Jace

Oh sweet little Jace, how I love you so, let thee count the ways....

Your irresistible dimples and luscious curls are perfection,

Your bluest of blue eyes remind me of the ocean,

Your mommies are ever so sweet,

Your dog Odie can't be beat.

Alright so prose might not be my forte but taking pictures of delightful families is definitely my happy place.  Throw in a ridiculously cute baby boy and his super sweet pup and I'm basically floating on clouds...  :)

Exactly a year ago I captured Jace's newborn shoot and it was one of my favorite newborn sessions, and not just because I saved his life mind you (for reals!), it was actually because of his fabulous dimples and his wonderful mommies.   I couldn't wait to hang out with them again and it was absolutely worth the wait.   He is the same cutie pie and all three of them make such a great team!   They even had Jace's godmother Stephanie visiting the day of our shoot so she got to play with us too!  Jace had JUST started walking so I got to experience that insanely cute drunken sailor walk that just makes me laugh so hard.  Jace was a very very very active little guy and sitting alone for pictures was not on his agenda, so we played, we sang, we danced and we romped at his home and in his "backyard" (The Pacific Ocean).   A gorgeous and fun filled day!

Delphina & Jennifer (& Stephanie!)  It was an absolute pleasure, Jace is such a delight and you know Odie has my heart, too.  Love you all!  ENJOY your sneak peek!

Helene

I absolutely love it when creative types hire me to help them with a photographic project, especially when their style is so seamlessly easy for me to connect with.  Helene contacted me a while back to collaborate on some new head shots for her business/website.   She has a very distinct style with a clear voice in her branding.  She knew exactly the colors she wanted to wear, the type of backdrops and lighting (industrial vibe& natural light) as well as the kind of images she was seeking.  All that clarity made my job very easy as there was no guessing what her needs/vision was and we could get right to it!  Helene's specialty is helping entrepeneurs and small/solo business owners get noticed and build a solid brand, so I obviously didn't have to school her one iota on how to prepare for our shoot.  She smartly hired a professional hair/make up artist (which I ALWAYS recommend doing) to prep her and stay throughout the shoot and had the locations already hand picked.  The hair/make up stylist, Melissa, did a FABULOUS job and was a sweetheart throughout the entire shoot with her willingness to help with reflector holding in order to save time having to set up stands etc...  She was a delight to work with so if you ever need a great gal for her specialty, go check her out at Melissa Hoffmann.  Helene was also an absolute joy to work with and made the shoot so easy with her playful nature and ease behind the camera (even though she would deny that comfort level, she pulled it off beautifully!).  If you have any branding/business building needs, definitely go check her out, she is a definite pro in her field.  Her website can be found HERE.  I highly recommend that anyone launching a business or in the process of rebranding their established business absolutely invest in new custom, quality photography which authentically captures the essence of their business as well as the person behind the brand.  Here's a little sneak peek of our vibrantly colorful, sharp and playful shoot!  ENJOY!

Matthew

It's so much fun to meet a new family!  I never know what to expect and the process of getting to know them and create new bonds is one of my favorite parts of this job.  Little Matthew is 2.5 years old, traditionally a challenging age, and yet this marvelous little boy was the smiliest (that's a word right?) toddler I have ever met!  He couldn't stop smiling and laughing with me!  We had a blast!  I was completely smitten with his happy disposition and I think the feeling was mutual because he very quickly took to me, holding my hand of his accord and cuddling up to me.  A mutual love-fest methinks!  When I was talking to Laura during the consultation she told me that Matthew LOVES trains, so the obvious choice was to bring him to Roaring Camp Railroads.  As expected, it was an absolute hit with him!   Laura, Adam & Matthew, it was such a pleasure meeting all three of you.  Here's a sneak peek of just a few favorites from our session, there were soooo many to choose from; Matthew and his FABULOUS smile made narrowing it down very, very, very hard!  (A good problem to have, nevertheless)  ENJOY your images!!!

