Diana and Luis were a wonderful couple to work with; absolutely sweet and caring the entire time. I am so blessed to have beautiful and sweet couples like these two, to work with!!! I was especially excited about this wedding because it was our first official planned First Look. The first look went so great!! I picked an amazing location called The River Bend in Sacramento; seriously beautiful and untouched!! Their wedding took place at St. Vinney Catholic Church in Sacramento. The ceremony was absolutely beautiful and I found myself smiling through the entire thing! Their reception took place at CSUS Alumni center also in Sacramento, it was a wonderful party with great guests and entertainment! I loved everything about this wedding and couldn’t be more thankful that they choose me to be their photographer. Please enjoy their blog debut!!
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Stacey and Ty are truly genuine people, I loved them from the first email! I had great ideas for their engagement session from the moment she told me she trusted me. When clients give me free rein, I feel like that’s when I do my best work because I’m able to be as creative as I like and I have the opportunity to surprise them. Stacey really wanted something more relaxed, nothing fancy so my plan was to just create a lovely atmosphere for them. I took them to one of the best locations that I know of in our area; Heritage Oak Winery; such a wonderful location! The owner of Heritage Oak Winery is extremely accommodating, nice and knows how to take care of clients, and his wine is marvelous too! The weather was perfect; warm but not too hot, a little breeze but nothing to fuss about or mess hair up. When my couple arrived I had them taste some wine while my hubby and I went and set up their picnic. We left our setup to go get my couple and on the way back, as soon as we pulled up and put it into part; I watched a large tree branch break off the oak tree and crash right on top of my beautiful picnic!!!! I had beautiful lanterns, wine glasses, wine bottles….ahhhh! I was livid! I took a few breaths and just thanked my lucky stars that my couple wasn’t sitting under it when it happened. Apparently someone was looking out for them too, to make it happen prior to them sitting under it, that or someone wanted to push my buttons ahaha. Either way, I’m thankful they didn’t get hurt. Nature is wild after all. It did make for some funny moments through out our session like when we joked that the wild jack rabbit that kept hoping around us must have grew wings, flew up and was bouncing on the branches to purposely sabotage our setup. Overall, it was a really great session at the winery/vineyard! Lots of beautiful portraits and moments shared between my couple!! After the winery, I took the couple over to downtown Lodi and did some city shots which are also, very nice! Downtown Lodi’s citizens were less then lovely, but we all held our ground and still had a great time!
Thank you so much for choosing me to capture this time in your lives. I truly hope I am able to be there for you on your special day. I have no doubt it will be just as beautiful, if not more!!
Enjoy.
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Welcome to an educational blog!!! It’s been a while!!
You ALL know Ryan Tamayo; videographer of choice for me, what about you?! I know that at least three of my to-be-wedded couples have chosen his beautiful work!! I had the amazing opportunity to mentor Ryan, and what was even better is that our little model was his beautiful newborn daughter. Ryan is bless, like me, with a boy and a girl. Lucky man! They will drive you batty for the first three years, but once they hit that fourth year they get pretty awesome together!! Nothing cuter then watching your little baby boy who you thought would never grow up from those stinky diapers, run over and pick up his baby sister and kiss her boo-boo and tell her “it’s okay, i love you”. That’s the moment that will make everything just sparkle. Enough mama emotional talk haha. Ryan’s little girl was amazing!! I think I just might have annoyed them when we were doing our session with how many times I looked over just to say, “OMG she’s AMAZING”..! HAHA. From the moment we walked in and set up she was quiet as a mouse.
Her mommy got her out of her crib and took her out of her jammies, only then she opened her eyes and made a statement, but as soon as I got a hold of her and rocked her a little she was right back asleep. Newborns of all shapes, sizes, and ages are ALL different in many many ways. All of you are pry rolling your eyes and thinking, “duh!” but you really don’t understand until you have to handle them on a weekly basis. Think of them as teeny tiny people; really. They have likes and dislikes and they protest in all different kinds of ways. Sweet Adrianna was perfect and it’s hard to give advice on working around the fussy baby with this one, but…..she still had her preferences like no other sweet newborn I’ve ever had. When I was rocking her she didn’t just want to be rocked, she wanted to bounce a little and sway a little at the same time. If I didn’t do this she fought the eyes closing. She also loved to be stroked on the nose brim, which many babies tend to adore; so try that one out!!
After a few minutes of rocking her to sleep in diaper only, I loosened the diaper and laid her down. At this point baby always fusses a little in protest to not having cuddles any more. Some babies are okay with being naked, but most aren’t. My go to tactic is laying a on-hand blanket over baby’s back and tucking in their legs and feet and holding with one hand to feel secure while my other hands holds baby’s head and that thumb strokes the nose brim. Another trick, in this particular situation it’s key, you will want a heater on baby (not too close remember baby is new and skin is sensitive) and a noise machine. With the noise machine, each baby has a preference; big time!! I’ve had baby’s HATE the noise, some love any noise and others are very particular about it. Adrianna loved my silly excuse for a heartbeat that really sounded like a horse trotting haha, and she liked it right by her head.
