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!

I was lucky enough to photograph this picture perfect family in their picture perfect home (which they’ve worked very hard on for the last three years) with their perfectly well behaved pets!  But they weren’t just beautiful on the outside – they were such a lovely family inside and out.  There was an atmosphere of love and respect in their home and with the way they treated one another.  I love when I get to come into a family’s home and take photos there – it adds such a personal element!  Thanks for giving me the lovely opportunity “L” & “L!”

I had the loveliest time photographing this fun family/engagement shoot. What made it all the more fun was that I had just had my own engagement session and was about to get married – so I was in that mode!  Now that my own wedding is done, I had a blast editing the photos for this lovely couple and their two children – one of each!  There is something wonderful about blended families and this was such a seamless blend – they kids seemed as if they’d known each other all of their lives and everyone got along swimmingly!  You would never even know that it was super windy and FREEZING cold! They were down visiting for another wedding and wanted some photos taken at the beach. I guess wedding season is ramping right up!  Enjoy your sneak peek guys – I loved how your images turned out!

This gorgeous family couldn’t help but look great anywhere we went. And to make it even better, they are beautiful inside and out! But of course, the mission at San Juan Capistrano is always a lovely setting for portraits, and this afternoon was no exception. A perfect day for photos!  And after the mission we headed over to the train tracks for some family pics with their equally gorgeous border collie!  This dog was so cute, and so well behaved that I almost took it home with me. Well, I tried anyways. I even offered free portraits for life, but no luck.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a well behaved pet on a family shoot!  Enjoy your sneak peek “V” family! There were so many favorite photos, I had the hardest time narrowing down to this many for your blog post!