Karen Jacot / the blog » families

something new

Karen — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:42:41 +0000

I did this session last weekend in New York…my friend Julie just had a baby (six-weeks-old in these pictures) and asked me to do photos while I was there. I love combining photo sessions with travel so of course I said yes. And I love love love shooting in clients’ homes. We shot these in their Astoria apartment. It’s a small apartment, and the best light was in the bedroom, so we just all got on the bed for these. At the end I took them out on the balcony for a few.

I also wanted to try something new, and Julie agreed to be my guinea pig. I brought along a digital voice recorder and asked her to talk about how she felt about becoming a mom, how she felt like her life had changed with Vika’s birth, what she wanted to remember about this time. Then I synced the voice recording with the slideshow of images from her shoot. The video is about 3 1/2 minutes long.

This is Vika (Vee-ka, the Russian nickname for Victoria, which is her full name). She was born with a birth defect where her colon had not connected to her anus. So she has had to go through a few surgeries so far to correct this, starting with a colostomy–a rerouting of the colon to connect it with a hole in the abdomen wall, where they attach a bag that collects poop. You can see the bag in one of the images. After a couple more surgeries in which they will reconstruct her anus and connect the colon, the bag will be removed and she’ll be completely normal. Julie talks a little about one of the surgeries in the video.

i love photographing in people’s homes

Karen — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:58:42 +0000

This is one of my favorite sessions I’ve done yet. I always suggest to clients that we shoot in their home, but people don’t always want to. I like it because it’s them, it’s their stuff & their place, everyone’s more comfortable and relaxed and doesn’t feel as much like they have to “perform” while we’re out at a location specifically for photos.

I’ve gotten to know this family a bit over the past year, as our kids go to preschool together. The girls are so sweet, and their mom is one of the nicest women you will ever meet. I love the images we got from their session.

manhattan family

Karen — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:02:37 +0000

They live in New York on the Upper West Side, a block from Central Park. The kids were a little shy at first but still came running down the hallway of their building to meet me as I came off the elevator, which was awesome. I shot a few photos in their apartment, and then as their mom encouraged them to get ready to go outside to do more photos, the little girl said, “But, Mom, she just took, like, FIVE pictures of me. Isn’t that enough?”

father’s day surprise

Karen — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:18:55 +0000

Their mom hired me to do photos of the kids as a Father’s Day gift for her husband. I love this idea! We did the pictures on the day he left town on business. Here are a few of my favorites.

loved these boys!

Karen — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:29:39 +0000

These two brothers are hilarious. They diligently stood still and followed directions for the more posed shots, and then when I told them to be goofy, they really let loose. I loved seeing them crack up!

three generations

Karen — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:00:12 +0000

Family of twelve, three generations. They found a great park down in League City where we did their session. These families were fun to work with; they all obviously enjoyed being around each other. Because I needed to capture so many different groups together, I didn’t get to spend too much time with any one kid or family, which I regret, but here are a few of my favorites from that morning.

another boulder session

Karen — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:45:32 +0000

Here’s another family I photographed in Boulder. I hate admitting that I had a hard time with photos. But I did have a hard time with these two kids. Not the kids’ faults, just their ages (4 and 2), which didn’t lend themselves to, say, sitting in one spot for pictures. I spent too long trying to get pics in a setting that I knew wasn’t working, and I should have stopped and figured out something else sooner. After we moved into a different spot, I got some better shots. And I still managed to get several that I really like.

And the last one–creepy or funny? It’s the first time the Virgin Mary has ever been in one of my photographs.

family session

Karen — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:28:26 +0000

I’m late in posting these…here are a few of my favorites from a family session I did back in early December here in Houston. They all seem to have a lot of fun together, which I think shows in these photos.

I know I did this one with the last family I posted, too, but I thought it was a fun shot, so I did it again.

family session at Hermann Park

Karen — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:52:38 +0000

This weekend I had a great shoot with the W family in Houston’s Hermann Park. What a great place to hang out, now that it’s not so crazy hot anymore. (And the geese sure are friendly.)

And this last one shows pretty much what the six-year-old thought of the whole thing, but he was a trooper! I love this one.

family session

Karen — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:18:22 +0000

Ok…a couple of pics from my very last photo session in San Diego. I am trying to get everyone’s galleries up so I can get orders in so I have time to order from my lab and have them back in time to deliver them before I leave town. Whew. It’s coming up quickly. I move in TWO WEEKS, people. Hard for me to believe, really, but that’s a whole other post.

Here’s the S-H family. We did these on the grounds of the Marston House in Balboa Park, which is beautiful. I’ve got color versions of these, too, but I think I like the b&ws best.