Luka and Family

Slowly but surely I am getting caught up with my jobs from last year…I shot this one of Luka and his family at the Almaden Winery Park. It’s a great quiet spot, with a variety of backgrounds and areas to shoot and explore. These kids have the most infectious smiles! They were very silly that day, but I always enjoy taking photos of kids that are so full of life.

Coolicans!

Still working on catching up with my recent jobs…this is one I did last November. They were seriously such a fun family. So much laughter and love and silliness! I had a great time and we got some great shots of the kids for the family Christmas cards. They also made a bunch of canvas prints from the images to adorn their walls of their lovely home.

Speaking of canvas prints… I know they have been a big deal for awhile now, and I have always just outsourced this request. However, we finally have our large Epson printer setup to print on canvas. I am thinking of offering this service in the near future. I think it would be great and can be totally customizable. Sometimes, the native camera format doesn’t translate well into the prefab sizes like 4×6 or 8×10. You end up needing to crop into the image and sometimes the image suffers. It’s hard to know, in the moment, which images will be chosen by the client and what size they will print them at. I’m pretty liberal with my in-camera cropping and sometimes it doesn’t work out. I’ve encountered the issue enough to be aware of it when composing, but sometimes the moment takes over and I just concentrate on capturing personalities and emotions. I hold on to the fact that 10 years from now, they will look at the pictures and it’ll bring back memories of that special time. (Insert joke about how size doesn’t matter)

Wow, sorry about that last line! I suppose I am feeling a little punchy as I wait for the weekend…so, without further embarrassing myself, please enjoy my session with the Coolican Family!

Ryder

This family was so fun to photograph! First off they were all incredibly photogenic, which makes my job a snap (pun intended). But they were also kind and funny and willing to do some fun setups. This is Radonich Ranch, up off Summit in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The mom arranged everything, which was an awesome change for me. I guess they do a fair amount of weddings up there, but we arrived early on a quiet weekend morning. It was so beautiful, rustic and charming. Perfect for a fun shoot! I’ve heard through the grapevine that they are expecting again, so big congrats to your family! I hope I get to meet the little one soon! Ryder will make an awesome big brother!

Kasenchak Family

This was a fun family I got to photograph last fall. They added a member since our last session, so it was a great time to retake those family photos! We headed to Villa Montalvo, which is such a pleasant spot to do family pics and I love to see how families grow and dynamics change!

Here’s a link to our last session up at Filoli Gardens, which is so beautiful and peaceful…

Kasenchak Family in 2009

May be the Schwartz be with you!

This is the lovely Schwartz Family. We did this at their home in Santa Cruz and it turned out to be a great spot. The lighting and weather conditions cooperated nicely, as did an energetic 2 year old! Baby Hope has now joined the family and I look forward to hopefully meeting her someday soon! Congrats!

Duran Family

Here’s another fun family I got to photography last fall. My daughter is friends with the little girl at school and I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the whole family. They welcomed their second daughter not long after our shoot, but I love capturing maternity photos with the family. The local park (Almaden Winery) worked great, it’s becoming a great spot for the casual shoot. They were all so sweet, fun and photogenic! Thanks Duran Family!

Adam

I look forward to taking Adam’s pictures every year. He is such a darling little boy and is so good for the camera. He smiles and laughs easily and the love that he has for his mom is so apparent it’s easy to capture. We took these at Pinchetti Ranch. I love the rustic barn and we practically had a science adventure. We saw the resident peacock, a deer, a banana slug and a little roly poly he befriended and took home in his pocket.

Burnsides Family

Here’s another job I did this past summer…wish I could have some of that sunshine back! These are some dear friends of ours and I was honored to take some pictures of their family. Our husbands were friends before they were born and I have known the mom since my college days, where we talked over many beers in various pubs. Our families get together for birthdays, “festivus” and lots of celebrations in between. I always get more nervous when shooting for good friends or family…I really don’t want to screw up or look like a fool! But this family was so fun to photograph and so photogenic, it made it easy peasy. And the beers afterwards were great too! Cheers to good friends!

Miles

Welcome baby Miles! This is another Smith Family and they added a beautiful baby boy, Miles, to their family in July. Big sister Makena was so good during our shoot and we got some of my favorite images of the kids together. Mom and Dad weren’t interested in being in the photos, but maybe I can talk them into it the next time around. I just love his squishy face and those tiny feet. My friends think I’m a little weird, but I love the newborn stage. I love holding little ones and was honored to hold this one for a bit after our shoot.

Brenneis Family

I usually only get to shoot smaller, immediate families. It was fun to shoot a big extended family, especially one that had so many laughs during the shoot! We shot this at Pinchetti Ranch. It turned out to be a wonderful spot for photos. I love the old fences, distressed barns, and rolling hills of grass. Sometimes you see the resident peacock and even deer running through the fields. It definitely stays on my list of great locations to shoot family photos.

The last time I shot pictures of this family was at Molly’s wedding, several years ago. I love to see how it has grown and how much the kids look like their parents. Thanks for asking me to take pictures! Can’t wait to meet the new little ones arriving in 2012, congrats!