Becki’s maternity portraits were the last portraits I took before the surgery and first thing I did after getting back in the studio was to photograph her again, this time with her newborn son, Kaden. This portait session captured the many moods of a newborn, but this one came at the end after Kaden got tired of soiling every piece of clothing Becki brought and borrowed. Nobody said babies are neat, but they sure are cute.
My first shoot after getting back from surgery was one I was looking forward to. Kaline, who has modeled for me since 2002 ( and is featured in two of my all time favorite photographs, Mountain Peek, and Lady of the Lake) had her second child and three days after Cecilia’s birth I visited the newly expanded family at their home.
Her husband, Ben, works for the Post Office so I figured if you work for the company that does more deliveries than anyone else, why would you trust your most important delivery to a stork?
Unfortunately, the Post Office doesn’t make Priority One boxes large enough to ship a 7 pound newborn. So Photoshop came to the rescue. We photographed Cecilia at their home in a generic box filled with pink peanuts. Then back at the studio I photographed the Priority One box with the pink backdrop. A few minutes of Photoshop work blended the two photographs.
As we were photographing Cecilia, we had to rescue her a couple of times as she would gradually sink into the packing peanuts as she wiggled around. But she looked entirely comfortable sleeping in her box. However the shoot came to an end when little Cecilia burped up. Well that is an understatement. Think Mt. Vesuvious. I didn’t realize a baby could drink that much. It pretty much made a mess of her and the peanuts, but fortunately by then I had the photos I needed.
Becki has modeled for me several times over the last few years, posing variously as a sexy Ms. Claus, a sexy firefighter, and a 1920s flapper dancer. But this time Becki came into the studio as her self. Becki’s always been fun to photograph and she’s got one of the greatest smiles, especially when she’s cracking up, which is often.
But for maternity portraits I usually go with a more reflective expression. For this pose we wrapped Becki in some white fabric and went with very high key lighting and then processed it further to give the whole photo a soft, angelic look to it.
We squeezed this shoot in as my last shoot for the year before Lori and I took off for our transplant surgery. I should be back to work just in time to photograph Becki and Mick with their new addition to the family.
I came across Natalie’s work on ModelMayhem and saw that she had the perfect figure for a 1930s wedding dress in our vintage clothing collection. Since she lives in the Bay Area I was hoping to get the chance to work with her someday, and when it turned out that we were going to be traveling to the Bay Area for the holidays, we decided to schedule a shoot. We also used the opportunity to check out some friend’s Victorian in Alameda, who graciously allowed us to set up in their recently renovated parlor. Natalie wanted some jewelry shots for her portfolio, and I used a little bit of Photoshop trickery to make her eyes and earrings match.
One of the reasons I like photographing kids so much is because you get such a wide range of expressions from them. I spent an afternoon in the studio with Lillie and her little sister Natalie and got many photos of them with great smiles. But it was this photo of Lillie that was my favorite. Lillie was a great kid to work with and she was willing to be photographed for much longer than a lot of kids. I’m not sure what Lillie was thinking right when I took this photo, but it sure looks like a devious thought, and it brought a smile to my face when I reviewed the photos, and mom and grandma loved it too.
I had a lot of fun photographing Shauna in her First Communion dress. I’ve photographed her before as part of the Ferndale Dance Academy productions, but one on one I found out how much of a little charmer she is. My favorite way to work with kids is to just let them be themselves, and even though this might have the look of a posed shot, it wasn’t. We had finished one set of poses and I was trying to think of what to do next when Shauna decided to relax against the column. Recognizing a good opportunity when it comes my way, I pressed the shutter to capture the best shot of the session. Just a charming girl being herself.
This photo was taken during a family portrait session out on the south jetty in Loleta. When doing outdoor location portraits, I like letting the family just enjoy the surroundings rather than trying to artificially pose them. The father and his two year old son were having fun chasing the waves and being chased by them. The two year old really enjoyed his day at the beach and it was reflected in the pictures.
On my birthday, I had scheduled a photoshoot with Natalya, a model I had worked with before. It also happened to be Natalya’s birthday. While we were setting up, her son Aidan was very interested in being photographed too. So while Natalya was getting dressed, I took a few pictures of Aidan and Marbles, their calico kitten. It was obvious that Aidan loved Marbles, and he was a natural at posing. Who said you shouldn’t work with kids and animals?
The holidays are a favorite time for family portraits, as they make great gifts, and of course they are a great way to personalize your Christmas cards. 7 month old Darienne came in with her twin sister, her big brother, and her parents for a family photo, and in addition to the group photos, we took some individual photos of the three kids. Well, two of the three kids. Darienne’s sister fell asleep right after we finished the group photos. This photo of Darienne is quite precious. She looks like a little porcelain doll, all dressed up in her holiday finery.
Maren is the daughter of a friend of ours, and on this particular day it was my responsibility to take care of her while the girls got some work done. So I grabbed the camera and took Maren for a walk outside. This photo was taken on our porch, just as the sun was setting.
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