Yesterday I had the privileged to work with a wonderful women and capture her maternity portraits. She, of course, brought along her equally wonderful husband! This lovely couple has been the first in a while to really give me full rein to be creative and do everything I had in mind. Salina was an absolute trooper bearing the belly in the cold in public, walking everywhere I dragged her, and had a smile on her face the entire time. Usually when I shoot I don’t say much to the photos as I am taking them. I will take it, check it, probably take four more to be 100% safe I got the perfect shot and move on. With this couple I took maybe four shots for each pose and I was so absolutely thrilled with every shot I couldn’t NOT say how cute it was as we proceeded. They really did do an amazing job. The weather held up perfectly with just a little bit of a cold breeze. Below are my favorites from their session. Enjoy!
Amanda had originally came to be inquiring about wedding photography. Valentine’s day just around the corner and seeing everyone else out there doing Valentine’s day boudoir, I thought to myself “This is the perfect time to show off my capabilities so, why not offer a free boudoir session!? I want to show that I can make women feel beautiful in their own natural environment doing what they do daily!” Who on Earth says that you have to wear the slinkiest of garments? Who says you have to pose with your butt in the air? Who says you even have to be naked or in lingerie!? When I think boudoir, I think of the bedroom, of being comfy, and intimate. I know a lot of women in this world have so much pressure to be the perfect women and the perfect body all of the time. Rather you are a skinny person or a bigger person; you have an insecurity of some kind. My focus for this session was to take a “girl next door” and show her and every other women out there that you can be perfectly sexy by just being you, even with a flaw!!!! Amanda was such a wonderful person from the beginning. We had a consult and exchanged ideas and only the next day or two later she was buying tons of things for her session. She was so excited and you could tell she was so thankful for this! She is an amazing women and I don’t think I could have picked a better lady to do my first professional boudoir with!! She did such an amazing job! Nervous here and there, but overall the camera capture the beautiful old soul that she is. Absolutely stunning on the outside, and so true and honest on the inside. To top it all off we were graced with the amazing talent or makeup artist Ernesto Robledo!!! I had the privilege to work with him on the last wedding, and asked him to come out for this special session. Perfection. What a great team today, bravo really!!
Amanda, thank you so much for trusting in me to be your boudoir photographer. It truly was an honor to be a part of this with you!
Oh..My………! Stunning RIGHT!?
a few other of my utmost favorites from her session.
If you too would love a boudoir session book now to reserve/secure a date. Ernesto is wonderful and I would be happy to share his information with anyone who’d like to look amazing on their special day whatever that may be!!!
Thanks again Amanda!
For those of you who adore my little ones as much as I do, I’ve got a little something special in store for this blog. Nothing too crazy and cool, but it’s very near and dear to me thus worth sharing! My sweet little girl is turning two!! Every year, a week or two prior to their birthday’s, I always come up with a portrait session that highlights exactly who they are at the certain milestone in their life. My sweet little Z is at the craziest of ages; two. She is so independent but yet is still so dependent. With my son I remember this being the worst and yet the best age yet to come. They are so sweet, cuddly, and loving, but they also have tantrums, baby talk, and they don’t understand circumstances just yet. Let’s just call her sweet and sour! Haha. With that said, I decided to take her to the park where she could be whatever mood she wanted to be. She decided she didnt want to take any pictures whatsoever at first. I let her be herself and I was able capture that beautifully. Once I asked her to say cheese or to sit, that is when I got the “are you kidding me” eye brows. What’s that you ask? You will see in the pictures below what I mean about those eyebrows of hers! She can say nothing, but say a whole heck of a lot with just a twitch of the brow; beware. Haha.
Please enjoy my little darling. God only knows how much I have. She is amazing.
She LOVES to swing and She LOVES to catch pretend bunnies and duckies.
“Look mommy a bird, a bird.” Then she gave me the “eyebrows”…..and off she left with daddy ’cause I was no fun with the camera.
This one speaks for itself. After walking with her daddy she decided SHE wanted to carry my bag. She’s a very determined young lady.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to work with a really wonderful couple on their Maternity portraits. Megan is a first time mama, and let me tell you, she is rocking it! She’s so beautiful and has a perfect prego body! This little family to be is great and they trusted me from the get-go! I love people who love my work enough to trust me in every aspect! It allows me to think freely and not feel stressed about “impressing” them. I feel trusted and feel like I am really doing something right. Everyone loves to feel like they are doing the right thing in life. When I first met Megan and her hubby Brandon, they expressed what they wanted for their Maternity portraits. I knew right away what I was going to do for them! I took this lovely little family to my “go to spot” at Oak Grove park in Stockton. I’ve taken a bunch of people to this particular spot just because of the park’s wonderful maintenance which makes it beautiful in all seasons, because of it’s quiet scenery, and because it serves up a bunch of different back drops that can match just about any theme. The weather held up beautifully and provided an amazing look to their pictures. I am so excited to share these portraits. I’ve had a great past few sessions, but I think this one is my new favorite. I think I say that every single new session though lol. Any how, thank you so much Brandon and Megan! We had such a great time and can’t thank you enough for supporting us as a couple, business and as artists. I can NOT wait for your baby girl and am still crossing my fingers that we can capture her arrival!
