friends, which means we hang out a few times a year and regularly comment on each other’s lives on facebook and occasionally spend a few hours catching up on mostly mundane things via text message. She’s one of those friends you can not be in touch with for six months and then bump into at Target and spend over an hour catching up with, talking a mile a minute until our patient husbands start pulling out their phones out of boredom. She’s beautiful, smart, hysterical, and devoted to her family.

Tyler is a nature/wildlife photographer. He switched from Canon to Nikon awhile back, and let me use his new D800 at this shoot. He helped us out at Emma & Geoff’s wedding ceremony last fall and put his awesome telephoto lenses to work from across the Kanawha River.

Haddie is a HAM- she was actually the flowergirl at a wedding we shot last year, and she’s so stinkin cute and sassy I can’t stand it.

And Molly is so mellow. She barely made a peep the whole time we were talking around shooting. Amy and I are super animated (meaning, we talk FAST and LOUD when we’re together), yet sweet little Molly was as happy as could be that afternoon.

So, that’s the extended introduction. Sorry for all the text– we just really, really love this family and couldn’t share these photos without telling you more about how much they mean to us.

We love you guys!!!

I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking, “Wait, I thought Emily and Bobby only shot weddings and engagements? I thought they turned away all baby/kid portrait shoots?”

We have actually been flirting with the idea of accepting limited kid sessions this year. We like them because they’re usually a low-stress, fun way to document an afternoon in the life of a family. As with our wedding coverage, we tend to focus primarily on capturing real moments and interactions in a creative way with these portrait sessions, and the “okay, everyone look here and smile at the camera!” shots are kept at a minimum.

Anyway, Kara has been a close friend of mine since we were in junior high. I’ve loved the few times I’ve been able to snap some photos of the Moore family, and I think Bobby really had a great time for this one too. We took these in November, just in time for Christmas card season (aka one of the most rewarding times of year to be a photographer… it fills me with so much joy to see photos I took on people’s holiday cards!!).

Anyway, here’s Kara, TW, and Lydia. And Gulliver the cat. (There’s more details about shoots like this at the end of the post.)

If these are the kinds of portraits you’d be interested in with your own family, let us know (emily@emilyporterphoto.com). The standard rate is $350 for 1-2 hours of shooting (Mondays through Thursdays only). Prints, albums, and high res files are purchased a la carte from the online proofing & ordering gallery.