i have said this before after family sessions, and this was no exception … and maybe one of the best examples of my thoughts on this. i love when siblings are close. love to see a big brother or big sister protect and love on their younger sibling. and, on the other side of it, seeing that younger sibling look up to their elder… it just hits this special spot inside my heart. i love capturing that for the parents.

this little girl was so sweet, shy and curious. if this family is not careful, she could have them all wrapped around her finger in no time   ;)

even though the parents did not want to be involved in the day’s session, i found a little way to involve them that i feel makes a fun / alternative for a family shot:

it was great finally getting to meet this family and i easily could have hung out with them longer… one of those couples that are so completely genuine and friendly. thanks again for the opportunity to work with / for y’all and i wish you the best in the years to come with your adorable and inspirational family.

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

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.

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

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.

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?  :)

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.   :)

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…

… 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. **

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.

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:

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

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?

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…

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.

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   :)

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.

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.

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?).

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

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!  :)

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.

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

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:

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.

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…

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

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:

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.

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.   :)

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.

we met up at what seems to be the epicenter of my family shooting this season for some reason: the montage resort in laguna beach.

the sun was setting and spreading its beautiful orange glow all over the grassy area while we were there. i just kind of went with it and allowed it to wrap its warm arms around their little family…

after the sneak peek storyboard of my niece letting her twirly dress do its thing… i decided to do another from the day. this one shows one of the other things that we forget as adults.. one of the things i most adore about kids… them just being goofy: laughing, making silly faces and cracking themselves up:

this shoot was not really aimed at being a “belly shoot”… or we had not really discussed that. but how can you not involve the miracle of that little life in there?

kids and their special stuffed animals. this one does not have the most original name ever… but it is loved with a full heart.

and we were all blessed by yet another jaw-droppingly gorgeous laguna sunset:

and every time the sun sets right now, i am wondering if i will be getting a call or a text saying that “it’s happening! it’s time!!!” when we had our little girl, it was a dinner with my brother and his wife that possibly set things into motion for my wife’s labor. maybe we need to have some thai food together, you guys!   ;)

now that our little girl is getting so much closer to walking on her own, i sit and marvel at kids that are just running around. the process to getting there is really quite remarkable.

so, here is a little snippet from my day with my brother, his wife, their two kids and the one still “baking in the oven”… a moment that reminds me how sweet life really is. how sweet it can be. that just because so many of us are “grown up”, doesn’t mean that we can’t have silly fun. and for the girls out there, that can be as simple as “putting on your twirly dress and spinning barefoot in the grass as the sun sets”.

your pics are coming your way soon, m&b! and, i cannot wait to meet my newest little niece or nephew!  :)   love you guys!

there were far fewer flowers than my previous visit, due to the time of the season. but some of the colors in the leaves made up for that absence. i love how the lens flare made the shape of a rose on the left frame, when shooting a sign with the word garden in it. cool, right? and i had to get a shot of the ducks because the older of the two boys from that day was loving all of the ducks there.

again, i am saving you all the views of standard family shots in my blog posts. not because the family doesn’t look great… but you kind of know what you are getting with those, so i am displaying some of my faves from the rest of these fam shoots.

this next little set-up ended up getting some cute smiles out of the brothers:

here is a fun little set of shots i caught when the ducks decided to try and spray their audience.

and finally, one last ode to the new season. autumn, we love you.   :)

this family was so genuinely kind. from the parents to their little boys. the younger one kept wanting me to hold him toward the end of the day and i was happy to oblige. after you get used to hefting a 26 pound 1 year old, it is nice to feel the relief of a child that is a little taller and more evenly weighted (if you know what i mean, it is not as mean as it sounds… haha). so, thank you, “k” family. it was nice meeting you and spending some time with you that day.

enter gillian, from the write invite in ladera ranch. gillian had organized one of these with another photographer last year and after its success, she wanted to give it another go. she masterminded everything and we got the families to come out to the montage resort, in laguna beach, for a day full of shooting. these shoots can be extremely tricky. and that is not a way for me to pat myself on the back at all… it just is. and my hats are off to photographers who do mini sessions. seriously. this was my first ever and it is … well… let’s allow the pictures to speak… because a picture says ______ words, right?

** by the way, i did not include any of the group family photos in this post… just so you know. those got shot. just not posted in the blog. carry on…. **

my first family of the day… soaking in the rising sun…

when we headed back up to the grassy area, i took a few shots of the parents alone. at that time, their little boy became best friends with my assistant. having a great time with her allowed for some cute shots of him in his element.

turning the lemons of wet grass into some photographic lemonade:

family number two had some amazing energy going on between them. when they started to just sort of “be”, the documenting of their love was elementary.

i really got a kick out of what happened after we did a lot of the “set” shots of some of the families. allowing the parents to just soak in one another for even a few minutes… almost taking their second set of engagement photos  :)    but first, the wee ones:

we took this next family of five to a different area of the beach, where we were sandwiched by wedding party photos taking place. the montage can get pretty busy with photo-taking on weekends. so we stuck to our little rockhaven and it worked out quite well for them.

their youngest girl was such a natural in front of the camera and just that perfect amount of not being shy about it. too cute.

the second to last family for the day was so fun. kids yelling out “lollipop!!!” instead of “cheese” cracked me up every time.

i wish i could find some kind of quote that talked about the love between siblings being one of the simplest yet most rewarding things on the planet. but, i guess i will have to make one up myself.

the last family of the day… a fantastic finishing point to the day. and, if i can just say… i have been telling parents this like crazy of late. bribery is not illegal in the state of california. sure, you cannot put your kids to work under a certain age. i will give you that. but you can still bribe them. do it. whether it is dessert after your photo shoot, a toy of some sort, an extra hour on their PSP… whatever you have to do. it works fantastically. all i will say is, this little boy kept saying “my car? my car?” and i should have realized a toy car was waiting for him pending a good performance for the photographer man. haha.

also… swinging and throwing kids into the air always brings some good smiles…

“how old are you?”

the final photo of the day:

a successful day… and day 2 is coming up next month. if you want in and want details, drop me a line.

oh… and there was a sizable break in the day to some flu-induced cancellations … how could i not shoot one of my two assistants?

thanks to both my assistants for their help! and thanks to all of the families for being so great and ready to shoot. i had a good time and cannot wait to do this again next month.

marisa’s little girl is about to have her birthday and she wanted to get some good photos for her invite. invitations really have come a long way in the past few years and i love who much time people put into them now. tell me, when you get an invitation, don’t you just get a little giddy and check it out for all the fine details and the way that said party-thrower put it together? anyway, we got together really quickly for a small session, looking for some shots she could use on her invite. just headed over to a local park and SHAZAAM! (one of my all-time favorite exclamations. highly usable in mad libs.)

i am shooting a wedding on the day of her actual party… so i am sad to miss the event. but i hope you have a great party, lola and a fantastic year ahead!  :)