Enchanted Images Photography Blog

Best in show part V.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

November was good to the Enchanted family. This image of Miss T was taken at the Roseville Galleria mall won best in show at last night's Professional Photographer's of Sacramento's monthly print competition. Stef and I couldn't help but notice that a significant majority of our award winning images were of our girls. As said by fashion/celebrity photographer Matthew Jordan Smith, "Shoot what you love, and what you are most passionate about, and there will you find your success." Well, I guess by that definition my passion is my family, and once again the judges confirmed that. Thank you Stef, Reilly and Teagan for continuing to inspire my creativity, and for being the reason to take this journey.

The print is titled "Curves Ahead". A young child on a massive path who is unaware of the scope, grandeur and potential danger of what lies ahead. To me this image represents living in the moment, a mindset we seem to be most adept at when we are very young. A mindset I hope to fully realize again...

Oliveira

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I remember the day I first talked to Tamara on the phone about scheduling a session for her family; she had seen our work at her pediatrician's office, and then was at the park and a stranger asked her if she had been to Enchanted Images because she thought she had seen her daughter on our website. Well, that stranger was a client of ours and when she found out the Oliveira's had not beent to us, she proceeded to sing our praises and urged her to check us out (thanks Kimberly!!). We love stories like that. This was also another one of those cases where mom was concerned about getting some good, genuine smiles out of three-year old Miss M...I think it's pretty safe to say that she loved the camera...so much that when they were here the other day, she asked if she was getting her pictures taken again! I do have to mention that little L was such a trooper...we were all over the place outside and then went in the studio at the very end, and he didn't seem to mind a bit. The kids were just overall amazing! (mom and dad weren't too shabby themselves! :-)

Wiesner

Sunday, November 16, 2008

When I talked with little M's mom about their scheduled family portrait session, her biggest concern was Mr. M and getting some genuine smiles out of him, as according to her, he's quite shy. Well, they were a delightful family to work with and we really enjoyed them, but we were very confused as to where this shy kid was they claimed to have! M took no time at all to warm up to us and gave us so many great expressions, none of which said "shy" to us. We were so excited at how great he did, and I think our excitement was matched by mom and dad's surprise at just how comfortable M seemed in front of the camera. Suffice it to say, they were pretty happy with their portraits!

McKernan (and crew)

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Last month, on a very blustery day, we were lucky enough to photograph this extended family on location in Granite Bay. We met the McKernan's last fall and they were nice enough to call on us to capture the whole extended family this time around. There were so many gorgeous spots to explore we had a hard time deciding where we wanted to stop, so we just kept moving around! The kids were such troopers, as we were out there in the wind for quite a while. We were so thankful that the wind died down enough every now and then so hair wasn't blowing straight up and out (even though we think that would have been cool...not sure if the ladies would have been down with that...).

Yow Part II

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

This session was our 2nd visit from Miss A, and her mom brings her all the way from San Jose! We love seeing them and are so thankful that they're happy to make the trip here. A wasn't quite sitting up on her own, but you'd never know if from these red chair images! She did great! We also attempted capturing her in her darling ladybug Halloween costume, but she was NOT happy about it; luckily they were here in town for our Costumes and Cans event and we got the cutest photograph of her in the costume there! Can't wait to see her in December for her 9-month portraits!

Gobble Gobble glue stick.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

One of the unfortunate side effects of being really busy is that from time to time, certain academic activities for the girls get well...forgotten. Fortunately, Reilly is wonderful about reminding me of these projects with plenty of time...yeah right.

"Dad, you haven't started decorating my turkey"

"No problem sweetie, when is it due?"

"Tomorrow."

Gulp.

Now, I was in between sessions, and with a full plate that evening, it was now or never. I had about an hour.

Hmmm...Colored pens? Not enough time. Painting? No time for cleanup. Cotton balls and paper cutouts? No way.

...

(bell sound) "Reilly, grab the glue stick, we are going outside!"

Ten minutes later and a couple handfulls of leaves and we were in business. I ran the gluestick, Reilly worked the leaves. Total time invested-about 40 minutes. And hey, it didn't look half bad!

We even had time to eat a hard boiled egg...not from a turkey.

Rodenberg

Monday, November 10, 2008

Another fun family session where the kids were just amazing! They both did great, but little brother was quite the ham. I just love the one of them in the red chair...what a great big sis!

