Dear Friends,

It’s been a tough ten days here on the East Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the challenges of recovery. We’re thinking of all who have been affected and are now bracing for what the Nor’easter will bring on top of already difficult circumstances.

We were personally blessed to have been spared any damage from Sandy but, as Philadelphians—and Anne a New Yorker with Jersey Shore in her blood—it’s been heartbreaking to learn of the devastation of nearby hard-hit areas, including the homes of some friends and family members. Thousands of you in our HTPYLife community live in the affected states and our hearts go out to you and your families. We hope you had minimal damage and will escape further hardship of power outages and other problems from this new storm. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all, and our deepest sympathies to those who’ve already suffered a terrible loss. We wish everyone safety, strength and comfort through this next storm and the continuing recovery process.

At our home we did prepare for the worst but were among the lucky who escaped with the best. Expecting a direct hit, we took all the requisite hurricane prep measures, along with the rest of the mid-Atlantic and northeast states—we pulled up rugs and stuff off the basement office floor; collected lanterns, candles, flashlights, batteries; made ice and stocked up on food and water; filled our gas tanks; recharged our electronics; and washed all our laundry, dishes, children and hair (more important for some of us than others)! We tried to get as much computer work as possible done. And then, along with everyone else, we waited to see what the storm would bring.

Racing photo tips against pending power outage.

Schools and businesses were closed Monday in anticipation of danger as the winds picked up throughout the day. It howled unbelievably as we tried to fall asleep that night and when we woke up a few hours later it was over. We only got 2.5 of the 8-10 inches of predicted rain, sparing my office from flooding. Our immediate neighborhood had varying degrees of power interruption but, for the most part, we were miraculously spared. When the boys woke up we took a walk around our neighborhood to check out the damage and were shocked and relieved to see fewer than expected downed trees and mostly just thousands of smaller branches and twigs. With the innocence of a four year old, Teddy embraced it as a great opportunity to play with sticks.

(Caught between two holidays—oblivious to the world)

Photographs are important to us.

We all know the strong sentimental value of photos. Storm victims return to destroyed homes in hope of salvaging family photographs—often above all else. In a pre-photography world people saved memories in their minds and shared them through stories, drawings and paintings. But now that we can produce photographs we cling to them. They have great significance as a means of preserving cherished memories of people, places, things, occasions, and even feelings.

That is why we’re dedicated here to helping amateurs take the photographs of their dreams, and that is why you all dedicate time and energy to lovingly capture your treasured family moments for posterity.

Your photographs are important to us all.

Our How to Photograph Your Baby facebook page has grown to represent our How to Photograph Your Life community. Sadly, Hurricane Sandy is now a part of our lives. So we invite you all to share any storm-related photos you wish—and let us know how you were affected—in our Hurricane Sandy Facebook Album . The sharing of photos and stories can help us all with awareness, bonding and healing, and we can all come together to support those whose paths to recovery will be most difficult.

Too many extraordinary circumstances in recent months have kept us from communicating with you all as much we used to—and as we hope to soon again! But please know that we consider it a privilege to have attracted this wonderful community of people from around the world who are dedicated to preserving life’s precious—and, yes, sometimes painful—moments and memories. We look forward to continuing to all share these moments, and the resulting photographs, together.

Our very best wishes to all.

Nick and Anne

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Guest Blog by Anne

In the “not-a-great-quality-photo-but-I-love-the-moment” category, here are our boys having a rare but necessary quiet moment. Alexander, who broke his arm two weeks ago, is trying to keep Teddy, who had a concussion on Friday, quietly entertained with a story.  It was the first time I heard him reading to Teddy and his voice was so sweet.  (Not to mention, I love their body language.)

So I’ve had my fill of hospitals and doctor’s appointments lately—not to mention my share of maternal guilt for not being able to curb my climbers. (In all fairness, Alexander actually just had an unlucky fall from an innocent swing off the monkey bars but Teddy, it turned out, had been climbing on the stair banister with his arm in a pretend sling to be like his brother!)

It was hard to stop the roughhousing just for Alexander’s arm but now that we have to keep Teddy resting with limited activity too, at least they have solidarity. (Plus Teddy’s refusal to change out of his “hopsital” jammies helps to remind them both he’s injured). I’m hoping we can manage to pull off a no running, no jumping, no climbing, no roughhousing and—dare I hope?—no fighting household for a while. But I’m sure it won’t be long before boys will be boys again.

In the meantime we’ll have this photo so I can remember that they are, in fact, capable of being quiet, still and sweet together—while awake!—when the situation really calls for it.

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