Recently, my husband, daughter and I made it down to Southern California for a quick break. We started at Disneyland (check out the previous post on the Happiest Place here) and then, with a big exhale, sauntered down to Newport Beach for some chillaxin.
Here are some of my favorite images – none of which, incidentally, were taken by my DSLR. Just love me that Canon G12!
The Saleem family joined me for my recent mini-session in Folsom. It was great to see them again this year and I just love how coy their little girl is. She really likes to make you work for her smiles and we had fun playing hide-and-seek in the bushes. But, oh my, when you get those smiles, they’re golden!
Max was around two weeks old when I photographed him a few weeks ago and already a little charmer. What I love about this family is how obvious their devotion is to one another. From the careful way Max’s big brother holds him, to the way his daddy looks into his eyes, and the comforting touch of mommy’s hand… these are my favorite kinds of sessions, where the magic is already there, you just have to keep clicking!
Enjoy.
As you may know, if you keep up with me on Facebook, I recently took my daughter to Disneyland for the first time. It was her 3rd birthday and we’d been using the prospect of Mickey and Princesses as a carrot all year for things like potty training and smooth-sailing bedtime rituals.
For this trip, although I took my DSLR for work, I rented the Canon G12 – a high-end point-and shoot – for personal photos. Even though I wanted to capture every little moment of Daisy’s first adventure at the Happiest Place on Earth, I also wanted to: (a) be present (b) have a camera someone else could use so I could be in a photo or two and (c) not have to lug around a heavy lens or worry about bopping it on rides etc…
What I missed with the G12 vs. my DSLR was speed, the ability to fire off shots quickly and almost guarantee the capture. Also, looking at the pictures I took, I feel the G12 didn’t do a great job with backlighting and low lighting, although it likely performed better than you’re average point-and-shoot. What I gained, however, was flexibility without losing the manual control, and RAW images that I could come home and edit. So, all in all, I don’t regret not using the DSLR for this trip one little bit.
What I realized, regardless of camera, is that it’s really hard to be creative at Disneyland with a 3 year old. There were so many people and so much was happening so fast that I had to make a decision in the first hour to drop either my photographer or my Mummy hat; it just wasn’t possible to wear both. And so I went all-out Mommy. I forgot about lighting and composition for the most part and went with capturing the moment. I took cheesy reverse camera shots of me and my husband and handed the camera to other members of the family to ensure I made it into at least some of the pics. So, the end results are not what I would call the most artistic or technically perfect photos I have ever taken but I love them even more because I didn’t feel like I was hiding behind 3lbs of camera.
We had an amazing time and, as she always manages to do, my daughter surprised me with her resilience to crowds and waiting in long lines, as well as her chutzpah for throwing herself into bear-hugs with every character and Princess we met.
These photos are mostly in chronological order and so I’ll let them tell the rest of the story…
Princessed out yet? ;o)
I was so excited for this family session at the Laguna College of Art and Design which I scheduled during my vacation to Southern California a few weeks ago. Ever since little Liam was born, his mom and I have been trying to coordinate schedules. It was awesome to have been able to make it happen. And since I used to live in the O.C., the opportunity to shoot in my old stomping grounds was one I could not miss.
It turned out to be almost impossible to select a “few good” images from this session because there were so many. Liam literally shines on camera (that smile!) and his parents are obviously so full of love and wonder just watching him that every image had something real, warm, and special about it. Even Grandma got in for a few shots!
It was great to be back in SoCal and nice to have a change of environment to shoot in. Now I want to schedule more sessions in the O.C. Any takers?
Weeeell, March was a little wet. And busy. So there wasn’t much walking around the block.
Here is a sampling of what I DID get when I got out the front door.
You can see all the photos, such that they are, by clicking here.
We’re 13 days into April and I’ve been on vacation for 7 of those days, stuck inside watching the rain pound my window for the remainder. I’m hoping next week will give me and my camera a break so we can be more productive this month.
It was sunny with nothing but blue skies outside my window when I touched base with this family the morning of our shoot. “Yes, it looks good here too!” they said, agreeing that, for the hundredth time in as many days, the weather forecasters had got it hopelessly wrong.
Well, apparently they were only wrong 99 times. Ahem.
No sooner had we stopped the car on a quiet stretch of a tree lined street and got out, than the wind whipped-up and the heavens opened… with vengeance. If you live in the Sacramento region, you’ll know that it rains rarely but when it does, it does not mess around.
I hastily snapped this photo before we moved to Plan B
Thankfully, there was a Plan B: the nearby country club and their beautiful home, which we then got the opportunity to show-off in some fun family shots.
The moral to this story: sometimes Plan B works out pretty darn good. The only casualty seemed to be the floors which wound-up littered with little pieces of polystyrene from one of their son’s toys. You can see a little of it on the last two shots but there was much more. Thank goodness for PhotoShop… AND vacuums!
I am just giddy about sharing my first ever birth photo session with you!
Photographing a birth is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I had seen other photographers do it and just thought (a) what a wonderful privilege to be invited to capture those intimate moments and (b) how awesome to have photos to look back on, as a mom, to remember all those little details that all-too-easily diminish in your memory over time. Photography, to me at least, is primarily about capturing emotions and feelings, freezing special moments in time , and secondarily about “art”; there really is no more emotional moment than the birth of a baby.
So, I was super excited when this family chose me, and a friend and fellow photographer, to be on-call for the birth of their second son at Folsom Mercy Hospital.
Bradyn was born shortly after 8pm on Sunday and weighed-in at a healthy 7lbs and 7ozs. My favorite moments from his welcome party were seeing him emerge into the world, so perfect and such a miracle; the quiet love and pride on both mom and dad’s faces as they held him for the first time; and the itching anticipation of two grandmas and a grandpa, just waiting to get their hands on him.
THANK YOU to Bradyn’s entire family for allowing me into your delivery room, for letting me stand in front of you during critical moments so I didn’t miss a shot, and for not once giving me a “you’re so in the way” look. BIG THANKS to mom for allowing me to share these intimate photos with you on my blog; I know not everyone would be comfortable with that and I so appreciate it. Thanks also go to the wonderful team of nurses at Folsom Mercy, where I also had my daughter. They were always kind and accommodating to the intrusion of my lens and that made this a much more pleasurable experience than it would otherwise have been.
Enjoy this beautiful birth story…
Interested in having your baby’s birth photographed? I’d love to do it again and am close to Mercy Folsom, Kaiser Roseville, and Sutter Roseville hospitals. My birth package includes being on-call for 4-weeks surrounding your due date, up-to 4 hours of coverage during labor and delivery, all the digital images to print-and-share, plus a 20% discount on all my print products. Please Contact Me here or send an email to michelle@mbymphotos.com for more information.
My hat comes off to mom here because she did a FANTASTIC job of outfitting her whole clan. I loved the mix of bright, royal blues contrasted with the classic neutrals and all finished off with the pop of red. This is how you do coordinated vs. matching.
Not only were the outfits fabulous but the weather was unseasonably warm for this fun family session at the Flower Farm Inn, in Loomis, CA. I shot a session there back in October and just love the variety of backdrops, the colorful doors, and the fun props just sitting around.
Not as many photos this month as it’s been harder and harder to get out for a walk at all, let alone daily, with my schedule. However, here are my favorites from the past month.
If you want to see all February’s photos, click here. And if you’re new to this project and want to learn what it’s all about, click here.
Been taking photos around your hood and want to share? Feel free to post a comment here with links back to you blog or Flickr set. I’d love to see them!
Have a great March!