LONG ISLAND NEWBORN AND PET PHOTOGRAPHER - LAURA PEA PHOTOGRAPHY
  • Home
  • Galleries
    • Babies
    • Pets
  • About
  • FAQ
    • Pets FAQ
    • Babies FAQ
  • Investment
  • Blog
  • Contact

Shoot & Share 2018 Contest Results

3/27/2018

0 Comments

 
The Shoot & Share Contest is an annual photography competition run by shootandshare.com. Last year was the first year that I submitted. I was so pleased that one of my photos made it into the top 20% in the Pets category. This year, 3 of my photos received placement awards! One reached the top 30% percent in the Birth/Newborn category. Another placed in the top 20% in the Creative/Personal Project category. Lastly, one of my photos was a Finalist in the Creative/Personal Project category! This means that my photo made it through all 12 rounds of voting (!!!) and placed within the top 3% of the over 13,000 photos in the category. Last year, my best photo only lasted into round 7 of 12, so this was a pleasant surprise, considering the unbelievable amount of talented photographers who are involved in this contest. It means so much to me to see that I’m improving. I strive to always keep learning and honing my craft every year, so it’s very gratifying to see that it pays off.

Two of the photos were taken for 52Frames photo challenges. This is a reminder to me to bring more of the creativity that I use for my personal art work into the photos that I shoot for clients. Those two photos were both composite photos, which I love to do, so that's also very nice to see. It makes me want to do more and more of them. 

Thanks again to shootandshare.com for putting on this awesome competition. I hope I continue to improve. I'm looking forward to next year!
Here are my images that received awards!
Picture
Picture
Picture

Want to keep up with what I'm doing in the photography world, and also get cool photo-related freebies? Sign up for my email list here!

0 Comments

[Free Printable] Spring Photo Checklist

3/20/2018

1 Comment

 
Spring is finally here! Not that it feels like it all that much, though. Hopefully we'll see a break in the cold weather soon. Now that there's more hours of sunlight in the day, there's more time to take beautiful photos! Every year, I make a photo book of each month and Spring is always a very fun and colorful time to look back on.

I like to have a good amount of photos to represent each season of the year, so that's why I made up this Spring Photo Checklist. Use it to make sure your yearly photo album has a good variety of images throughout the year.
Picture
Click here to download the checklist!

You’ll receive an email with the link to my freebies page, where you can download the checklist and all my other freebies. If you’re already an email subscriber, I sent out a newsletter with the checklist this morning, so check your inbox! There will always be a link to the freebies page at the bottom of every email.

​Happy Shooting!

Rather not take these photos yourself? Schedule a session with me! Email me at [email protected]
or call me at (631)256-7476. 

1 Comment

Danielle & Kevin’s Maternity Session

3/17/2018

0 Comments

 
Danielle and Kevin are going to be first time parents soon, and I'm positive that they're going to be very very good ones. They have been getting good practice with their two French bulldog pups! These two were so sweet and loving to each other during their maternity session, I know they're going to have a lot of love to give to their baby. They made each other smile and laugh the entire time we were shooting. At the end, Kevin even told me he had fun! Let me tell you, most guys think taking photos is a chore, so it was a really nice change to hear him say he had a good time! I had a great time working with them too, and I can't wait to meet their little one soon! It was hard to narrow them down, but here are a few of my favorite photos from our session!

Are you expecting your own bundle of joy? Email me at [email protected] or call me at (631)256-7476 to schedule your maternity photos. 

0 Comments

Lilly's Newborn Session

3/12/2018

0 Comments

 
Lovely Lilly was a little more than a month old during her first photo session, so she was a bit more alert than a lot of the babies I photograph. I’m not used to seeing open eyes during my sessions, but hers were so pretty, it was a nice change of pace! She was very good at looking at the camera too, which was pleasantly surprising to me.

Even though she was awake, she was a very happy baby throughout the whole session! She didn’t even mind being wrapped up in a scratchy flag during some special photos with her dad, who is a firefighter EMT. Shockingly, she actually nodded off a little bit when we put her into his helmet, which was probably the most uncomfortable set up we did that whole day!

​Here are a few of my favorite photos from Lilly’s session!
Interested in learning more about how to plan for newborn sessions? Get a free copy of my pdf ebook “Foolproof Tips for a Stress Free Photo Shoot” here.

Book your newborn session today! Email me at [email protected] or call me at (631)256-7476.

0 Comments

Lisa and Will’s Gender Reveal

3/11/2018

0 Comments

 
For the past 10 weeks, my sister was driving around with a sealed envelope in her car. No one but a few of the women that work at her OB-Gyn office knew what was inside that envelope. It contained the gender of her baby. It took tremendous willpower for all of us not to rip open that envelope every time we got in her car. But yesterday at her gender reveal party, we finally got to know what’s in that envelope!

​When guests arrived, they got the chance to cast their vote on what they thought Lisa’s going to have. I was pretty torn. I kept going back and forth. Scrutinizing the sonogram didn’t help because, let’s face it, those things are unintelligible blobs. I ended up guessing boy, because I have a really cute baby shower invitation picked out if it’s a boy. I’m going to love and spoil this baby either way, so it doesn’t really matter to me. When the guesses stopped, the votes stood at 15 for girl, 14 for boy. It turned out later we found out that Lisa and Will's adorable niece Peyton voted twice (once for her My Little Pony), so really it seems like it was a dead tie!
Picture
Picture
Picture
After we all ate and drank and the parents in the room had a chance to extoll the virtues of having either a boy or a girl, it was finally time for the big reveal. Lisa was so nervous, she was putting off the cake cutting, but all our friends pushed her until she gave in! Lisa and Will nervously cut into the amazing “What Will it Bee?” cake made by Lil’ V Pastry Boutique. The first piece revealed.......NOTHING! They didn’t cut deep enough to reach the colored candies hiding inside. Everyone was on tenterhooks and Will got impatient and just hacked right down the middle and they both started celebrating...

