Vanessa Honda Photography

I met Hallee and her sister on a warm summer evening as they were down visiting their grandmother in Huntington Beach.  Hallee wanted some beach portraits for her Senior Portraits, and she couldn’t have picked a better place than the Balboa Pier at Newport Beach.  It was a beautiful day, and Hallee’s natural beauty shone through as the evening wore on.  We snuck in a few with her grandma and sister as well.  I was so impressed with both girls and had a great time getting to know them!  Enjoy your sneak peak!

Time for a “sneak peak” for the P family – they have been waiting patiently to see their images, and I am finally starting to get caught up  – so here you go!  Lots more sneak peaks to come…

This was such a fun and loving family (not to mention photogenic) – so narrowing down the images was the most difficult part!  The kids were so great to work with and everyone was beautiful.  I hope you enjoyed your stay here guys – and hope you come back next year!

For now, enjoy these pics while I busily finish getting your gallery ready to view!  Thanks for a great session!

So, when our good friends, the Llewellyn family, came out to visit us and bring their family to Disneyland this spring, we were so excited to see them.  And though they had a pretty packed week, I mentioned that I would be happy to fit in a photo session while they were here.  The only day available was the morning of the day they would be heading back to Utah.  Because the sun rises quickly, and the mid-morning sun can be harsh at the beach, we’d have to start early – like around 7:00 – will that work?  They were game  – but poor Lisa was up until 3:00 that morning and then had the get everyone up super early to eat breakfast, get dressed, pack up their week’s belongings and check out of their hotel at Disneyland!  And everyone had stayed late to watch the fireworks at Disneyland the night before!  So it was one tired crew that showed up at the beach that chilly May morning.  And in spite of the cold and exhaustion, everyone did great!  The boys were so well behaved and we had a great time together. My hubbie and kids came and met us at the beach after our session and we had a grand time chasing waves and collecting seashells.  Sorry for the wait to see your images Brian and Lisa – I am just finally starting to get caught up!  But I hope you will agree when you hang the prints in your home that it was all worth it!  Enjoy!

I met this beautiful family on a rather gloomy day in June for their portraits. And not only was it rather gloomy and overcast, but the tide was higher than I have ever seen at this beach (Diver’s Cove in Laguna Beach), and we had very little sand to work with. But in spite of all of these limitations, we managed to have a great time together and capture some pretty decent portraits as well!  Here in Southern California, this is what is known as “June Gloom” and often visitors from out of state can be a little disappointed when they came to spend a week here in the sunshine in June and end up with fogged in or overcast weather the entire time. But this family took it all in stride and the boys brought their own “sunshine” with them. I thoroughly enjoyed out time spent together – especially chasing those sneaky waves (or was it the waves chasing us?) Here is your “sneak peak” – the gallery of all of your beach portraits is not far behind!

I really enjoyed my portrait session with these girls last summer, so when their mom called me up to see if I could cover their birthday party this year, I was thrilled!  I love event coverage  – and especially when there is such great attention to details -and so many fun subjects!  What could be more fun than kids enjoying a good old-fashioned birthday party at the park!  And I loved to colors as well!

Well Mom “M” was supposed to be the star of this show, but her daughter, little “M” kinda stole the spotlight…It was all fun all the time for little “M” and her precocious and vibrant personality really shown through!  There were so many cute images from this session – and many that I designed into storyboards, as they seemed to just fit together in one frame.  I will have to restrain myself to leave some for your online gallery – you have to have a few surprises!  I can’t wait to photograph the new little addition due the end of July. Can you believe she’s 7 months pregnant? So tiny!  And just glowing!  Enjoy your sneak peak!

I am just getting ready to go take portraits at the girl’s 3rd birthday party this morning, and I thought I would post these images we took for their b-day invites!  They are having a ballerina themed party (obviously), and knowing their mom, it will be tutu cute!  Looking forward to seeing them today – happy birthday girls – we’ll see you soon!

These girls were both so fun and sweet.  Not to mention beautiful!  And they really did seem to be such great friends!  They had some fun ideas for their photos and we had  a great time together.  Enjoy your sneak peak “S” and “T”!  I had a great time with you – and your mom and cute dog too!

I know you are all just dying to meet the brainchild behind the magic of my recently posted butterfly session.  You may not realize how much work goes into planning a “picture perfect” photo shoot – especially one that tells a story, has a theme running through it, or is even just has that personal touch to convey more than just a likeness of a person or a family… With just a little bit of extra effort and attention to details, your portraits can be not just likenesses of the people (or pets) you love, but true works of Fine Art.

