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Tim Wheaton Photography |  Southern California Natural Light Photographer bio picture

they call me... tim

i know i should use capital letters, but i am not a fan of what it does to the letter
"I", in most cases. if i had to decide between a tree that grew time
and a tree that grew money, i would honestly have to sit and think about which
to pick the fruit from. i do not eat fruit. nope. ask me again and i'll tell
you the same. i don't eat fruit and i don't eat seafood. i like to think i am
not "picky" because i knock out whole food groups at a time. i've
been told i have a dry sense of humor. i've also been told i look like howie
mandel. i'm not sure if that is a compliment. i am uber-blessed to have a wife
who "deals with me"... though she may run into eye trouble one day
for how much she rolls her eyes at my antics.

i love to take photos. i love what they capture of my life and your lives. and then i
love to take those moments and "paint" on them... to reflect some of
the emotion that is already there in a unique way.

add this page to your bookmarks. i will continue to show sneak previews of what i am working
on as well as session summaries. you will also find random promotions and
discounts, as well as sporadic views into my and my family's life.


March Madness Tax Break Discount

i thought about running something like this last year around this time, but time got away from me. this year, i am lassoing time and bringing it.

if you book a session with me this month, i will give you 25% off of my normal shooting fee (go to my site for full pricing… but normal portrait sessions are at $175) and your choice of 25% off of any print orders or 25% off of your cd purchase of edited images from the session.

you must book your session with me during this month and the session must take place either during march or april of this year to be valid.

this goes for newborn sessions, engagement shoots, family portraits, maternity, TTD sessions… you name it. everything other than weddings/events.

i know this time of the year is always a crunch for everyone… so help me help you   :)

the newest wheaton

this has been a little while in the making. this post, not the baby. well… anyways… i best stop myself there. this is my new little nephew, born to my brother and his wife a few months ago now. i went over to their house a couple of weeks after he was born to take some photos of him for their announcements and here are some of their faves. congrats matt and blythe!!




much love to all of you. and this now makes a total of 20 little cousins, for those keeping track.   :)

emil & joanie: all you need is love (part 1)

joanie was referred to me by a good friend (thanks again, gillian!!). it was always discussed as more of “event photography” than a wedding type day. they would be getting married in a small ceremony at their new home with family and a few friends attending. the reception and photos of everyone in attendance was where the emphasis was placed. when i sat and met with joanie before the big day, i think the photos surrounding the ceremony and beforehand got a small bump in their importance. if you know me, you know i am a sappy so and so…. i love love. i love weddings because of this (and everything that goes along with them). i was happy to bring some of that to their special day…

there is a lot of (amazing) backstory to different little details of their wedding. emil’s family is armenian and they came over to the states from iran when he was 7 years old. his father, vanick passed away a few years ago and emil and joanie had wanted to honor him in some way with their special day. they not only did so on that day, but they will for the remainder of their lives. emil’s mother, noyemik (who also put together all of the florals for the day), offered forth her and her husband’s wedding rings for the newlyweds to have as their own. the serendipity extends beyond just the graciousness of her offer; the rings fit both of them perfectly. they didn’t need to re-size them at all. how amazing is that?? emil’s father, vanick brought his mandolin with him to the states when the family immigrated, and emil has held on to that family treasure. when joanie and i met, i asked her if they would consider bringing that out for some detail shots. it chokes me up even seeing these and thinking about the incredible history here.




gillian (of the write invite) designed their invitations. joanie and her sister kristin designed the programs and kristin created the table arrangements. the catering was provided by Picnics Fine Foods out of costa mesa… and let me just tell you… they were above and beyond.







i love this little story of moments between joanie and her mother…


keeping the family tradition strong, emil’s brother (a newlywed, himself), arbi was the officiant over the ceremony. and he should consider this as a profession. he was great at it!



just following their first kiss. does love get any more pure and tangible than this?


i love this of joanie and her new mother-in-law. after the formal grouped shots, i captured this. throughout the day, you could feel the completely love-filled merging of these two families.


and now some quickies from our brief time post-ceremony with the newlyweds. there was a lesson to be learned from this first picture on the left: never delete your “light test” photos. i love this one.




