san clemente family session

I always ask for the names and ages of the kiddos before any family session. seeing the names increases the chance of my terrible memory bringing them to mind and knowing their ages lets me prepare the appropriate amount of knock knock or fart jokes. when mama myrna wrote back saying her kids were pre-teen to full on teen age my stomach did a flip and all my middle school nerves rushed back into my heart. but these beautiful blonde babes couldn't have been more fun to photograph. they trusted me and twirled with me and even though it was clearly apparent that they're cooler than I ever have been or will be, welcomed me with open arms into their lovely family. enjoy

Los Angeles, CA or Ruthie's Big Adventure

My love affair with film continues -- it's slowly becoming all I use for personal work and I hope to be incorporating it more into my professional work soon (more on that to come!). I woke up to an email from Richard Photo Lab on my birthday letting me know that my film scans were ready for viewing and I couldn't have asked for a better birthday gift! This was my first time using RPL and they lived up to all the hype -- such rich image color and texture. (You getting nervous, DSLR? You should be.) And so here's a peak at the fun we had touring L.A. with our good friends over at Ginger & Birch. The Avalon Hotel provided a perfect setting and delicious coffee for our loungey-baby-napping-mornings.

If the trip had a theme, it would be good food. Thanks to Ashley for her mad research skillz. We ate good, y'all. Favorite setting goes to Eveleigh on Sunset Blvd.

A spontaneous highlight of the trip was stumbling upon the Painstakingly Made Pop-Up shop hosted by Jihan at Geronimo Balloons -- so many fabulous hand made delights and great to meet some faces that we follow online ( Paper & Type and Darling Magazine )!

A secondary theme for the trip might be: We are not cool enough for this place. If you're ever in L.A., drop by The Hart and the Hunter for the.best.buttery.good.biscuits you've ever had. (I'm from the South so my biscuit review is legit, folks.)

And then there was the most magical moment of the journey : sharing the wonder and awe of the ocean with our baby girl. It's a humbling thing to experience such beauty with a person whose brand new eyes have never seen such a thing. Your heart gets swollen and eyes a little misty and that desire to only share with her life's most beautiful things is satisfied for a moment.

Ashley's sister Whitney is living in L.A., so we had an insider's know-where-to-go-for-killer-sunset-watching. And so we went. And it was the perfect last day.

Thank you A&A for your crazy "let's invite a six month baby to share a hotel room with us." It was wonderful.

And delicious.

All images shot with Kodak Portra 400 35mm film.