long story short(er): we love betabrand. they are a great company founded and owned by the greatest guys you can meet. so when my brother’s birthday came around this year, he decided to go skimboarding at his local beach, fully decked out in betabrand’s disco clothing… when he had his hood on, it was pretty much head to toe disco! when we got to the sand i actually complained that there weren’t enough people there to see this event. so, here i am… making sure this is seen by more of you. make sure you leave even a little comment at the end to let him know you came, you saw, you guffawed at his own version of a big boy’s birthday wish coming true.   :)

changing under your towel: the coastal man’s version of women who take off or put on their bras under their shirts. a true craft.

bending it like beckham… or something…

i seem to want to give these a try almost every shoot nowadays. i kinda like this one:

“you’re getting all my crazy faces…” he said. then this happened:

“go big, then go home…” i told him.

and the day ended… well that portion of it. another birthday dinner was had before he was able to collapse (most likely) in bed from the day.

hope y’all enjoyed this little bit of levity and fun. not too late to wish him a happy birthday in the comments here… and remember, diso is not all betabrand does. so check them out too :)

we went through the whole process together. picking out outfits. matching it up with accessories. deciding on a location. i actually love this part of it. even tara told me i should create my own stylist company. hmmmmm…

once it was all coordinated, we met up to start at one of our two chosen locations… and so began tara’s photographic journey… a journey from being a little nervous with the first photo into a nearly immediate evolution into greatness. and we were on our way…

as the sun was just about going behind nearby mountains, we got some perfect light in this area before we abandoned this location for the next. i could have shot here the rest of the day, easily. good problem to have… another good problem: the wind. that day was extremely windy in some areas but we seemed to hit a dead spot. until we moved into this area and the wind was just the perfect amount to create some glorious motion with tara’s hair.

one final wardrobe change and we were off…

then it was a literal race against time as we watched the sun getting closer and closer to setting as we drove to the beach. we got there just in time, went down what seemed like 1000 steps from PCH and jumped right into it.

tara nailed the hair motion shots. and she nailed them quickly, thank goodness… as the sun was setting faster than i could shoot.

i said a lot already about this session. i hope the photos also said a lot about it. i have been almost too blessed recently with having sessions that have really meant a lot to me, for what they have meant to my subjects. that’s just kind of rare… but has been really common for me right now. so, to tara: thank you again and again for trusting me with such a transformational day. i am better for having been a part of it and very fortunate to now call you friend, as well. i hope this only acts as another springboard for the greatness in your life.

even though this was not one of those enormous family sessions, anything that spans some generations will often make me steel my nerves just a little more than usual. we went out to the beach during christmas for this one, possibly a great time for family photos when people are together that are usually out of state.

at the end of the day, the plum-tuckered little ones can be fairly normal. i don’t think this photo would have been taken or even posted here if i were not a parent of a little one, myself. something about this shot speaks to that side of me.

our first location was the continental room in fullerton. what a fantastic bar. dark as all get-out inside, but i think we did okay…

on to the outdoor stuff…. these two were all set with what they wanted to do that day and brought props and everything. so, behold the props  :)

since these two were all about the props and kind of “devised” shots, i figured i would try something that i have always thought about doing for a couple of years maybe now.

and a silhouette to close it all out as the sun set…

hope you two love these… more will be coming to you soon… and huge congrats again!!   :)

we had so much fun with the twirling shots, we decided to try and do it one last time with more ‘hair flair’ in the ‘sun flare’ (i may try to trademark that… )

always a fun time shooting with this girl… so full of life and even brings up her own ideas for shots. hope to see you in another year or so, lexi!

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.

** for those of you wondering (especially you brides), trashing the dress does not mean actually trashing the dress. basically, it’s taking advantage of the fact that you have worn your gown on your wedding day, crisp and clean and new… and you have not yet taken it to be cleaned and stored. so, why not make the cleaners work a little extra hard perhaps, and get your dress in the sand of the beach, dust of the field, what have you. **

now, remember… 25 comments on this posting awards the happy couple with 2 free 5×7 prints of their choice. so leave them a little love, won’t ya?

we did this shoot on saturday and i just wanted to pull a few of  my faves from the day before i get back into editing.

again… big congratulations to you both, karen & nick. i wish you both the best as your lives continue together. i had a great time this weekend with you. and give your little dog sarah a big kiss for me.   :)

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.