Vanessa Honda Photography

My adorable little friend Maren finally got her baby brother!  You can see her gorgeous mommy’s  maternity pictures here. Unfortunately, our session was right during little
Liam’s fussiest time of day (which really wasn’t all that fussy – he is such a good baby) but we weren’t able to get any of my favorite sleeping newborn poses in. Fortunately, he has such beautiful, bright eyes and we got to see a fair amount of those!  And Maren was popping in and out of all of the pictures, trying (often successfully) to steal the spotlight.  Enjoy your sneak peak, Maura!

And finally, the only sleeping shot of the evening!

My most recent post just reminded me that I hadn’t actually posted some images that I thought I had – Grace’s Senior Portraits.  I was going to link the them, but couldn’t find them here on my blog.  So, better late than never – Sorry Grace!

I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful evening, and more perfect location, or a more fun family for this session!  This was another family that came back to visit Sunny Southern California this summer and have their beach portraits taken by me again!  I am so lucky!  We had a great time last year, and an even better time together this year!  It is so much fun to see my repeat clients year after year and see how the kids have grown and how everyone is doing!  And I so look forward to next year as well! Enjoy your sneak peak “G” family!

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I have a love/hate relationship with my computer. I certainly spend plenty of time with it!  I couldn’t do what I do without it. In fact, I can’t live without it.  But sometimes things go wrong, and then, because of my computer, I hate my life!  That was the story for the last week and a half, because I caught a very nasty virus on my image editing computer.  Fortunately, I had everything backed up.  Unfortunately, it took several days of unsuccessfully trying to fix the problem so that I wouldn’t have to format and reinstall (because it takes forever to get things running the way I need them to be to edit), and then when that didn’t work, it took several days of reinstalling all of the software, plugins, actions, filters, brushes, fonts, etc. and getting things just the way they need to be.  So, I truly apologize to all of my clients who have been waiting to see their images. I am on a roll playing catchup now!

And this is one of those families who have been waiting patiently!  Fun family get together at the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach and grandma was so proud of all her adorable grand kids (with good reason!)  So here is your long awaited sneak peak, and I hope to have many more up very soon for those of you still waiting!

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!

This weekend, my daughter was baptized, and what a wonderful occasion that was!  I am so proud of her and the choices she is making!  And I am so grateful for all the support of family and friends who came to witness it!  And especially grateful to my in-laws for all of their help and for my parents and siblings who helped put on such a nice dinner afterwards – I could never have done it without you!  Here are a few of “K’s” baptism portraits that were displayed at her baptism. These were mostly taken at Chapman’s Law School campus – a beautiful place for portraits!

For the family and friends who would like to, you can view a slide show of Kate’s first 8 years by CLICKING HERE!

Eight years ago to this day, I became the mother to a daughter. What a wonderful joy and adventure this has been!  Kate is a shining light to all that know her, and one of the joys of my life.  She has a very open, giving and friendly personality.  Sharing has always come easily to her, as do enthusiasm and an exuberance for life.  Kate is growing up so fast – I can hardly believe it!  She loves to cook, read, swim, play with her friends. And she is always asking to take pictures with my cameras…or to come and help me on a photo shoot.  So for her birthday today, she got her very own point and shoot camera… waterproof, shock drop – proof, dust proof, you-name-it…  She is so excited!  In addition to loving to snap pictures herself, she is my most willing participant in family photo shoots – and the camera loves her as well!

For her birthday today, she wanted to help me bake her favorite cake: lemon meringue cake (four layers of lemon cake, with homemade lemon pie filling spread between each layer and topped with a homemade meringue topping), and her favorite ice cream: raspberry sour cream ice cream (the best ice cream recipe ever – truly!).

Afterward I took her out for an ultra-quick, 5 minute photo shoot – so we could remember what she looks like the day she turned 8!

She really, really wanted me to take an upside down picture…so I humored her. Despite the thick overcast, the light was still too bright for her to open her eyes more than 1 second!  Her eyes were closed in 90% of these pics!

Then we had a very simple party – consisting of cake, ice cream and of course opening presents with a few friends!

Then grandma whisked her and her brother and sister off to Southern Utah to spend the weekend hiking and celebrating Utah’s July 24th holiday (Pioneer Day)!  I wish I could be there now!  All in all, a pretty good day for Kate!

But now that it’s quiet in the house and the kids are gone, I can’t help but miss them and reflect on the years that have flown so quickly by!  So I lost myself looking through the years in pictures and thought I would post a few of Kate through the years.  Quick disclaimer – the first couple of years I did not have a professional camera or experience!  But I still love to reflect on those times – no matter what your equipment or your abilities as a photographer, don’t forget to capture the moments as they happen, because they go by so fast. One day I was holding Kate newly born in my arms, and the next she is running off with her friends to 3rd grade! Here she is the day she was born:

One thing that made today so special was that my littlest brother Zach, had his first child, beautiful Emery Saige , early this morning!  Kate will share her birthday with a cousin.  I shared my birthday with both my grandmother and my aunt, and I loved that!  Here is Zach, 8 years ago today, holding Kate the day she was born.  Now he holds a daughter of his own…

Kate’s eyes seem to change color every year. For the first year they were a startling blue!

On her first day of Kindergarten:

With her best friend Maren:

First day of 1st Grade:

Kate and cousin Courtney – they are such great friends!

Kate’s eyes have turned to a beautiful shade of green. We’ll see what next year brings!

Little Xander is growing up! I can’t believe he has turned 2!  My fabulous sister-in-law came down to do my hair and brought little “X” along for his two-year pics. She had the greatest idea – put him in the little sailor suit that my brother (his dad) was photographed in at the same age.  She bought a frame that would hold both pictures (father and son in the same outfit) and gave it to Brandon for Father’s Day…  We were planning on taking these pics at the beach, but suprise surprise – it was raining in the morning when they arrived. So we hopped on down to my studio for a very quick photo session.  One bonus – the studio is in a pet store, and there are always adoption pets available for making little guys and gals happy and excited!

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!