Family Portraits
The Shore family is one of the families I most look forward to taking pictures of each year. Not only because they are clearly so photogenic, but also because they are one of the most laid back, easy couples to work with. No matter what the situation is, they are game. And even though they moved a few years ago now, they still drive back each year for our pictures.
Liz and Trent, I hope you love the pictures!
The rain held off just long enough for us to sneak in the Street family portraits this year at the beautiful Lake Jennings. I have shot here so many times and still love it. If you haven’t take the family out to Lake Jennings you definitely should- they have fishing, kayaking, rowboats, and even teepees that you can camp in. It was so great to get to see Ashley again- I started off my teaching career working with Ashley and we quickly became friends. I have been able to photograph their family through all the years and although life has taken us to different schools now, I am so appreciative to still have Ashely in my life.
Baby # 2 is on the way! I love love love taking pictures of a family in all the different seasons. And this season marks the wait for Madi’s big sister.
We made our way out to Lake Jennings, one of all my all time favorite spots in San Diego. Its an easy spot that requires pretty minimal walking, which is pretty ideal when you have a toddler and a pregnant mommy. The pictures were sweet and perfectly represent this sweet family. I hope you love them Chase, Letisha and Madi and baby!
My favorite shoots are the families that I have photographed through all the seasons. The Shore Family is just that. My first pictures of them were long before there were babies in the picture, and then when Penny was in the belly, and then when she was born, and again and again. Sadly, they moved a ways away and so I wasn’t able to photograph little Lula’s newborn pictures but we made it work for their Christmas picture. They drove down, I drove up, and these pictures were taken! Liz and Trent are the best- as authentic as two people could possibly be. So easy to photograph, flexible and up for anything. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t super bummed when they moved up North. But I am grateful that it worked out for us to take these pictures.
Liz, I hope you love the images and the memories! Can’t wait for the next time!
This is the third family portrait session that I have done for the Friedeck Family and it has been so much fun to watch their little family grow! We have had kids at the same time, even with similar names haha- Milo and Mila. :) And we have shot all the way from Old Town, up to Sunset Beach and now all the way up to Felicita Park in Escondido. When I am photographing Tammy I feel like I am with an old friend, more fun than work.
Felicita Park was amazing! I feel like I could shoot here over and over again and still find a million new places to shoot. I will definitely be coming back to this location again!
Tammy I hope you love the pics!
What an honor it was to photograph this family in honor of Vicenta’s 90th birthday. This family was full of love and you could tell that Vicenta was a blessed woman. I love being able to take part in capturing such precious memories. Linette reached out to me with a lot of questions- she was doing her research! I gave her lots of details about what it is like for me to photograph an event for you. What I said was- I create the whole process from beginning to end to be what I would want in a photographer. That part is very important to me. Linette has the sweetest heart and just has a special light inside of her. It was a joy to work with her!
But this photoshoot got even better. After emailing back and forth with Linette we came to realize that I had photographed her brother’s wedding! It was so special to photograph Steph and Andy again! It felt so incredibly natural. This time their family had expanded to include a little fur child- Louis with his one blue eye and one brown.
To Vicenta and family- I hope that you love these pictures!
I have been taking pictures of Ashley’s family since Kelsie was just a baby. Ashley and I worked together at the same elementary school and have had our babies at the same time two times in a row. In fact, our mom tribe formed naturally as 4 of us teachers became moms all around the same time. Since that time, our tribe has moved to different parts, gotten new jobs, and added more babies. I miss being able to see each other down the hall at work, but so blessed to call Ashley and the rest of our tribe friends.
Ashley, I hope you enjoy the pictures!
I am trying my hardest to be intentional about taking my girls out for pictures more often, because I know that this time is going to pass by so fast and I will regret every moment that I missed taking pictures of. Already my girls have grown so fast during this quarantine. Luckily, we decided to make a day of it and drive down to Rosarito and take some pictures of the girls. This spot was just less than half a mile away from where George and I got married. I feel like I could come to this place over and over again and it will always give me that special feeling. Also, I could just eat them both up- my beautiful babies!
