Occasionally, when I'm in the middle of a photographing a session I catch a glimpse of something.

It's not actually something tangible but rather a familiar feeling.

I had that sensation a couple weeks ago when Teresa brought her sons, Michael and Max, to the studio near Robinson, Illinois.

After some quick photos of Michael in the studio, the boys changed into baseball gear and we headed outside.

I placed the two athletes next to each other to do some "big brother/little brother" shots.

I had them look directly at me, and they gave me their best intense athlete shots.

It was perfect but, in my mind, I was looking for a little something more.

Having had the opportunity to photograph the family before, I had a pretty good idea of how these two boys interacted with each other, Mom and older sister Maggie. It was all too familiar.

All I had to do was ask them to face each other and then take one step closer to each other.

They started laughing. I think there might have even been a little trash talking involved.

This time rather than that familiar feeling slowly creeping up on me, it hit me like a baseball bat. I was suddenly back in church sitting with my mom, dad and younger sister. Mom was eagle-eyeing us to be quiet but I could feel the laughter bubbling up. I knew if I even glanced at my sister I'd lose it and there would be hell to pay when we got home. Sometimes, we just couldn't help ourselves. We had to make eye contact. Dad even got in trouble a few times for seemingly encouraging us.

The same held true for Michael and Max (had they been in church, Teresa may have had a different opinion). The images of them together were among my favorites of the day, not because they are great images of athletes but because they are images of great brothers.

You can feel it.