after our brief session apart from their family and friends, i was putting things in order… emil and joanie took a couple of moments to just “be” before they met up with everyone inside the house. yes, the sun is bright on them… i know, technically, some of my fellow photographers may “harumph” on some of this. i see it… i get it. but look at what is here. this is love. in all its glowing joy. this is what we need. all of us. as individuals and as a planet. love. simple.

again… my thanks to everyone involved. for a small wedding, this was a little bit of a jaw-dropper and such a fantastic party throughout. proof of that is yet to come. in the meantime, thanks again to emil and joanie for hiring and entrusting me with your day. i hope you have been loving the memories we captured thus far… you two are such lovely people. truly.

laurie & dwight: holiday wedding

my communication with the bride over emails was fairly intriguing. the usual inquiries were made, details exchanged… and after some time, she hinted that we know each other. i had to rack my brain to recall all of the laura’s and laurie’s i have known over the course of my lifetime. when i was a young teenager, my parents took myself and two of my brothers on a mexican cruise with them. laurie and two of her girlfriends were our “table mates” for all of our meals during the week. there were not a lot of kids my age on the boat and i ended up befriending the three women. we all fell out of touch, though they remain very close. so this was that laurie. and here she is now, getting married, and allowing me the honor of being her photographer.

their wedding was held at the beautiful Island Hotel in newport beach.

some of laurie’s family members were in her room with her as she got ready for the ceremony. i love this photo of her and her mom.

who doesn’t love those little impromptu surprises a bride or groom has for their soon-to-be spouse on their big day?

if you know me, you know how crazy i am about the ring detail shots.

as usual, no real ceremony or formal family shots on my blog. but i do like this one moment during their vows.

laurie and dwight had such a fun idea for their dining table. with it being a smaller wedding, they were able to pull this off: a photo of them holding a card with the name of that each attendee. here are their seat photos:

the food looked amazing. everyone loves food details, right? (you can excuse yourself for something to eat soon… only a couple more pictures…)

their cake was also unique. the traditional toppers looked like nothing too out of the ordinary from the front… bride and groom… looking dapper. but when you came around to see them from the back…

while everyone was dining, i snuck away for a few TTV details shots of the location. i am going to make sure to bring that old camera in my bag to all my weddings.

one final shot of the happy couple. we took a few minutes between ceremony and reception for some photos. the christmas tree in the lobby lent some great light in the background to us.

thanks again for the opportunity to not only witness, but participate in your glorious first step on your new life, laurie. i wish the both of you the very best in your lives together!   :)

every little bit counts: haiti relief effort

as a human, the disasters that are hitting our planet of late are making me ill with grief. it makes me sad for the families affected. for the immediate, and for the economic and health struggles that will certainly plague the area for years, possibly decades to come. i know that i am only one person, and i cannot go to these places and offer any help in that manner. unfortunately, my current state of income also does not allow me to write a large check to assist. however, i have been given a talent and a gift… and i will use that instead.

so here is how i will help… and where you come in…

contact me within the week to book a session during the month of january. instead of paying me directly (my prices can be found at my website), i will ask you to write your check to red cross and send it to them for their haiti relief fund. i will coordinate with you to have any future print or cd purchases to go to their cause as well.

so, let’s help out. some of you may have missed out on getting family photos before christmas… or you may have met me at the recent Wicked productions in Oceanside and would like to get some new portraits of your children.

because of how late it is in the month, i will only be able to get one of these in right now… but i may start doing this monthly. thanks for your time and interest.

alexis: sneak-peek

one last shoot for the year 2009, and it ended up being a good way to close out the year. alexis’ father and i used to work together way back in the early 90’s at tower records in el toro. we have stayed in touch over the years and the salon he owns (salon platinum) is walking distance from my home. he used to even cut my hair, back when i had hair to cut. but let’s not get into that… change of conversation. quick!

alexis is building her portfolio right now and i jumped at the chance to work with her. we started out in my magic tree spot and quickly raced to the beach to catch some last daylight before sunset. i just wanted to edit a few of these immediately and give her and her family a little taste of what we created together. oh, and a shout out to her stylist for the day, also… riane (pronounced “ryan”), who works at salon platinum too.

i had a great time working with you, alexis! we will have to put our heads together for another different shoot in a couple of months, if you want to.

much more to come… i hope y’all love these. don’t forget to comment. it’s friendly!   :)

twas the tween times post…

so, there is that time between thanksgiving and christmas day that can always get so hectic. the mad dash for the perfect tree, last-minute shopping, putting the lights up, and so on. in this time, i wanted to update my blog to give y’all something to gander at while you maybe sip on some egg nog. so, here are a few of my shots from “the season” of years past (and one from this year) that make me smile.

this is me and the hired santa (ahem… don’t let your kids read this. should i have put “spoiler alert” at the top of this? haha) from my brother’s holiday open house last year for his non-profit organization, the pet rescue center. of course, santa’s beard made mine look sad.

