I know these two families because my daughter has been in preschool for the past two years with the middle son from the all boy group and the oldest son who has two sisters. I can’t even begin to tell you how incredible their school and their teacher has been. All of the parents are really involved and I am so fortunate to have made such good friends with the other families. I always refer to them as “my mommy friends”. These two families are no exception. Get this – the moms are sisters and the dads are brothers. How easy does that make holidays with the in-laws? They aren’t the only families that I know that have done this. Pure genius, I tell you.

Anyway, I already knew everyone’s personalities. I knew their smiles. I know how they bat their eyelashes to make the other moms swoon. I’ve seen them play and fight and joke around and be bashful. Knowing all of that made it so much more fun to capture the emotion, their personalities, and connect with them through my camera.

I just adore this photo. This captured their personalities that morning exactly. I love it when my camera is able to freeze a feeling like that.

Here are both sets of kids. Cousins.

The two sisters and two brothers.

You know I love my walking shots.

If only I were 6 years old again. I’d be chasing this little guy all over the playground.

Every family I photograph emits different energy and I feel something slightly different with each of them. Some are pure laughter, some are joy, some are love, some are affection, some are passion, some are content. This family is my Sweetness.

Look how much he’s grown! Little man just turned 2 years old a few days before our session.

I love the photo on the left. Picture this… a little two year old boy trying to be a stinker and get away with something. He had his back to a big cement pillar. He slowly was inching is way to the side to sneak around the back side of the pillar and make a toddler escape. Can’t you just picture him inching over, little by little, trying not to get noticed?

Boy, do I love this city.

One of my favorites from the session. I think 2 years old is one of the cutest ages. Add Mommy and Daddy tickling a cute toddler and I have nothing but a big fat grin on my face.

I can’t wait to photograph them again next year.

I found out that my husband is coming home from Iraq for a couple of weeks during the middle of May. He’ll be with our 7 month old son for the first time. I really want to surprise him with us doing family photos. I don’t know if you’re able to do this as it’s such short notice, but I think your work is so beautiful. We are available at anytime. I hope we can figure something out and get our first family photos! Thank you. -Caitlin

Wow.

I was completely humbled and honored to have the opportunity to take their first family photos.

Call my ability to take photos a skill. Call it talent. Call it pure luck. Whatever it is, what good is it if I don’t put it to good use? I called Caitlin up and told her it would be my privilege to take their photos, and for all that their family has sacrificed for our country, it would be my gift to them.

To Caitlin and her boys: Thank you so much for this opportunity. I’m grateful for everything that you do. Enjoy your first family photos!

I met this adorable family out at Edgefield. You know I love variety, and getting to shoot in a location where I normally don’t shoot makes me a very happy girl. We only explored a small part of the grounds. Good thing too, because I’ll be taking this adorable little man’s 1-year-old photos in August. I don’t know how I end up with such great clients, but after every session I could totally just hang out with them. Especially a family like this one. When you’re around people who ooze and radiate love for each other, you just want to absorb as much of that positive energy as you can.

I mean… just look at this guy. Does he not radiate joy and happiness? The smiles on mom and dad’s faces never went away the entire session.

A D O R A B L E

Happiness. Joy. Love. You feel it?

I love this shot. They didn’t know I was shooting. They thought I was getting everything set up. They’re looking at their son who is sitting in the stroller to my right. I have no idea what their little man was doing to make them smile so big, but I can only imagine it was super cute.

Daffodils and cherry blossoms. I love Oregon in the Spring.

Dad is standing to my right. I have no idea what he is doing, but it had to have been hilarious. I offered to pay him to come to every session with me to get the kids to smile.

Oh my God. Now I’m funny too.

The story behind these two photos will make you laugh… For the one on the left, I told them to stand together like they were at prom. If you know my style, you know I don’t ask people to do those sorts of things because I seriously want a posed shot. I ask them to do that so I can get the shot on the right. Funny thing is, I actually like both shots equally.

So happy! Look at those two little chompers.

I have to brag here a bit. I’m particularly proud of this photo. It wasn’t raining that day, thank goodness, but we had high overcast skies. The only thing in the sky was a dull ugly grey color. No detail whatsoever. Just ugly grey. When you live in Oregon and you’re a photographer, I suppose you have to figure out how to photoshop the occasional blue sky. Makes the photo a bit more interesting than ugly grey, right? How did I do?

As always, I appreciate you taking the time to look at my blog. I appreciate each and every comment that you all leave me!

Such an expressive little man. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many expressions during a couple hour period on such a young little babe. He was so fantastic. Absolutely perfect, I tell you. Happy the entire time. He is so inquisitive. Nearly impossible to keep still in one spot. My camera was set to continuous focus mode almost the entire session because trying to photograph this little cruiser and still be able to get him in focus was like trying to hit a moving target with an arrow. He has such personality, such charisma, such joy. And boy does he love his mommy and daddy.

I’ve been to their home three times now for the pre-consultation, the session, and then their ordering appointment and this little guy had me wrapped around his little finger with each visit. His parents are absolutely fantastic too. They had music playing during our entire session and I swear, you couldn’t have chosen a better play list for me. I loved every song on their mix. Coldplay, John Mayer, Goo Goo Dolls. I loved every single song. They even had fresh baked cookies out for me (not a requirement, but I promise I won’t complain if you do it for your session). I enjoyed myself so much that I invited myself to just come back and hang out with them sometime.

