Elspeth’s senior portrait session was long overdue. Busy lives, crazy schedules, and just not enough hours in the day made it a challenge to get together for our session. Over the weekend, however, it all fell into place. It was a gorgeous day and Elspeth was perfect! We had so much fun, and we even stirred up a little attention. One passer by almost ran off the road watching Els on the tracks!!

I first met Dewey a few months ago. You may remember his adorable “Friday Face” a few posts back. Dewey is one of the most beautiful shepherds I have ever seen. His body is huge, his fur is gorgeous, and he is just the happiest most enthusiastic guy! When we did our sitting, Tracey, Dewey’s human mom was expecting. We had a wonderful time in the park creating some “before baby” photos and capturing Dewey’s sweet personality.

That was then.

On January 11, Tracey, Dave and Dewey welcomed into the world precious, beautiful Gabriel James…and their lives forever changed, but in an awesomely, wonderful way. Dewey is so cool, he is adjusting like a champ. Dave and Tracey still give Dewey all the attention he deserves, and with the addition of a beautiful human brother, Dewey just has more reasons to be happy!

Welcome Gabriel James.

And now, Dewey is resting. After all, it’s a lot of work watching over a new baby!

All images ©Susan Dodd

I have oodles and oodles of sittings to blog about! I wish I could share them all with you right now, but these darned blog posts take so much time! This was a crazy holiday season for me for sure, and I am working step by step to catch up. I want to thank all of my wonderfully understanding clients who are so supportive of my being a bit overwhelmingly busy!!

Needless to say, this post is one that I am very excited to be {finally} blogging about. Remember Cosmo? He was the Friday Face a few weeks back. Well, here he is with his whole family….Abby the bulldog, and the awesome Shiena and Jason. Who would have thought that taking an African Grey parrot and a stocky bulldog to a very public place for photographs could be so relaxing. It truly was! I have to say, it was an afternoon of complete enjoyment.

Shiena and Jason were winners of one of my expo contests, and I am so grateful to have met them…Abby and Cosmo. Thanks so much for a wonderful afternoon!

All images ©Susan Dodd

Many years ago while doing a sitting with a client and her dog, I was admiring my client’s hair. I asked her where she got her hair done, and she told me….Skippack Stylekrafters. Hmm, I thought, I’ve seen that place while traveling through Skippack. So, I promptly called and made an appointment. I have been a client ever since.

The Stylekrafters business was started by the beautiful Karen Lovett and has evolved so much since then. Karen’s daughter, Lindsey, is now an integral part of the business, along with several other amazing and talented women. The atmosphere is fun, friendly and fresh. In fact, we at the Dodd household love it so much, we are all clients…my husband included!

About a year ago, they moved out of their original location into a new gorgeous and contempory building right in the heart of Skippack. Visiting Stylekrafters is simply a wonderful experience.

In honor of their growth, Stylekrafters will be rolling out a brand new website. Yesterday afternoon I headed down to do some photographs of each of the women for this new website. It was so much fun! I love, love, love photographing beautiful women!!!!! Even if there are no dogs by their side!

Presenting…the women of Stylekrafters.

Karen

Lindsey

Lauren

Chandra

Kim

Bethiany

If you are looking for a new, fabulous place to create your look, visit the beautiful women of Stylekrafters! You won’t be disappointed.

All images ©Susan Dodd

Long overdue. That’s what this post is, very long overdue! I met Summer and her family a couple of months back and spent a lovely evening with them. The weather was iffy, but what else is new with this crazy weather? But, it turned out to be a beautiful evening, all around.

When Wendy contacted me to do some photographs for her, she explained that there might be some challenges because two of my subjects would be in wheelchairs. For me, that was not a problem. And, it turned out to be one of my most favorite sessions. A more loving family could not be found.

Here’s Summer…she’s so fluffy and sweet!

Danny and Summer like to roll around!

Gorgeous Michele.

Wendy and Peter…so beautiful.

And, this…all I can say is WOW!!