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here is our christmas card photo from this year (sorry if you did not get one. maybe you need to give me your mailing address?). this was my wife’s idea and we are all warm in the holiday cheer, er uh…. our snuggies.

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here we are just before going to an (now very popular theme) ugly christmas sweater party/dinner with our friends a couple of years ago.

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and here is the grand finale, the shot that i just found out is back up on websites again this holiday season after making a big splash last year. i admittedly pat myself on the back for that, because, well… i am not famous and never will be. i was not the star quarterback in high school, i never win in the lottery… so it’s the little victories, right?

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shout-outs go to my dear mom who just celebrated a birthday last week. these sweaters belong to her. well, they used to. i have basically confiscated them now as my own. also, to cordarounds for those awesome discoball pants in that last photo above. and to my wife… cuz she not only put up with these kind of shenanigans from me, but (as you see here) she sometimes jumps in too. happy holidays everyone!

holidays up north: vacation, wheaton style

i figured i would kind of give you all a break from family shots at the beach for a moment here. and in the spirit of giving thanks, family and the turning of the seasons… i offer you a glimpse (not that you asked…) into our little family vacation these past few days. we hopped in the car (nana, my wife, our little girl and myself) dark and early on my birthday (wednesday morning) to make the trek to our friends’ in nor cal. it was our daughter’s first real road trip and we could not have asked for her to be more perfect. let’s just jump right in. shall we?

almost as soon as we arrived, we headed over to the park to play with our friends’ kids and some of their friends. little d loves the swings, so she even got to have some fun.

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i tried to muster a shot that entered my mind with the lens i was stuck with. it kinda worked. i kinda love it.

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i climbed onto some of the jungle gym and caught what are now a few of my favorite photos of our little girl and of her with my wife.

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this is our friends’ little girl. for some reason, some of my favorite shots i get of her are always while she has something going on that makes the picture seem a throw-away. she just gets this calmness about her, i guess, when she is pre-occupied. who knows… maybe Horizon Organic will contact me for using it as an ad?  :)

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just some of what makes petaluma take the breath out of me sometimes.

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and here is our little girl all dressed up for her first thanksgiving with our friends up north.

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and this is my wife (melissa) with the middle generation of our friends (colleen). she is a dear friend that melissa has basically known all of her life, for the most part. and she is crafty as all get out. i cannot even tell you how many things she has made for us and little d. oh, for instance… she made that dress in the shot above for her and the little kicker she has on her head too! and, i might bet you that she made what she has on below, as well.

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so… i will try to keep this from being a “you had to be there” kind of thing. for those of you on facebook, i will post a video soon. but our little girl does this thing we now call “mind control” where she tenses all up and kinda stares at you and shakes a little. the best is when she shakes her face just right so her big old cheeks just rattle along. good times.

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it became clear to me again this weekend how much i love just taking photos. how i love the organic process of just shooting as things happen. i had my camera out even less than i would have liked to, but i got a handful of shots that are up at the top of my all-time faves (for now). i just love this moment with my two girls.

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again, for those of you on my facebook, you know about one of the things that really got me excited about this particular trip. i usually try to break away for at least a half day of just photo-exploration. not always with a destination in mind. but this trip, our friend andy and i got up early and headed out to the small town of bodega. this is the home to the church that was used in the alfred hitchcock film “the birds”. i have been an enormous (not a pun aimed at the size of the director) fan of hitchcock since i can remember. so any opportunity to walk around and even capture a hitchcockian monument … well, it makes me giddy beyond words.

the top photos are the same… i just loved how much different this looked in hitchcockian black-and-white. of note, getting the second shot cost me a few rips in my pants from a barbed-wire fence. well worth it.

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before getting back to the house, we made a brief stop at the rocks above dillon beach. i have no words… just photos.

