I’m taking a quick minute to give a personal update (even though I know I am about 4 sessions behind on this blog; I’ll catch up I swear!). This weekend my we celebrated my son’s First Holy Communion. It was a very special, fun, and hectic day. Alex, in his typical fashion, was not at all nervous about this day. I remember as a kid when it was my first communion I was a ball of nerves. Not my kid. Cool as a cucumber. In fact, walking into the mass during the processional he was all smiles and waving to family members. All the other kids were stoic or reverent. My son would’ve stopped to shake hands if he could have. That’s not to say he wasn’t taking it seriously, because he most certainly was. He was just THAT excited.

Then, minutes after receiving his first holy communion, I snapped this shot. Which is so emotional to me. I know my kid, and in this moment not only was he praying, but I know he was also releasing his nerves. Alex can put up a great front, but mama knows how he ticks.

OK, back to the day. Being a photographer, this day was WAY more stressful to me than it should have been. I needed to have GOOD seats. And not just any ‘good’ seats. I needed to be seated in the center aisle, on the end, and on the left (since the boys would be on the left side). Since no flash was allowed I knew I needed to use a long focal length that allowed me to open up and not jack the ISO way up (have I lost you? Sorry). Oh, and then I wanted to be able to run along to the side to get an action shot of him actually receiving the communion.

So yea, my goals were completely rational and doable.

Except it was a FULL ceremony. Naturally.

I didn’t want to be obnoxious and block any parent from doing the same thing I was doing, so I talked to a couple friends before the ceremony started and planned to jump into the pew with them to snap pictures of our kids. But then at the big moment I couldn’t find where they were seated! Because that’s how these things work right? Thankfully I found my son’s classroom aides who allowed me to squeeze into the pew with them to snap my pictures of the actual moment. Which I am grateful for because I LOVE having the actual moment and his reaction to it documented. Talk about special.

Let’s get started.

Since I have ants in my pants I was able to grab some pictures of the kids lining up to walk into the mass. My little man is so used to mommy having a camera in his face that seeing me at the key locations during his ceremony was in no way a surprise to him.

Guess who spotted the family?

Lining up for the big moment

THE moment. And I got it.

Oh look, mommy is here too. 🙂

After the ceremony we snapped a couple pictures with his friends, but didn’t hang around to take our formal pictures. It was midday without a cloud in the sky and so crowded that I decided it was better to take pictures near our house. Besides, I had already taken Alex’s formal portraits so I wasn’t going to fight the crowds for bright, squinty eyed pictures. If it was a cloudy day I might have made a different choice, but this worked out best for us.

A couple of Alex’s formal portraits.

And then day of with nonno and nonna

Our little family

Then it was time to party!

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