The Bussell Family || Indianapolis, IN
A few weeks back, we were given the opportunity for a last-minute family portrait session with this beautiful + energetic family. While we are quite keen (and well seasoned) in posing people, sometimes our favorite moments come about when we’re not giving directions. The second set of images is the product of one of those moments, and certainly moments we know the family will cherish for many years.
Many thanks to the Bussell family for welcoming us to your home!
Lai Family Portraits || Belle Mead, NJ Photography
Another year, another family session!
We are proud to call this family both dear friends + long time clients of Dreamlite Photography. We have had the pleasure of celebrating many milestones throughout the years– engagement, first born, and now, their incredible family of four.
When we first started discussing locations for family portraits, we immediately knew where to take them. Although some may describe it as “just another New Jersey park”, we envisioned so much more. This park has features that you wouldn’t expect for a typical township park. The modern playground facilities are only a few years old, but the surrounding landscape reminds us of our past travels throughout the United States. The substantial mountain ranges standing high above the park bring us back to our time in Denver, and the golden hued grass (coupled with the early morning sun light) transported us back to central valley of California.
For those of you who are anticipating a family portrait session in the near future, one word of advice: SNACKS. Bring snacks. Any kind of assortment that can serve as a motivator while your photographer says, “just a few more pictures, I promise!” We won’t deny that Dunkin Donuts had a huge part in making this portrait session possible.
Make sure you scroll down to see the very last pic– the brothers are sporting matching shirts that read, “There is no buddy like a brother!” What a fitting statement.
Leung Family || Family Portraits in the West Village
One of the greatest joys of our job is being able to create portraits for families, year after year. For the second year in a row, we’ve had the wonderful opportunity to hang out with this family in the West Village. Best of all, there is a new addition to their family, arriving November of this year!
Family Portraits in New Jersey
While we’re not documenting wedding celebrations, we’re spending time with some amazing families. Many of the families we photograph are families we’ve been blessed to know over the last few years. This particular family has been in front of the Dreamlite cameras since early 2010. What began as a family of 3 has grown into an incredibly warm + joyful family of 5!
Background on the first photo seen below: Mom + Dad have a “no jumping on the bed” rule at home… but when the family photographer came by for an official photo visit, exceptions were happily made. Here are some of our favorite images from their session:
The Güell Family || Central Park Family Portraits
When this family inquired with us, they weren’t just interested in a summer family photo-session in the greatest city in the world. They also wanted to commemorate this 4th of July, as a family, prior to their move to Europe. Best of all, they showed up in matching American Flag Old Navy t-shirts.
As the daylight began to dim and our time was coming to an end, I had the family take a seat in the grass and asked them to get their kids laughing. This ended up being my favorite image from their session.
Family Photos || Colonial Park, Somerset, NJ
Recently had the opportunity to join this wonderful family for some springtime photos with their two young children. We ventured around Colonial Park to soak in the spring colors, and ended our session with a breakfast picnic. Here’s a few of our favorite moments from that day.
If your family (or you know of someone) interested in having family portraits taken, please contact us!
Shoot us an email at jon@dreamlitephotography.com
Dreamlite + 1
A special message from Howie:
My beautiful wife and I are expecting our first child. Diana is due later this month and we couldn’t be more excited. We have not found out the gender of our baby and look forward to the surprise. We wanted to share some great photos that Jon (the other half of Dreamlite) took of us both in New York City. We hope you enjoy these photos and we’ll update you soon with more photos of the new baby! (HC)
Halloween Portraits
When you receive an email from a mother asking to have Halloween costume portraits done of their child, the appropriate response would be “Of course! That sounds great.” When the mother suggests gathering a few other playmates from her neighborhood to join in, the correct answer is (and was): “When?!?!”
Meet the cutest lady bug, princess & witch in all of Manhattan.
Pia at the Park
Pía’s parents had contacted us not too long ago about a family photo session in New York City. Excitingly enough, they had heard about us through one of their friends (aka another family we had the honor of photographing last fall). We eventually decided upon Carl Schurz Park, an increasingly favorite spot of ours for photo sessions. Home to Gracie Mansion, an outdoor dog run, and a family-friendly environment, we spent our entire session playing with bubbles and exploring the various areas of the park. Special thanks to our friend Yanshu for the lighting assistance- couldn’t have done the family photos without your help. 🙂 Enjoy some of our favorite images below.
Last but not least, I wanted to include one of my favorite moments from their session– see the last photo & the accompanying text.
Oliver at the Park
Earlier this fall, Oliver and his parents joined me (Jon) for a family photo session at Carl Schurz Park in New York City. We spent the afternoon strolling through this magnificent jewel of a park– spacious green lawns, kid-friendly walkways and a great view of the East River. Best of all, this family was extremely warm and easygoing from the start– especially Oliver. In fact, Oliver spent very little time shying away from me before he repeatedly approached me and offered me to play with his toys. For a little guy just shy of his second birthday, he was really sociable and outgoing.