I captured the lovely little family-to-be being themselves, having fun while singing and playing guitar.
Some pretty shots in the “forest”
I couldn’t resist the lake shots! Even though it’s winter and the trees aren’t green, they looked stunning.
Back to their home we went and captured some absolutely amazing studio-like portraits. I only showed two because the others are a little on the bare side, but they are WONDERFUL! Megan, you did a WONDERFUL job modeling that beautiful bump!
Last night the hubby and I had such a great time working together on this couple’s night time engagement session. Although it’s a scary thought to work in downtown Stockton at night, it went surprising well and fun! People in the area were quick nice for the most part too! I still laugh at one guy who walked up and said to me, “Excuse me, may I ask what’s happening here?”, he was a little rough around the edges, not someone you’d expect to talk that polite. I smiled at him and tried to explain and when I was doing so Anthony came in over my shoulder and tried to assist in explaining as well just to get this guy on his way and finish our shots. Well, when Anthony started to explain he said, “there’s a movie playing so we’re shooting it”…..well…..this guy just ’bout had a heart attack and thought he was witnessing an actual movie in production! So that was pretty hilarious all in it’s self. After some great and fun shots near the Bob Hope Theater, we took a side street and took a few more, as we were standing and shooting a cop stop at the stop sign and sounded his siren as if he were going to come over. I was for sure he was, but our luck he didn’t. After those shots, we went quickly back to the garage to get the car in order to meet Stephanie and Freddy at a different location. Our luck was filled to the brim that night, we missed the garage lock up by minutes. The ticket guy said we were lucky because he was closing everything down as we left the garage! If that were any other person they pry wouldn’t have been so nice.
Long story short, this was a great session and we all had a great time. The pictures came out great. Stephanie and Freddy, hope that you both enjoyed our time together and hope that you love your pictures. We can’t wait for your wedding! Enjoy.
A collection of the best night shots!
Beautiful Starry Night
Save The Date- ’cause I know I have!!!!
You always hear the term, “It never amazes me….” well, for me it really still does amaze me that for a career I get to capture beautiful people and precious little newborns. Rishaan was a little on the older side, topping out at a month old, but you would have never guessed it with this little guy’s perfect personality! He was such a sweetheart. He was the most quiet baby I’ve ever worked with, with an occasional coo. He just gazed for days into his mommy’s eyes, and he couldn’t get enough off his daddy’s bad singing. He was perfectly sleepy, squishy, and had all of the adorableness I love. Baby Rishaan did a wonderful job for his first portraits and so did his mommy and daddy. I can tell his is one very loved little boy with this family!
Baby Rishaan and his family were of the beautiful ethnicity of Indian. I absolutely LOVE getting to meet and photograph new cultures and enthinicty. There are many photographers out there that I admire and I can honestly and sadly say that none of them have color in their portfolios and its a shame. The world is beautiful, and full of many different people, why not capture them all?
Thank you sooo much Janaki for trusting in me to capture your beautiful family’s and little boy’s first portraits. I hope you cherish them for years to come. Below I have put together a few collages to show of the best of the shoot. Enjoy.
“Rishaan’s first portraits with his mommy and daddy”
“Absolutely precious moments. Genuine with a little help to get just the right lighting, otherwise unposed”
“Rishaan’s Close ups and his super cute “it” shots”
Absolutely darling. Baby Samuel was the sweetest yet! Under a week old, he was the smallest baby that I have had the priviledge to work with and let me tell you; I highly recommend all families to bring their newborns in this early. Although is was hard on the momma due to a c-section, it went extremely smooth compared to any other session that I have had with a newborn. Samuel’s mommy and daddy were absolutely wonderful as well. You could tell he adored them both. He would be smiling at mommy, and holding daddy’s hand. Just precious really. Thank you again to both of you for choosing me to capture this amazing time in your lives. I hope that Samuel is one of the babies that I can photograph as he reaches new and amazing milestones.
Below are collages of the best moments from Samuel’s session. Enjoy.