Thank you Wendy for inviting me to spend and evening creating photographs with you and your wonderful family!

I know exactly what they are going to say. It will go something like this. “You took all those pictures of our faces, and this is what you post??”

So? I think it’s cool!

Ok, ok, here’s one of the front. Happy?

All images ©Susan Dodd

I loved meeting and photographing Piper, Nicholi, Lee and Stephanie.

The weather was very weird. At first we really thought we were going to get rained on. It was humid, sticky and dark. But, we persevered, and before we knew it, the sun was out! Weird.

Piper and Nicholi are polar opposites. Piper (the chocolatey brown one) has ADD. No, no, not really! She just moves very quickly from one thing to the next. She loves sticks, and chewing on sticks, and fetching sticks…pretty much anything having to do with sticks.

Nicholi on the other hand, likes to pose. He looks good and he knows it.

Lee and Stephanie provide the perfect balance. They are calm and loving with Piper and Nicholi, and with each other!

Stephanie and “Nick Nack”…GORGEOUS!

We laughed and romped in the Valley Forge fields. Stephanie giggled a lot!

Thank you Lee and Stephanie for a super fun morning!

All images ©Susan Dodd

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Warning…there will be no pets in this post. Just some crazy kids having a lot of fun!

Having a mom for a photographer, I guess, can be pretty cool. I’ve started this “tradition” to try to photograph my daughters with as many of their friends as I can. Just for fun.

So this weekend, even though it was pouring down rain, when my daughter came home from a sleepover with her friend and they were dressed up in the cutest outfits, I grabbed my camera and out we went…into the rain!

The girls are both gymnasts, and had their state meet the day before, so their hair was braided and their eyes were still glittery. It was perfect!

Here they are being cool.

Beautiful little Carli.

Of course there was a lot of laughing.

All images ©Susan Dodd

It had been a beautiful day…all day. About an hour before I was scheduled to photograph Alex and Taylor, the sky grew dark and I really thought we weren’t going to get our session in. It had been a long, aggravating day for me and this was the icing on the cake. But, we all decided to go ahead.

What happened next was magic.

Across the street at a neighbor’s house I had spotted a bright orange, very old, very beat up vw beetle….sitting in the grass by a beautiful red barn. We all walked over hoping to find someone home so we could ask permission to do photos in the field with the car. A knock on the door, revealed that one was home.

As we stood in the road deliberating, a car pulled up and turned into the driveway. The homeowner! What a wonderful man he was. When we asked him if we could use the car as our backdrop, he said, “You want to use that old car? Maybe you’d rather use the one that is in there instead,” he said as he pointed toward the garage.

Hmm, what’s in there?

And, he proceeded to pull out of the garage, the most beautiful nineteen fifty something restored, very cool truck. Pardon me for not knowing exactly what it was. Old cars are very cool to look at, but don’t ask me any detailed questions about the make and models. (Unless of course they are bright orange, very old, very beat up, vw beetles.)

“Where do you want it?” the very nice man asked. To which I replied almost breathless, “Can you put it in that field?”

Sure enough. Into the field it went. Mr. Neighbor, who’s name I never found out, you are a hero. And, your blue 1950 whatcha ma call it truck is amazing – as is your bright orange, very old, very beat up, vw beetle!

As if that wasn’t enough. Halfway through our session, the sun peeked out and gave me it’s best late afternoon, sweet light.

What more could you ask for? Two beautiful subjects, two amazing old cars, and gorgeous late afternoon light.

We all had so much fun!

{Here you go Tracy and Pam, I know you have been dying for a peak!}

All images ©Susan Dodd

I photographed these two little cuties with their parents a bit ago for their Christmas cards. You might remember seeing them here a few posts back. I’ve been going through and editing the images that their mom hasn’t seen yet and came upon these. I couldn’t resist posting them.

I am floored by her amazing innocence and simply beautiful eyes. This has to be one of my absolute favorites from the whole session!

Introducing Ella, their adorable little puppy. She is a perfect fit for two beautiful little girls!

All images ©Susan Dodd