Who Wants Spring Photos? || Orange County Family Photographer

Ahh, I just realized it’s been two months since I last posted anything on here! I’ve been able to photograph so many amazing families lately—both new and returning—and am on heart full with all the sweet moments captured. BUT life is crazy busy and when that happens the first thing to go seems to be keeping up with posting any new photos. Once the business of fall settles down I’ll be trying to get some more sessions up on here. For now though, here are a couple quick snaps of me and my baby girl from this summer in Michigan. The girl who I’ll admit is the one keeping me the most behind in everything else in life. How does one exactly run a business and baby plus homeschool two older kids simultaneously? I’m yet to figure that one out, but never been so happy in my life regardless. :)

Fall time in Southern California is brown fields and dead foliage. It also has its own beauty, no doubt. But being from the midwest, my heart is forever a lover of green fields and wildflowers. So a push to anyone considering booking a session this coming spring! Orange County shows off in all its colorful goodness come end of February to April, and the scenes are my very favorite of the entire year!

What Does a Family Photo Session With Young Kids Look Like | Newport Beach Photographer

Family sessions at the beach usually entail 10% posing and 90% chaos. And that is what I love best. Forget the fake smiles and stiff poses and lets give you some real memories of your babies being who they were meant to be. I am a firm believer that these will be the ones you will look back on with tears someday. Because let’s be real, babies, toddlers, big kids—none of them keep! This time is so fleeting. We blink and they grow another year. That joy, laughter, adventure that fills your home and life right now, I want to put it into a frame for you. A canvas of some real life love. So let the kids run and play, scoop them up and fly them in the air. Embrace the wild, the wet, the sand filled car driving home. This time is one to be remembered, so let’s do just that. :)

June Gloom Had Nothing On Us | Newport Beach Family Photographer

For everyone local to Orange County, there is the ever popular phrase “May Gray, June Gloom.” And for the five years we have lived here it has always made its grand appearance. The actual gloom is really the marine layer that comes over the ocean and spreads over all the towns nearby. That thick, gray cloud coverage rushes in like clockwork sometime during the evening and lingers until around noon the next day. You then get a few hours of beautiful sunshine, only to be met by another layer that same evening. For ever sunny California it’s actually a most welcomed time here for most. That cloud coverage does wonders in what would usually be some hot months, giving us instead some amazing temperatures where we can play all day outside without breaking a sweat! For photography, however, they are the months that I generally look forward to the least. It is so hard to plan what to do as we can think it’s going to be a perfect sunset, and then watch as the dark gray mass comes sweeping in right before we start our shoot.

I took the month of May off this year as baby girl was just born. :) Starting back up again mid month, I had five sessions for June and was fully prepared to embrace the soft blues that the layer lends. But nature seemed to want to treat me extra kindly all five days, bringing in some amazing sun breaking right in the middle of those “gloom” clouds. We were gifted with the most beautiful shades of light and color! How I got so lucky I do not know, but no complaints over on this end! I like to think it was the families themselves, filled with so much happy sunshine they simply chased those clouds away. :)

My Own Little Beach Babe | Newport and Laguna Beach Family Photographer

I started working again mid June and have seriously have had the BEST families to ease myself back from maternity leave! So many photos I need to share here, but first some quick snaps I took of baby girl a few ago. And by quick, I’m not joking. The attention of a five week old is definitely a short one! My gosh, they change by the day though. At now eight weeks she is smiling and cooing and filling my heart into an overflowing pile of happy mush. Also, lucky for me, she loves the beach! I guess being part of this family, what choice did she really have though? ;)

Our Baby Girl is Finally Here | Orange County Family Photographer

She’s finally here!!!!! Adele London made her appearance on May 1st. 30 seconds of pushing, and she flew out so quickly the doctor didn’t even make it to the hospital. 😆 I have no words to express how full my heart is right now. How I wish I could make time stand still with her. It is as though she was always meant to be here... which she was.

Her big brother and sister have been a part of the entire process. From praying for a baby, to thinking there was a snake in the toilet when I came out of the bathroom screaming. I was, in fact, telling everyone I had a positive pregnancy test, but sounded incoherent for the first bit of it. My son told me he thought for sure it was a snake. 😆 🐍 There were a couple bad scares along the way, all which turned out to be false. But at the time they would somehow know the words to say to make my faith stronger... They now tell me she is better than they had ever imagined, that we are the luckiest family of all to have her... It was just the two of them for so long it’s still sinking in to me how she is their sister. The three of them together filling my heart in places I didn’t even know were missing.

I’m behind on everything in life and sleep has become a long lost word, but never have I been so full of joy.