Trick is to start with the cuddly positions first on the blanket backdrops. So here you will want to do a wrap or blanket draped. Adrianna did so well with going right into a very smiley deep sleep that I went straight for the naked poses and then right into the tricky pose. When doing wrap shots your best bet is to focus on the little details rather then moving baby to completely different situations, because at this point you want the baby to fall into a deep sleep while you just fiddle with things. Push fingers down; no curls! Watch that chin/neck/cheeks; they get smushed and makes baby look like someone they are not. Watch those feet and toes; be sure to crisscross them and tuck them in to cover up the unmentionables.
By now baby should be asleep, if not, ask yourself what could baby not be liking and change the situation to make baby more comfortable! Babies are sensitive, not all of them “sleep like babies” so from the moment you walk in the door you need to keep an eye on the entire situation and the environment and asses it as your work with the baby. Again, all babies have different preferences so if baby is still fussy and not sleeping the chances are there is something bothering baby. Typically, its the new and foreign situation arising in his/her home, but with special care it can be overcome! I’ve had babies who’ve hated a blanket texture, a hat, a noise, and even mommy being near can disturb them because they smell milk and want to eat all the time.
When it comes to those tricky poses that you see; baby in a hammock, a net hanging in a tree, on a book shelf, in buckets or baskets, or even the chin up on their hands, please keep in mind that each and everyone of these beautifully pulled off shots are in FACT composition shots and require an extra pair of hands, tripod, a smart mind and a heart. Never put baby in a compromising position; EVER! If baby isn’t SOUND asleep and you do not have an extra pair of hands, do not attempt the shot for the sake of getting “the picture” it’s never worth the baby’s health or life; ever!
There are many many tricks to these beautiful little beings and getting those amazing shots; more then I think I could write about and that is why I agreed to mentor Ryan and show him a few things of my own. When it comes down to it, there is no special tactic or “right” way of Newborn Photography. It comes down to WHO you are as a person and how strong is your passion for your clients and your work. I absolutely adore my job and even more, I can not get enough of the amazing people I work with! I do believe that is what helps me over come so many obstacles, even if they are fussy babies haha.
Adrianna’s Newborn session went amazing. I believe that she slept for us for about an hour and a half solid, and we were able to get all the shots we needed! Through the whole thing, I made sure that Ryan was set up with his camera just like I was so that he was able to get an experience like I was getting. Next time, if there is one Ryan, when I mentor you you will not be given such an easy route haha! The first time is always an intro and you can’t learn if you don’t sweat a little with us big timer Newborn photogs!
With all that said; I absolutely adored being the teacher and having someone look up to me in that manor. I hope that I am able to mentor more people in the future!!
Enjoy her photos!!
Her amazing starter shots
Prop shots
The tricky composition shot and her tiny details
Family!
and who doesn’t love pullbacks?
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Karina and Adam were wonderful clients right from the get-go; paying their dues, signing their contracts and mailing them to me, and following up with their outfits. Truly what I admire as the “it” client. We hadn’t met Karina or Adam until their session date, and to be honest that always makes me nervous, but they were great! Right off the bat, these two were very nice and felt like close friends. The weather was a typical spring day; scattered showers and patches of sun peeking through the clouds. Even though it was raining, this couple had absolutely no care in the world! I couldn’t believe how sweet and comfortable they were with the rain and just being together as a couple. You can truly tell they have something very special amongst them. Through out the shoot I had them getting more and more comfortable, displaying lots of “pda”!! As time ticked and they started getting more comfortable I could really pick up on their feelings. I loved how Adam was just swoon over Karina; every time she spoke or touched him he would instantly gaze at her. Beautiful. They are a very cute couple!! I had so much fun with them. Towards the end of our session, I was taking that one last shot when Good Day Sacramento came over and asked to interview my couple, and thank god that they were up to it because it just made their experience that much more special to them!! I loved watching them cuddle as they were getting interviewed about the weather and their engagement session!! Production value for sure!!! All in all; beautiful couple, very great individuals, and lovely pictures!! I REALLY hope that when Adam is ready to pop the question (hint, hint, hint) that he will come back to me. Adam, NO PRESSURE haha…take your time, I’m not going anywhere and I don’t think your beautiful lady is either….but dont wait too long….ahaha. Hope that you all enjoyed their story and hope you enjoy there pictures.
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Referrals, referrals, referrals; I can’t say enough how wonderful they are! Little Charlotte’s Mama is the sister of one of my other client’s whom I did Newborn Portraits for not that long ago. This new family is equally as adorable as their family!! Sweet little Charlotte had me at first sight with all the hair she has; I was so utterly excited!!! When we started to set up she was quickly on her way to sleepy-land. We got set up, and started out with Charlotte and her big sister who is three. At first, like every single newborn I’ve worked with, Charlotte objected a little to the whole idea. With a few poses, a feeding, and a rocking from grandma; she was ready to go. We tried again and even though she was doing the most adorable pout and smiley faces, she was still putting up a fight. She was a tough little cookie who certainly had an opinion on everything, but another quick feeding, daddy loves, and a scene change; she quickly got VERY comfortable and it was “Game-on” for me. I’ve found that babies typically hate being moved from scene to scene or, different blankets, baskets, etc. What usually works is to try the “Scene” you want to use first, sometimes baby doesnt go for it but chances are if you keep trying something new baby will eventually fall in love with something. Charlotte adored the purple ruffle blanket and the heartbeat on my sound machine. What she didn’t like was my new fabrics I bought for her session, and the hat her mama bought for the session, but everything worked out perfectly and we got some pretty adorably.
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