Event Photography: Benjy's 3rd Birthday Party and Upsherin

Upsherin in case you didn't know is a traditional Jewish haircutting ceremony that is held when a boy turns 3 years old. I was given the opportunity to photograph Benjy's 3rd Birthday Party in Scarsdale, NY which included the haircutting ceremony towards the end. As you can tell by Benjy's adorable pictures below, he did not have his haircut until this special ceremony on his birthday. The majority of my family practices Hinduism and they also observe a similar haircutting ceremony where the baby boy gets his haircut in the first or third year because Hindus believe the hair from birth is associated with undesirable traits from past lives. After some research on the Internet, I found these haircutting ceremonies are fairly popular in many religions and can be considered as a rite of passage or milestone. Very interesting, right? 

Benjy's celebration took place last week on Sunday, June 29th, 2014. The weather was absolutely beautiful, but a challenge for a photographer - harsh light from the summer sun and really high temperatures, so I tried to stay in shady areas when possible and filled light with my speedlight. The party was all outdoors and had a fun carnival theme and a special appearance from Spiderman, Benjy's favorite superhero! I had a ton of fun capturing photos of the kids having the time of their life in the bounce house, getting their faces painted, and more. Benjy's parents threw a terrific party and I was so happy to be able to capture a timeline of the events throughout the day for them to cherish forever.

We started off the day half an hour before the party started to take family portraits and then the guests started arriving to enjoy the fun, games, and food. I selected some photos to share in the gallery below representing this fun-filled day. Take a look and enjoy the rest of summer!