OMG! Such pretty  four year old twin girls were the focus of my attention (and my camera) one fine morning in Palo Alto. Now one may ask how does a photographer handle two active and fast little subjects? The answer is to be fast and active too!  I. and S. definitely kept me on my toes. This portrait session was full of laughter, chasing and clowning around. I love it when portrait sessions feel more like extended playdates. Gives me a chance to feel like a four year old blonde myself. Oh I wish.

Or perhaps this post should be entitled “aka My backside.”

As a stereotypical photographer, I am rarely in photos. It’s not that I am shy to be in front of the camera. It’s just there aren’t a lot of opportunities.  So one big question I’ve had (and perhaps a bit narcissistic of me) is “What do  I look like while I am working?”  Well finally, I got my answer. During a recent pictorial of three beautiful tween models, my friend and one of the goregous moms (thanks Kaye!) took photos of me in action. And here they are. Hey, my butt doesn’t look that bad. *wink*

Oh in case you are interested, here are some photos of what I was shooting as well.

So here’s our take on High School Musical poster.

Here’s our take on a Sweet Valley High book cover.

And my son tagged along for the shoot, so I snapped him as well.

Sunday morning @ 8:30 am and I was greeted by three smiling faces, not at all perturbed by the early time. I knew I was off to a great start! Not only were they an adorable & gorgeous family, the Toombs exuded a genuine warmth and kindness that definitely reflected in their photos. I was snapping away like crazy, because every moment was just picture-perfect! Three year old Ruby was so excited about her new baby sister, the happiness was infectious! There are tons of great shots from this session, I had a hard time selecting the ones for posting here. Enjoy!

The pressure is always on when it comes to photographing a fellow photographer! I put my insecurities aside when tasked with photographing my good friend Kinsley Wong. I totally empathized with his frustration that he was never in any family photos. Well, I hope I did not disappoint. Here he is with his lovely wife Elaine and cuddly one-year-old Ian. The session was a lot of fun and obviously,  Ian had a lot of practice in front of the camera.

And yet another batch of cuteness!

Yet another wonderful session with beautiful kids at a beautiful park. Ohhh – I love my work so much!

I swear – you’d think all these kids were professional models. Or they should be!!

After about a bout of what felt like fall weather, the sun made a reappearance this week with a vengeance! But all’s good as we headed outdoors for another round of mini-sessions at the park. This time we ventured to Kolb park in Dublin for an energy-filled morning of pictorials with and Masters and Mistresses of Cuteness. Me and the hubby really worked up a sweat capturing these images, but we had so much fun! Thanks to all the cooperative and adorable models! You are all fabulous!

Aspiring model April came to my home-studio with a big grin on her face, ready and raring to face the camera. And boy did this two year old toddler give me a work-out! We ran from end to end of the garden and in-and-out of the house at top speed. Fortunately, she rewarded me with some great smiles worthy of any magazine cover. Good luck on your modelling career, April!

I’m always amazed at how intuitive kids are these days with all things hi-tech. Here are siblings 3 year old Ella and almost 7 year old Julz with the new favorite toy, the 3G iPhone. Since I have been shooting these kids since they were in diapers, they pretty much treated me like furniture. And getting them to look up at the camera could sometimes be challenging. But somehow, I find the undirected behind-the-scene photos pretty funny as well. Here are some of my favorite outtakes.

And finally…one photo of Ella without the iPhone. Notice how her smile is not as wide. She’s thinking, “I want my Super Ball Monkey!”

Finally…I’m officially back to work since giving birth. I had been dying to use my new camera and test it out in the real world. For the past weeks, all I’ve been shooting is my now 4-week old baby Milo and my first born Axel. All shots of brotherly love.

So it’s ironic that the subject of my first family pictorial back at work were also brothers – 3 year old Andrei and 9 month old Marco. I had been documenting Marco’s first year and was so surprised to see how big he had grown. I’ve got loads of nice photos, but for now here’s an instant fave for the moment. I’ll post more soon!