These busy teens were so refreshing to work with–excited about their shoot and super easy-going.  Their family wanted some portraits before the son heads off to college in the fall, and after a little delay due to the excessive heat this past weekend, we were finally able to make that happen.

It’s just a few weeks until graduation and today we had a lovely afternoon for a family portrait to celebrate the milestone.   I knew it they were a fun bunch when the guest of honor showed up wearing a tux shirt and plaid shorts.  Hey, we just needed a headshot, right?

This mom contacted me looking for some fun family portraits to celebrate her birthday.  I won’t tell which birthday it is, but her sons are trying to give you a clue ; )  We have been trying for about a month to get this session in, and things kept coming up, so when the weather called for a 30% chance of rain, we decided to go ahead and chance it!   Well it turns out that a cloudy, misty day kept most of the other visitors inside, and we practically had the botanical gardens to ourselves.   We explored all around and everyone had a little fun along the way.

This beautiful senior is my friend’s daughter, and I had so much fun photographing her while I was on out in California last week.  She is a talented musician and beautiful soul inside and out.   I’m such an East Coast girl–I know that orange groves are pretty common in Southern CA, but I thought it was really fun that they had the trees in their yard, and wanted to try to incorporate them into the portraits.

This was the second session I’ve done for this family this year–the first was her sister’s recent newborn session, and now this beautiful senior popped in during her visit from Ohio for some portraits.   Senior portraits are a little venture away from my regular portfolio, but tons of fun and a great chance to be creative with backdrops and lighting.

I don’t market to high schools, so it’s rare that I get a request for senior portraits.  But when this beautiful girls’ mom contacted me and asked for some last minute senior portraits, I told her I would be happy to give it a try.  She was such a trooper, enduring my tricks and jokes that are usually intended for much younger children.  But we did manage to get the ipod dock rocking some country for her and hopefully she had a little fun, too.

We spent several days concerned about the rain that was forecasted the morning, and decided to go ahead with the session anyway.  Well as it turned out, the rain held off but the wind kicked up and we worked between gusts.   But what great sports these girls and their parents were, and I’m so excited to share some sneak peaks from their session.

The youngest of these 3 siblings was looking forward to a visit from the tooth fairy, since he lost his tooth right before our session.  He was so proud showing off the little gap in his teeth–I love his cute smile!   Here are a few sneak peaks from their session–some of my favorite closeups of the older two.