One thing I know for sure… taking photos in my clients’ home is completely fantastic. Selfishly, I love the change of scenery. I have my favorite locations around town, but my creative juices really start to flow when I’m somewhere completely different. Unfamiliar layouts, lighting, space – all those factors make for new interesting photos. And for my clients, having photos taken in a place where they share all of their most intimate memories simply gives extra meaning to them.

I hope you all enjoy the photos as much as I do.

My favorite:

Puffs are goooood.

Super cool wall. They have the best style in their home.

Another favorite. Look at those two little teeth!

Yup. Love these too.

I can never get enough baby tooshie.

He has the coolest room. The wall decals were so awesome, as was the color of the walls.

Another favorite of mine.

I am baby. Hear me ROAR!

Look at that fine motor coordination. Such determination to get that delicious puff.

My absolute favorite shot from the session.

This shot is just so peaceful to me.

She is so incredibly loved.

Four generations of women. Can you believe it? I hope I look like that when I’m a grandma and a great grandma. Sheesh. I’m looking forward to getting their five generation photo in 20-30 years.

I call this one “Daddy Hammock”.

Such a beautiful little baby. She looked a lot like my first born did when she was that little.

Now on to the good stuff… the photos.

This family has been a huge part of my family for decades. My dad and their dad have been good friends since they were teenagers. They’ve remained close through all the ups and downs in each other’s lives over the past 40+ years. I’m especially grateful for the support they gave when my dad recently underwent his heart procedure. I used to love hanging out with them while we were growing up – going to the taste of Newport, trips to Mammoth, swimming in their pool, and most especially eating at their restaurants (you can’t get Mexican food that’s even close to how delicious their food is anywhere in Oregon). Oh, what I wouldn’t get for a bowl of Avila’s famous homemade soup, some warm fresh corn tortillas, and a margarita on the rocks with salt right now. Mmmmmm…. As I’m sure you’ll see in the photos below, they are a very close-knit loving family, and they’re all pretty darn gorgeous as well.

You may recognize some of them from a session I did last summer. That session still goes down in my book as one of my favorites.

Amazing how many good photos can be captured in a little over an hour. What you see below isn’t even half of what’s going on their disc.

This is one of my favorite shots. I love how Victor, the patriarch, is standing over his family. He is truly a protector. In fact, the first time he met my husband, he told him (in so many words) “If you ever do wrong by her, you’ll have to answer to me.” It was like having a second dad that my soon-to-be husband had to answer to.

This one deserves to be printed on metal. How cool would that look?

Can’t forget the dogs in the family photo.

These two little guys have grandma and grandpa wrapped around their little fingers.

These two sisters married these two brothers. How cool is that? I mean, how easy does this kind of set up make holidays with the in-laws?

I adore these.

Look at that teeny tiny waist.

I love this photo. I knew I wanted it to have a panoramic feel to it and I would want to crop it to a 10×20 aspect ratio. I stood really far away to take the photo with all of them in one frame. Then I got up closer and took photos of each individual group to make sure that I could get optimal focus and resolution. Then, using the magic of photoshop, I overlaid the close up group photos onto the large image that I took of all of them. No tripod, just mad photoshop skills.

Okay, you’re going to love these. Follow the images from the top down on the left column first, then move over to the right column and follow that side from the top down. My mom has told me stories about how Victor used to balance my sister’s and I on one hand (picture a 3 month old standing on the palm of someone’s hand) when we were infants. By the way she tells the story, I don’t think she was very amused at the time.

The center photo below doesn’t have the same crisp resolution as the others only because I zoomed in a lot to show you the look on their faces when I asked him to jump while she was on his shoulders. The photo on the left is mid air and the photo on the right is the (safe) landing.

So weird to think I’ve known this family for 32.9 years.

Giving their uncle a workout.

Don’t mess with the dudes on the left. The guys on the right are much more friendly.

Grandpa’s turn for a little strength training.

If you know my work, you know I love walking shots. It was hard to get a nice walking shot to look like a portrait instead of a snapshot with a beach full of people in front of them. I’ll show off my photoshop skills (referenced above) in a before and after post sometime in the near future. It’ll be fun.

Want a session like this of your own family? Contact me asap! My summer months are already almost completely booked up due to the busy wedding season. Don’t wait or you might not get a spot on my schedule. As far as Orange County dates, there’s a chance I might be down a couple more times this year.

Before I even got to know them a bit, I saw how there were dressed and I must have thanked them a dozen times during our session. They coordinated their wardrobe so perfectly. Lots of layers, different textures, and a beautiful palette of rich colors. They came from as far as Montana and Seattle and were staying in Troutdale when they drove an hour for me to photograph them. We ended up with so many amazing photos. This was one of the hardest sessions for me to narrow down which ones to post on the blog.

It was such a pleasure photographing your loving family! Thank you!!!

I have one more fun (cold & wet) session from 2010 to post on the blog after this one, then I’ll have some fabulous ones to post from this year…

This is my absolute favorite. I adore the expression on little man’s face, his posture, and the way the trees frame him.

Adorable, right? So stinking cute.

This one makes me smile every time I see it.

Kisses are the best.

It was a true pleasure being able to photograph that insanely gorgeous belly!!!

Is this one hot mama or what?

I got this whole series of mom reading to her son. Pure joy is all I felt from these two.

Crazy adorable, right?