Their wedding day was a beautiful and windy ocean-fresh day. Scatter in some oyster shooters and a lodge full of very close family and friends, and you have a pretty good idea of what a great time it was. I love the image below of the whole wedding party laughing.

Lots of fun and a little bit of friendly competition! That’s how our session with Kristin and Jason was filled. They’ve been together for two years and clearly enjoy playing together on and off the courts. They live in Redondo Beach, where Jason has fun high-fiving people bicycling past. (He says he was practicing his “Calvin Klein look” for this shoot.) Jason works as a motion camera assistant. Kristen is a physical therapist. Her folks have beautiful home in Placerville and that’s where their “big day” will take place. It’s usual to wonder just how the wedding event will go…

We all got together just a couple weeks prior to Mikal and Michelle’s Forest House Lodge wedding to have some fun on a beautiful property in Placerville. Michelle is also a photographer and as I have said in the past, it is always a little intimidating to not only have been chosen by another photographer to shoot their wedding (i.e., one of the most important days of their lives), but then to actually do it! This session was a good way for all of us to loosen up with each other and just be creative and have fun. Super easy…

Nikki will soon be brightening the campus of University of Reno/Nevada with her dimpled smile and blue eyes. She’s just finishing up her senior year at El Dorado High. I spent the end of a lovely day with her at the High Sierra Iris Gardens in Camino—the natural background of vibrant flowers is the perfect complement to Nikki’s glowing beauty, especially since she has a strong interest in the healing properties of plants and foods. She’ll be studying nutrition in the fall. Joining us for the shoot was Nikki’s Dad, Ben. He watched and admired his grown daughter through the…

Gorgeous Leah is graduating El Dorado High School this May and heading off to Santa Barbara in the fall to continue her studies.  We got together recently at Alder Creek to celebrate this upcoming new chapter in her life. The only girl in the family with two brothers, Leah is an easy-going and fun-loving girl who I had a great time with, rolling around in the moss around the creek and joking that we’d better get some “mom friendly” photos for her mom, Denise. (When it comes to High School Seniors, there’s always the shots they want and the shots mom…

Ahhh… and thus begins 2014’s engagement season! Engagement sessions are such a fabulous way for me to get to know my couples before their wedding day (and visa versa.) Not only can we become more familiar and at-ease with one another but I can work with them to see how they like to be photographed. It really pays off on the wedding day because all that initial awkwardness is already out of the way. In this case, there was no awkwardness at all since Sallie Grace and I attended the same boarding school, Chatham Hall and so had lots to…

Keith and Leslie are expecting their fourth child in June. This time they decided not to find out if they would be having a boy or girl. Since they already have one or more of each – Steve (7), Miles (4) and Aubriella (2) – this one’s all about the surprise. Although four children might sound like a lot of work, I can see why this couple enjoys a larger family; they simply take it all in their stride. Inevitably kids will wander in and around during the session while you’re focused on other family members. Yet,  I was amazed…

Lindia is a friend and neighbor. We have gotten to know each other while sharing a walking group on Mondays and our daughters play together. Up here in our close-knit community of Pollock Pines, when someone is struggling, we all feel it and gather to do whatever it is we can do to help. So, when I learned that Lindia had been diagnosed with breast cancer, I immediately knew it was time to schedule a shoot – some time to capture her fighting spirit and the love and support of her family as she begins treatment. I originally had in…

Alright, I gotta say it: I thought I was done with baby-making but this little guy might just have changed my mind. (Just kidding, Jeff. Just kidding.) But seriously… Devan is devastatingly cute. I met up with him and his mom and dad, Kim and Sean, at East Portal Park in Sacramento for the latest session in their baby package. You may remember Kim and Sean’s wedding at Donner Lake in 2012 and one of my favorite engagement sessions was paddle-boarding with them on Lake Tahoe the prior July. It’s great to see them now as parents and they’re pretty…

Over the holidays last year, my office assistant, Rita’s, son, Ricky, built bottle cap snowmen and raised $2,300 for a wonderful local family.  You see, Shawna Huckaby’s eldest son, Ben, was diagnosed with cancer in July of last year and they have spent the best part of the last year undergoing treatments to fight it. Ben was supposed to be in Ricky’s class but has been unable to attend school due to the possibility of contracting a virus. This is a small community and when someone is in-need, people rally together. For my part, I offered the family a shoot last…

Mike and Leslie are our neighbors. Lucky me, they are so wonderful and kind. Mike is the guy who you can rely on to be at the end of the road in every snow storm, shrinking the burm from the plow with his shovel while Leslie is the kind neighbor who would drop anything for anyone at any time. They both helped us out on several occasions when our girls were younger and, when my assistant Jerri (who was also their daughter’s best friend) faced leaving her friends behind because her family was moving to Montana in her Senior year,…

You may have heard me mention the name Ashlynn in countless posts past but this is the first time you’ll have ever seen her in front of the camera, well, not including her senior photographs that I captured several years back. Ashlynn is my assistant and just one of the sweetest girls I know. This past summer, Ashlynn’s boyfriend, Sam, left for college while Ashlynn stayed behind here in California. Long distance relationships are hard at the best of times but, if you can remember the raw intensity of your first love, you can probably get some measure of how…