We want your toys.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Katie

Friday, November 07, 2008

Meet Katie, class of 09. We first met her when her family came to us for portraits a while back, and talked with us about her senior portraits. It was a perfect day for them and we took a walk around the neighborhood looking for interesting places and lovely light. We found both! Wish I could take credit for the tree but that was all Katie...thanks for not falling! Here are some of my faves.

Cochran

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

What can I say about the Cochran family, other than that they were just wonderful to work with? That about sums it up! The Cochran kids were especially easy, given their young ages. Miss K is only three! (going on thirteen, I believe..) The kids pretty much did whatever we wanted them to, which is usually unheard of at these ages. Mom and dad weren't too difficult either :-). This first family image is own of our new fav's...in fact, it's now hanging in our gallery. Thanks so much for giving us such a great experience!

Lauer graduation

Monday, November 03, 2008

Miss R. is one of our most recent Bebe Collection graduates. She has always had so much personality, from the very first time we met her. This little girl was always ready for the next milestone, long before her time it seemed. She crawled early, and it seems like she skipped the wobbly walking altogether! She's such a delightful kid and exudes that in her portraits. Mom and Dad wanted to mark her first birthday with a family portrait, as by her next birthday, she'll have a baby sister! Congratulations you guys! :-)

A spooky day.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Teagan and I took a walk today while Stef was out running errands. Clouds had rolled in and things began to look a bit...different.

We got a few blocks away and noticed we hadn't seen a car since we left. Things were strangely quiet. No birds chirping, no dogs barking, and no people anywhere. Teagan however seemed unaware of the silence and was fixated on a striped cat sitting in front of a house. She waved and called to it but the cat did not move.

"Teagan, let's go" I said and started walking. Only she wasn't following. She wasn't moving. Just standing there frozen with a blank stare at the cat.

"Teagan! We need to go NOW!" It was then I saw several other cats appear all moving towards us.

That was it. I grabbed miss T and ran. As I was huffing around corners, more cats were arriving. They seemed to be everywhere but I kept running. As I rounded the corner to the driveway I stopped dead in my tracks. Must have been fifty cats sitting there just staring at us, including the striped one we saw earlier.

"Put me down daddy, I need to talk to my friends" Teagan calmly said. I gently let her down and she walked slowly to the group. She said a few things in a soft voice then looked up. "We can go in now daddy" she said. Teagan took my hand and we went inside, locked the door and sat down. "Can we go for another walk?" she said.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween time.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

We were invited to a Halloween get together at Stef's dad's house the other day and he and Kim pulled out all the stops. Food and treats everywhere and the place was decorated to the hilt. Kim had several games planned including a popcorn relay (which my team won) and pin the nose on the pumpkin. The girls were of course thrilled and went home with many bags of tooth deteriorating sweets....um...thanks?

Really, it was a very nice time, thanks Ed and Kim!

Costumes and Cans 2008.

Monday, October 27, 2008

A couple weekends ago we held our 2nd annual Costumes and Cans event, but this was the first time we held it at The Silver Spoon children's boutique in Granite Bay. It was meant to be a fun way for families to get cute Halloween portraits of their kids, and for us to collect canned food to donate to the food bank. It was a huge success, and we extend our heartfelt thanks to all of the parents who dressed their kids up and brought them out with their food donations. We especially want to thank the wonderful owners of the Silver Spoon who let us take over their store! In the end, we collected over 400 cans of food. What an awesome show of support from the community! We've posted a few of our favorites from the event here. Hats off to the parents who made such a great effort on these amazing costumes!

W. (not that one.)

Monday, October 27, 2008

Okay, so this is our version of W! This handsome young fella is part of a family you've seen on here a couple of times before--the Farrell family, first for their maternity session and then for baby brother's newborn session. Young W wasn't really in the mood for photographs at either of those sessions (although he did grace us with his presence in a couple of family shots at the maternity session), so mom and dad thought he should have a session all to himself. Apparently that's what he wanted, because he was all about being photographed this time around! Can you believe this kid's not even 3 yet?! I love these images more each time I look at them. Just wait until you see his Halloween portrait from our Costumes and Cans event!

Pagel

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Over the past 2 1/2 years, the Pagel's have become both clients as well as great friends of ours. You might recall their family/maternity session we did at the Roseville sculpture park during the summer where the fabulous Miss G stole the show. Fast forward a couple of months and meet the newest little Pagel, another miss G! We actually did their newborn session in 2 parts; first at the studio, and a couple weeks later at their home. Between Natalie's vision and James' interpretation of it, they came up with some amazing, tender moments captured between mom and baby. I just love these!