Cuties!

This is another one of my favorite families to photograph! I first met them when Christopher was 3 years old. Well, I have been photographing them every year since! I love it when the mom calls me up 3 months before their portrait is due and asks what are we going to do this year and what should the kids wear. She always does an amazing job with the wardrobe and she also comes up with great ideas. She told me a great story about Hannah. She is in brownies and the brownie leader was trying to take her photograph with the school Principal (whom I also photographed his family portrait) and she started to cry and said, "Only Karyn can take my picture". Boy, did that put a big smile on my face. How cute! Their Dad is wonderful too. I love it when he is able to accompany us on our sessions. He works for George Lucas and understands lighting and the whole mechanics behind photographing a session. He is the best assistant I've ever had. He carries all my gear, seems to be able to read my mind on what I need, and I don't have to explain how to hold my reflector! As you can tell. This family is near and dear to my heart. I had a hard time selecting only these images to post. I loved so many of them. Hannah loves to pose for me and it's a piece of cake to photograph her. Christopher on the other hand is a pretty typical boy. He'll pose for me because he is a sweetie.

Carissa & Katrina

I have been photographing this family the longest out of all my clients. That holds a very special place in my heart. I photographed their wedding, their sister’s wedding, pregnancy images, and every year since the oldest, Carissa, was born. That’s 14 years.

They are wonderful models and the best part is they want to be photographed! We have so much fun together.

This year I took them to a great location in San Rafael, Ca. Every Bay Area photographer knows this spot! We actually photographed the family here when the youngest, Katrina, was only 2 years old. This time I used different locations and it had a completely different look.

The mom has narrowed it down to 55 images that she likes and we had to stop previewing because she wouldn’t delete any more images. I suggested we come back and revisit them with a fresh eye! I had a hard time only picking these few to show. I loved them all too.

Harp Beauty

Marissa called me up looking for some fun unusual photographs of her playing her harp to add to her website and for a CD cover. I suggested a consult for us to brainstorm together to come up with some ideas.

I just photographed Caitey in the pool and thought that we could do something with the same theme. Well, this is what we came up with.

Marissa was a great model. She never complained about getting in the pool and "messing up her hair or makeup", or trying to hold her breath under water without blowing bubbles and trying to smile all at the same time!

Thanks Marissa. I love these and I hard a hard time picking out only 3 as my favorites!

Kari

This is one of my favorite families
to photograph!

I have been photographing Kari every year since she was 13 months old. Boy, I have seen a lot of change this year in particular. She is not a "little" girl anymore.

They live about 2 hours away from my old studio in California and would drive to see me all the time. So, this year when I found out that they were vacationing in Calistoga, I went to them.

They stayed at this beautiful resort that had a small grove of pineapple trees, a perfect backdrop! I love this image of her. She looks so grown up.

The resort also had a wonderful pool house with these great orange curtains. I couldn't resist.

I photographed Kari and her parents until it got too dark to continue. Then just as we were going to through in the towel, overhead lighting came on. The ambient glow was so beautiful, that I got Kari to pose for me for another hour . She definitely earned big kudos from me. She was a trouper!

California

I'm home! I'm here for almost 2 weeks to visit family, friends, and to photograph my regular clients. I love my California clients. Some of them I have been photographing every year for the last 10-15 years. They are my family too. I love watching the kids grow up.

When my mom picked me and my son, Conner, up from the airport I asked her to take the scenic route home by the ocean. I miss it. And of course, the scenic route to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Here are a few quick shots that I took. That's me with my mom, on the left, and my second mom on the right, my Auntie Cryse. Conner wouldn't get out of the car! (This windmill is in Golden Gate Park).

Hippie Fest, Baby

We went to the hippie fest last weekend and had a great time! Russ and I went with our good friends Susan and Gary.

We thought we would do a little tailgating. We were the only ones there early. We felt a little on the "loser" side, but we had more fun than the others that showed up late.

There were about 7 or 8 bands that played. My favorite was the Zombies. You have to remember, "She's not there", and "Tell her No".

Check out there fan page: http://www.zom.thefondfarewells.com/

Gary got us a suite all to ourselves, that was really cool.

Susan and I got just a little crazy and were dancing on the bar in our suite.

Yes, we had a lot of fun!

ps -

And, these were taken with our little fun camera, as you can tell.

My Caitey is a GOOFBALL!

Ya! My daughter is home. She arrived around midnight last night. I really did miss her a lot!!!

I knew she had a great imagination, but I didn't know to this extend. She was bored waiting at the airport, delayed, and on the plane so she talked with a British accent the entire trip home.

She told everyone that she was born in Greece, moved to London when she was three, and moved to the States when she was 12. AND, that she speaks 5 languages: Greek, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and English. Too Funny!

I asked her to talk to me in her British accent so I could hear for myself, she was really good. I would have believed her too. I would have loved to had someone ask her to speak Greek! She does speak Spanish, and of course English.

I'm still laughing. It's good to have her home!