This gorgeous family was our last family of the day at a recent Portrait Party, and as we got started, the sun was slipping away pretty quickly, so we had about 10 minutes to get all our shots. It was a hectic shoot, so good thing all the kids were so sweet and easy to work with, and so photogenic!! They were a fun family to photograph, and such good sports about having to rush around so much.
I haven't seen the Evermans since they came for Oskar's newborn
session. The boys have grown up so much and they are just adorable.
Such a fun session. Gotta love that red hair!!
This little guy is one of my Baby Planners, and I was so excited to shoot his 8 month portrait session! This is one of my favorite ages to shoot, and Christian did not disappoint!
He was charming, adorable, drooly, hand-chewing, and delightful. I can't wait to get my hands on him for his one year portrait!!
I headed out to Malibu yesterday for a family portrait session, and then stayed with Marisa, Evelyn, and Gayle for some training on beach sessions. The weather was perfect, overcast and cool but not cold. The light was so delicious, we couldn't have asked for better conditions. Our first session was at 9am with my client, and the training session was at 10am. We were able to shoot until 11, when it started to sprinkle.
We had a beautiful family to photograph, and they were so patient with us while we trained. Right around the corner from us, just a little down the beach, there was another photo session going on that involved an attractive girl in just a towel, at least, from what we could see. Not sure what was going on down there! You can just make out the photographer sticking out a little from behind the cliff wall.
This little guy just kills me. I photographed him as a newborn, and I just loved his images. I used them on my new business card, on the main page of my new website, on a sample purse for the studio, and on several other new marketing pieces.
He just came back for his three month old session, and I was blown away by how much I got from him. Normally a three month session is pretty difficult, as they can't sit up yet, and there are only so many poses you can do at this age. Maverick was so expressive and adorable, in the end I finally had to call the session to an end just to make myself stop photographing him!
He had laughed for the very first time that day, and he was nice enough to do a repeat performance for me so I could capture it for Mom. What a little doll.
You can see Mack's entire session here.
Several weeks ago I had a beach session with the Alpern family. They have two huge, absolutely beautiful dogs that were so much fun to photograph. This was my first session in Carpinteria, which I checked out on the advice of my good friend Michele (hey Michele!). She was right, it was gorgeous there, and so much easier to get to from my house.
Here are some of my favorite shots from the morning. I pieced together a couple of panoramic images, because the beach was just so beautiful.
All the preparations for the studio have really slowed me down for my clients, so I am just now finishing up this session with the Dredge family. They have two gorgeous little girls, and mom had brought the little one, a toddler, in for her own session a few weeks prior to this session, so we'd be sure to have plenty of opportunity to get some great shots. I'm done with the mini session, but I'm right in the middle of working on the family session. Here are some of my favorites from the mini, as well as a couple that I've finished from the family and some great shots of big sister, the cutie-pie redhead.
This is the reluctant birthday boy I wrote about earlier. I finally finished proofing his session tonight.
He was such a little gentleman in his birthday outfit, and once his little foot accidentally touched the cake, he wanted NOTHING to do with it!
He ended up being fine with the cake near him, as long as we didn't push the issue of him actually touching the thing.
Poor guy, I think we scarred him for life against birthday cakes.
Here's a sneak peek, just for mom. The complete mini-session will be posted on my website tomorrow.
I've done Valentine's Day cards every year for MacKenna since she was just a baby. She came in for her Valentine portrait session this week and was just as much fun as ever.
We did some with a tutu, some without, and some with her little Build-A-Bear kitty. She is such a doll and so fun to photograph!
I like to shoot at Zuma Beach in Malibu, because of the nice, wide, clean beach, but also because of the beautiful soft light I get when it is overcast early in the morning. I book the sessions as early in the morning as possible. Since the location is around an hour's drive from the town where I live and where most of my clients live, usually 8am is the earliest session of the day. From there, I'll book a 9am and a 10am session, but after that, it is just too bright and sunny and the light is too hard to work with. I always tell my clients to book me for the earliest session if they want to get that nice, soft light. If they book the 9 or 10am session, they run the risk of the sun coming out and we miss the softer early light. The brighter light is fine too, but I just prefer the overcast lighting.
This time, the lighting was ALL over the place. When I showed up for my 8am session, the sun was out and already really bright. My first clients of the day was a family I've been photographing for 8 years now, and we were really looking forward to this beach session. Their mom specifically booked the earliest session of the day and got all three kids up and out of the house just so we could take advantage of the overcast weather. We were so disappointed, but we made the best of it. It was tricky keeping the bright sunlight off their faces, but the colors were crisp and vivid.
When the second family showed up, the weather started messing with me. The clouds came out and blocked the sun, giving me exactly the lighting I was hoping for with the first session. At first, that was great, I thought the rest of the morning was going to go my way. Ha! The sun came back out in full force about 15 minutes later. Then it disappeared behind the clouds again. Three minutes later, it was sunny. A few minutes later, cloudy. Sunny. Cloudy. Sunny. Cloudy. It was infuriating. Every time the lighting changed, I had to use my hand-held meter to get the new settings for my camera. The change in the lighting was so drastic, if I didn't notice it immediately and change my exposure settings, the shots would be completely under or over exposed.
Add to that the normal challenge of trying to photograph young kids at the beach. They are so excited to be there, and they are usually just not interested in looking at the lady with the camera. So on top of chasing kids up and down the beach, I'm having to whip out my meter every few minutes. It was an extremely hectic shoot, to say the least.
For the third session that day, I had mostly bright sun, but those pesky clouds showed up a few times, just to throw me off again.
Overall, I was happy with the images I got from my sessions that day, but I really, really, REALLY had to work for it!
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