rio!

What a joy to finally meet Jenna and Florent's little fella, Rio. Before she knew the gender of the baby, she had nicknamed it "Sparkle", which is just about the best thing ever. However, the name Rio ranks really high on the coolness chart. He's named after the place, not the Duran Duran song. As awesome as the name is, he'll always be Sparkle to me. Just like baby Henry will always be Chauncey Rocket, little Max will always be Robot Zillionaire, and Alasdair will forever be Soul Crusher X.

There are several things that you'll have to bear hearing me repeat a million times. One is that I LOVE when people come to me with new and inventive ideas for their photos. I can always come up with something, but then there's the question of whether or not it will fit the people in the shoot. If folks bring their own ideas to the table, we'll definitely be working with a scenario that suits them. Win, win!

Some of you may recognize Jenna, who was looking fabulous in an earlier post of her maternity pics. She had worked on a film that played at the historic Plaza Theater, so she thought it would be cool to take some shots of her adorable new baby there. Man, was she right! The powers that be at the Plaza were kind enough to give us free reign of the space before movie time. At the moment, they have the front of the theater entirely decorated to promote Halloween II. Lots of devils, headstones, and even a tiny coffin. We looked at each other and were like, "NO!". Not quite family portrait material. Not a problem. There were plenty of other incredible places.

So here are some examples of what I shot with this rock star family. Note for other photographers: if you're ever in a low-light situation, it sure is nice to have a gigantic white movie screen for bouncing flash. Yay!

Jenna totally has a Catherine Zeta Jones thing goin' on here...

They brought these great old cameras that Florent has, and we set up this paparazzi shot. They were totally cracking me up.

Anton Corbijn is one of my favorite photographers. This next photo is a humble homage to his style.

After the movie theater, we headed to their lovely home for a few more pics. They have this interesting plant with heart-shaped leaves!

I love the look he's giving his dad.

Florent is a champion of homemade pasta, and has convinced me that this is the best way to do it. I have a feeling there will be lots of pasta in my future. I'm adding one of these contraptions to my wish list.

Hooray! So much thanks to the wonderful Jenna, Florent, and Rio!