Fuji Superia X-tra 400, Voitlander Bessamatic, 50mm f/2.8

At the beach on the right side of the Santa Cruz boardwalk, January 2015.

I’ve decided that 2015 is going to be the year of the beach for us. Get an umbrella, develop a packing system, have a default picnic packing list to make grocery shopping easy, load up on cornstarch to get the sand off their little bodies when we get back to the car. I can’t get enough of the waves and the splashing and the sunshine, and neither can they.

Eating sushi in the park after we finished our grocery shopping. Taken awhile ago, before he cut his own hair while watching TV in my bed. He tried to hide the evidence in the garbage, but didn’t think about the evidence seen just above his face. We’re starting to deal with more mischievous and naughty behavior, along with falsehoods, and it’s more difficult to deal with than I anticipated. I try to reflect back often on the Nurtureshock chapter on lying, asking myself “What would Po do?“

Portra 400, rated at 800, pushed 1 stop. Pentax 645

We met up with a friend in town for Christmas break and enjoyed exploring the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. On Sundays the riggers climb at 11am (see below), and the kids enjoyed exploring the visitor center across the street. Read more →

We haven’t had an official family photography session since Kelli Nicole (Houston) photographed us in our Chicago apartment before T2 arrived on the scene, and since that time my ideas about photography and my dream family session have changed a lot. It’s less about the perfect posed portrait with everyone looking into the camera, and more about trying to capture who we are and what we are like at this stage in our lives. The kind of thing I want to provide for my own clients.

I tried to fly Samantha Kelly (Utah) to the Bay Area by recruiting one of you to hire her as well, which I didn’t make much progress on. But then I lucked out and she was able to squeeze us in for a session during a romantic getaway with her husband. We talked about a few different settings, but I kept coming back to the beach. I wanted something that documented the glorious beauty of the California coast, and would capture how much we love living in an area that looks and feels like this. We don’t make it to the beach very often, but when we do T1 can chase the waves for hours. It took a lot of tricky maneuvering to keep him dry as long as we did!

After I decided on Cowell Ranch Beach for our location (crossing my fingers that it would be one of those rare sunny days in Half Moon Bay) I poured far too much time into putting together our outfits. I actually put together two separate combinations for each person because I wasn’t sure if it would be warm or cold, and it was a top priority for me that everyone be comfortable and relaxed. I didn’t want “props” to pose with, but I did want to bring a few things that would keep the kids engaged and distracted (before we turned our oldest loose in the waves). I packed a quilt from the thrift store, a few different headbands for both kids to play with, a cupcake sand set for pretend snack time, white and dry snacks that the kids could snack on without dirtying their outfits (tip: clear gummi candies allowed TH and I to get a few photos alone while the kids took a little snack break), and a dozen mini beach balls from Amazon.

One really important thing to note: We told her that we didn’t care if there was a single photo of all of us looking directly into the camera and smiling. That’s not what this is about for us (and it probably won’t be what any of our photography sessions are about from now on.) If you’ll allow me a moment to get on my soapbox - in the age of Instagram and Facebook, our nearest and dearest know what we look like. They see our selfies and snapshots all throughout the year. The best photo, in my opinion, is the one you look back on 50 years from now and smile on because it shows what you were really like at that stage in your life. A slightly happy polished version, but still, reality.

Samantha shot the entire session on film, and returned so many amazing photos that I had a hard time narrowing them down for this post! I can’t believe how spot on her exposures and focus were as we dashed all around the beach. We picked up the film photography bug around the same time and I’m in awe of how fast her skills are developing. I can’t recommend her enough if you’re looking for someone to photograph your family. She’s based in Utah but I know she’s interested in traveling sessions as well!

We don’t just love the result, we loved the process. Even That Husband said he is looking forward to doing this again next year. (I promise you guys, he said it and meant it.) Taking these was as enjoyable as they seem. There’s something about the bond between the people you feel the most passionate about that is hard to capture, but I think the images below come as close as I dreamed they would.
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This weekend we found another family activity that everyone enjoys - mini golf at Golfland! The location had three courses and was completely empty when we showed up, which allowed T1 to move ahead of us as he pleased while I attempted to best TH. I started things off with a hole-in-one, but it was beginners luck and it all went downhill from there. I can’t tell you the final score because the kids didn’t last that long, but I was happy to have an easy morning where everyone got to do something they liked. For T2 the thing she liked was holding a ball in her hand, sometimes putting it down and attempting to whack it with a putter sized for adults and taller than her. It would be a little out of our budget to do this full price on a regular basis, but maybe we can make it a Saturday morning treat, and I’m sure they run promotions in the winter months to try to keep business up.
T2 still has enough of her baby fat that I can’t envision her future self very well, but T1 has reached an age where I feel like I can glimpse what he’s going to look like as an adult. Kapow! Our genes mix well, don’t they TH?