Let me first preface this post by saying that these photos were not taken in Portland as the title indicates. I say “Portland Family Photographer” because I want the search engines and google crawlers to show my website when anyone does an internet search for a Portland family photographer. These were taken in Newport Beach, CA. Although I would love for people in Southern CA to stumble across my site while searching for a photographer, I live in Portland. I do, however, travel to Orange County several times per year to visit family, get a good healthy dose of vitamin D, visit my favorite restaurants, and squeeze in as many photo shoots as I can. So, if you live in Orange County and want me to take your photos, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be in your area soon so don’t be shy… send me an email so we can chat.

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.

Have you ever met a family that just seemed too good to be true? This was that family, except that it wasn’t too good to be true. They seemed pretty darn near perfect. The parents were truly in love and have been married over 30 years. I find that so profoundly inspiring. The three siblings shared an obvious respect for one another and really enjoyed each other’s company. One of the three siblings is married and he and his wife were absolutely adorable together. And the major heartbreaker? Their beautiful baby daughter. How lucky that family is to have such a perfect new addition, and how lucky the baby girl is to be surrounded by parents, an aunt, an uncle, and grandparents who so obviously cherish her. Is it weird that after an hour and a half with these people, I wanted them to adopt me?

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!!!

What a fantastic little family. It was freezing during our shoot. Well, it wasn’t exactly the kind of cold temperatures the Midwest and East Coast are seeing right now, but it was about as cold as I like and the weather was definitely cold enough to require jackets. Despite the frigid weather, this little man had a smile on his face the entire time. What a well behaved little toddler (I should know because I have a little stinker around the same age). His mom was great too. I know when I was that pregnant I just wanted to be comfortable – that meant in a temperature controlled client with stretchy cotton clothes. She was just lovely, as was little man’s dad. You can see from the photos what a lovey dovey family they are, and I’m sure the newest addition gets showered with love every minute of every day. We squeezed our session in last fall just in time to order holiday cards.

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.

I had the privilege of photographing this beautiful family last December. The hot mama you’ll see in the photos below called me up on a Saturday and we hit it off instantly on the phone. She was such a pleasure to talk to. She said, “I know it’s a little last minute but I’m due in a couple weeks and I would really love some maternity photos.” Lucky for me, I was able to head down to her house to take photos the next day. They lived in a beautiful quaint old home and I was just giddy to be able to use my new 24mm 1.4 lens during the session. Her son, soon-to-be big Bro, was the smartest little man. He had just started walking but his vocabulary was through the roof! He adored his books and ABC puzzles and the love and connection between he and both of his parents would just melt your heart. The new addition, a healthy baby boy who arrived a few weeks ago, came into this world surrounded by the most caring, loving family.

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?

I had the pleasure of photographing a super cool photographer and her family over Thanksgiving weekend. Brittany lives in Las Vegas and is a truly talented photographer. If you live in the Vegas area and are looking for a photographer, be sure to check out her website HERE. Plus, not only have I seen her work but I now know her and I will honestly tell her that she is one cool chick.

There are a few things that I love about photographing other photographers. First, they always know how to coordinate their wardrobe. She totally nailed it with the beautiful splashes of jewel toned red. Second, photographers rarely get photos of themselves. We’re almost always the ones behind the camera, so I loved being able to get photos of Brittany with her entire family, alone with the kiddos, lovin’ on her hubby, and a couple of her by herself. Lastly, we photographers need to get our own family photos taken regularly so we can enjoy what all of our clients love – capturing those moments that will last a lifetime. Images that our children will cherish when they’re older. Pieces of art that we can decorate our homes with and admire every time we pass by.

Miss Brittany – it was awesome getting to photograph your family and I’m so grateful you chose me to do it! I hope the cold wet weather we had during our session is refreshing to look at during your hot dry Vegas summer months!

We started out the session with a few shots of the extended family who all got together for the holiday weekend.

I just love this one of mom and her two babies.

Those eyes!

Is he not the cutest little thing ever?

I wanted to share a quick photo I took of my friend and fellow photographer, Stephanie, and her family. She and I have a lot in common – two kids with an older girl and a younger boy, our passion for photography sparked right around the same time, and deep down we’re both math and science geeks.

I didn’t have too much time to get photos of them. I squeezed them in between a block of mini sessions. We had to rush, her daughter (poor thing) had to go to the bathroom, her son loved getting his photo taken as much as any two year old boy does that gets his picture taken all the time, and I wasn’t thrilled with the lighting. In fact, there was a REALLY bright spot behind them taking up the entire upper left corner. But, with a little Photoshop magic and some creative cloning, its gone, and you can focus on how great they look.

I only got a handful of shots because of our time constraints, but I am completely in love with this photo.

This was such a fun mini session. You’ll be able to see how much personality they had from the photos. They are all easy on the eyes too, which makes my editing work quite enjoyable. We got so many good pics in our quick 20min session, about three times as many as you see here, and by the time we did Nick’s senior photo session right after, he was already warmed up and ready for the camera. One more fun fact I have to throw in here because its so impressive: the mom ran her first half marathon the morning before the pictures. I’ve completed a couple half marathons (I say completed because I would never classify my “running” abilities as actual running) and when I was done, all I wanted to do was soak in a cold bath, follow it with a hot shower, and relax the entire rest of the day. How amazing is she to get all dolled up for photos and walk around Washington Park after running 13 miles!

Adorable, right?

I snapped this one right after I said “Pretend there’s a pretty girl walking by.” Well, it wasn’t right after… As soon as I said that both of these guys made the funniest faces with the weirdest postures – real ladies men, I’m sure. I was laughing so hard I didn’t manage to get a photo of what they were doing. I was only able to snap one of them laughing afterword. I love this photo though.

How fun these two must be for mom.

These two brothers might kill me for posting this one, but I think its freakin’ hilarious. When we started the session I told them I was a little unsure of how to pose them because I’m so used to doing family sessions with a mom, dad, and little kids. I said that I love doing hand holding walking shots but I didn’t think it would quite work with grown teenage sons. They proved me wrong.

I love this series too. This is how it went: I tell the boys to stand with mom and smile. Cute photo. I tell the boys to kiss mom on the cheek. They very reluctantly do so but from the expression on mom’s face, you know she is in heaven because her babies are giving her love. What immediately follows after the kiss is both boys turning away totally and playfully disgusted after having to give mom a kiss AND having a photographer document it!

And last, but not least, mom with her man in his uniform.

I wanted to show you all what to expect out of a mini session. You’ll experience the same exactly quality as a full session, just with less time and fewer images. It’s a heck of a deal too. This is only a sample of the photos this family got. They’ll actually be getting three times as many images as you see here, all from a quick 20 min session.

Here’s the best part… I still have two openings for this Sunday’s mini sessions! Picture this – you’re up at Washington Park on a Sunday afternoon, you see bright and vibrant hues of red, orange and yellow from the changing leaves, you feel the warm directional sunshine and back light, and you get some amazing photos taken of your family. After a quick session, you realized that you have all of your extended family’s holiday gifts taken care of, your holiday cards are done and out of the way, and you’ve got some great photos to fill up that empty space on your wall you’ve been wanting to fill for years. Perfect!

I’ll post the mini session details below, but first enjoy a quick mini session example.

This was one of my favorites. Will I ever tired of hand holding walking shots? Never. Add in an adorable toddler who is just learning to walk? Get outta town.

I LOVE that pouty little lip.

What a tender moment

If you’re interested contact me asap to get your name in my calendar. $250 is required at the session. This will cover the Mini Collection, but you always have the option to upgrade to the Full Collection (see below) after you view your photos.