As you will see in the photos below, a lot of our time was spent blowing bubbles. Lots and lots of bubbles. In fact, Oliver’s mom told me “bubbles” was his first word. I can’t even remember the last time I played with bubbles for fun, but over the last few months I’ve been fortunate enough to have bubbles included in a few recent photo shoots. I must admit…I’ll probably go and pickup a few bottles of my own during the winter months. Hope you all enjoy this latest set!
(And if you’d like to see your family on our blog OR know a family who’d love to have their photos taken, we’d love to get connected via email– info AT dreamlitephotography.com— or, catch us on facebook.)
Spencer in Central Park
It’s incredibly exciting when families call us back to do more photographs with them. As always, it was a really nice opportunity to see Spencer & his family again after a ten month hiatus.
Prior to beginning our session, Spencer’s parents warned me that he was “on his feet”, pretty much guaranteeing me a full afternoon of exercise… and correct they were. Spencer has grown quite a bit since our last session, and was certainly taking advantage of his newly acquired bipedal abilities.
We spent the afternoon in Central Park near one of my favorite photography locations, the 72nd street traverse. Though the park was crowded, as expected on a warm October afternoon, we quickly found a quaint little spot beneath the shade of a large tree.
Besides watching Spencer constantly snack throughout our two hour session, definitely one of my favorite moments that day had to be when Spencer sported his halloween costume– a full-body Elmo outfit. He definitely received his fair share of “awws” and “how cute!” from passersby. Thanks again to Spencer and his family for another great photography session!
Spencer’s Baby Portrait Session
Since Spencer had recently turned six months young, his parents graciously invited one of us over for a portrait session.
Often, people think of family portrait sessions as the boring “sit-on-the-stool-and-say-cheese” moments buried deep down in their own childhood recollections. Thankfully, this is exactly how Dreamlite does NOT allow their sessions to be. Instead, we are all about having our families hanging out, feeling comfortable, and spending quality time with each other. As all of this is going, we simply sit back and capture those beautiful moments as they occur.
This entire portrait session felt more like a family play date than anything else. Spencer’s parents began the fun afternoon with the popular children’s book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?” by Eric Carle. Though Spencer can be seen reading the book alongside his parents, what really gave him a good laugh was all of the animal sounds his parents had added along with the reading. Spencer also had a good time showing me all of the toys he could put in his mouth. Between his books, rattlers, and stuffed animals, his definite favorite were the sea creatures. Other awesome activities included blowing bubbles and and peek-a-boo with the couch pillows.
We hope you enjoy this set!
Vicky + Christian
Hey everybody! This is Jon Tan here, writing out our latest blog entry.
We’ve been so busy the last few weeks with editing, album building, signing with awesome new clients (hooray!) and replying to a boatload of emails that we’ve been neglecting our blog postings.
This mother and son session took place a few weeks before the winter frost set in. I arrived embarrassingly late (well over an hour) since my train ride back from NYC that afternoon was delayed. As soon as I hopped off the train, I ran to my car and sped all the way to the park. Thankfully we had enough evening sunlight to shoot a good hour of photos.
Having never met Vicky before in person, I looked around hoping for someone to approach me as I carried my camera bag on my shoulder. The next thing I knew, I felt someone wrapping their little arms around my legs in a bear-cub-style hug. Without saying a word, he ran off… and that’s how Christian introduced himself to me.
Normally during a family photo session, we as photographers bring along many of the activity and posing ideas. However, this time it was very different. Vicky had brought along all the awesome ideas to keep her son active and entertained. She brought along his bicycle, a football, a soccer ball and homemade chocolate-frosted cupcakes with sprinkles. This made my job a hundred times easier, allowing me to focus on creating some fun images.
Thank you Vicky and Christian for the fun session, and Mr. Daniel Liu for referring us to family!
Ming + Michelle Family Session
Had a wonderful time photographing this family of three at Johnson Park in Piscataway, NJ. The trees were beginning to show their autumn colors, making the scenery just right for our session. The soft afternoon light also added it’s own special touch to the setting… really, the perfect day in the park!
Jonathan (the cute kid in the photos below) had just woken up from his afternoon nap, but it didn’t take long before he was in full gear. It was really fun to watch him munch on rice cake after rice cake. It was also exciting to see him go down the slide and then climb back up to the top all by himself. Now, how many two years olds have YOU seen do that?
If you are perusing our site and like what you see, contact us for your next photo session! [ info AT dreamlitestudios DOT com ]
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Jonathan’s been entered in the Casting Call by GAP. A VOTE FOR HIM IS A VOTE FOR US!
http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/Jonathan%20Lloyd%20Ng/
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Family Picnic At The Park
Two weeks ago, we were invited to come along and enjoy an evening picnic with the Lin Family at Colonial Park. The weather was perfect for a picnic in the park, with just the right amount of sunshine and summer breeze.
From the homemade peanut noodles to the golden rays of sunshine, our evening was fantastic. More importantly, we had a great time watching Sam and Sarah spending some quality family time with their two beautiful daughters. What can we say, being photographers rock.
