The Rupperts in Seattle | San Francisco Bay Area Family Photographer

My final class/session at Click Away in Seattle was a second run of The Playful Portrait Session. Teaching others how to walk into a family session and make it not only stress free, but FUN, for the clients is one of my favorite things. We chat like friends, tell jokes with the kids, and overall just have a great time which results in beautifully fun, playful photos!

This family is super special to me - Brad actually used to be my husband's boss and was the one who got us to move to Seattle in 2012! In the 3 years that we were there we spent a ton of time together with our families, and Charlie, their youngest, was due the same day as my daughter Sloane! Christy and I were literally due date buddies which was fun since we literally lived down the street from one another :)

San Francisco Bay Area Family Photographer | Winter Photos in Los Altos

I told you I was behind in blogging, right? haha. This was actually my second to last session of 2015 on a cold, grey day in Los Altos. However, that didn't stop us from capturing warm, sweet photos that were to be a Christmas gift to grandma! Tei and her sister both have children under the age of 1 so it was a great idea to get together for a family photo session as a gift to their mom. We laughed and had a great time, although the little 12 month old girl wasn't super fond of the camera. And by that I mean that she HATED it! The poor love cried almost any time she noticed me taking a photo. Thankfully we were all on the same page about capturing that part of her personality, something that she will likely grow out of and her parents will look back on fondly.

The McCombs Crew | San Francisco Family Photographer

Maybe it's my generation, or maybe it's the fact that I own a small business working from home, but I meet most of my friends online these days :) Corinne McCombs is no different. Corinne is a newborn and family photographer here in the Bay Area, but we actually met while I was still living in Seattle. She is good friends with a few of my good friends and the rest is history! We actually met in person for the first time at an Ikea in West Sacramento where we ate meatballs, french fries, and took super nerdy photos all around the showroom (to much acclaim, I must add). From that point forwards we chatted often and I would meet her for a quick lunch while I was in town shooting weddings here in the Bay Area. Now we live just 30 minutes apart so it was only natural that we would photographer each others families. Corinne has three kids - a middle schooler, a 7 year old, and sweet cherub baby Reese. I'll be real and say that all three of them put on their best "Photographer's Child Syndrome" act on the day of our session, but thankfully Corinne likes to keep it real and enjoyed their funny faces and goofy personalities. All three of them are amazing kids so we had a good laugh about it. I even made a collage of her 7 year old's "outtake faces" for good measure.

I am so thankful to have met this family and to call Corinne one of my bestie photographer friends.