Williams Family :: Grayson Is One!

I had the pleasure of shooting the Williams family again for Grayson's one year birthday. You can see their previous session here. This time, Jess let me in on one of her secret shooting spots and let's just say I was IN LOVE. Appropriate since this is what little G was wearing!

 

 Hehe. I think this family session is by far one of my favorites, not only because of the location, lighting, etc, but because you can just feel the love that they have for each other and for their little blessing. You can see some of my favorites here and if you get a chance you must check out Jessica's blog for pictures from his adorable party and some of her favorites from our session.

 

 

 One of my FAVEs!

 

Happy boy!

Thanks Jess for another amazing session. It's always a pleasure to capture your family memories!! I seriously love all these photos!

Jacob's 1st Birthday!

I recently had the pleasure of shooting a first birthday party for this handsome guy:

 It was actually his second party (lucky duck had one in Hawaii the week before) and it was a traditional Korean party at a Chinese restaurant in Anaheim (awesome food btw). Dad is Korean and mom is Chinese so it was a nod to both sides of his heritage. He and mom wore traditional Korean attire and the party included a traditional Korean game, Doljabi.

 It was an intimate afternoon with family and friends, coming together to celebrate Jacob's first year. The family was so genuinely nice and made me (the hired help) feel so welcome. Everyone laughed and had a great time. I even discovered that Tracy (Jacob's mom) is from Hawaii too! Must be why we got along so well. The party was quick but I think I managed to get quite a few shots of the birthday boy...

  

 

 

Tracy, thank you so much for contacting me to photograph Jacob's party. I had such a great time with you and your family! Can't wait to meet your new little guy as well! 

♥

mandi

Cousins :: Brianna & Landon

For my last shoot of 2012 I had the pleasure of shooting friends who really are more like family after all these years. Mindy wanted to make sure we got a session while her nephew was still in town and of course I was happy to assist. They made the drive up from San Diego and we met in Old Town Temecula to capture a few memories.

You may remember we did a whole family shoot back in July but this time it was just the cousins. Oh and Mindy too. Landon has grown so much in just a short amount of time hasn't he? And miss Brianna who has modeled for me before is still as stunning as ever. We had a great time while braving the cold and wind, and Landon kept us laughing with his silly boy antics.
 

See what I mean?

Of course I had to snap a few of mommy and daughter together 

And my little model by herself.

It's always a pleasure to work with returning clients and friends, especially ones you consider family. Love you guys! Hope your holidays were wonderful. 

♥

mandi

Arellano Girls :: A Christmas Surprise

Our neighbors are cool peeps. We've gotten to know them a lot better in the last year or so and I consider them friends, not just neighbors. They do a lot for us as far as helping out with A when I need to do a shoot or when I was subbing quite a bit or more recently when I have doctor appointments and for that I am SO grateful. For Christmas I wanted to do something special for Martha & Jesse but I wanted it to be a surprise so I did what any photographer would do and I decided to do a photo shoot with their three girls and give them memories that would last forever. I recruited their oldest daughter to help me devise a plan to get Martha out of the house for a few hours so I could sneak the girls away to shoot. Martha's parents were in on the surprise too and we were able to pull it off the day after Thanksgiving. My only concern was if the girls would be able to keep such a big secret for so long! 

These are the ones I framed for them: 

I think they almost spilled the beans a few times but overall it was a huge success. Martha & Jesse were super surprised and LOVED their gifts!! I was thrilled to be able to give them something that they will treasure forever because I am so grateful for them and all they've done for us. 

Here are a few more from the day:

 These girls are FULL of personality! In case you hadn't noticed.

 OH, and they're gymnasts too!

 

The shoot with the girls was a blast which I'm sure you can tell! I can't wait to do a family shoot next, hint, hint! :) You girls rocked it!!

♥

mandi