Elliott

Every time I photograph this boy I fall deeper and deeper in love with him.  At a mere 4 years old he is quite possibly the most charming, eloquent, delightful, polite, funny, joyful little human being I have ever had the pleasure to get to know.    I am always humbled by his "old soul" tendencies but this last visit just blew me away.  He speaks like a grown up with an expansive vocabulary but with the sensibilities of a little boy.  I just couldn't get enough of him.  Fortunately, I think the feelings were mutual seeing as he wouldn't let go of my hand to which I playfully joked to his sweet mom something about being "second fiddle" for a change! HA!  Nicole is my birthday twin (same day, same year) and we get along beautifully so it's always a pleasure getting to hang out with the whole family.  (Not to be forgotten, thank you to David for chauffeuring us around and carrying gear!)   I just absolutely adore this family and they are always well worth the drive down to Pacific Grove!  I can't wait to see what Elliott becomes as he grows up, I imagine great things are on the horizon for this incredibly bright, charming, and soulful child.

Dancing Queen

I met Gina a little under a year ago when my lovely neighbor invited me to join her at a World Dance class that Gina teaches.  I was just about to undergo reconstructive ankle surgery to fix a severe injury sustained when I was attacked by a dog a year prior so I was eager to getting my dancing fix before being back on crutches with a slow PT recovery process, once again.    I've always loved to dance, for as long as I can remember, but African Dance and Latin Dance in particular are two favorite genres of mine.   Imagine my surprise and sheer delight in being able to attend a class here in my small town that covers so many dancing styles (African, Latin, Hip Hop, Modern...) in 1.5 hrs while taught by the most effervescent, gifted, magnetic, fierce and incredible dancer I have ever had the pleasure to meet.   Ironically, long before attending Gina's classes I had already been ruminating about a personal project involving photographing a dancer.  I had simply been waiting to find the right person/model for the project.  During my first class with Gina, I instantly knew she was the one I needed to photograph.   It took me MONTHS (mostly months away due to my ankle surgery) to finally work up the will to ask her if she would give me a couple hours of her precious time for this endeavor of mine.    When I did finally ask her, and she generously agreed, it took us another few months to finally find a date that worked with both of our crazy schedules.  When the day finally arrived, I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by Gina's skill, strength and stamina.   I already knew what her body was capable of doing just from participating in her class but her own artistry and vision were an added bonus I had not expected.  We shot for an intense 2.5 hours.  I asked this acrobat/aerialist/dancer/capoeira master to do one thing after another with no breaks.  I was pretty relentless in my demands on her body and she didn't just meet them, she categorically exceeded them.  She never slowed down.  Not once.  She never said  "I don't think I can't do that."   She absolutely blew me away.  Every request was met with a hearty "sure!" or a charming smile followed by flawless execution.   She seemed to intuitively know exactly what I needed and I had to give her very little direction to achieve my vision for each shot.  She just NAILED it each and every time.  By the time we got to the beach, we only had 10 minutes left before she had to go teach her next class.  We busted it out and she gave me every last bit of herself until the final shot.   Her tenacity of spirit, her energy, her vibrancy.... just awe-inspiring.   I can't thank her enough for helping me achieve a personal project which I have wanted to do for the longest time.   I have always fervently believed dance to be one of the most expressive and stunning forms of art known to mankind.   When I dance, and I'm not even remotely good, but it is the ONLY time I feel free to just BE.   To clear my head.  To NOT think about anything.  To just BE.  TO EXIST.   It's an escape and an outlet.   I call my weekly class with Gina my Dance Therapy.  It keeps me sane, centered and balanced.  It is my oxygen and my fuel.  Gina (and all the other ladies in my class) inspire me every single class.   I am so grateful to have discovered this outlet, and especially joyful to have met all these incredible women.   Anytime you are feeling overwhelmed, down or frustrated, I suggest you crank up some tunes and just dance your little heart out.  I promise you will feel SO much better afterwards.  If you need a little inspiration, just look at these images! :)

Puppy Love

This weekend the kiddos and I got to spend some time visiting with Kooper's nieces and nephews.  Kooper is our 4 year old Rhodesian Ridgeback.  A dog, yes.  But for those of you who know us, he is more like my 3rd child and a sibling to Gavin and Ellie.  

