I've known Lindsay Gabriele for a few years now. Her and I have a lot of mutual friends in our hometown of Stamford, CT. Over time everyone seems to eventually meet everyone so Lindsay and I would eventually befriend one another. I've learned that she's fun and uhh, quite competitive (there's a MarioKart story from years ago involving her showing no mercy with red shells. Just ruthless). She was also a gymnastics instructor and we worked together back in 2009 on a few photographs of her class as they prepared for state competitions.

In August of 2013, one of our mutual friends, Meghan, decided to celebrate her birthday in a bakery in NYC. It was a fun time, and that evening is when I met Lindsay's boyfriend, Daniel. He's a great guy and I was happy to see their connection and bond (hmm...he is "the one?")

Fast forward to February of 2016 where Lindsay sent me a message that her and her husband, Daniel, were expecting. One of the perks of being a photographer is that your friends let you know things like this (or engagements or surprise parties) well before others know. Lindsay let me know that her and Daniel would be traveling to the west coast, since they have family out here, and that they'd like to do a secret baby announcement photo shoot. Yep, let's do it. We worked out the details and decided to meet up in Santa Monica, more specifically at the Santa Monica Pier.

Lindsay and Daniel were really easy to work with. They were open to creative ideas and we really just improvised on the spot. I picked up a few items before the shoot, like the tiny pink and blue beach buckets, some chalk and the chalkboard. Lindsay and Daniel brought their smiles and a very important sonogram image of their baby to be. It all added up to a fun afternoon. I may or may not have danced in excitement when we caught images of the water crashing in the background under the pier...