2020 Favorites – Portraits

Wait just a second, I shoot portraits?!
Shhhh, this is our little secret, okay?
Here’s the deal: I don’t advertise that I shoot portraits. You can look all over my website, you won’t find a single “portrait” session advertised. I no longer blog these sessions either! I used to simply post sneak peeks of my portraits over on my Facebook page, but as of 2019, I stopped doing that as well!

Maternity photos, newborns, kids, seniors, families – I can do all of it, but I’ve chosen to focus all of my efforts on the three things I love the absolute most: proposals, engagements, and weddings. (You know what they say, “Just because you can do it all, doesn’t mean you should.”) However, proposals, engagements, and weddings naturally lead to babies & families! So, if you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you’ll notice that about 95% of the portraits in this post are for people I’ve already photographed (usually on their “day one” – on their wedding day)!

In other words: if most of the people in this post look really familiar – they should! I’ve photographed some of these families every single year for the last 10+ years!! And they’re absolutely precious to me. They’re some of my dearest friends & I love them.

I think it’s one of my favorite things about being a photographer: the relationships I’ve formed thru my business have held tight for years – it’s amazing & seriously the best perk of this job!

So, what I’ve found works best for me & my business (and my time) is that I’ve started holding a “portrait mini-session day”. I reach out to (only) my past clients & let them know that I’m holding a day of portrait sessions & for the past 3 years, that day has worked out perfectly. I get to hang out with my favorite people, capture a new, updated set of portraits for them, and it’s all done in a concentrated amount of time. Over the last 3 years, I’ve done mini-session days up in the Twin Tiers, where Derrick & I used to live, and in 2020, I started a mini-session day here in the Pittsburgh, PA area – where we currently live! (In other words: if the locations of a lot of these photos looks similar, it’s because many of these photos were taken on the same day, at the same place.)

Even though I don’t advertise portraits – I do still always try to find time to re-connect with my past brides & grooms! Typically, my wedding clients go on to become my sweet friends, so how can I say “no”?

If you’d like to see some of my previous “favorite portrait” posts, you can find
2019’s favorite portraits here,
2018’s favorite portraits here,
2017’s favorite portraits here, 
2016’s favorite portraits here, 
2015’s favorite portraits here, & 
2014’s favorite portraits here!
In fact, it’s really fun to go back and see how each family has grown & changed!

So, here we go! These are my favorite portraits (ranging from couples to families to seniors) from 2020 (in absolutely no particular order – seriously, I put all of my favorite images into a “randomizer” and this is the order it spit everything out in – how could I ever put 120+ images in any sort of order?)

One last note: this post is dedicated to the world’s best dog – Copper Goeres, who I have been photographing since his human’s got engaged back in 2014. He came along to Megan & Anwar’s engagement session, was part of their wedding day, & has been in every session I’ve photographed for them ever since. He was always the most well-behaved pup & I always loved seeing him. He passed away a few weeks ago & the world will never be the same.

If you missed my other “favorite” image posts from 2020, be sure to check them out here:
Favorite Roller Coasters
And stay tuned! Next week is going to be a BIG week with my favorite engagement images & my favorite wedding images!