There are decisions to make (how can we best express who we really are, or who my child really is?  do we want to commemorate a special event that we want to remember?), locations to find, often there are arrangements that must be made with the locations, a suitable wardrobe to choose, accessories to consider, and oftentimes props to choose and purchase to make things really personal.  It can sometimes be very overwhelming.  Wouldn’t it be great to have an expert put together your entire session for you?  Someone who knows a lot of great locations, who know where to find unique and classy props (often at  a discount) , someone with a great sense of style to help you figure out what to wear and what looks good – and mostly someone to bounce off all of your ideas and come up with some pretty creative ideas as well.  If you are looking for just such a person to take all of the headache out of planning your photos session, resulting in a product that is uniquely “you,” I  know just the person.

Renee can help you come up with a great idea for your session and works closely with me to pick the ideal location, wardrobe and “props” to help you tell your story.  She’s also great at finding awesome deals and ways to save!  And to top everything off, she comes to your session with you and makes sure everything runs so smoothly – she brings brushes, keeps surprises for the kids, has makeup for touchup, helps me to get the great shots, etc.  She began a couple of years ago when planning theme sessions for her own adorable twins – with the idea to really tell a story and allow them to explore, grow and experience new things while having their portraits taken (the other bonus is that the girls really look forward to their fun times with “Miss Vanessa” as they always get to do something new and interesting – much better than dreading sitting still in a stuffy studio – although there is a place for that too).  Together we have come up with so many fun ideas that translate into beautiful images that tell the story of their childhood.  And she sends out the most beautiful press-printed cards for each holiday – a treat that friends and family look forward to!  But the thoughts are always coming, and there are only so many photo shoots one can do with their own family in a year (just ask my own kids!)  So she has decided to offer her creative juices and her services to others who would appreciate a no-stress, beautiful session.

For the months of May and June, all Photo Styling services will be discounted – a great opportunity for you to take advantage of the help at a reduced price!

Just to give you an idea of the things she comes up with -

For the butterfly session:

This is Renee, wearing her very handy “Photo Stylist Apron” – and two of her great ideas – the jar with cheesecloth & flowers to hold the first butterflies the girls got to hold, and the basket full of flowers to carry the butterflies to be released.

And of course, the perfect Monarch butterflies and the butterfly nets – one for each girl.  Also note the bracelet!:

She also arranged for and brought the flowers, basket, and picnic blanket…

And attention to the smallest details  – such as the butterfly necklace to tie the theme together:

Renee will also help you plan your wardrobe and clothing choices – either helping you with what you already have, ordering online, or finding great places to get that perfect look! She can even take you shopping! Here is Renee, on the job at our session last Thursday!

And just to give you some ideas of other shoots she has planned – here is a small sampling of images from the last year or two with her girls!

Halloween/Thanksgiving 2008

Christmas 2008

Valentine’s 2009

Spring/Easter 2009

Birthday Celebrations – Summer 2009

Halloween 2009

Christmas 2009

Horseback Riding Lessons:

Valentine’s  2010

February Showers

March Flowers/Easter

The girls will have such wonderful Fine Art books to look back on and remember their childhood years!

Call me at (949) 553-2434 to find out more about having a professionally styled shoot! Or email me at vanessa@hondaphotoart.com today!

The girl name Vanessa comes from the Hebrew word which means, “Butterfly..” It also stems from the Indian word which means, “Butterfly.”  Vanessa is also the name of a genus of butterfly that includes the Red Admiral and Painted Lady.

So, I guess you could kind of say that I have a thing for butterflies.  So when one of my favorite clients (and friends), Renee suggested a butterfly themed session for her friend Janna, I was all for it!  More about Renee, and her incredibly creative photo session ideas in my next post!  But for now I just have to share some images from this gorgeous session with Janna and her girls!  I always like to say that every session is an adventure, and this session was no exception.  It’s always fun to shoot in a completely fresh new location, and this is a location that I just LOVE!   There are a million beautiful places…

So we started off on this winding dirt trail….

The girls were being so cute and fun, so although I was carrying quite a bit of gear, I was also walking with my camera to my face, watching the girls through the lens and snapping shots every so often.

Suddenly,I hear this blood-curdling scream behind me and I drop my camera (thank goodness for the strap around my neck) and look down.  My foot was about 3 inches away from stepping on a very large snake!  Fortunately the snake was more afraid of us than we were of it and it slithered across the path and on its way.  But it was certainly an eventful beginning to a very interesting shoot!

The girls were just a dream to work with – so willing to try anything and the best listeners!

And Mom was just drop-dead gorgeous!

We even had grandma along to help – I couldn’t have made it nearly as far without her help!

But the fun really began when we brought out our surprises for the girls…

Enjoy your “Sneak Peak” Renee and Janna – there were so many fun images that I had a hard time narrowing them down for the blog!  I should have your gallery up soon!