Father’s Day was officially signed into law in 1972 by President Richard M. Nixon. But did you know that the Father’s Day celebrations as we know them began in 1910 thanks to the efforts of Ms Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, the loving daughter of a civil war veteran and widower who raised his 5 children after his wife died in childbirth? “Fairly mature at the age of 27, Sonora listened to a Sunday Sermon on Mother’s Day in 1909. Loving daughter of a devoted father, Sonora wondered that if there is a day to honor mothers why is there no corresponding day to honor all fathers. The question left a deep impression on her mind and she resolved to get fathers their due respect in the society.”

And did you know the reason why we celebrate Father’s day in June is because Sonora’s father’s birthday was then?  But many scholars insist that a celebration of a Father’s Day goes back even farther.  There are records of a young boy named Elmesu having carved a Father’s Day message on  a card made of clay more than 4,000 years ago in ancient Babylon!  He wished his father good health and long life.

It’s no wonder that fathers have been celebrated through the centuries and in many countries of the world. They provide such an important role and have shaped the lives of many millions of children. I have been blessed with a wonderful father who has always supported me in following my dreams and has taught me the value of hard work and perseverance.  I have never doubted that he has loved me and he is and inspiration and role model to me in so many ways.  I love watching him as a grandfather to my own kids (and my nieces and nephews as well). He sure loves those kids and they love him in return, as quirky as he can sometimes be!  I have also been blessed to be married to a man who takes seriously his role as a father and who loves my children every bit as much as if they were his very own. He is a wonderful father, a great teacher and a whole lot of fun to be around!  He’s a great example to me of how to be an awesome parent, and the kids love for him to be around.

So this is my tribute to father’s everywhere. Probably my favorite aspect of my job is the opportunity to capture meaningful relationships -and the love between a father and his children is evident in so many sessions that I’ve captured! Enjoy just a sampling of the beautiful relationships I get to see on almost a daily basis in my wonderful job!

Whereas my photos of moms with their kiddos are usually close and snuggly, my photos of dads with their kids are often action shots!

This is a follow up post to family portrait taken of my friend Jason and his lovely family in Red Rock Canyon, Nevada, shown here!  Because it was so cold and windy that day, I set up a tiny little portrait studio in their hotel room early the next morning. Little Eliza was still running on London time, so she was up and running quite early in the AM!  In spite of having spent all whole day on a plane and then a day meeting all sorts of new people, this little gal was so friendly and happy and personable. I think I’m smitten…and you likely will be too when you see her lovely photos…taken in the tiny cramped corner of a hotel room with one light and some grey paper.

Jason and I have been good friends since my sophomore year in high school, and he is the man primarily responsible for all of my clients who found me by “googling” Orange County Photograher or Newport Beach Photographer or many of those search terms. He’s done a lot of the back-end work on my site and my SEO for years now…all from his home base in London!  So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to photograph his family when they came out to visit for Christmas this last year.  They would be staying in Las Vegas and I just happened to be driving through on my way to visit family in Utah, so we spent a couple of days together, getting to know one another’s families better!  My kids still talk about their adventures flying aero-props with him in the parking lot. But our bigger adventure was heading out to Red Rock Canyon, just a little ways outside of Las Vegas for portraits.  The scenery was gorgeous, but unfortunately it was super windy and cold, so no one wanted to get out of their coats and everyone’s cheeks were a bit chapped.  But the colors were amazing and it was fun to capture some shots with a little bit of a different look than my usual beach and field or urban photos! And fortunately I brought along some studio equipment to get more photos later indoors. But for this post it’ll just be the red rock photos. This is the same man who tells me all of the time I post WAY too many images and it will slow down my site. So he tries to limit me to 9.  {I think he doesn’t get that I just can’t help myself} But for his sake, I will limit his posts that way at least…with one clever little workaround called a storyboard  Enjoy!

