I’m back from a fabulous trip to Napa/Oakland/Monterey!  I’m so backed up with weddings to blog at the moment, so I thought it would be fun to take a little detour and blog about little Cayden.  This little guy is special to me because he was the first baby I ever photographed!  He was only 6 or 7 months at the time.  Sadly, his family moved to New Mexico shortly after our shoot.  Luckily though, they come back to CA to visit every now and then, so it has been fun setting up shoots while they’re back.  It felt like just yesterday when we did his one year old shoot!  We did the park on his first shoot, a beach on his second shoot, so this time, we thought we’d give his aunt’s house a try.

I wish I could see him more often because he was really shy when he first saw me.  It was like I was a stranger again!

That photo on the above right cracks me up!  What do you think when you see it?  *loser*, right?  haha.  I actually asked him how old he is.  He can’t lift his pointer & middle finger yet, so this “L” is how he does “2″ at the moment.  Isn’t it adorable???  And how great will this photo be one day in his wedding slide show!  A fun side story: he plays rock-paper-scissors…. however, he can’t do scissors, so he’s always rock or paper.    If you ever play against him, just always be paper and you can win!… or always be rock so he can always win. 

His current obsession, Cars.  I think photos of a child’s favorite things are just as important as portraits of them.  They change so fast and they will never be this exact age – to the day – ever again.  It’s important to document their growth.

He also makes the funniest faces!!!  I forget which face is which, but one is “What does mommy do?” and another is “What does daddy do?”

Peek-a-boo!

above left – “cool beans!”

And then bath time.  Check out his little Mohawk!

He gave himself a beard!

And after the bath, what else do boys do… run off naked!  He ran so fast, I barely caught this photo at the very end of the hall.  Would’ve been a shame to miss this shot!!

I love my job and I love my clients.  I always feel so honored when someone asks me to be their photographer because what they’re really doing is inviting me to share in their life and in some of their most intimate memories, whether it’s a moment between the bride & her dad, a passionate kiss… really, how many people can just walk up to a couple and ask them to kiss, right?  I always feel so privilledge to be able to share in these moments and to preserve them in my photographs…  A Day in the Life sessions allow me to do just that.  I joined the Chuang family for half a day to document a typcial day in their life.  Kids grow so fast.  Even when I went to drop off their album yesterday, I can see how much the kids have grown since these photos were taken 7 weeks ago!  Chuang family, thank you for welcoming me into your home and allowing me to document June 24, 2009 in the Chuang residence.

…

Good morning Teddy & little Natalie.

She was 3 that day.  She’s actually 4 now… turned 4 a few weeks after our shoot.  :)

I LOVE this swing that dad had built for them in the front yard!

Lunch time…

I love how much a photo can tell you.  You can see the story without any narration.

If he could talk, I’m sure he’s saying, “Goodbye!  Hope you’ll come to visit soon!”…

This was such a sweet session.  Sweet couple.  Sweet setting.  I am so at peace when I look at this series.  It was seriously hard to narrow down the photos for this post!!

This session really just left me speechless.  I just feel so lucky to be able to do this for a living and capturing these wonderful stories & memories for couples.

Different from what I usually shoot, isn’t it?  Diane and Eric wanted some night shots with his car.  I usually shoot very light-weight, just my camera and 2 lenses.  Sometimes I’ll bring two bodies to an engagement shoot, but usually not.  Since they wanted some night shots, I had Jonathan go rent a tripod… and while he was at it, I had him rent 24mm tilt shift too.    Might as well, right?  hehe.  I was excited to stretch myself and try something new.  It’s a lot more tiring to run around with tripods and off camera flashes.  But we had so much fun and finally put our pocket wizards to good use!

As we waited for sun to set, I got some of my standard shots.    Aren’t they beautiful??

The following shot is so much easier w/ a tripod!!  All my previous versions were all hand held!

The above was taken with my 24L and the below was taken with the 24 TS.

And then it was finally dark!  Even though we were using flashes, I still wanted a softness to the photos.   I like how they turned out!

Thanks Diane & Eric for all your patience as we ran around & waited for sun to set!  It was so much fun hanging out and I’m so excited to travel up north later this month for your wedding on Santana Row!

The Yang family was in the area, visiting from Kansas City.   We brainstormed many location and prop ideas for their shoot.  I, of course, love fields and flowers, but they reminded me that they’re from Kansas and see it all the time.  LOL!  I’m so jealous!  In the end, we decided that nothing represented LA better than the beach…

So let me introduce to you big sister, Anna.  She’s eight years old.  At the end of the shoot, she hugged me and said thank you, all her own doing.  She’s the mature one who watches over her sisters.

Meet Keely.  She’s six years old!  She’s spunky and cute!  Her best friend is her big sister Anna!

And then there’s baby sister, Mia.  She’s independent and free-spirited!

The Yang family was made possible by these super parents!

Remember how I said Mia is independent & free-spirited?  Well, 2 seconds after the above photo was snapped, she ran off to do her own thing.  

I love the next photo on the left!  I love watching fathers interact with their daughters.

I also wanted something to document their age at this time, so I had them all show me how old they are.  I know they will grow fast and will soon run off and start a family of their own.  Although it will seem like they run off so fast, they will always leave memories imprinted with us, just like their footprints.

And so will their smiles!

I hope you had a great stay in LA and hope to see you next year again!!  xoxo