Jocelyn Spring Portraits

I feel like calling them Spring portraits might be a bit misleading. It had rained for days prior to the session, and the ground was so wet and muddy everywhere, that it took forever just to find dry spots. But the upside of all that rain is that everything was beautiful and green. Also there were plenty of wildflowers, and Jocelyn loves flowers. I have a feeling that Jocelyn loves all things girly- flowers, butterflies, etc... She was so adorable and cooperative, it was an absolute pleasure to spend the afternoon shooting her portraits. Here are a few of my favorites:

Kyndal's newborn session...

You know what I love about baby girls? Everything! I love their sweet cheeks, big bows, pretty pink dresses, sweet little cooing sounds... I could go on for hours... Kyndal is just a perfect little girly girl... So I'm just thrilled that Kyndal is one of my Baby Plan clients. I'm excited to watch her grow throughout the first year. I had the opportunity recently to photograph her for her newborn session. Here's a few of my favorites:

Ray's 6 week session...

Recently I had the pleasure of getting this adorable little man in front of my lens for his 6 week session. In addition to being majorly handsome, he was amazingly cooperative. Here are a few of my favorites from the session...

Nickie's nursing images...

Okay, so first off, I have to say that I'm the biggest dork ever, because I've been sitting here for several minutes trying to decide whether the title of this post should be "Nickie's nursing images" or "Emery's nursing images." I chose to go with Nickie, but only in the interest of time, not because I'm not convinced that it's the correct wording.... And yes, I know, I way over-think things...

So now, to the point of the post... When I photographed Emery for her two month session, Nickie (Emery's personal assistant, a.k.a. Mom) asked me to get some nursing images as well. As a mother who nursed all three of my children, I can totally understand wanting these images, so of course I said yes...

Recently, when Nickie had some images of her tandom nursing (these were older images, not taken by me) removed from Facebook for being obscene, I realized that if Facebook was removing images of nursing for being obscene- then nursing images must be Super Cool! Cause after all, isn't all banned media found to be just way cool later? So I've decided to get ahead of the curve and post nursing images here.

Seriously though, nursing is a natural part of life, and is a healthy way to care for your baby. It's what women's bodies are made to do. For women who don't choose to nurse, I'm not judging at all, to each her own. I'm just sayin to those who call nursing obscene... Get over it!

Emery's two-month session

Emery came in for her two month session last week, and she she was an absolutely perfect baby model... She was just amazingly expressive for such a small baby... so many different expressions and so many smiles, I couldn't have asked for more!

Here are a few of my favorites, to see more, take a look at my Facebook fan page:

Stephanie's Maternity Session

One thing I've learned about myself over the last year is that when I'm busy, I'm a lousy blogger... So added to my long list of New Year's Resolutions is "be a better blogger!" I know I'm getting a late start on this resolution, but better late than never...

So to kick things off for the year, I thought I'd share with you some of the images from Stephanie's maternity session. Stephanie and John are a sweet, beautiful couple with the kind of chemistry that makes them a pleasure to photograph.

Dennis Cardoza's Blue Dog Bash 2009

This was my third year shooting the Congressman's big annual event, the Blue Dog Bash. Here's a few pics from the night:

The Congressman being interviewed by someone- but I never did see who...


I played around with using an image of the flag behind him as an overlay. The result looks a bit like something from a campaign poster...




Congressman Jim Costa came to show his support...


Presenting the colors...


They had a new Blue Dog logo this year...

Lorena and Jaime's Wedding

Lorena and Jaime's wedding day started out stormy. I don't mean that as a metaphor- I'm talking about the weather. There was very dramatic lightning and thunder that morning, along with plenty of rain and wind. I was a little concerned that taking outdoor pictures would be out of the question, but by the time it was time to start the wedding, the sky cleared and it was absolutely beautiful. For that matter, everything was beautiful from that point on... They had a beautiful ceremony, a gorgeous reception, and the bride was stunning!

Newborn Session

Remember Samantha? Well if not you can refresh your memory by scrolling down two blog posts and you can see her maternity session. Her baby girl arrived a couple of weeks ago, and she is the tiniest, sweetest little thing. I thought I'd share a couple of her portraits...

I have the worst luck with hamsters...

This is Sweetie. Sweetie is evil. Grace didn't know this when she named her Sweetie. It turns out that the name is quite ironic. I know that when I say I have an evil hamster, it must sound like an I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not. If you have any doubt about this, come to my house and put your hand in her cage. She is the only hamster I've ever met who can seriously wound you in at least 5 different spots on your hand in 2 seconds flat. A few weeks ago I began to suspect that Sweetie may be a ninja. I began to notice that she has distinctly ninja-like reflexes and razor sharp teeth (or is it her nails, or both maybe?). I also noticed that Sweetie was dying to get out of her cage- all night long she tries to chew through her cage, you can hear the sound of her little teeth gnawing on the same spot all night long (she reminds me of the prisoner with a life sentence attempting to dig out of his cell with a spoon). The girls thought that I was just joking about her being a ninja, but last night my suspicion about her ninja status was confirmed when she used her ninja skills to escape from her locked cage. She somehow managed to to break out leaving behind a locked/sealed cage with no holes, loose doors or otherwise obvious ways to get out. We actually didn't notice she was out until she wounded our rabbit Cookie, who is at least ten times her size, but she left the poor baby bleeding and confused (I would imagine Cookie's a little humiliated as well, getting your ass kicked by a hamster can't be great for a rabbit's ego). She was out for at least 24 hours before we finally found her, and I have to admit, we were all a little scared knowing she was running loose in our house- we were protecting our toes a bit more than usual. When we finally found her, no one knew quite how to grab her without getting wounded, so we used thick work gloves- which of course she bit right through. She is safely back in her cage now, but I'm left wondering if she's going to be able to just get back out. Whether she's a ninja, Houdini, or something else I can't even guess- she clearly knows something we don't- specifically, how to get out of the cage with all doors latched. I don't know about my girls, but I suspect that I'll be sleeping with one eye open for a while...


She looks so unassuming, doesn't she?