Amy Gray

San Diego photography was a priority for Brandi and her family during their vacation this year. Here’s how she described their trip:

We had an AMAZING time on our trip! We live in Kansas City now, but my husband lived in San Diego growing up. He still has a lot of friends and family in the area, so we try to come out every few years. The last time we were there our son was only six months old. He’s four now, so it was super fun to experience the trip through his eyes!

We were blessed to be able to stay with various family and friends throughout our stay. This allowed us to experience so much more of San Diego this time: from the mountains of Alpine and Julian to exploring Balboa Park, beach camping at Silver Strand, and of course many trips to Lolita’s (my husband dreams about that place). We even squeezed in our first trip to Disneyland! We saved that surprise and had Amy capture our son’s reaction during our photos!

Here he is finding out about Disneyland!

San Diego has such a special place in our hearts, and our son is at such a fun age! We thought a photo shoot on the beach would be a great way to capture both. Amy did a fabulous job of capturing beautiful images that will be displayed in our home for years to come!

My biggest concerns were probably wardrobe and weather. I was so afraid our luggage would be lost that I packed all of our clothes for pictures in one of our carry-ons. Of course, I always worry about the 4-year-old sass coming out, but he did pretty well. We love the way the photos capture his personality!

Our son had been asking to go to the beach and play in the water all day. It brought us so much joy to see him having such fun playing during our shoot. My other favorite was telling him we were headed to Disneyland as soon as our shoot was over.

It’s so hard to choose just one! The image of our silhouettes in the sunset is probably the favorite for us. When I was searching for photographers those were some of the images that stood out the most about Amy’s work, so I was really hoping we would get one. I was thrilled with how ours turned out!

I plan on a few new wall displays throughout our home. We also brought our Santa hats to the shoot, so I can’t wait to send out our Christmas cards this year!

When Jennifer, Delaney’s mom, contacted me about setting up a beach photography session for Delaney’s second birthday, I was immediately excited to meet and photograph this family. I’ll let Jennifer tell the story:

Delaney was born with Spina Bifida, so we had a challenging and scary pregnancy experience which included having fetal surgery to repair Delaney’s back before she was born. The surgery was done at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, one of the only hospitals in the country that does fetal surgery for Spina Bifida repair. It is an amazing hospital and the surgical team was incredible. Delaney was born (early) there and spent ten weeks in the NICU.

These images were taken by Sweet Me Photography upon their return to San Diego. Delaney was three months old at that time, but only a few weeks old, adjusted.

[JENNIFER] We didn’t know if Delaney would learn to walk, but at almost two, she is working hard in physical therapy and is now starting to walk. These photos of her standing and walking on the beach with Pat and me are so special to us. We never take any of her milestones for granted.

Coming into our photo session, we really had no concerns really other than “would our two-year-old cooperate for photos.” She did and even enjoyed the session on the beach and by the water! It was her first time on the beach and in the ocean and she loved it, which was so wonderful to see. Amy captured those moments perfectly.

I have so many favorites from this session! It was the perfect mix of posed photos and candid shots. My absolute favorite photo is one of Delaney and Pat at the edge of the water holding a toy sailboat – it just brings tears to my eyes with the beauty of it. I also love the photos of Delaney holding and listening to the seashell! So many wonderful photos!

The session finished with a dramatic sunset, which I could only think was God’s way of saying “blessings upon blessings.” I’m looking forward to seeing Delaney’s family again next year!

San Diego Family Photography client Jaclyn was kind enough to tell us the story of her beach photoshoot as part of our #clientseyeview series. Her family traveled from Ohio for their California vacation. It was an overcast day on Coronado, but the clouds were blue, and the shoreline was an adventure that evening, with all kinds of interesting things washing up with the recent influx of seaweed, including coral, which I had never seen before on Coronado. The seagulls were as interested as we were, so we got plenty of birds in our photos that night!

WHAT WAS THE STORY OF YOUR TRIP?
My family of six started our vacation in San Diego. The evening of the day we arrived we had Amy take our family photos. We loved our time and session! San Diego is a great city and we kept busy for the few days we were there before we went on to Newport, then to San Francisco. While visiting San Diego we stayed at Marriott Club Pulse. We visited the Safari Park and did a behind the scenes Elephant and Friends tour (amazing). We also visited Old Town and the USS Midway. Of course we couldn’t leave without donuts from The Donut Bar.

WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO HAVE A PHOTO SESSION?
My oldest kid graduated from HS this past year and we wanted to get family photos before she leaves for college. I’ve always wanted beach/ocean family photos. I researched photographers and decided on Amy. I loved the way her photos looked.

WHAT CONCERNS DID YOU FACE GOING INTO YOUR SESSION?
I wanted the weather to cooperate. It was cloudy and a bit windy, and I wasn’t sure if the photos were going to look the way I had envisioned.

WHAT IS A FAVORITE MEMORY YOU HAVE OF YOUR PHOTO SESSION?
The kids playing in the sand and water. And all the strange items on the beach were fascinating for one of my kids. Haha!

DESCRIBE A FAVORITE IMAGE FROM YOUR SESSION? WHY IS IT YOUR FAVORITE?
How can I pick just one favorite? I love the reflection shot where my kids on the end are looking at the camera and the rest of us are laughing at Amanda. And I love all the shots where my kids were being themselves and running or playing.

WHAT DID YOU DO (OR DO YOU PLAN TO DO) WITH YOUR IMAGES?
I always have a framed family picture over my fireplace. Individuals of the kids (8×10) in frames. I’ll probably get some canvas ones this year.