His litter mate Suki had her first litter of puppies 5 weeks ago and well, Ridgebacks are quite frankly the cutest puppies on the planet.  Which then grow into the best dogs on the planet.  Not that I'm biased or anything.  It's a known fact.  :)

While getting all our puppy love, I was able to photograph the 6 pups for Janice and Jim, as well as take some quick family photos for them as Janice's super sweet parents were in town helping care for the litter.   These puppies were the CUDDLIEST group I've ever encountered.  As soon as you sat down they would all clammer to get up into your lap and pile on top of each other for warmth and cuddles.  My kids couldn't get enough of the puppies and at the end of the visit everyone had to literally pry my favorite puppy out of my arms.  You'll see from the photo at the end, which Janice took with her phone, that puppies do make me all kinds of happy.  I think my smile was taking up about 40% of my face! :)

I wasn't going to do a blog post but then I decided that everyone could use some cuteness to start off their day so why not share some ridiculous levels of cute for all the enjoy!  Here you go, folks.  Feel free to bookmark this anytime you need your dose of "cute".    Puppy head shots...  Now, if I could just find a way to do this every single day, I think I would be one really, very, deeply happy gal. HA!

And me in my happy place holding my favorite of the bunch.  I would have smuggled her in my camera bag if I could have....but Janice was keeping a close eye on me.  Drat.

Gabby & Lexi

As you will see, these girls are undeniably stunning and could easily be professional models.  But their inner beauty shines even more brightly.  These girls are just so incredibly sweet, kind, self assured,  funny, smart and just absolutely delightful to be around.  Every shoot I have with them I am more and more impressed as I get to watch them evolve into such remarkable young ladies.    When you see mom in the pics, you'll quickly understand.  She's as good a soul and beautiful a woman as you'll ever meet.  I am so honored to call her my friend.  

LeeAnne, I hope you LOVE your sneak peek.  There were SO many incredible images to choose from, it was terribly hard to narrow it down for the blog post!   

As a side note, it was my brilliant idea to include Winston (their bulldog) in the shoot despite LeeAnne trying to warn me that he was a little, um, crazy.   He's a LOT crazy, actually.  Nonetheless, he kept things interesting and since he can't be trusted off leash, at one point I was holding him with one hand and shooting with the other while taking pictures of LeeAnne with her girls.  I'm AMAZED those turned out so sharp considering the tasmanian devil spaz dog on the other end of the leash! HA!   

My kiddos

Last night I did a multiple family trade shoot with a bunch of other photographer friends of mine.  It was certainly chaotic and long for the kiddos but also something that we moms, as Professional Photographers, deeply value and appreciate because we are NEVER EVER EVER in the pictures of our family's story.  As the ones who document everything, we are the invisible presence.   So yesterday, while two of the other families were tied up photographing each other, I had ten minutes alone with my kids, who had already been so patiently waiting for their turn, so I decided what better opportunity than for me to take some quickie shots of my own spawn - with my REAL camera rather than my iphone.  Yes, it's like the cobbler's kids has no shoes syndrome.  I spend my life nowadays making quality art and capturing incredible moments and memories for my clients with my high end gear and yet only have a ton of iphone snapshots of my own kids for the past few years since becoming a single working mom with no time for shoots with my kids... HA!  Early in my career as a photographer I used to make the time to professionally photograph my children quite frequently.  Now, I hardly ever bust out all my gear on my day off.  It's a little tragic, actually.  But, I do have a billion of those iphone pics so it's not like they aren't being documented....  Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed taking these "official" images of my children for that short ten minutes and ended up keeping almost every image I took because they were all so fabulous.  Turns out my kids, after years of being photographed by me have picked up on the fine art of posing themselves with very little direction from me.  I picked the spot with the best light, set up my reflector, told them to stand there and they took it from there.  I'm so lucky that these two kids - despite lots of sibling bickering - actually do love each other TREMENDOUSLY and are very tender and sweet with each other when it counts and matters most.  I love these two so very much I can't even begin to express how much.  There are simply no adequate words.

