Every year there is a new spot in Orange County where I find a lot of creative inspiration.   In this particular spot, it isn’t just because it is naturally so beautiful and diverse, but it is also because, as a child, on most Sunday evenings, it is where my Dad took me and my siblings to feed the ducks.  In our house, Sunday was family day.  Even during high school, we were not allowed to book anything on Sundays, especially in the evening.  We would have dinner at around 4 pm, head off to feed the ducks and then round out the evening with a game of cards, a trip to the movies a board game… anything that involved the whole family.  Some weekends my dad would pile us all into the car for a quick weekend camping trip, but most of the time it involved a trip to the duck farm.

I love these family memories, because they were not about spending a lot of money, but rather just spending good old quality time together.  Throughout the years, Bob and I have tried to instill the same sense of family with our kids.  Unfortunately, with the high demands of competitive swimming, we can’t often take the time to go for a drive on Sunday evenings, but we have played our fair share of board games, piled into the car to go for a long walk in the harbor to look at boats and each day we have made it a goal to spend an hour together as a family.

That is why I was so excited to share one of my favorite spots with the Ollendorff family.  They meet up with me at the head of the trail in Newport Back Bay last Sunday evening, and we hiked and just stopped to take portraits of their two beautiful twin girls as it struck our fancy!  We ended up at sunset on the bluffs overlooking the beautiful Back Bay and all we were missing was a picnic dinner to make the evening amazing.  This is the best way, I have found, to truly get natural, organic beautiful images of kids.  To just sit back and let the moments happen.  I also love the fact that they incorporated a part of their family history into the session… the grandma’s nightgown!  I feel so fortunate to get to photograph these girls every year around their birthday, since they were babies!  This has to be one of my favorite sessions with the two of them!  Enjoy!

Play their slideshow to see more of the entire session:

What could be better than spending each day at work with a friend? Not Much! Last summer at a swim meet I was sharing with my friend Des that my photography studio was getting super busy and it was tough to find someone who could not only help with photography sessions, but was also a wonder working with clients, understood how to cater to the high standard of customer service I was working towards, worked well with kids and had a creative eye for detail. Des shared a story with me that day. She told me that when we first meet several years ago, she had a feeling that we would work together in the future.

Fast forward to today, and I am extremely blessed to now have her as a member of the Blue Sky’s family. She is an exceptionally talented stylist along with everything else. Many of you are already acquainted with her, as she now does all of the review sessions (another great talent is that she is excellent at interior decorating and a whiz at recommending wall displays, etc.). We have officially named 2015 as the year of Desi (as many of my clients seemed to have renamed her, and it really fits). I had the great pleasure of photographing her with her beautiful daughters! Here is a preview of a few of my favorite images from the session: