Tag Archive for: Orange County Family photography

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The Five best spots to photograph around Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach has the very best spots for unique family and senior photography.  Since I not only work in Laguna Beach, but also live in the downtown area, I am always keeping my eyes open for the most unique spots to photograph high school seniors and families.  Here are just a few of my favorite spots in the downtown area to get amazing, unique shots of your senior or family. And if you book and shoot before the end of September, you will receive 50% off of the session fee.

Heisler Park/ Picnic Beach Area

From beautiful vistas, to unique art pieces, to garden spots and yes even a sandy beach, if you are looking for a lot of variety in your portrait session, Heisler Park is my top choice. Check out a few of my favorite recent images shot in this location.

Downtown Laguna Beach

In just a three or four block area, there are so many great backdrop choices in downtown Laguna Beach. Some of my favorite spots include the red phone booth, the alley behind the Presbyterian Church, the area around the library, the flower stand on Forest Avenue and the rose garden on Forest.

Laguna Beach Neighborhoods

Around the Laguna Beach High School area is a perfect location to shoot a senior portrait session or even a family session. There are some really cool green areas, lots of trees, two small parks and lots of hardscaping with texture and character. Even more important to me and my clients, there is a lot of parking. Here are some of my favorite spots in the neighborhoods surrounding Laguna Beach High School.

Main Beach Laguna Beach

Try to avoid main beach on the weekends, but during the week, especially in the Fall, this is an amazing backdrop for a session. You have the iconic Lifeguard tower, the fun boardwalk, the rocks at the north end of the beach and the open sandy views of the south end of the beach.

Portrait by Brianna Caster and Co of my kids

Alta Laguna Beach and Laguna Canyon Areas

For a more organic background, Laguna Beach has Alta Laguna Park and the open canyon space. This year, with the super bloom, we have been so fortunate to not only get tall grass and open fields, but lots and lots of yellow flowers. Here are just a few examples of the variety of locations in the canyon and at Alta Laguna Park.

Now is the perfect time to book your session. We are office 50% off of the session fee in September as our early bird special. To book your session or to get more information, click here.

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Video: Behind the Scenes at a Family Photography Session

If you haven’t had a session with us yet, I’d love to invite you to view this behind the scenes video of what it’s like to have a Blue Sky’s Studio family photography session. We specialize in Orange County and Southern California family photography.

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All Kinds of Love (in family photos)

Family love photography Orange CountyValentine’s Day isn’t just about romantic love. In fact, while romantic love is beautiful, there is so much other love in our world. So we thought we’d celebrate the upcoming month of love with some of our favorite Orange County family portraits that portray our clients’ adoration for their families. Enjoy the love fest!

These adorable little boys remind us of bygone days where kids played in the mud and had adventures using their imaginations. These cuties were photographed in one of our favorite Orange County wilderness areas.

Salty & Sweet. You can just feel the love this sweet family has for each other as they all share a loving moment at the beach. Notice how the beige texture of the sand and the blue-gray of the rocks compliment the whites and blues in this family’s wardrobe.

We get a lot of sun here in Southern California and it makes for beautiful bright family moments like this one. We love the genuine smiles and hugs this beautiful family has for each other.

There’s nothing quite like a mother’s love. And we adore capturing the darling moment when mamas love on their babies.

And of course we can’t forget to celebrate dad’s love for his children. What a great moment between father and son.

They say the family that laughs together, stays happy together! We all had so much fun taking this threesome’s family portraits during the golden hour at a local Southern California beach.

And it looks like these families aren’t having any fun at all during their photo sessions! ;)

Many of our clients get anxious the first time they hire Blue Sky’s Studio to take their family photos. They get anxious because they know first hand just how hard it can be to get all of the kids to cooperate for family photos. We absolutely love working with kids and after all of her years of working with children and families, Kristin is a pro at capturing not just beautiful smiles, but the unique and special love siblings have for each other. Don’t you just love these photos of siblings–you almost wouldn’t know there was a photographer there, they’re so in the moment.

Speaking of siblings…We’re so thankful to be able to capture sweet moments like this one between brother and sister.

And sister and sister.

And of course, even though life isn’t all about romance, we couldn’t finish this post without a few romantic pics of mom and dad. After all, where would the family be without their love that started it all?

We hope you enjoyed this fun collection of family love photos. We hope you are surrounded by love this Valentine’s Day.

XO

-The Blue Sky’s Studio Team

Want to see more awesome family photos? Check out our main site over at Blue Sky’s Studio.

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Happy New Year!

Happy 2018!