Bed Time at Sunset | Newport Beach OC Family Photographer

I’m definitely feeling this first yawn here in this last bit of pregnancy. 😆At 38 weeks tomorrow, I’ve been having so much “false” labor waking me up throughout the night, coupled with her sweet little kicks and rolls, and of course the fifty thousand trips to the bathroom! Not pregnant, I never ever nap. I’ve taken one three days in a row now though, which for me is beyond a milestone and a true sign things are definitely getting to the end. ;)

This doll right here had reached her bedtime by the time the sun dipped behind the horizon, but my gosh that sunset was showing off for her. And so we pushed her a tiny bit past for some sweet, sleepy memories. And I’m oh so glad we did too. This was actually the very last session I did before I was informed by Newport that all beach shoots were being shut down due to the Corona Virus. How happy I was to have one last epic sunset before everything went into quarantine. And although this time of simply enjoying hanging with my family and soaking in these last weeks of pregnancy has been a nice break, I cannot wait to get back out here again. Fingers crossed, by mid summer!!

37 Week Bump Update | Orange County Family & Maternity Photographer

37 weeks!!!!!🤰🤰🤰And I thought it only fitting to grab some shots in my home as what better way to truly reflect on these final weeks of carrying her during a nation wide shut down? I often get asked how I’m doing with the pregnancy and everything going on right now, and my answer is not a lie: I’m doing great! I am a firm believer that God already knew this baby’s birthdate. And in the middle of a time marked with so much fear and uncertainty, she will enter this world as a beacon of hope and promise. Light in the middle of darkness... Now if I can just contain my own heart that feels like it may burst in all the anticipation of seeing her face. ❤️

Covid-19 and Photography | Newport Beach Family Photographer

I won’t lie, the fact that I have to reschedule almost two months of sessions hasn’t been easy. And since I shoot so many families who come here to Newport on vacation, some of them we have just had to cancel for the time being. Financially it’s hard. Mentally it’s hard. Being out of work, even when you know it’s only temporary and definitely worth it to slow the spread, is still a challenge to say the least.

BUT there have been so many beautiful blessings all around me too. My children have always been my world and my heart has been soaking up all these extra hours together. A little calm, a little crazy, these kids haven’t skipped a beat during any of this with their love for life and adventure always on full. They remind me to take each day and embrace it for the beauty it holds. To let go of the fears of the unknown and instead breathe in the moments around me. 

Coronavirus sucks. It’s ugly and vicious and has sunk its bite much deeper than I had ever imagined. But with most of life there is the silver lining. And this whole slowing down together as a family has been a beautiful thing. As Americans it seems we are simply wired to hit the ground running from morning to night, and keeping busy is seen as the good. But maybe after it’s all through we will realize these days without all the pressures of life’s to do(s) and social activities to attend, we became stronger together. Creating some amazing memories in the process….All that said though, let’s still kick COVID-19 to the curb.

The Beauty of In Home Newborn Photos | Orange County Family Photographer

I have no words for how much I absolutely love in home newborn photo sessions! There is just something so intimate and and beautiful about capturing those first memories right where they are happening. I mean, let’s be real, where do you spend 95% of those first few weeks at? And what day is it even? ;-)

When you look back at your photos five, ten, twenty years from now, what better way to bring back all those sweet memories than looking at those real moments captured? <3 And what better way to capture real memories than to let your baby simply be real? In home means 100% baby led. If she is awake, we capture her eyes, if she’s sleeping we allow her to do so comfortably.

And my gosh the interactions captured!! This little doll was only one week old and already making eye contact and even following my camera around! I’m just five weeks away now from my own due date of baby girl so this session was very extra special to me and turned my baby fever to a whole new high. :)

Maternity Photos in the Foothills of Orange County | Newport Beach Family Photographer

Right when we though Orange County was in for a year of sunshine, warmth, and a little drought—it poured! And like every year, we complained about the rain. As hard as it is during it though, especially with all the having to reschedule and such, I just love the way everything starts to bloom—even the desert filled foothills!

It was such a perfect backdrop for this gorgeous momma to be, and I cannot wait for her to welcome her baby girl soon!

Orange County Green Fields With My Girl | OC Family Photographer

This girl of mine. ❤️ To know her is to love her, and to love her is to feel your heart overflow. We celebrated the big 8 1/2 this week (it's been our tradition to do half birthday for a while now 🎊), and I'm feeling all the emotions watching her grow up way too quickly. My little bestie, I can't imagine doing life without her smiles.

