Meet Mallory.  From the moment she arrived at her consultation, I knew we were in for something special for her senior portraits.  Great clothing choices, gorgeous hand made accessories & scarves, and very specific looks in mind.  Among Mallory’s many talents was dance choreography, and she was kind enough to perform for me to capture.   At the end we ran outside to capture the last bit of dusk…and some more dancing.  This was very much a collaborative effort and Mallory’s input was wonderful.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Meet the lovely Lauren, Woodcreek High 2010.  Can’t believe I hadn’t photographed any seniors in Old Sacramento before, so I was all over it when Lauren suggested it.  Seemed like every 10 feet there was some new texture, or light pattern that had me yelling “Stop! Don’t move!” every 20 seconds.  Lauren got used to it.  She also got used to the curious onlookers (including the Sac Police) and still was game for everything.  Our last bit caught some attention from railroad employess, but in the end they were good sports about everything.  Really a great time.  Thank you Lauren!

The lovely folks at Good Day Sacramento took an interest in our awards from SPA this year and asked to come down to the studio to chat about them.  They also decided to have us do some shooting with Lori & Cody (the morning anchors) to “relive” their senior portraits.  Lori was a natural.  Cody was…well…Cody.  Big thanks to both Lori and Cody for having us, Dale for taking care of us, Ashley for all the communication, and last but not least, Ann Wokas for the hookup.  It was a fun time for me and a great TV debut!  Here are a few images from the shoot.   Enjoy! 

We’ve been photographing this family since big brother was 2, I believe, and now little sis is going to be 2 later this spring!  They came for their annual family holiday portrait, as well as to capture Miss G’s new skill–standing!  We always have the best time with them and are so thrilled to see them each and every time.  The kids are always in a good mood….I wonder if there are good bribes involved?? Just kidding…they’re awesome kids no matter what!  Meet the Pham family (again):

Miss K is one of our Bebe Collection cuties, and she was especially adorable for this session.  The looks she gave us seemed far beyond her age, seeming to have some “secret” the rest of us weren’t in on.  Maybe that secret had something to do with the fact that she was faster than all of us and kept me and her parents on our toes!  While I love all of the images from her session, this first one on the sofa gets me every time I look at it!

Meet Cat, Bella Vista class of 2010.  Cat arrived to her consultation just about every cool outfit available.  Boots, scarves, necklaces, dresses and oh yeah…a black guitar.  So again, off to the woods we went to chase some light.  It was a perfect day and as you can see, Cat did great.  About halfway through the session, she suggested climbing a tree for a few shots.  I wasn’t overly eager for this as my last tree experience ended with me falling out of it and a nasty scrape on my knee. (I was trying to show a senior how to get up in it)  Cat seemed pretty confident in her climbing skills so we went for it.  Glad we did as they were some of my favorite images of the day.  Thanks Cat for all your efforts!

When we met with Natasha last fall to discuss the portraits she wanted to have made of her family, we were excited on so many levels; first off, she is sort of family–she is my (Stef) aunt’s step-granddaughter; and second, she brought the coolest clothes to her consultation!  We knew if was going to be fun when she had so many ideas of looks that she liked, not to mention the fact that on the day of the session, she and and her daughter went to our friends at Article Salon (in the Fountains) to have their hair done especially for their portraits.  On the day of the session, the weather was perfect and the kids were superstars.  Miss A was a mini-supermodel and was up for changing clothes and looks as many times as she could squeeze in.  Little N was not quite as into being a supermodel as his sister, but he still did awesome nonetheless!  If I remember correctly, this session ended not because we ran out of outfits to change into, but because we ran out of light outside!  They were such a fun family to photograph and it shows.  Meet the Vasilopoulos family:

Last week James and I were in San Diego for the SPA event 2010 (SPA is short for Senior Portrait Artists).  This organization attracts some of the most talented high school senior photographers in the country and hosts one of the premier educational (and social!) events of the year for photographers.  After James attended last year’s SPA event in Las Vegas without me and came home completely fired up, there was no way I was missing this one (especially because it was at the beautiful Hotel del Coronado).  Aside from meeting up with hundreds of others talented photogs and hearing loads of great speakers, a main attraction and highlight of the event is the competition, which many of the attendees enter each year.  This was the first time James entered the SPA competition, which included categories for senior girl and senior boy folio (a composite of multiple images from the same subject) as well as a single-image kids competition this year.  Now, James has entered and done well in competitions before, but never anything quite like this.  After all of the folios and prints have been judged, they are displayed all over tables so everyone can look at all of the entries.  James felt quite intimidated when he saw the caliber of artists entering the competition.  You can imagine the thrill we both felt when his name was called not only once, but SEVEN times at the awards ceremony!  I thought he might pass out from the excitement (or the weight of all of those beautiful statues!)!  I’ve included a photo of James with six of his gorgeous (and heavy) glass statues (the biggest one shattered in shipping and is being replaced), as well as a few of the winners.  The awards he won are as follows:  Top scoring folio; First Place girl folio; Judge’s Choice senior folio; People’s Choice folio; People’s choice single image; 2nd & 3rd place single image kids.  James is so humble and if you know him, you know that he would never go out of his way to tell you about this amazing honor, but I can’t help myself, mainly because he works so hard and I think it’s so well deserved.  Way to go babe!

The McNaughton family was one of those few lucky folks who happened to come to us during the PERFECT weekend in November for fall family portraits.  The weather was great, the leaves were at their amazing colorful best, and to top it off, they wore super cool clothes!  Miss L and Mr N were at that age where you really just follow their lead and see what’s next, so that’s exactly what we did.  The image of N in the corner of the red wall was one of my very favorites from the session, for so many reasons, but mostly because you can almost see the wheels spinning in his head, thinking about exactly how many seconds he’s going to stand there until running to his next locale.  Lovely family=lovely images!  Meet the McNaughton’s…

We first met Erika and her mom Lise when her brother came to us a couple years ago for his senior portraits.  Adam’s session was pretty special for me so I knew Erika’s would be no different.  But let me back up a bit.  Within seconds of meeting this wonderful family, Stef and I knew we were in for an experience.  Lots of love in this family…lots.

At Erika’s consultation we talked about a lot of things, but couldn’t quite decide on a location.  So we set that aside for a bit and literally minutes before we were done it came to her.  A special place that Erika spent a lot of time at throughout her childhood.  So off to the nature preserve we went!  The day of the session the sun was glowing beautifully, Erika looked amazing, and Lise got lots of excersise(doing some yoga while we were photographing).  Probably the most special part for me is when brother Adam showed up for a few frames.  Erika was already “on” but when he jumped in she just lit up.  Standing in the tall grass together, she started singing and soon Adam joined and before long neither of them could keep a straight face.  It was something to see, and I feel privileged to have been there.

Thank you Lise, thank you Adam, and thank you Erika for an experience I won’t forget.