Awwww I just loved these girls!  They are the neighbors of a friend of mine, and they were so much fun to work with.  One of the girls stepped on a piece of glass in her bedroom the minute I got there, which generally speaking isn’t a great way to start a photo shoot.  She toughed it out though, and was a real trooper for me.  Both the girls were really sweet and easy-going.  They listened really well, and confirmed my feeling once again that 4 is a magical age.  Actually anything over 4 is wonderful!

 Without further ado, here is J and R! 

What a cute family, huh?  I’m jealous of the twin girl thing again.  I would never get tired of dressing two little girls and taking their pictures.  Thanks for letting me hang out with your beautiful children, G-V family! 

Tags: Uncategorized //

Baby D first came to see me for pictures when he was still in his mommy’s belly.  He came back as a beautiful little newborn, signed up for our baby plan, and now he’s 7 months old!  Our session started out quite seriously.  Baby D didn’t find me very amusing, but he was at least entertained enough to look at me and stay put on the backdrop - and really, that’s as much as I ever need to make me super happy.  Babies are so cute no matter what they do.  Eye contact = good session! 

So baby D has pretty severe eczema - a skin condition that leaves patches of dry, itchy and irritated skin.  He had it on his face, and in smaller patches all over his body.  He didn’t seem to be too bothered by it during our photo shoot, but I would imagine it’s not fun for him.  I had one other baby last year that had severe eczema.  I asked D’s mom if I could post before and after pictures of baby D on here, so everyone could see the difference.  I tell people I do retouching on any kind of skin blemishes, but it’s hard to picture what that means without an example.  I’ve had LOTS of maternity clients say they didn’t want to show their belly because they had stretchmarks, and LOTS of high school seniors who worried that their acne would show up in the pictures.  Neither one shows up at all, because of the magic that is Photoshop!  I retouch every single photo I present to clients.  I make color corrections and lighting changes to every photo, and then retouch as needed.  Sometimes people need softening of the lines around the eyes, or a slight teeth whitening or brightening of the eyes.  I never do anything that changes the person’s basic looks - I am not trying to make people look like supermodels.  I want my clients to look like themsevles, but in as flatterin a way as possible.  With cases like this, D’s eczema isn’t part of him.  It will get cleared up and he won’t look like that anymore.  Therefore, I get rid of it!  Skin blemishes only hide a person’s beauty, and I can’t have that. 

Here is a before and after close-up of baby D’s face:

Before:

After:

And just because he’s so absurdly cute and mellow, here’s a couple more sneek peaks:

By the way, if you’ve ever noticed the large print of the little brunette girl out by the barn that’s hanging in my studio?  That’s baby D’s big sister.  What a cute family!  I can’t wait to see how the kids change in the next 6 months, and then we’ll do baby D’s 1 year portraits. 

Tags: July, families and children //

Meet the W family, who have recently welcomed a new member, baby Z.  Baby Z was adopted, just like we adopted our Gracie, and it looks the W’s lucked out as much with their adoption as we did with ours.  Baby Z is absolutely precious, and so good natured.  He happily modeled for over an hour, letting me take his picture every which way.  When he finally let out a tiny squawk, his parents fed him a bottle, he fell asleep, let me take his picture asleep, then let us wake him up five minutes later and started with the smiles again.  We got so many beautiful pictures of this new family - it really made me happy.  You’ve never seen two parents more smitten with their baby than they were.  I must give credit to them for some of the more creative shots.  They found some of them and brought them in to inspire me, which was so cool.  I will definitely be using some of these poses again. 

The happy family….

Look at this adorable dimpled butt!! 

Baby Z snoozed peacefully in Daddy’s hands…

And then chewed on some toesies…

I couldn’t get over how cute and sweet this little guy was.  They really lucked out to get to bring him home.  They were a blast to work with - and thanks for the posing ideas!  I can’t wait to watch Baby Z as he grows.

Tags: June, families and children //

I have yet to meet a newborn I didn’t think was precious, but this sweet little girl, baby T, just doesn’t look like other babies and she was so cute!   I don’t know if it was all that hair that was kind of naturally styled, or maybe it was just her features, but she looked like an itty bitty grown up.  Soooo cute!  I kind of wanted to put her in a tiny cocktail dress and prop her up.  Maybe like a 1920’s flapper dress with a feather boa. 