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while d and i were sharing some time while the mom’s shopped, she allowed me to take a few goofy shots of her.below is her excitement when she pulls out certain faves of her animal flash cards. she does so love the ducky.

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and now for a storyboard of her excitement when ‘chica’ makes an appearance on the sprout channel:

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you can tell when i am shooting more for me, because i will bring out my old argus camera. i just love the way things look through its viewfinder and the final product from it usually dizzies me in a good way… speaking to the side of me that used to love sifting through old family photos.so here is a handful of some of my faves from a little walk we all took together with my argus doing the story-telling.

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i have high hopes for the reception of some of these quick shots i took of colleen and the kids on their porch that evening. hopefully i am not the only one who loves these this much.   :)

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and here are the kids hanging out on their porch bench. i love the “group shots” we get with d in them. it makes my mind time-travel ahead to when she will look at these photographs…

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… and i smile everytime that i imagine her saying “oh, that’s me and ______ ” … easily recalling different moments in her life that she shared with people that she loves. we all know that is what the holidays are about. family and friends and the love that we feel for those people becoming a tangible thing. and by that, i don’t mean a present. but, rather, a hug and a kiss on the cheek. a few days out of our life where we spend time reminiscing with the people that have helped shape us into who we are. and now that i am older, and can see things in this light, saying “i wish it were christmas every day” takes on a new meaning for me. because if any or all of us could be that wrapped up in love and affection and basic human kindness…. wouldn’t the world just be that much better?

** thanks for reading and looking through this post. i know it is a more personal one, in nature… but it does resemble my work as well. i hope each and every one of you had a blessed holiday and can continue to enjoy the holidays to come. **

mini-session day two: family love amore’

after the success of our first family session day (as well as picking up some people who were out with flu or activities), gillian and i were sure we needed to organize a second day. first of all, you remember gillian from the last post, right? she runs <a href=”http://www.thewriteinvite.net/”>the write invite</a> in ladera ranch, and was the organizer of these events (thanks a million again, gillian! i cannot wait to work more with you in the future!)

and let’s get started here… mini session should equal mini-blog post, right? well… it doesn’t work that way… but i will try and keep the jibber jabber to a minimum. how’s that? deal?

appropriately, the day started off with gillian and her family. it was fun to spend even a little time with her entire family… and her boys are just too adorable.

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as a new-ish father, and being one who cherishes my relationship with my own father, i have big dreams for the timelessness of shots like this:

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every kiss may begin with kay, but some of the best ones end with a giggle

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for the next family, we ended up at the more southern area of the montage beach area. i really do not have a favorite spot on this resort, because there is something to love everywhere. i do so love the “keyhole rock” that is in this area, however. how ’bout you?

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the next family told me as we walked down to the beach that all they really asked was for a photo of all of them looking at the camera. i kind of chuckled, but i knew what a struggle that can be for even a family with just one child, let alone three boys that just want to go go go   :)   we got their shot, and then some… but those are just group family shots. and like i said in day one’s post… i am not really one to load up these posts with the family shots that are for their wall or frames. so, ironically, here is a shot i loved that had almost none of their faces in it…

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if you read and looked through my recent post with the amazing family <a href=http://timwheaton.com/blog/index.php/archives/387>in the fog</a>, you got a good feeling on how i feel about the parents out there who do it on their own (and maybe an overload of it, really… haha). i met another warrior mama on this mini session day. and her little girl is such a little peach. oh, seriously… i normally get excited to do “day after” shoots with brides. i could have happily done a day after shoot with these two. spending time with little girls like this one is what makes me impatient for my little one to be just a couple years older.

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i love observing the things people do, without even thinking about it. for instance, my wife is a twirler. she twirls her hair in and around her fingers like none other. when i talk to little ones while i shoot them, i try to keep my eyes moving and see if there is anything inherently them that i can capture. little t’s hands were so endearing while we interacted. (and look at those eyes!!!)

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the bond here is just something to behold. even for those parents who are raising their children together. this is what i love taking away from these encounters. for me to work harder as a parent to pour as much love into my child as a parent who is doing it on their own. love. the beatles were prophetic with the simplicity of their statement: all you need is love. truly… the world is better for it… so soak some of this in   :)

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the next family led us back to the southern section of the resort… and another reason i love that area. (you’ll see in the second photo) the dad told me he was hip to some of the “cheesier” side of family photos. and you know, there is something to that, i think. these make for a great storyboard, in my opinion.

