The Martin Family | Folsom Family Photographer

Photographers keep hiring me, what is up wit that? haha. Don't they know that it makes me nervous?! ;) I know Anita from a photography forum and if she looks familiar it's because she was the matron of honor at Christina & Dave's wedding! Anita has also 2nd shot a wedding with me. She's awesome. I won't lie. Photographing 2 year olds can be hard. Really hard. As in, they make weddings seem easy to me. However, Andrew decided that he wanted to be adorably cute and perfect so that I would be tempted to love shooting 2 year olds. Well, I definitely did this time. Andrew is so sweet and his mommy and daddy know exactly how to make him ham it up for the camera.

Thank you Anita, David and Andrew for this beautiful little session. I had a great time and hope that we can all hang out again soon!

Muah!!

The Zaczepinski Family | Manhattan Beach Family Session

Gwen is a fellow photographer from Ohio and was in Souther California on vacation visiting family. I know Gwen through a photography forum and when she asked me to do her family photos, I was both excited and nervous because Gwen is crazy good. Proof is here. However, once we were doing their session at the Manhattan Beach Pier, I forgot that I was shooting another photographer and just did my thing. Her kids are beautiful and so much fun. I'm glad we captured some fun in these photos because their 2 week trip to Southern California ended up being quite the roller coaster, complete with terrible finger-slammed-in-the-door-so-hard-it-required-an-ER-visit instances and her 5 year old son being taken into surgery for a hernia :( They are now home safe and likely recovering from their er, adventure!

They are home! | A Marine Homecoming

All of the emails, all of the long distance phone calls, all of those times when they wished that their loved ones were home, all of those nights spend worrying, all of those months gone by...and finally they are home. I had the honor of photographing this special event for a young lady named Katie who was axiously awaiting her boyfriend, Frank, to get home. Frank serves in the Delta Company out of 29 Palms, CA and had been in Afghanistan for the past year.

I drove out to the desert filled with anticipation and excitement which was amplified even more as I passed the 3 buses about 40 miles outside of the base. I had to choke back tears when I saw people standing on the street corners, still 20 miles from base, holding flags and signs saying, "Welcome Home, Troops!" I'm not very familiar with military life, heck, I'd never even been on a base before, but something that I do know is that I am forever grateful for the service and sacrafice of these young men and women. It was truly an honor to have been a part of this special day.