The Hagen Family- San Francisco, CA

I never thought I really wanted to photograph families.

Nothing against families I just didn't know how I could do it and feel like myself...feel like I was photographing the part of a family that was important to remember.

I think smiling shots looking at my lens are important, I do. I just don't think you are usually in a perfect little group smiling at a camera. I want you to remember what it was really like "being" part of your family.

Once I figured out my family shooting grove, it was like the clouds parted, and a chorus of angels started singing.

Lifestyle family photography is my thing. Shooting in people's homes is so amazing and fun and just makes sense. I have found my love for shooting families.

This sweet family was one of my all time favorites. It doesn't hurt that they have amazing color and texture in their home..but way more than that I loved the dynamic of the four of them. Such a balance of everything. So much love and tending to needs and big sighs of exhaustion. Taking care of little humans is the most exhausting and exhilarating of all life's challenges. I am convinced of that.

I've said it once and I will say it again, thank you for letting me into your personal space. Thank you for letting me see what you four are all about. I really, really loved it.

The Cowan Family

I have known this gorgeous family for many many moons.

So amazing to see Rachel all grown up with a hunky husband , 3 model children and style that I am in awe of. Are Mom's suppose to be this good looking?

Love you guys! Thank you so much for trusting me to document your little family.

18 Months

 

There is no denying it....you are a full blown toddler.

But you are still giving kisses on demand which eases the pain of you aging.

You are your parents pride and joy (understatement).

Talk talk talking. You may still say things only we can understand but you are AMAZING at communicating with us. You explain, use words, show us and try and try again. I am so proud.

The day doesn't start or end without you talking about babies. It is usually the first word you say when you wake up.

You love holding, wrapping, kissing and caring for all your baby dolls.

You went through a phase were you wanted us to swaddle your babies over and over again.

Your eyes light up when I lovingly take a turn cuddling one of your dolls. I burp them on my shoulder and soothe them to sleep. Your eyes twinkle watching my every move.

These last few months we have been on the move between UT and CA staying with grandparents. You have been resilient and patient with all the changes. You know you can depend on us to be there during most moments of the day.

You have been in the ocean, the mountains, the desert and everywhere in-between. Your 18mos photoshoot was taken up Little Cottonwood Canyon in Utah, at the White/Red Pine trailhead. You wore a red romper I wore when I was your age!!

You have been sleeping in your travel crib and really love it.

You ask for "nigh-nights" and will start singing the goodnight song. Bedtime is a positive thing. Hallilueh!!! (refer to months 1-11 if you aren't sure why this excites me).

You are still BFing but we have dwindled to mornings and bedtime. I can't imagine letting either of those feedings go. They are both so special and important to me. I know they are to you as well. Glad it is still working out for both of us.

You are amazing at playing make believe. Sometimes your creativity surprises us. Not because our SuperNova is creative but because you are so young. We think you're brillant.

Make believe phone calls, make believe feedings, make believe owies. Even make believe acting like you are a baby (which in my mind you still are!) You will cry like a little baby and you want me to cradle you and tell you it will all be OK.

You are also an amazing imitator. I guess I must say "wow" a lot because now so do you.

You like to hold my hand an walk with me. You like to hold my hand when you watch gabba gabba and eat too. Gosh, I love it.

You. are. a. monkey!

You climb on everything and swing from everything and are not scared of heights.

You don't walk, you run.

You weigh all of 21lbs and are so strong and agile.

Papa takes you for lots of runs in the jogger and you'll stop and play in parks and then you both come back smelling like wind and sweat :)

The big news this month for you is you are getting a brother or sister this coming April!!!!

My feelings are a tiny bit torn about this for reasons that must be explained in another post. BUT we are SO excited and I am so happy to give you a sibling.

How amazing that this new baby will be born with three faces staring instead of just two? We feel blessed.

Bumps and bruises are what we expect. Your poor knees.

