Celebrating Family Joy in Central Park: A Playful Photoshoot

Sep 23

black and white image of parents holding their young son in the park

I had the pleasure of photographing Jill and her beautiful family on July 2nd during an outing in Central Park.

Jill’s family was visiting from California, so she wanted to celebrate the occasion with pictures out at Three Bears Playground, AKA the Pat Hoffman Friedan Playground, which recently underwent a $1.2 million makeover. The renovation brought age-appropriate slides, swings, sandboxes, and sprinklers so younger children could be able to play there too! This made it the perfect setting for the pair of two-year-old boys we had at this session—Jill’s son, Michael, and her nephew, Logan.

We began our session at Cedar Hill, which is close to the playground, running around and playing hide and seek as we took some pictures under the beautiful cedar trees. When I could tell the boys were ready to move on, we headed over to the playground to play in the sandbox and got out some bubbles. Seriously, what toddler does not LOVE bubbles?! We finished the session getting soaked by running through the water sprinklers. These two boys are both so smart and playful, and I loved capturing their joy and excitement as they ran through the water, holding hands and joking with me by trying to get me wet.

We had a pretty large group all together at the playground. Jill’s brother, Craig, and his wife, Tami, had come to visit along with all of her parents. Not to mention Jill and her partner, Greg, who were so sweet with the boys and with each other. In fact, the love that was obvious to see between every single member of the family was completely contagious. I especially adored one moment when Jill’s father “borrowed” my bicycle and decided to go off on his own adventure DOWN Cedar Hill! So epic! Those images were hilarious.

Jill, thank you for asking me to capture these memories for you and to be part of snapshotting these unscripted memories of this time in your family’s life. I honestly feel honored to be a part of your day and getting to be around you and those you love!