Meet Alyssa.  Alyssa decided to have her senior portraits made at the lovely Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego.  Gorgeous weather (of course) and perfectly planned wardrobe with the help of mom (Rene).  We started inside and just wandered the hallways, staircases and huge rooms in the Del.  As the sun started to set we moved outside for more fun in the sand and surf.  Alyssa’s hair performed perfectly in the wind as she danced around.  Such a great session.  Here are some faves.

Meet the Mitchell’s, one of our favorite Sac-town families that came all the way to San Diego for our beach sessions!  I was so excited the day I got the call from Katie telling me they were going to plan a trip to San Diego around the dates of our sessions. Now, I’ve mentioned before that the weather wasn’t exactly ideal for these sessions; it was windy and pretty chilly, especially considering everyone was dressed for summer!  Having been there and freezing myself, I just have to recognize what troopers everyone was during their sessions, and especially Katie.  By the end of their session, James noticed that her lips were turning blue, but not once did she complain or mention being cold.  Now that’s what I call commitment to getting the perfect family portrait!  (and I just have to mention their awesome clothing choices….the girls’ dresses were a home run, thanks to the Silver Spoon!)

Meet Kaitlyn, class of 2010.  Yep, 2010.  When she and her mom found out we were traveling to San Diego for beach sessions, they decided that was worth the wait for Kaitlyn’s senior portraits.

I knew we would be photographing out in the sand & surf, but Kaitlyn had such great outfits and accessories, I just had to make some images inside the Hotel Del.  Since there was no way to be inconspicuous with lights and reflectors, my plan was to shoot as much as we could until we got asked to leave.  We started in the Crown room and just went for it.  Much to my surprise, no one paid attention to us…even with the not so stealthy lighting rig I had strapped to Stef’s back.  So we all just acted like we were supposed to be there and photographed everywhere.

Kaitlyn did a wonderful job and as you can see, had some gorgeous adornments for her hair.  Just a  fantastic session.  Thank you Kaitlyn and Steph(mom) for this adventure!

Some faves.

p.s.  did I mention that I love, love, love, all your accessories?  Have fun at APU!

We met the Reid family for the first time on the beautiful beach at Coronado Island.  They are friends of our friends & clients, the McGuckin’s, who moved to San Diego a few years back.  The McGuckin family had their own beach portraits made last January, and when they heard we were coming down for beach sessions again, they told their friends (thanks for that, by the way!).  It’s unusual for us to meet a family for the first time at the session, but the Reid’s were so warm and friendly that it took no time at all for the kids to turn it on for the camera.  The kids were full of life and had no reservations about showing all of us!  We especially loved the interaction between the family, who clearly have a very close, loving relationship.  One thing about our beach sessions we didn’t expect in June–wind!  It wasn’t exactly calm and balmy for any of our beach sessions, and we just want to say thanks to everyone who came out and played with us and braved the conditions….you’d never know by the images that it wasn’t a warm summer day!

San Diego beach sessions are here!  We are excited to announce that we will be in San Diego and offering beach portrait sessions between June 22-June 25.  There’s just something magical about portraits at the beach, and now is your chance to get “enchanted” portraits by the sea!  We will have a limited number of sessions available, so please call soon for details (916-759-8140).

While we were in San Diego earlier in the year, we were lucky enough to photograph the lovely McGuckin family.  We met the McGuckin’s when big sister was a brand-new baby; G was the first newborn we ever photographed!  Over the years we have not only photographed this family on multiple occasions, but also grown to call them friends.  Suffice it to say, we were sad when they moved to San Diego….until I got a call from Scott telling me he wanted to surprise Janelle with beach portraits for her birthday.  Anyone who knows us at all knows that we visit San Diego several times per year (James’ family lives there and we used to, too!) and welcome requests for portrait sessions while we visit.  This session was one of those that just had everything going for it:  a perfect day, gorgeous family, and more love than we can describe.  The session took place on Coronado Beach with Pt. Loma just off in the background, which was especially cool because both Scott and Janelle attended Pt. Loma University.  We were thrilled about everything surrounding this session, but most of all, just the chance to get to see some old friends/clients in such a gorgeous setting!

If you’re looking at the images wishing you could have portraits like this someday, stay tuned….very soon we will be announcing San Diego sessions for June!