It’s a BOY!

I’m so excited! I can’t wait to meet my nephew. He is loved so much already.

Are you expecting? Check out some of the other gender reveals I’ve photographed to get some inspiration! BLUE or PINK

0 Comments

Photos from Puppy Yoga at JABS Cutchogue 3.5.18

3/7/2018

2 Comments

 
I think any form of exercise could probably be improved with the addition of puppies, to distract you from the fact that you’re not eating chocolate on your couch. Yoga is no exception. Since yoga is pretty slow and deliberate, it’s the perfect activity to mix safely with puppies, who can tend to get underfoot! I was so happy to be at JABS gym in Cutchogue to document their first ever Puppy Yoga class, which gave new meaning to the phrase downward dog! The class filled up in only 2 days and the registration fee went to benefit the North Fork Animal Welfare League. Originally, the event also had an aim to get a litter of puppies adopted, but by the time the class happened, they’d all been placed in their forever homes! The owners graciously brought their new pups into the studio for participants to snuggle and enjoy while they exercised.

The puppies were so full of life and they happily entertained all the yogis while they stretched. There were a few instances of furry mischief, like when one of the pups grabbed someone’s cell phone and ran off with it, but mostly they behaved beautifully! There were only two minor accidents of the bodily type, also. Not bad for doggies so young! No doubt this was the most fun yoga class attendees had ever been to, and I was so glad I was there to photograph it! Here are some of my favorite photos from the class!
There were whispers of a possible upcoming kitten yoga class....Stay tuned for more!

Are you a Long Island pet lover? Sign up for my newsletter for local pet events, freebies & more!

2 Comments

Baby Horton: The Rainbow after the Storm

3/1/2018

0 Comments

 
I’m very excited to announce that my sister is having a baby! We are all so happy that we’re going to be welcoming a new member to the family. We are made even happier because it was a very very hard road getting to this point.

​Lisa and her husband Will started trying for a family in November of 2015. The first time Lisa told me she was pregnant was in October of 2016. I was overjoyed. Unfortunately, in December we got the heartbreaking news that Lisa had suffered a miscarriage. It hit our family hard. It was painful to see my sister going through something so unimaginably devastating.

In May of 2017, we found out Lisa was pregnant again, only to get the crushing news in June that she had had a second miscarriage. Compounding Lisa's sorrow was the fact that several close friends and family members gave birth around the time of both miscarriages, the fact that I'm a newborn photographer, and the fact that Lisa works at an OB-Gyn office. Every day, more salt was poured in her wounds. She was very close to giving up on having a family, but Will convinced her not to give up hope, and I'm so happy he did.

Her doctors began doing exhaustive testing and found that she has two different blood clotting disorders that caused her miscarriages. She now has to take aspirin every day for the rest of her life, and has to inject herself in the stomach with medication every day for the rest of her pregnancy.

Lisa became pregnant in November of 2017, and was understandably a wreck for the first many weeks. She didn't even tell our parents that she was pregnant until she was 15 weeks. She's at 18 weeks now and is still very hesitant to share her news because of how she was burned twice before. Every impending appointment fills her with dread, only to be relieved right after that the baby is perfectly healthy. The worry will probably never go away, but she is making a valiant effort to be positive and to share her news with the world.

Yesterday, I went to her doctor's appointment with her and saw the baby move on the sonogram for the first time. It was an incredible experience. A rainbow baby is a baby that is born after parents suffer a miscarriage or still birth, because a rainbow comes after a storm. I cannot wait to meet this rainbow baby and document its entire life.
We started the process with a photo shoot with my dog nephew Ash, and a few photos to commemorate the struggle that Lisa has been through.
Picture
I got Lisa's permission to share her story. She and I both think that miscarriage is a thing that should be talked about more. Most women are silent about their struggles with miscarriage and infertility, making it an isolating and even more painful experience. If you know someone who is dealing with this horrible situation, please try to be there for them in any way you can. It's so easy to celebrate someone's joys with them, but it's so much harder to comfort them in their sorrows. Let them know you're thinking of them and ask them how they are. Even if they don't want to talk, they'll know that you care, and that can make a world of difference. If you yourself are going through it, please know that you aren't alone, and try not to give up hope for a rainbow baby of your own.
Picture
0 Comments

    Author

    Laura Paesano
    Long Island, NY

    Picture
    Laura Pea Photography

    Categories

    All
    Cats
    Dogs
    Events
    Families
    Holidays
    Infants
    Kids
    Long Island
    Maternity
    Newborns
    Pets
    Photography
    Photo Spots
    Printables
    Products
    Toddlers

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014

    Flickr
Email [email protected] or call 631-256-7476
All images copyright 2024 Laura Pea Photography
Contact Laura here.
Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • Galleries
    • Babies
    • Pets
  • About
  • FAQ
    • Pets FAQ
    • Babies FAQ
  • Investment
  • Blog
  • Contact