Oh, sweet Maeve. The little girl who flashes her gorgeous, multi-toothed smile when she hears Irish music and who is so adored by her mom and dad. Happy First Birthday and thank you for playing with me out in the gorgeous fall light. Come back and visit! I’d love to chase you around the Christmas tree farm as a toddler!

I first met Jamie and Enrico back in June of 2019 when they asked me to help them with their “Waiting Family Profile”. They were wanting to adopt a child and were waiting to be matched with a birth family. I had helped other families several times before with this journey and I was so pleased when I heard that Kai joined their family in March of 2021. A few weeks ago, it was great to reconnect with these two and to finally meet Kai. He was a little harder than many kids to warm up to me- he couldn’t…

This time of year brings a lot of extended family sessions and fall up here is always spectacular and especially when we’ve had a quiet fire season. Extended family sessions are a great way to give the kids from each of the family groups some time in the spotlight and some time out of it. Kids need time to run around- and I try to capture that too. For me- I just try to stay present and capture the images as they make themselves known while also mentally checking off the list that we have. Little Alex is one year…

LOVE these two. Free spirits. Animal lovers. Kind humans. Sisters. I’ve been photographing Madison and Hailey since they were pre-schoolers and it’s such an honor to get to watch them grow up while capturing their “one year older” personalities.. It’s a perfect fall up here and this year, so far, basically smokeless…which is saying alot. Shhhhhh- knock on wood. It’s raining as I write this…we are almost through fire season.

I’m enjoying all the fall loveliness with the Newton family in Apple Hill at Larsen Apple Barn/Bake Shop. They moved to the foothills recently from Walnut Creek and a family member got them a gift certificate for a session. Marja was concerned that they would be hard to rally in a photograph. What? They are a beautiful family with great and natural smiles. Not hard at all. And- what a ham that Little Johnny is. We had fun in the park making these images in that gorgeous, golden light. Thank you, Marja and Johnny.

Coming up in just a few short weeks, Andrea and Paul’s oldest, Juliana will be getting married and I am very excited to get to photograph her marriage to Evan at Serene Ranch in Placerville. More about this in a few weeks 🙂 This was the third time I have photographed their beautiful family. The first time was in 2019 with the help of a dear friend, Leslie Wendt who helped me wrangle the crew(I loved this session). The second time was a few quick photos at Callie and Gabriel’s adoption in 2020 at the courthouse in Placerville. This time,…

This session put me in such a great mood. Fall is here and the weather is perfect up here in the mountains and for fall family sessions in Apple Hill. One of the parts I love about my job is reconnecting with previous wedding couples and especially folks like Maureen and Curt. They are super sweet, easygoing, and kind plus they have great restaurant recommendations for Sacramento! Bonus. They married Fausel Ranch in the fall of 2019 and now they are raising two cute sons- Odin who loves cheddar bunnies and Jude who has two new front teeth. They both…

Jessica and Cory exchanged their vows under the shade of a big oak tree at Black Oak Mountain Vineyards in Cool, CA. Unlike the name of the location, their day was sunny and hot but the skies were a gorgeous blue, scattered with puffy clouds. They shared a quick first look under the big blue sky but quickly moved inside due to the heat. The grounds at Black Oak Mountain are amazing and even though Jessica and Cory chose to keep their event at the barn, the venue let us take in the sunset up on the hill.  These two…

Her advice to incoming high schoolers is to “prioritize your mental health and listen to your gut- if something seems too stressful or just doesn’t feel right, find another way that works better for you. This will make your high school journey so much more enjoyable”. She has the wisdom of a person 20 years her senior.

Well, this session was a couple of years in the planning. With Eric and Ginger’s home finally repaired from the destruction of the Caldor fire two years ago, and Laurie and Jason’s daughter, Myra heading off to college in Santa Cruz soon, the time was right. I met the extended Schlavin/Pittman families out at the lake and on Grandparent’s Day too! Both of my kids were lucky enough to be “Schlavin Middle School alums” and my oldest, Jaz was in town from Scotland and got to help me out on this one…like old times. I enjoyed meeting Eric and Laurie’s…

Richard and Bonnie got to know each other when Bonnie showed up at Richard’s door during the Caldor Fire in order to evacuate her home.

What better time to capture your family? Everyone is on vacation, relaxed and spending time together! This time was Lake Tahoe for the Weinberger family who captures their family every year at a new location….how fun! The Weinberger traveled from Houston a couple of weeks ago and we met at at Sand Harbor. Sam (8) immediately reached out his hand and introduced himself. That was impressive! Charlotte (4) and Elizabeth (21 months) shyly smiled in their cute matching dresses. Diane and Evan were warm and personable. As Sand Harbor is a very popular location, we walked around a bit to…