“M” is a very special gal. Beautiful on the inside as well as the outside! And so very natural in front of the camera. She’s the oldest of five equally amazing kids (like me!) – and also like me, she’ll be attending the best school ever in the fall – Brigham Young University (Go Cougars!).  Even though her Senior portraits were combined with a session for her family (stay tuned!) so we had a little less time than usual… I had the hardest time narrowing down my favorites in this session! This girl doesn’t know how to take a bad photo! So please excuse the image overload and just enjoy this natural beauty! Taken at Riley Wilderness Park in Coto de Caza in Southeast Orange County. Enjoy your session preview “M!”

I’ve known most of these kids since they were teeny tiny babies – I have photos of the oldest boy and my middle daughter together when they were two…and now they are in the same class at school!  Mom wanted to do a secret, surprise session to surprise dad with some neat images for Father’s day!  Fortunately, I’m about 100% sure that dad doesn’t follow this blog! Hopefully he’s thrilled with his Father’s day gifts – it’s hard to go wrong with such cute kids! We spent a rather overcast May evening at Shaw’s Cove in Laguna Beach playing, finding crabs, chasing waves and getting a few photos taken in between. As is usually the case, the photos take on more of a documentary feel with the littlest guy…getting a posed shot of the four of them all together AND looking at the camera (and not making goofy faces) did require some head swapping (resulting image is the first one). Most of the rest of the group shots looked more like the following collage of photos with the three oldest kids posing nicely for the camera and the youngest running off to his own fun adventures! Good times!

I had so much fun catching up with Daley Erickson, who will very soon be launching a new website for her awesome new business, and is, as she puts it, “a happy wife and mother, health advocate and Personal Power Planner helping people meet their goals and craft their very best lives.”  She’s also a great friend with an amazing family, who I got to know when I shot their first portrait session years ago!  I always look forward to taking photos of their family, but this session was just to update Daley’s professional head shots and to get some images for her new website, which you can find right HERE! She’s looking pretty amazing right now, so getting some nice photos at the lovely Shaw’s Cove in Laguna Beach was a piece of cake! Enjoy your sneak peek!

Yes, summer is coming. And with it the plethora of portrait sessions at the beach!  Many of those I do each year are from families out of town. But this session was from a local Irvine family who needed a portrait to hang on the wall in time for company coming to town!  I loved the little pop of color that the coral shirts the girls were wearing to the other light colors.  Everyone was super well behaved and we had a gorgeous evening with perfect light and a fairly uncrowded Picnic Beach for a Saturday night!

Sometimes you meet someone who just carries a natural grace and poise about her that is unmistakable. Such was the case with “K” – she was so natural in front of the camera and such a joy to be around. I loved her fairly modest attire that let her true inner beauty shine through!  She will be heading out to UC Santa Barbara this fall and I am sure she has a very bright future ahead of her! It was my pleasure to spend the afternoon with her and her mother! Congrats on graduating this year and enjoy your sneak peek!

Ok, well maybe he isn’t mine…but I sure was wishing he was the day I came over to take his portraits. I was super excited to meet this little guy after taking his mom’s maternity portraits, seen HERE.  And he lived up to all of my (rather high) expectations!  He wasn’t the sleepiest baby ever, but he was so well behaved, awake and asleep.  His mom really wanted to get a shot of him with his dad’s police uniform hat…and that was the toughest part. Once that was out of the way it was pretty much smooth sailing!  And I so appreciate his parent’s patience as his was my last sesssion before I got married (only a couple of days before) and then I had a wedding and a honeymoon and am just now getting caught up with all of my client work!  So finally, at last, here is your sneak peek of your precious little guy – just in time for Mother’s Day!

I am submitting this family portrait favorite into the “Rock the Shot” contest this month which has the theme of silhouettes.  I have a lot of favorite silhouette photos, but this has to be my latest fav… I just love the feeling of camaraderie and love this family exudes. This was one of the last shots of the day from this fun and fabulous family session…I saw the setting sun low in the sky and the beautiful colors from the sunset  and had them “play” pass around with their sweet baby one more time…brought my exposure down about a stop and boom! There were a few other fun ones you can see on their original blog post here.  Check out the other fabulous silhouette submissions at www.rocktheshotforum.com by clicking here!