Where the Wild Things Are / Dylan's & Mattie's Photo Session

Mattie contacted me in early June to possibly have a delayed birthday photo shoot for her wonderful son, Dylan. We started with me asking Mattie if she had a theme/themes in mind. She told me that Dylan loves "Where the Wild Things Are" and owns a Max costume and a few toys of the "Wild Things" characters. The theme truly excited me and I started scouting for the perfect location around town.

Keeping in mind the toys and props that Mattie and Dylan might bring to the shoot, I decided to divide the session into two parts: a studio session and an outdoor session. The studio session was the perfect setup to showcase Dylan's toys and props while he was in his more casual outfit. I also took this chance to photograph solo portraits of Mattie and some mother-son portraits.

Once I felt like we had taken a lot of good shots during the studio session, we headed to the park in Castro Valley, CA for the location shoot. I had purposely timed the session around late afternoon until sunset so we could catch the golden hour, and in hopes that the weather would cool off a bit. Dylan changed into his Max costume and we started shooting at different parts of the park. I am truly thankful that I was assisted through the entire photo session by my very kind friend, Erich Weldon, who's a registered nurse like I am. Erich's genuinely caring nature truly showed as he carried Dylan on piggyback between spots that I chose to photograph him at. The highlight of the location shoot was the man-made waterfall at the very bottom of the trail that we had to hike down to.

During this photo shoot, I was still attached to my IV drug for my cancer treatment which made the relatively short hike a little challenging for me...but it was all worth it as I was able to capture a lot of magnificent photos of Dylan. I truly hope that Dylan would remember this day as one of the most adventurous and fun moments in his life.

I truly enjoyed planning & doing this photo shoot! Thanks so much to Mattie for entrusting me with immortalizing this moment in your life through photos! Thanks again to Erich Weldon for very kindly offering your assistance during the shoot! Below are some behind-the-scenes photos:

If you would like to inquire or are planning to book a photo shoot with us, please go to the photography page of this website. We hope to hear from you soon!