Te'a & Remi

I still distinctly remember my first shoot with this awesome family and knowing right then and there that we would be good friends for years to come.  Their energy and their dynamic is extraordinary.  Renata's zest to live life to the fullest and fill her kids lives with EXPERIENCES (rather than things) and ADVENTURES is something I can absolutely relate to and admire.  Kevin's incredible dedication to his chosen cause (go check out F.A.T.T. - Food Awareness Through Training), his restaurant (Ground Up Burgers in Half Moon Bay) and their passion for Food Awareness and supporting local, sustainable farming is beyond compare.  They're also just a whole lot of fun to hang out with! :)

You will quickly see in these pictures why I love them so much, so full of life and laughter and down to earth silliness.  My kind of folks!  We were fortunate enough to be able to do the shoot at Jacob's Herb Farm in Pescadero (a fabulous backdrop!) and make the most of the gorgeous light before a ridiculously thick wall of fog rolled in and blocked out all the useable light! PHEW!

Renata & Kevin, I adore you guys and am so glad we were able to get our shoot in again this year!!!  ENJOY your sneak peek!!!

Quinn, Reilly & Tyler

I'm probably going to fail in adequately expressing how near and dear this family is to me but I'm going to try nonetheless.   They started out as my very first "real" clients nearly a decade ago.  The first paying client who was NOT a friend or refered to me by a friend.  Total and Complete Strangers.  I instantly fell in love with all three of them and wondered if you're supposed to like your clients that much, whether or not this was "normal" or even... healthy?! Ha!  Over the years, we've become close friends and our children also happen to adore hanging out with each other too which is just, quite frankly, the icing on the cake.  Tara and I even went paddeboarding for our very first time together two years ago and had a blast.  I could list a million reasons why I love them so much but in the interest of time I will simply state that their family dynamic is just awe-inspiring.  Tara and Bryan are a GREAT team.  They have weathered an INSANE amount of intense stress and incredible challenges over the years with pure grace and ease, even though I know it hasn't been remotely easy.   All three kids have this undeniable tenderness and affection for each other.  Quinn and Reilly are so deeply emotionally invested in looking our for their baby sister, who has Angelman's syndrome, and it warms my heart to no end each time I get to hang out with them and observe that dynamic.  Tara and I have had many discussions about how they've all managed Tyler's medical challenges over the years and it's always been in the framework of how Tyler has been a "value-added" to the family, how her condition has brought them all closer than they ever imagined possible, how Quinn and Reilly's impressing patience and tenderness was no doubt aided along by her unique needs.   Tyler is quite possibly the most affectionate and smiley child I have ever met.  Throughout the shoot she kept making the rounds kissing all her beloved family members and laughing, dancing and playing with them resulting that characteristic smile of hers that could light up the entire universe.   She is their sunshine and they all joyfully orbit around her, delighting in making her smile, and in turn, her happiness makes them all happy.  It's the most precious, authentic and pure symbiotic relationship I have ever encountered.  This family is all about love, affection, dancing/music, patience, games, a can-do attitude and tons of teamwork.   They are a well oiled machine and they never cease to amaze me.   They don't coddle Tyler and the result of their approach is a little girl who is living life to her fullest potential and delighting in the world around her.   They are both extraordinary and completely ordinary, in the best ways possible.  So, yeah, I kinda love them to bits.

We decided to do the shoot in the morning this time, not my usual choice, but ideal for the location as we wanted to hit the Boardwalk before anyone else got there.  We ended up having a blast and the kids were AMAZING.  You'll quickly notice that Reilly is my muse.  She has been since the day she was born and I intend to photograph her incessantly until the day I die, any chance I get, because she just makes my camera ridiculously happy.  

Tara and Bryan, thank you for a super fun session and I can't wait for our kiddos to be crazy and wild together again soon!  Much love!!!