And hello happy photographer life, all this rain is turning Orange County into my very favorite time of the whole year! Green may be my very favorite color and it coming up in abundance right now! I sometimes get asked for green fields in the fall time when families are wanting Christmas card pics, but sadly everything is back to brown by then. SO, if your ever thinking of really changing up the photo backdrop, think Spring! There is nothing quite so lovely here in Southern California, in my own opinion at least. ;)

Senior Photos in the Mustard Fields of Orange County | OC Family Photographer

For about two glorious months out of every year there is a field in Orange County that soaks up the winter rains and turns its formerly brown, dead landscape into one of the most beautifully colored places around. Long green grass and yellow flowers everywhere you look, not to mention the oranges that coincide at the same time bringing their extra pop of color to the scene. Add to it all the big hills behind you and I am in a color love, happy photographer place! Totally feel like I flew right out of Orange County and straight to the mountains. The saddest part is that it lasts very short. SO if you are ever wanting to choose this place for your backdrop plan ahead! Somewhere around February through April is usually good but it varies depending on Mother Nature and when she decides to shower us with her wetness. :)

I was so excited when I saw it bloomed just a week before this senior session with the sweetest graduating girl. She had mentioned she wanted to shoot in a meadow type scene and for most of the year in Orange County that can be quite the impossible find. Just fitting the mustard decided to show up just for her though!

This girl found me through Instagram and asked if I do Senior Photos. A quick glance around my portfolio and its pretty clear I don’t post it often. But every once in while, especially around spring time I’ll do a few. And believe me, she made me reeeally want to start doing a LOT more!! It was SO much fun, laughing and posing and playing with the light around her. I would absolutely love to add these into my work load each year!

Fresh 48: Newborn Photos Right at the Hospital | Orange County Family Photographer

Hospital sessions are usually referred to as “Fresh 48” since we schedule them within those first 48 hours of life, before you head home. This sweet babe was literally only 6 hours into this world and his big brothers were meeting their newest member of the pack for the very first time. My very favorite was when one of them excitedly shouted out, “We get to take him home with us?!”

In home newborn shoots are also beautiful and I adore them with my heart. But there is something so unmatched and emotional about capturing those true firsts. Those moments that will be forever etched into your heart, also now documented on film for you to have and look back on in the years to come. Newly born in every literal sense of the word. <3

My Very Own Wild Flower | Orange County Maternity Photographer

Being a mom has been by far the greatest gift of my life, and the thought that I am going to get to have another child to hold again is a dream come true. At 30 weeks pregnant the reality of it seems to really be hitting me lately, especially as I feel her karate chopping inside me each day. ;)

I really wanted to make sure I documented this pregnancy as I didn’t with my first two and greatly regret it. I told my husband we should go head over to this field that I thought was turning green and he agreed. But by the time sunset rolled around I felt tired and nothing like dressing all up. I’m so glad my husband encouraged me to just go and take a quick few photos though as I will treasure these forever now. And oh my gosh, this field!!! It doesn’t last long here before all turning back to brown, so only fitting it decided to bloom right in time for my own special wildflower. <3

There is definitely going to be an age gap between her and my “big kids.” My daughter almost nine years older, and my son seven, but love really does know no age. As we were walking to school the other morning Boston told me she couldn’t stop thinking of all the great places she’s going to take her sister to someday. And I know this baby girl is going to be crazy lucky to have such an amazing human to look up to as she grows. My son doesn’t go to bed without kissing my belly and telling his baby sis good night. And first thing in the morning he asks her if she slept good. My heart is beyond full, anxiously counting down to the moment I get to see her wrapped all up in their arms.

Valentine's Day With Kids | Newport Beach Family Photographer

Before I had kids, Valentine’s Days were usually filled with all kinds of mixed emotions, especially on those teen years when I had no one “special” to bring me flowers. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Now, this day of “romance” has become one of paper hearts and crayon made cards, and it is my very favorite. My kids have been literally counting down the days to when they get to pass out all their cards to friends. Little notes they meticulously wrote out to each person, spending happy hours in their room as they worked on them. They woke up at 5:30am this morning  to eat their breakfast on red plates with pink napkins that they already set the table with the night before. I begged them to sleep for one more hour but their excitement just wouldn’t allow their eyes to close again.  

Before kids this day of love could be described by a whole plethora of complaints against hallmark. But now my heart is filled with all their excitement. And all the sappy love filled notes can only bring me up. A nap could also help I’m sure. ;)

This family here seemed only fitting to blog on this day as well. I think one of my very favorite things about family photography is getting to witness how no dynamic is ever exactly the same. Kind of like their own fingerprint each brings with them. All different personalities mixed together under the same roof, creating this beautiful connection that will forever be uniquely theirs. And these five brought all the joy and love with them.

Newport also showed up with all its beach full of skies and colors to match. And let’s take one quick second to pause and admire how beautiful these ladies looked in their Free People and Joyfolie dresses too—it’s no secret I’m a huge fan of the long maxis!