Baby T also acted quite like a grownup.  I count on my newborn clients to go to sleep and stay asleep, and they let me move them around all I want once they’re out cold.  But baby T?  No way!  She wasn’t having it.  She kept waking up every time I tried to move her.  She’d open one eye like a pirate and make me all flustered, like she caught me doing something wrong.  It was so funny!  This itty bitty adult face peering at me, as if to let me know she wasn’t falling for my tricks.  Hee hee.   It was a long, drawn out battle but I won, because I got all the cute shots, and even a bunch of her asleep.  Her parents were SUPER good sports, thankfully, and let me take all the time I needed to get everything in. 

 So T’s dad borrowed the shirt he was wearing from another of my clients, who came for newborn pictures of their daughter over a year ago.  I just want to say to T’s daddy…you’d better have that thing dry cleaned before giving it back to Ryan!  Hahaha. 

So here is little baby T, in all her grown up teeny tiny cuteness! 

Tags: June, newborns //

My friend Sabrina and I have been through a lot together.  We originally “met” on a trying to conceive message board about 4-5 years ago.  We instantly hit it off with our similar sense of humor and views on life.  At that point I hadn’t gotten to IVF just yet, and she had already been through several cycles.  She used the doctor I go to now, and she is who referred me to him.  Sabrina has been such a lifesaver for me through my infertility struggle.  She’s been through all the same stuff, and she knows exactly what it feels like and what to say and how to make me feel better.  Without her this whole thing would have been so much harder.  After several failed IVF cycles, she eventually had triplets, just before we adopted Gracie.  The triplets are now 2 1/2 years old, and then they had another baby when they were about 1 1/2.  So now they have a whole house full of kids - two boys and two girls.  I don’t often get to see all of them at the same time unless I go to their house, in San Diego, but Sabrina and I often meet at Disneyland and sometimes bring our kids - I bring Gracie and she brins one of hers.  Well, this time she brought Peyton, who loves Disneyland because she loves the Disney princesses - especially Cinderella.  Peyton thought I was a pretty cool gal when I knew all the words to the songs in Cinderella.  We even got to meet the princesses, and the girls had so much fun playing together.  After our fun day at Disneyland, we spent the night in the hotel and then came up together to my house for a weekend visit.  Yesterday we went out and took some pictures of Peyton with her mom, and Peyton was such a good sport.  We went to Woodward Park for a quickie photo shoot, but I kept taking more and more pictures because she was being so good for her pictures, and she looked so cute in that little white dress.

 Here are a few from yesterday - aren’t these girls beautiful? 

 Sabrina is one of the main reasons I want to move to San Diego.  We can’t do it for the next couple of years for financial reasons, but as soon as it’s feasible, we’re going to take the plunge.  So for those of you worried about losing your Fresno photographer, you can blame the pretty lady above. 

Tags: June, Personal notes, families and children //

My sister-in law came to visit a few weeks ago with my niece, Sage, and my nephew, Cameron.  Cameron is only 13 days older than Gracie, and it’s fun to watch them grow up together.  He looks EXACTLY like my brother did at 2.  Really, the resemblance is uncanny.  I often think how lucky my mom is to get a grandchild that looks just like her son did.  It’s almost like getting revisited by your own baby.  I would love to hold and play with a baby version of Gracie when I’m older. 

These kids have the most amazing blue eyes.  My mom said my brother Chase’s eyes were so blue it was almost hard to look at him in the sunlight.  I never really believed her until Chase’s kids were born.  Now I do, and Mom wasn’t kidding! 

Sage was the first baby born to our family since I was born.  You can imagine how much love and attention she got.  She was the first grandchild, first niece, first everything.  I used to ask to babysit her every chance I got, when I was in college at UCLA and lived down in L.A.  Sage became my little shopping buddy, and I got to spend at least one day a week with her for about a year until we moved to Fresno.  She keeps getting cuter every year - Cameron too.  I love when they come to visit.  When they were here we went camping, and Sage said the tree stumps we found were actually dinosaur bones.  They kind of looked like dinosaur bones, actually.  Gracie and Cameron both follow Sage around like she’s a goddess, of course.  It’s very cute to see them all together.  Gracie is also smitten with her Auntie Tina and cries when she leaves. 

