So on crispy and gray fall afternoon, we met in the historic neighborhood of Beacon Hill, traversed our way to the Public Garden, wandered through the Back Bay, stopping to window shop at AllSaints Spitalfields and admire their collection of vintage sewing machines — Louise’s family is in the textile business and she is an avid sewer. We stopped at the Old South Church where Louise sings in the choir, and finally warmed up with a glass of red wine at a Newbury Street bistro.

It turns out that Louise and I grew up in the same Atlanta suburb, and graduated from the same high school! We both agreed that despite the frigid cold, being transplanted from suburban sprawl to a tiny, walkable and beautiful city like Boston has not been a bad thing at all. Strolls from one neighborhood to the next, all steeped in history, is a weekly ritual and like me, they feel lucky to have been able to experience and appreciate Boston in this way.

We started in the Boston Common, weaved our way through Beacon Hill, chasing the light, stopped at the docks on the Esplanade and ended at the Commonwealth Ave Mall just in time for twinkling tree lighting. Afterwards I discovered about 99.9% of all the photos were shot into the sun. The only reason it isn’t 100% is because the clouds rolled in towards the end. I was about to apologize for all the backlighting, but you know what, screw you! I love backlighting okay? Especially these days when the sun has been few and far between. Luckily Jen likes backlighting too, so as long as we’re on the same page, it’s all good.

The first image here was the very first shot I took, as I was taking out the camera out of the bag. I could see the whites of Jen’s eyes. So to ease ourselves into the shoot, I fired a sneaky peeky without looking into the view finder. They don’t always turn out, but it’s fun when they do.

Jen should get in front of the camera more…

I was on the phone with a co-worker that morning and told him I had to skedaddle early for a shoot and he asked, “What kind of dog this time?” And I said, “Ha no dog, two humans.” He said, “What’s the occasion?” And I replied, “They want to. Just cuz.” And he was like, “I don’t get it.” Sigh. This coming from someone who had no photos taken at his own wedding. Anyway now I’ve been calling these sorts of non-wedding, non-engagement, non-pet shoots “Just Because” shoots. You can come up with any reason you want, or none at all, but we’re doing a shoot…just because.

The scene was Davis Square in Somerville, where Abby and Caleb first set roots when they moved from the Midwest to the Northeast. We started off with some oversized beers at Mike’s – where we ALMOST forgot we were there to do a shoot and not to get sloshed – and roamed about from there.

By the way, Caleb is a physicist. He takes atoms, splits them apart and turns them into Smurfs. He might as well have told me he was an X-Man, as my eyes widened in fear and awe.

A very happy six years together, and here’s to sixty more!