Lucas’ Mommy is a fellow teacher, colleague, and much more- one of my close friends. We taught together on the same team for only two years, but in those two years we depended on each other ( and our team greatly) to be the best teachers possible to our students. It was such a joy to find out that Lucas was on the way when Linda was first pregnant. And although Covid has kept us from being together as often as I would like, I have a special love in my heart for him and am so blessed to be able to photograph him.
We started our day early in the morning- yes very early, 6:30 am- at Balboa Park and then made our way back to their house to shoot some traditional Korean One Year Pictures. Except for me accidentally popping the balloon at the end, the day felt like a success and Lucas did great.
Part 2
For Part 2 we headed back to their house and shot Lucas in a traditional Korean first birthday outfit. And look, he is still smiling even after going on the third hour of shooting. What a trooper!
Part 3
And lastly, we ended our shoot with a little cake smash!
Sweet Madison! You are just barely beginning and yet your sweet heart and contagious smile as won so many over. You are literally the easiest baby ever to take pictures of and I am so grateful that I get to be the one to do it. Your mommy and daddy adore you and it is evident in the way the sweetly take care of you. You are a lucky girl to have such an amazing mommy and daddy! I hope that these pictures will be precious memories for years to come! Until next year Madison! :)
The Neslen Family and I headed out to Presidio Park for their pictures. They are no stranger to my camera, we have taken pictures of them since they were a family of two. Their family has grown and so has our friendship over the years. Unlike my house full of girls, they have their hands full with three boys. It is so funny watching how different raising boys is from raising girls. Grace was calm as could be as the boys jumped, dove, fell, wrestled, ran and everything else that little boys do. I’m so glad that I could continue our tradition of taking pictures of their family as they grow.
Going back in time here a bit, Penelope is a big one year old now but she was the sweetest little newborn. I always say that newborn shoots are the hardest of all types of photography but I have to say, Penelope was probably the easiest of all the newborn shoots I have done. She did exactly what we needed- slept pretty much the whole time.
I love watching Liz as a mom- she rocks it. Not only is she a hot mama but she is raising one strong, independent woman that could conquer the world, because that is exactly what Liz is teaching her. Liz is also so stylish, making her family even more fun to photograph. And Trent is the perfect support for her, super chill and go with the flow and always a sport when it comes to taking pictures. You have no idea how much easier that makes my job.
Since this photoshoot I have shot pictures of their little family many times. But these still are some of my favorites!
About 12 years ago I met Nena and her family for the first time on a mission’s trip down to Mexico. I had, of course, no idea how that trip would completely change the direction of my entire life. Just one of the countless ways that it changed was by binding my heart to my friend who has become more sister then friend. Fede and Nena are our children’s godparents, and truly love our daughter’s as their own. Those that have kids know that there is nothing greater than this that you can ask for in our friendship. They are also our pastors, our confidants, our encouragers, our “keeping it real” people, through the thick and thin they have stuck. I am so blessed to have this gift of friendship in my life.
I have taken pictures of Lesly and Aaron since Aaron was barely old enough to walk. Now, Lesly has just turned 15. It is sort of unbelievable how time flies by. And also, how my photography has improved, haha… when I was editing these pictures I was somewhat taken aback looking at how they have grown, almost adults themselves. Any parent will know that this is bittersweet. You want to pause moments, relive them- but you can’t. So we try to do these shoots as often as we can because in some way we are pausing the moment so that we can later relive it. This is a gift I can give and I can’t put into words how honored I feel to do so.
I am going to warn you ahead of time, I am going to overpost, I can’t help it.
This special family are no strangers to my blog- in fact, this fall I did pictures of Amanda’s family by themselves and Liz’s family by themselves. But I absolutely love that every year Katie, Amanda and Liz’s mom, makes it a priority to get them all together and do what I refer to as “the big family shoot”. It is always eventful- full of laughing, crying (mostly the toddler but sometimes the mom chasing the toddler lol), and lots of singing/dancing/yelling/hooting/anything to get the kids’ attention.
I love this family, each and everyone of them. I can’t imagine a single year where we don’t do this. I hope it never stops.
