We took six-month-old Marley to Coronado Dog Beach for the first time last week, and he loved it! We kept him on the leash most of the time because we are dog park newbies, but by the end we let him loose and he made lots of new friends. Pretty cute stuff.
I was delighted to be chosen by fellow photographer Miranda Boller to photograph her extended family. Miranda and her husband currently live in San Diego, and her family flew out from Virginia and Colorado to spend a week with them.
Miranda says, “As a photographer myself I really value photos! Every other year our family gets together for the holidays, and I always make sure to hire a photographer to capture our growing family! It was a just us three girls growing up, and two of us got married. Now my sister has two kids! This year we celebrated the holidays a bit early in November since my husband got called up on deployment.”
About the session: “The whole session was fabulous. We walked around the beach taking photos in some of Amy’s favorites spots. I loved getting our feet in the water at the end of the session and watching the beautiful San Diego sunset.”
“I love how Amy made sure to get a variety of photos from our extended family session. She got some of the cutest photos of grandma and grandpa with their grandkids! They are very genuine and playful. We all know the grandkids are now their top favorite.”
Find out more about Miranda on her website: https://www.mirandaboller.com/
I love my vacationing clients, but San Diego locals are fun to photograph, too! With tourism shut-down, 2020 has been a year of making new neighbor-friends. Fellow San Diego photographer Kelli requested that we start her session at her family’s home in the Coronado Cays, and what a great idea that was! We worked all the angles on the boat dock out back. At one point I wanted to get a wide shot of the boys and their boat (see below), and I was leaning so far off the side that Kelli had to hold my arm to keep me from falling in the water. Endless adventures!
Once we finished up at the house, we headed right across to the other side of the strand and enjoyed the last few minutes before sunset on the beautiful, glassy beach.
Rhodesian Ridgebacks are the breed of choice for sisters Sarah and Haley and their mom Sherry, who came for a visit during the fires up north. We decided to do their beach session near their home in Imperial Beach so that their dogs Mila and Fasi could be included, but the first part of the hour was very sunny! Since my photography style avoids direct sun, I was scrambling for shade. We found a little spot a few blocks away and got some pretty headshots and rock backgrounds. I’m always amazed at how the right light and some beautiful subjects can make a run-of-the-mill parking lot a workable location for portraits! (Scroll down to see a pull-back of the location.)
Once the sun hit the clouds, we hit the beach and had fun running around with the pups. I love the favorites they chose:
Here’s where we started the session, hiding from the sun and getting some pretty backlight, too.
Senior photography in San Diego is one fun high school activity that’s 100% approved these days. Football games, camp retreats, drama plays, and so many other important coming-of-age activities have been cancelled, but we can still go out on the beach and make some special memories for these amazing teens. I was so glad to meet Madelyn and her mom when they came to San Diego for her session. It was a beautiful evening, and Maddy was so good at posing that we had plenty of time to try some fun long exposures at the end.
Perfect Coronado skies and perfect Colorado personalities. This was the first time I’ve ever asked a mom and dad to hold hands and spin around *without* the kids, but it turned out to be a favorite image. Loved that hour on the beach and the memories that came from it!
Around the time we started attending our church, I noticed someone I recognized from choir there running in our neighborhood. When I spied him with his family in line at a nearby Rubio’s restaurant, I introduced myself and got to know his wife Terri. Our first conversation (all while waiting for our California bowls) consisted of running through our various entrepreneurial pursuits and Terri referring me to a new CPA (who I love, by the way). Time passed before I organized a little get-together for work-from-home moms in our neighborhood and I got to spend a little more time with Terri, and even more time passed before the pandemic took over and we both realized we were walking regularly in the neighborhood for exercise. Since the summer, Terri and I have been walking together twice a week, comparing notes about family, dogs, business, and more. We are both passionate about Christian education, and, out of our conversations, Terri began a long-term project, comparing public and Christian education in California. When I needed a hand on a writing project this summer, she and I swapped specialties, and these family portraits were the result.
Friends are a blessing, and photographing friends is a blessing, too.
Phots at Presidio Park finally happened after many months of Covid chaos. Amy and Brayton had scheduled this season for their baby’s first birthday, but she was almost 18 months by the time we got together. Here are some favorites from this sweet session.
For their engagement photos, Heather and Cole braved the pandemic, traveling to San Diego from Pennsylvania and persevering even when the original date had to be rescheduled due to Covid restrictions, event cancellations, and more. In the end, she sent me the sweetest email:
“Thank you so much! We absolutely love the photos and the time we spent together in San Diego. Although it wasn’t the trip we’d originally planned, we were so happy to make the trip out to San Diego for our dream engagement shoot. We couldn’t love our engagement photos more. I can’t stop looking at them! We are so glad that you were able to capture such a special time in our lives. I’m sure we will look back at these pictures for years to come, remembering what a special time it was.”
Here are a few favorites from that day on the beach:
Weeks photos! I love my annual photo sessions with the Weeks family whenever they come to San Diego from Tennessee. We have done many beach sessions, and this is one for the memory books, with a beautiful glassy shore and their baby boy old enough to explore it.
Christian didn’t play WAY ahead, but he sure did a great job of orchestrating his proposal to delight and surprise his future bride! Here are some favorites of Christian and Danielle’s special moment on the sand by the Hotel del Coronado.
© 2020 All rights Reserved.