Your hair is fine and blonde and a little wild. it curls up at the bottom and we can't touch it enough.

You don't watch TV all that much but do ask for "gabba gabba" now.

Eating is going well. You love trying new things and still like your ole standbys...cheese, avocado, milk. "Crackies"is also a favorite of yours.

We call you "pickle" most of the time with the occasional nuh nuhs and Novs. When we were in Hawaii in June a little girl on the beach asked if we named you "pickle". Kind of wish we had.

You are so friendly and out going. You want to play with everyone and be friends with everyone. You give hugs and loves freely even when denied. I am so proud at the loving kind soul you are. So nurturing.

I would say your current obsessions are babies, dogs, pointing at and talking about eyes. You love giving other people and things drinks from your sippy (you shared some water with my iphone today). And bouncing on anything is something that never gets boring.

Your feet are looking so long to me. I can see the baby feet fading and the little girl feet taking their place.

I still have moments of guilt. I spend a lot of time with you but the last month or so have felt lots of nausea with baby #2 and I am way boring. I just don't have the energy to chase you like I have before. Thank goodness for your Dad....but I don't want this to be the beginning of some premature separation. You know? I love you being independent and you are great at independent play but I am not ready to let you far from me. Guessing I never will be.

Work has been good and busy in spurts. I just wish that all my energy could be saved for you...but I guess that's not realistic. Just know that I want that.

If a momma and baby bubble exsisted I would buy one so we could escape there whenever we needed (BFing time?).

I am constantly amazed that someone as imperfect and flawed as me could help to create and produce the perfection that you are. Your sweet kind effervescent spirit engulfs me. I am overwhelmed by you and who you are becoming. I want to give you everything you need to fly and fly and fly some more. I hope my weakness and follies don't hold you back at all.

I hope you always let me wonder at you..even if at times I need to do it from afar. Just know I will always want to be closer.

Being your Mom is the thing I'm most proud of. I love you my sweet Novs.

 

(ps. ignore the color in this post. Argh. I have been having a wreck of a time with labs getting my scans right. I do apologize if they are wonky).

 

 

The Smith Family

I have really fantastic friends. The kind of friends you want to live next door to and give custody to your kids if you ever die. I am talking quality *quality* people.

The Smith's are some of our very best friends. I was friends with them in NYC. Grant knew Matt from college. Grant and I met at their wedding. Then we proceeded to try and spend as much time with them as possible (which is tricky since they live in Oklahoma). They made two of the worlds most adorable kids who I can't really get enough of.

I just love them so much.

 

The Stoker Family

Not only is this one of my favorite families of all time but now they have a home that I am not-so-subtly obsessed with. It has all the charm of an old farmhouse with Le Creuset pots in every color. Kitchen heaven. House heaven. And the kids, as wild as they are, are heavenly in my opinion. I prefer personality.

My favorite thing at photoshoots lately is telling the parents to scram when they are hovering while I shoot their kids. Can we all agree kids act different when their parents are around? I got some amazing individual shots of these littles with the window light from their reading nooks. Thanks for scramming Dave and Janet.

Can I just move in already?! (ps. Thanks for the Indian food. We love you guys. Glad we survived the wind storm).

The Webb Family

Have you ever met small children that seem like angels straight from heaven? I have. These two girls were just that. Angels.

They were smart and interesting, listened to everything I said and trusted me enough to let me point my camera at them and shoot!

I had such a great time photographing and getting to know this rad family. I hope I get to do it again and again and again....

Kris + Brian's Family

One of my very favorite families.

Knew them when there were only two and now there are four!

Kris is my favorite type of person...thoughtful, loyal, honest. We are like two teenagers on the phone..never enough time for all the things we have to say. I feel grateful and fortunate to call her my friend.

Good job on making adorable kids you two. Geesh. I especially like the shot of brother drinking sisters bottle after trying to feed it to her. If she's not going to drink it, I will! xxoo

The Wise Family

Being around this family makes you think to yourself, "I want to have a lot of kids and a lot of grandkids".