So with that, happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours! May it be spent with all the sweet and simple memories that make this life so good. <3

Love in the Desert | Laguna Beach Engagement Photographer

Meet THE world’s sweetest couple and 100%  made to be soul mates! I actually had the super fun and amazing privilege to shoot their surprise proposal at Laguna beach the year before. I fell in love with them that day and was so excited when they let me know they were going to be back in Laguna and wanted some engagement photos taken! Since the proposal had been at the beach they decided to mix up the backdrop and I am SO happy for it too! These foothills are by far one of my favorite places to shoot at in Orange County with its completely true to life Southern California landscape, but still giving me my colors and skies that I live for. :)

Believe it or not it was super overcast the entire day before our session. And to top it off, as I drove up to the spot it started sprinkling! Since they were only in town for the day we decided to go with it, rain or shine. I had my rain cover all ready to go, but just so fitting for their sweet love, as soon as we started the sky decided to part just enough to allow the most amazing sunset to come through! I would be lying to not say I was in complete photographer bliss!

I am so happy for these two and their beautiful future together. And I can’t wait to get them behind my lens again someday—maybe with a pregnant belly too. ;)

Always Wear the Twirly Dresses | Newport Beach Family Photographer

A quick look around my website and blog and its little secret I am in LOVE with all the dresses! I am a firm believer that outfits really do play one of the major factors in the overall look of the final images, and I just love the whimsical element a flowing dress lends as its blows with the wind and water. Newport beach without doubt carries such a sense of magic and beauty that simply calls for one to match it a bit. :)

This momma always blows it away in the outfit department and this year was no exception! Both sisters are in my favorite clothing shop for girls their age, Joyfolie. And mom is one of my all time favorite, and just happens to be local here in downtown Tustin, Morning Lavender.

Of course, outfits can only do so much. If your’e yelling at your kids to stand still and smile, or constantly checking your hair every two seconds, it will show. But when you really let your guard down and simply play and have fun together, that is where the true magic comes into play. Would you guess it was actually quite cold during our time and little sis was definitely a bit intimidated by the big ocean coming her way. But we kept playing games, cuddling, tickling, having fun, and the final products are my favorite!

So wear the twirly dress and I’ll be your best friend. ;) But also, bring your love and joy, and watch those sweet and real moments unfold.

Do You Shoot Engagement Sessions? | Newport Beach Family Photographer

A quick look around my blog, portfolio, social media, and there is little question as to the majority of my photography. Families, children, babies, and all that sweet connection are without question such a huge part of what I love about my job. And with it comes one of the top questions that arrives: “Do you shoot engagement photos?” The resounding answer: YES! I absolutely LOVE having couples behind my camera frame. This is you, your family, and I want to document every single detail of that love.

I do also get asked often if I shoot weddings and at this time the answer is no. Mostly the reason why I don’t shoot engagements often, because often enough your wedding photographer will include it in the package. But there arise those times when it isn’t, like with this couple who are having a destination wedding in Hawaii—jealous! I was so happy to get to capture this special time with them! And side note: they told me they were awkward in front of the camera… I think not. ;)

The Fields Are Alive With Baby Bumps | Orange County Family Photographer

It’s no secret that I love when someone asks me to mix up my normal beach sessions! The sand and water are no doubt my happy places, but my eyes also crave a change of scenery from time to time. :) And I personally feel like there is something just so sweet and magical about dressing all up and heading to a dead field—haha! For real though, I just loved the way the scenery blended into these glowing colors all around this glowing momma!

Maternity sessions have always been some of my very favorite, but even more so now that I have my own baby bump going on! There is so much connection I feel towards her, and excitement that I can’t quite put into words. But we’re both feeling it, so not too many words are needed. :) I can’t wait to watch their sweet family continue to grow!

Baby Fever | Newport Beach Newborn Photographer

In the middle of this past fall’s bazillion sunset shoots I got to sneak in a morning with this newest guy. And my goodness I loved every minute of him. His was the first newborn session I have done since finding out I was pregnant with my baby girl and believe me those hormones were all over the place. Like I just wanted to cry right then and there for his mom and dad in happiness, but that would have been a little strange, right? So I held it together for the most part, minus the squeals.

Lifestyle newborn photography is something so very special to me. Yes, I love those cute little squishy poses on the blankets as much as the next person. However, I truly believe there is something just so raw and intimate about those real life moments you experience as a brand new family. Moments that, as much as you may not believe, will turn into a hazy blur of bits and pieces. Having photos and videos to look back on is one of the main things that triggers those day to day sleepy memories back to life. Iphones are God’s gift to new parents! But there is also something extra special when you yourself get to be present in the moments, not always the one behind the camera. To remember what it looked like with him cuddled against your chest, the way his head fit so perfectly inside your hands. The love and joy that filled every last room together…