Tags: May, Personal notes, families and children //

I found this article on REAL SIMPLE’s website and thought I’d share…

Note To Self
Get Professional Photos of Your Children

I’ve never forgotten an invaluable piece of advice that I heard from an older friend right after my first child was born. She told me, “One of my greatest regrets about my children’s childhoods was that I didn’t have more professional pictures taken.”“You didn’t take many pictures?” I asked.“I took tons of pictures,” she said, “but the fact is, professional photographs are so much better than even the best snapshots.”

I absolutely agree—professional photos are better. And keeping her advice in mind, ever since my daughters were born, I’ve been zealous about getting their photos taken professionally at least once a year.

While it’s a lot of fun (and also a pain) to take pictures myself, it’s terrific to have some pictures that are truly excellent. These photos don’t take the place of the on-the-spot pictures that I take myself—I still take scads of photos at birthday parties, first days of school, on the slide, with a popsicle—but these pictures memorialize my children’s childhoods in a different way.

Plus they make great family gifts. I can never figure out a good present for the grandparents and great-grandparents, but they always love to get a really great photograph—especially the relatives who don’t often get a chance to see the girls in person.

Also, research shows that one way to boost your happiness is to reflect on happy times, and looking at photographs helps keep memories more vivid.

It’s a splurge, of course. Professional photos aren’t cheap.

However, I figure that the money I spend on these photographs will strengthen family bonds, enhance happy memories, and capture the fleeting moments of childhood. They give me more pleasure than practically any other purchases that I make. That strikes me as pretty good happiness bang for the buck.

A friend’s family had another great photography tradition. For her whole life, at every milestone, her parents took a picture of her and her brother sitting exactly the same way on their front stoop. It’s fascinating to see them change through the years. Along the same lines, the artist Nicholas Nixon took a photograph of his wife and her three sisters once a year for 33 years. The collection of these photographs, The Brown Sisters, is riveting.

Getting professional photos take is a great example of the tiresome fact that happiness takes thought and effort. These photographs are easy to arrange; in the scheme of things, not terribly expensive; contribute greatly to our family happiness—and yet it probably never would have occurred to me to do it if my friend hadn’t suggested it.

Rubin, Gretchen. REAL SIMPLE.
http://simplystated.realsimple.com/life/2008/03/unforgettable-a.html

Tags: Uncategorized //

I’d like to thank the following moms, without whom I would not have a successful photography business:

Dalia Alvarado, Tracy Altnow, Karen Babauta, Samantha Bauer, Kathy Beatty, Felicia Chaney, Nichole Cassell, Jamie Collard, Melissa Costanzo, Diane Dixon, Maureen Ductor, Erin Dye, Sarah Eisele, Kristin Fitelson, Jessica Fenn, Michelle Fisher, Suzie Frudden, Sandy Brodie, Sabrina Gillespie, Maryanne Gullihur, Jennifer Hudson, Diana Hiura, Rebecca Jones, Melissa Johnson, Sarah Kiesche, Anne Marie Kraft, Stephanie Kerkechian, Nora Lewis, Blanca Lopez, Tina Meadows, Dominique Masse, Laura Mentler, Bettina Mckee, Katie Morgan, Sarah Purgason, Sandy Mozier, Justyn Nelson, Stephanie Nicholson, Andee Patterson, Helle Peterson, Tara Pickett, Bethany Rankin, Melanie Richardson, Jill Rabin, Stephanie Reyna, Stacey Salaah, Stacey Sablan, Kerry Seng, Jaime Smith, Sonya Skelton, Mary Beth Sablan, Amy Tillis, Emily Wildey, Melanie Wilkes, and Adrienne Young.

Thank you for choosing me to work with your beautiful children, for supporting my work and referring me to your friends and family, and thank you for being wonderful moms to your children!  I love every single one of you!