It's loud. It's crazy. It's happy. It's perfect.

You should see the the clown I become when trying to get faces and smiles...especially in the large group shot. But it worked! All of those munchkins eyes are on me. With these ages I consider that a small miracle.

Thanks and love to the Wise family for having me document such a great time period in their lives. My Grandparents had a photo of us grandkids similar to the last one I shared...and it really is one of my favorite shots of me and my cousins. xxoo.

Brethen Family Take 2

I posted some images from this shoot a couple weeks back. That post was shot on film and this post is all digital. I like both..for different reasons.

What are your thoughts? Does the medium matter as much as the content? Does the medium add to the content?..that is the more important question in my mind.

Take a look. What are your thoughts?

I am a hybrid shooter. I like being able to shoot whatever I think will do the best job in the moment. The problem is, I love so many cameras and each record the moment so differently that I wish I could shoot all cameras for every frame (impossible).

Just stuff I am thinking about...

Brethen Family

What a beautiful, beautiful family. The love each other. They trust each other...and you can tell.

I could sit in that bedroom and watch you all jump on that bed for hours and hours.

Thank you for letting me into your LA home to take a peak at what you look like as a family. And I do have to say, it looks pretty good.

(All color shot with my NEW contax 645 portra 800 film & the BW's were shot on my hassey with ilford 3200 (of course)).

Leif's Family

 

These three were part of our parenting group from our birth center, The Sanctuary. Leif was born about a week and a half before Nova.

We love all the parents that we took classes with to prep for bringing our little ones into the world. When I see Leif I feel like a proud auntie even though there is no relation.

How happy is this baby? I have a feeling he loves his parents A LOT.

Utah Mini's

Here are some of my favorite images from the mini shoots in Utah.

Those kids were killing it with cuteness.

Thanks to all for participating in the whirlwind. It was so fun..I just might have to do it again.

The Cripe Family

One of my very favorite families of all time.

When Whitney and I were emailing back and forth about our 30min shoot she wrote, ".. being cute and tanned and blonde is their adaptive survival strategy.." referring to her adorable sons.

I would say things seem to be working in their favor.

Love all four of you!

Tristan

Until recently this little guy loved to give me scowls. During this shoot he was on a roll...and because of it I didn't get diddly squat of him.

He loves eating so I thought what would be better than him with a giant bowl of something to chow on?

I'm just grateful we got 2 shots. I am also grateful he has passed the grumpy-with-auntie stage. Now when he sees me he coos at and rubs my belly..talking baby talk to Thumbelina.

Sunday night while looking at my bump he asked, "Hold her?" while he made a cupping shape with both his hands. I just about tore her out of there so I could give him what he wanted.

Wright

Tell me that 4yr old isn't madly in love with me.

Sorry, but he is.

He's our little man of leisure. He wears superhero tee shirts (this superman one about 99.9% of time) under his church clothes so the minute he gets in the car after church he can tear off the buttoned monstrosity and get comfy.

Recently his mother informed me he brought a pillow to the beach. Smartest kid alive.

He is also usually the one to initiate the "love nest" which involves blankets and pillows and couches and movies and books and snuggling and him wanting it but squirming away from it giggling.

Thank heaven for 4yr old boys.

Taylor

Shoes, lipstick, accessories, jewelry, makeup, flirting...and a style all her own.

I am counting on her fashion empire to make me millions in my old age.

Cute story: During the shoot while I was on my knees in front of her fixing her collar or adjusting her pearls, she stared deep into my eyes. When I made eye contact she asked in a small quiet voice, "Rachel, you know what?" "What Tay?" "We're the same". "We are? How?" "I have brown hair and you have brown hair. I have blue eyes and you have blue eyes. I look just like you".

Melt.

I wouldn't mind if my babies looked just like her. Not-one-bit.