“Precious close-ups & his very first portrait with mommy and daddy”
“Some more close ups & GREAT comfy shots with mommy and daddy”
“His room. What a very lucky little boy to have a great room like that. He already loves it”
Yesterday I got to see one of my favorite families! Their daughter was due for her 6th month old session so her mommy and I planned something neat for this round! Six months is such a sweet age. Babies at this age are just getting into the groove of their unique little personalities, they are very affectionate, they absolutely love mommy and daddy no matter what, and whats even better is they are sitting up and at the peek of their chubbies!! Little Zoey was so perfect as she always is, and with her mommy and daddy helping this was a session to remember for YEARS to come. I can hear it now from my other clients (which I already have with the sneak peek), “That session with the baby Zoey was sooooo adorable. I can’t wait to have my own babies so you can do this for us!” It makes my day to see warm compliments like that. What’s even better is hearing from Zoey’s parents that their hearts are warm and Zoey’s grandparents had tears in their eyes at the beauty of their sweet grand baby. It was such an amazing session. I couldn’t be any happy with it, honestly! Thank you AGAIN to Zoey’s mommy and daddy for continuing to let me come back and photograph beautiful Miss Zoey and all three of you as the wonderful family you are!
Below are a couple collages of Zoey’s session. I hope that you all enjoy!
“Wanting to make some goodies & detail shots.”
“Making Goodies & Having a BLAST”
“After a BUBBLY bath, her glamor shots”
“Spending some time LOVING her family”
With it being winter; the weddings have gone and the babies are all arriving. I, like many photographers, study my field of professionalism with any chance I get and that means opening books, browsing the internet, watching videos, and even following other professional photographers’ work. On top of the obvious ways of learning, I run my business on compassion, and lots of it. I’m a human being and I’m not sorry for being one. I, regardless of making a hefty dollar sell or not, will not compromise my clients’ experience. So, with all of the studying that I have being doing lately I have come to a few conclusions that I think are vital to share, and before I continue these statements are by no means directed to any one person; everybody and nobody is guilty of any of this.
I can not honestly tell you where I got this from but I tell all of my clients this, “Newborns are just like a normal person. Some people can model, and some can not. Some photograph beautifully, can twist like a pretzel, and not even need a helping hand. Others simply can not.” You must remember this if you are a photographer or a mommy-to-be. I AM a professional photographer and I do what I can to help you capture these precious times in life, but I hate to remind everyone that it is “life” and things don’t go the way we’d like. This is where I want to discuss newborn safety with my mommas and fellow photographers. Everyone feels its obvious to not put a child of such small calibers in compromising positions, but you wouldn’t believe how many people do, and how many people ask me to! A photographer is like any other artist, we strive to create unique pieces of art by using different mediums rather it be blankets, buckets, trees, etc, but this does not mean you need to put an innocent baby at risk. Newborns are extremely fragile, new, and precious. People assume because they are squishy and were curled up in a ball for 9 months that they can do that when they come into the World, but the truth is not all of them can. Some babies have medical conditions, and others just have very prominent attitudes already! Another huge factor many photographers and clients forget about is the patience factor; you need a lot of this! I can’t tell you how long it takes another professional but I know that my newborn sessions can range anywhere from an hour of perfection to five hours resulting in throwing in the towel. “This is life, things do not go the way we’d like”.
Onto the very serious. You have all seen the famous shot of baby in a hammock hanging by a tree branch, or the one of baby holding his/her chin up with his/her own hands….these are very unsafe shots that look clever and amazing. Unless you are a photographer enthusiat, you have done your homework on these shots, or know photoshop; you wouldn’t know that these photos are composition shots. Composition: The term composition means ‘putting together,’ and can apply to any work of art, from music to writing to photography, that is arranged or put together using conscious thought. With that said, it is many shots in one, overlapped and carefully manipulated in post processing. I once seen a picture, while browsing Google images, a a random lady standing probably 5’7 if not taller, holding a baby in a bag at breast height! Nothing was under this baby as I could see her feet, and she had the biggest smile on her face like they were achieving such a grand photo and baby looked so “amazing”. How horrid. I screech every time I see it!!! This is not the way to do it, and even if it was do you honestly think it’s worth it? No. Simply not.
This is the only example I have because I rarely put my clients in unnatural positions. On the rare occasion I do decide to, or if I am ask to, I proceed with caution. As you can in the image below the baby’s mam is RIGHT next to her, there are tons of pillows, and an assistant is holding the stick to ensure utmost safety, as well ass the baby is literally only a foot or two off the ground. Aside from these precautions, you must make sure baby’s neck is supported. I have the fabric specifically place and tied to support her body and head.