Tags: May, Personal notes, families and children //

Okay, I want twins now, it’s official.  Little Miss A, and Little Miss Z, are twins, and we had so much fun at Oso de Oro park in Fresno for our shoot yesterday.  These girls were practically stepping on each other to tell me things, all sorts of things.  I now know the name of their cars and how old they are, that they are twins and they “wear their mom out a lot,” that Z isn’t into boys just yet (good for you, honey!) and what kindergarten is like and much, much more.  They chattered non-stop, it was so cute.  They reminded me of the little 3 year old guy from the J family last month.  It’s so fun to get kids who aren’t shy and want to know all about me.  They had to know what color my daughter’s hair was, and what my dogs’ names were, etc etc. 

 These girls came to my studio for a mini shoot last year.  You might recognize them - they’re the two cuties hugging each other on the wall in my studio.  They’re still loving on each other, hugging every time I asked them to like they meant it, and tickling each other and laughing at everything.  They are delightful people.  Seriously, I want twins now.  Can this be arranged?  :) 

And just because I was inspired, I made a storyboard of them.  How cute are these girls!?!?  These pictures are going to be particularly fun to edit.

Tags: May, families and children //

These are the Jones children.  They are the most polite, sweet kids ever!  I have never had such an easy, pleasant photo shoot.  The kids did everything I asked, smiled like they meant it, and it didn’t hurt that they were so cute, either.  Now normally, I have a bunch of techniques I use to get kids to look at me and smile naturally for their pictures.  I tell jokes, act silly, jump and down….etc.  These guys were so good, I was saying stuff like, “hey guys, can you look at your mom and laugh?”  and they would do it!  This picture is the result of one such request:

I could hardly believe my good luck with them!  Look how cute that is!  They made me look like a better photographer for sure!  That’s the kind of picture I would normally look at and think, “wow, how did the photographer get those kids to do that?”  lol.  I just asked them to, and they did!  Wow! 

Now here….even more impressive to me….I was holding my camera up in the air over my head (as opposed to looking through the viewfinder) and randomly snapping these shots of them on the ground.  The kids actually STILL looked at the camera and smiled (instead of at me).  I know this is technical boring stuff to most of you, but I have to talk about it because it’s so unusual and so COOL! 

These kids were so great!  I’ll take them for a photo shoot any day.

 So their mom, Lisa, owns Play2Learn in Fresno.  It’s sort of like a preschool, but the parents go with the kids and help them play, and learn.  Some of the moms in our playgroup discovered it and started going there, so I joined them and can’t believe I didn’t try it sooner.  Play2Learn is SO MUCH FUN.  Gracie absolutely adores going.  We meet our friends there every Monday for an hour and a half or so, but it always feels like 5 minutes.  I would go every day if I could.  Lisa thinks up the cutest little arts and crafts and stories for the kids, and the play room there is to die for.  The room is divided into every possible thing children could want to play with creatively.  There is a fire truck with outfits, a grocery store with food and shopping carts, (my favorite) a little garden where they can plant things and dig up garden insects and vegetables.  There are physical activities and imaginative activities….just everything.  Lisa is so creative and the kids just love her.  We do storytime and learn a letter each week, then the crafts are themed around that letter, like if we learn the letter “P” we will paint a popcorn kernal or something like that.  I don’t have the patience or energy to set up any kind of messy art activity for Gracie at home, so Play2Learn is the answer to that.  Gracie loves to bring her artwork home to Grandma, and she is sad every time we have to leave.  I missed the last two weeks due to my surgery, and we’re having Play2Learn withdrawals!  I will take Gracie there until she doesn’t want to go anymore.  It’s such a great activity for toddlers and preschool aged kids, and it’s very affordable and so fun!  If you haven’t been, you really need to check it out.  You can try a class for free, and then you’ll be hooked for life like the rest of us.  Play2Learn is located on Ashlan and Millbrook, the website with more info is http://www.play2learnpreschool.com/

When the pics of the Jones children are all edited, we’re going to put a few of them up on display there.  If I owned a retail business, I’d plaster MY kid’s pics all over the walls, wouldn’t you?!?  Maybe we’ll put another kid up there just to make it look like we aren’t playing favorites, even though we so are because Lisa’s kids ROCK! 

Tags: May, Uncategorized, families and children //