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now this spot is so fun in its variation throughout the day (due to tidal activity). we were there at a great time and got some fun shots to end their time section.

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this next family was so fun. they had a brand new little one with them and, i think you will agree with me in a mental high fiving of the mom. you would have thought they brought their little niece or nephew with them. haha. the baby boy’s big sisters were a hoot… and fun to shoot… so, don’t pollute! (had to keep the inadvertent rhyme alive… anybody want a peanut?).

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the middle girl was cracking me up nearly the whole time with them. it was interesting to get some pensive shots out of her.

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the mom was wearing this incredible necklace that day. she said she wanted to get a shot specifically including it for her site. so check it out!  :)

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the last family for the day started as the sun was actually setting. we stayed up in the grassy area and you could hear passer-by’s commenting up a storm about the little boys.

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the hat got passed around a bit during their time with me. fortunately i caught this one with it on and off.

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this last shot needed a little wizardry to pull together. one of the aspects i most embrace about digital photography, is the ability to fix things that just sometimes happen. because, when you are shooting outdoors, in a public place, with multiple subjects… things just tend to happen. and i get film photography. i do. and i hear from some sides how digital editing has killed a lot of what photography originally stood for. however, for me, i embrace the ability to “save” an image that may have been a throw away for any number of reasons. and this was one of them:

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and so ends day two. thanks for reading through all of this. apparently, the writer side of my brain has still not fully been walked off the plank by the photographer side. i am sure there will be some rejoicing when it does.

thanks again, to gillian and all of the families we worked with over the course of these. we will be doing some spring sessions next year, possibly in orange county and san diego county as well. so let me know if you have any interest on getting in on those. or just to do a normal session with me too.

m & k: a lovelight through the fog

as i drove westward to the beach for this shoot, somewhere in laguna canyon, i entered this thick blanket of fog. a misty fog. behind me were blue skies and sunshine. i heard it was cold at the beach, but did not expect such a fog monster to gobble me up. i text my wife when i arrived a bit early at the montage: “it is such a thick fog… i hope this family lasts even 15 minutes in this!”

monique and her boy showed up and she quickly dashed any of my concerns for her concern (take a moment to unravel that little word puzzle…). with these words: “i was actually thinking of going black & white with my christmas photos this year”. perfect!! the fog only opens itself up to that all the more. we navigated our way down to the beach and started right in…

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swinging her little boy evoked such joy, i could not help but post a few of those here:

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the little time i spent with these two reminded me how a word’s tradition can be misleading. for instance, one may hear the word ‘home’ and immediately think of a two-story house with a white picket fence, green grass on a yard in front and in back, maybe even a tire-swing in the front yard. however, i live in an apartment with my wife and little girl… and (right now) this is home to me. i may want more… but this is home. when i walk in the door from a long day and see my little girl beaming up at me from the floor and my wife is sitting there with her: that is home.

where am i going with this? well, the word ‘family’ (to many) may mean a father and a mother and 2.5 children and maybe even some pets. that could be our immediate thought. these two, for instance… they are a family. they protect and nurture one another and their love is something you don’t need to spend a weekend with them to see. it did not even take a full hour for me. and, in my estimation, a family is a circle of love (or should be). so, while you may think a large family (i have 7 siblings) generates all of this love and it just goes round and round (which it does/did)… does that mean this tight little family of 2 has any less? i may even contend that the speed at which the love circles around with the two of them, might even make it that much stronger. i will run this theory by my friend,  who is an engineer and get him to work out the specs of the centrifugal force of the lovelight within a spectral powered by a flux capacitor and the rotary girder housing. haha.

and …. back to our regularly scheduled programming:

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i often love just letting the kids be. just letting them be can bring out osme of the most honest and real child photos, i think.

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i could say something here about how their life’s journey may seem like it is going through a bit of a fog at times and make all these statements about their love and the light at the end of their journey… but i already took all your reading time up above… so i will just let you think it instead.   :)

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monique… all of my best wishes and blessings to you and your family this year, and in those to come. it was my pleasure meeting you two. thanks for trusting me with capturing this moment of your lives.