Two days before Thanksgiving I got to take pictures of this sweet family! How fun to grow up in a family with 4 kids- you have constant built-in best friends! My little family of two seemed so small in comparison! Belle kept telling me that it was going to crazy with the kids, but they did really well. I live for this type of crazy. :) .
Mission Trails was the perfect spot, just what I was looking for! I have shot here before but for whatever reason this field wasn’t calling my name. It definitely was this time! The day was pretty overcast, following a few days of pretty intense rain- but there were a few moments throughout the shoot where the sun would start to peak through and give the sweet, warm glow that I can’t resist. We had talked about maybe going to two spots but we were loving this field so much that we ended up starting and finishing our shoot here.
Belle I hope you love your pictures and thank you for trusting me to take them! I hope this is the first of many!
Jeff and Abigail have been close friends of ours since college- and yes that is more years ago then I care to admit. As the years have passed we have added babies and mortgages to our friendship and we have watched our friendship grow and transform. Their family has grown by three since they were married, and our kids have had the opportunity to grow up together.
For this shoot we headed out to Iron Mountain Trailhead. The long row of trees at this location is of course magical, although I have to say that I wasn’t the only photographer that thought so- it was kind of like survival of the fittest out there, haha. But despite the many families there taking pictures, we were still able to get some great shots! I’m already looking forward to our next shoot!
For the last two years I have shot Belinda and her beautiful family’s pictures, but this year, her mom decided she wanting to do big family portraits as well. So we ended up photographing at the same location just one week later. But the amazing thing about Marian Bear Park is that there are so many little hidden treasures there that really you could shoot there every day and find new spots to explore.
There is something beautiful about shooting these generational sessions like this- capturing the moments of the whole family together. Truly family is our greatest earthly gift that we have in this life- and all too fast our kids grow up and our parents grow older. Freezing these moments in time is priceless.
I am calling this the Not-So-Newborn Session because originally this was supposed to be a newborn session but time got away from us- like many months away from us, haha. But we finally got out there to get the pictures that had long been planned on! Brix was a trooper and so were Megan and Branden. They are first time parents to little Brix and I seriously can’t believe how much it seems like they have it together! I was such a stress case with my first baby but they couldn’t have been more chill during the shoot.
The weather was gorgeous and Los Penasquitos Canyon was just as beautiful as ever. I am soaking up these sunny days because the sun always does something magical to photos. Red Starbucks cups are right around the corner but for now I am grateful for the sunny days.
What a special day to see The Chen Family again... a few years ago now I shot their wedding and now to see them again with their family expanded by two was so sweet. When they first reached out to arrange a family portrait session we considered a few different options for the location. In the end we decided on Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve. This was actually the first time I had shot here before but what I loved about it was the variety of different places to shoot. From wheat colored grass fields, to big sweeping oak trees, a creek with an old wooden bridge and trees areas that looked like they came straight from the fairy tale. But what I loved most of all was how easy it was to access all these spots. When you have two kids in strollers the walk has to be pretty easy. The weather was gorgeous and the kids were so sweet- that makes for some great pictures!
It means so much to me to continue shooting people’s pictures through every season of their life. It means that the relationships we have formed will continue to grown and I have the honor of being able to keep taking their pictures in each season of their life. I am so grateful for this opportunity.
Trent, Liz and Penny are the perfect team! And when it comes to taking pictures I am telling you they were born for this. Literally Penny came out of the womb looking at the camera and hasn’t stopped since. She is my perfect little model. Her disposition leaves you just constantly wanting to squeeze her and she gets so much love and support from her amazing parents. Trent and Liz are amazing and they make my job easy!
When we started planning this shoot Liz already knew where she wanted to head to- Lake Jennings. Lake Jennings is a pretty dreamy location because of the way the sun sets glows through the trees and sparkles off the water. There are a lot of lakes but not many that have trees all around the edge of the lake, making shooting there peaceful, easy and beautiful. Liz is great about communicating with me for a few weeks before our shoot to make sure the outfits are just right. And as you can see in these pictures that makes all the difference! I love these pictures and Liz I hope that you do too!