Blue Sky’s is now open for the New Year and ready to start photographing again! I love new beginnings. Yes, I am one of those annoying people that actually spends the first few weeks of the year, reflecting back on the previous year and looking at a few key things! That is one of the reasons I always commit to taking 2 weeks off during the holidays.

Here are some of the questions I ask myself:
  • What went right in 2017?
  • How can I improve in 2018?
  • What are my business goals for 2018?
  • What are my personal goals for 2018?
  • What are my family goals for 2018?
  • What are my spiritual goals for 2018?
As the saying goes, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
That is why it is so important for me, after the very busy holiday season, to take a few weeks off and unwind and spend time with my family. This frees up my mind to start thinking creatively again and start dreaming of the next big thing for myself and my business. I feel grateful that this holiday season I got to spend 10 days with my son Cameron (he only got a short break for the holidays and then back to LSU to train), spent time with my in-laws and enjoyed some much needed one on one time with both my husband, Bob and my daughter, Kasey.
I am so grateful for all the things that went well in 2017 with Blue Sky’s Studio. We had an amazing year and launched our brand new reveal sessions (if you haven’t had a chance to experience the reveal of our favorite images from your session, you are in for a real treat the next time you do a session with Blue Sky’s). We photographed so many new families, high school seniors and corporate headshots. Thanks to Bob, we got an amazing studio makeover complete with a beautiful hair and makeup station. We were involved in numerous charity events and were able to contribute in so many meaningful ways.

Personally, I enjoyed helping Cameron move into his new apartment in Baton Rouge and helping him start his college career at LSU.  I proudly saw my daughter Kasey achieve her goal of getting excepted to Columbia University.  I had several amazing trips with my husband, including a fantastic trip to Florida for a much need week of rest and relaxation and a first time trip to New Orleans which lived up to all of my expectations.

I was inspired by so many amazing teachers in 2017 including the incredible Sue Bryce (Canon explorer of light and all around amazing photographer and educator).  I felt so lucky to get an opportunity to go to Palm Desert and participate in the Portrait Master’s workshop.  I was also able to listen to some really amazing business books.

Here is a list of just a few of my favorite books from 2017: 

Hacking Growth, by Sean Ellis (proudly, he is my brother) and Morgan Brown

Disrupt You! by Jay Samit

The 10X Rule by Grand Cardone

Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

Unshakable by Tony Robbins

Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller

10% Happier by Dan Harris

The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

I Can’t Make This Up by Kevin Hart **** my favorite this year

The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins

Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch

The 12 Week Year: by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington

Grit The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff (a reread cause I love this book)

#Girlboss by Sofia Amoruso

Purple cow: Transform your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin

Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges by Amy Cuddy

Living Forward by Daniel Harkavy and Michael Hyatt

 

To name just a few….. LOL  My key to all of these business books is to listen while I am on my walk or walking the dog.  I feel like I am a more active listener when I am moving.

For 2018 I have decided I will have a word for the year.  My word is Intuition.   I feel like I have great intuition, but I don’t always listen to it.  Usually my inner conversation goes something like this, “I know I should really do this but, I don’t want to hurt someones feelings, or someone might misunderstand, or I can do it later”… etc, etc.  You know, those crazy conversations you have in your head.  This year I am committed to listening to those intuitions and acting on them with love and kindness.

Over the last few years, as many of you know, I have been committed to The Miracle Morning, by Hal Elrod.  Basically for me, it is getting up early, starting the day with a morning medication, followed by a list of everything I am grateful for in my life, a prayer to start the day and ask for God’s blessing and a visualization of my future goals.  For me, this has been life changing.  I am happier, more relaxed, less worried, and generally just a better person.

My hopes and prayers for all of you for 2018 is that you reach for your dreams, enjoy your friends and family and that you are loved and cherished.  Have a wonderful year and I hope to see you soon.  Here are a few images from my family photography session.  Thank you abundantly to Kathryn LeBoye for taking the images that include me and my family.  The gift of photography is priceless to me and I will cherish these images forever!

Hugs,

Kristin

Owner, Blue Sky’s Studio

Karkoska KidsKristin & KidsFamily photos-Karkoska family

San Juan Capistrano Family Portraits

After lots of scheduling and rescheduling this photography session, we finally got the whole family down to San Juan Capistrano!  I always love getting generational portraits and this was a great opportunity to get lots of family combinations.   I have not seen the two younger gals for a few years and it was great to have fun and be silly with the two of them.  Thanks so much to all of you for being patient with Anna and me as we walked all over San Juan.  Enjoy!