Rebecca's Family Photo Session
Almost two weeks ago, with the assistance of my husband, I photographed this young family of three in San Pablo, CA. The mother, Rebecca, is actually my former college classmate from San Francisco State University's College of Nursing. This was not the first time I photographed Rebecca as I also photographed her graduation photos in 2014! Unfortunately, we didn't graduate together as I had to have a year off from college to receive intensive chemotherapy treatments for my then newly diagnosed A.L.L. She is now a working RN at an East Bay hospital and I couldn't be any prouder!
Actually, I just lied. I'm actually now as proud of her new family of three whom I photographed almost two weeks ago. It was such a pleasure to finally meet Josh and the most adorable baby Dominic!
When we arrived at their house, baby Dominic had just woken up from his nap. I was immediately mesmerized by his piercing gray eyes and his incredible cuteness. I immediately assessed the natural lighting coming into the room and found it to be adequate for shooting, so I started snapping photos right away while he was still in his crib. I immediately asked Rebecca for selections of baby blankets so I could color coordinate the objects around baby Dominic. For some fun shots, I decided to frame baby Dominic's face with his blue baby blanket. After a few shots of baby Dominic with the blue blanket on top his head, he started playing with the blanket which framed his eyes very nicely, so I immediately took pictures of those moments as well.
While baby Dominic was still in his diapers, I thought it would be the right time to start taking family photos. I had planned to take artsy family photos with my portable black background and flash. I used an umbrella light modifier on the flash to make the light output softer. With the same setup, I also took photos of baby Dominic in hopes to capture different expressions from him. I also took artsy photos involving their hands and baby Dominic's foot.
Then we were about to take pictures of baby Dominic in his baby clothes. While he was being undressed, I had this snap idea to take pictures of baby Dominic in the kitchen sink half-filled with water as I thought it would be fun to see him play with water. What I captured were nothing short of adorable!
Afterwards, Rebecca dressed baby Dominic in a plaid shirt and khaki pants. She had also mentioned to me that she wanted some pictures of Dominic with a pumpkin since it's almost Halloween. Coincidentally, they had a stack of hay in their backyard, so I had suggested to take the pictures with baby Dominic on top of it to commit to a full on country/cowboy look. Good thing we had brought different fabrics with us which included a faux fur. We placed the faux fur on top of the stack of hay for baby Dominic to sit on. Using just the natural light available and a reflector, I started snapping photos. Unfortunately, we didn't have access to a cowboy hat, so I just digitally superimposed one on one of his pictures.
Lastly, Rebecca and Josh had requested to take photos of the family by the tree where they had taken maternity photos at. I felt so honored to capture my own version of the photo, but with baby Dominic already out of the belly.
The photos by the tree were supposed to be the conclusion of our family photo session. However, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap a few more photos with the light from the sunset hitting their front yard. Unfortunately, Josh had to take off so I just snapped mother and baby photos. I'm so glad I didn't pass up on this opportunity as the resulting shots were almost magical!
I'm truly grateful to this amazing new family for choosing us to take their first official family photos...and baby Dominic's first official baby photos. I'm truly honored to be able to visually document significant moments of your lives.
If you are interested in our photography services, please visit the photography page of this website for package pricing and more samples of my photography work. Hope to hear from you soon!
