I photographed Nicole and Ryan’s wedding way back in January. So when they contacted me a few months ago to take some christmas photos I was excited to see them again, even more so when I found out the cool (pun intended maybe) idea they had.

Sara at the Newhall Ice Company was awesome. She with the help of her crew provided us with the snow and the location that made for these fun photos. Note to self: if I know I’m going to be photographing in the snow don’t wear converse.

While most of my photography centers around engagement shoots and weddings, I am approached sometimes to do maternity, family, or newborn photo shoots. These shoots allow me to photograph my clients during other transitional phases in their lives: the excited first-time parents about to embark on a journey that will give them their most important roles in life; the family wanting to capture a moment in time; or the parents wanting to document all the little nuances of their infant.

This entry contains pictures of just that. They’re photographs I’ve taken in between my weddings. I’ve also included two pictures of a little girl I think is pretty special, my daughter Cadence. I don’t inundate this blog with personal photos too much, but I couldn’t resist putting up some of the most important little lady in my wife’s and my life.

I find that since I have a daughter of my own (3 months) I’ve been given a whole new perspective and comfort level in photographing newborns/infants/toddlers. I didn’t even realize until about half way into the photo shoot with Laila (1 yr.) that I was getting her to interact with the camera in ways that I probably wouldn’t have been able to before the birth of my daughter.

Laila’s parents, Amber and Jeremy, had a lot of great ideas for props. We had a chair, wagon, & a half dozen balloons  making Laila enjoy her time in front of the camera. It should be interesting to see what we come up with for her photo shoots in the years to come.

The Getty is a great museum for both the art and the architecture. So when Kamelia suggested it as a location to photograph her family, I jumped at the opportunity. It was a beautiful day out; the skies were clear, so much so you could see right out to Catalina Island.

Kyle at 2 years old was extremely curious about everything. He wanted to explore every corner of the Getty and nothing was going to stop him. I tried to capture the interaction he had with his surroundings. In the end, I think I got some great images of what 2 years old is suppose to look like.

If you have been looking around on my website you will probably notice that this location is the same as another shoot that I did a little while ago. When you have a great location it’s hard not to use it more than once. I know how the light will work and each time I go I can discover new things.

Holiday season is fast approaching and this year Jami and Marc wanted to send out photos to share with their friends and family. Recently they had a new edition to the family, Joey, giving Jami and Marc even more incentive to send out photos. I usually just photograph people but I always love getting the opportunity to photograph them with their pets. The photo shoots are full of surprises and unpredictable. As a result, great images are captured.

One of my most favorite locations happens to be 200 yards from my house. Because of its proximity I end up shooting there a lot. Really it’s not anything that special. I think I’m drawn towards it because it is isolated. This makes it feel like my own.

The first 5 photos are of my beautiful wife. She is having a baby (I have learned not to say WE’RE having a baby) and we wanted to photograph this important event. As you can most likely tell, she is pretty far along so the shoot needed to be tailored to her energy level. When you’re carrying around a baby it’s not so easy to walk up hills. She was a trooper.

The second set of 5 photos are of my sister. McKenna has a boyfriend in the Navy and she asked me to take some pictures that she could send overseas to him. It is not all the time that I get to photograph just one individual. I am used to taking photos of at least two, if not several. I forgot how much I like portraits. It becomes less about the photographer and more about the person in front of the the camera. By “it” I mean “Great Photos”.

The title of the post is “The Kuznetsky Family” but really it should be titled “Cooper Kuznetsky & Family.” He stole the show, as we all predicted he would. Literally within the first 2 minutes of the photo shoot we were able to capture some of the best images. I say “we” because it was a group effort. In fact, I had my wonderful wife Jackie help me out on this one. She was working behind the scenes as the baby whisperer. Usually shoots take a natural arch of starting slow and THEN picking up speed; not this one. It almost caught me off guard. I guess Cooper was ready for me. For the family photos we just walked around the neighborhood, lucky they live in Agoura Hills, CA and finding great trees, and green grass wasn’t really difficult. Speaking of grass, Cooper was enamored with it. All in all I think we captured some great images and to top it off Matt and Casey (The Parents) cooked an incredible lasagna dinner followed by brownie sundaes. How can you beat that?

When I photograph families I try to shoot not only the family but each of the different relationships within that unit. The result is that the images start to play off of each other making the group of images more expressive. There happens to be a few more photos of Ava (Norman & Andrea’s daughter) because she recently turned one and they wanted to make sure they documented it. She was a great little model – very curious with what I was doing and interacting well with the camera. One thing that I would like to mention is that we photographed in extreme heat. Valencia gets pretty hot during the summer, yet no one was complaining.

Dean just turned 1 and to document the occasion his mother Valerie wanted to get some photos taken. We headed to a local park in Whittier and found some great spots. In fact, I’m not sure if Dean even realized he was getting his photo taken because he was busy exploring. One of my favorite pictures from the day happened when we decided to do an outfit change. Valerie also decided to style his hair at that moment which quickly turned into Dean styling his own hair. After we left the park we ended up going back to their home where we decided to get a few more shots. Some of those shots ended up being favorites as well.

Originally this family photo shoot was scheduled for Balboa Park in Van Nuys but after driving once through the area I realized that it was WAY too crowded. Luckily their backyard was recently landscaped and therefore a great alternative. I actually find that many times photo shoots at home are the best. Everyone seems to be more comfortable.

Kristina, the mother, kept on telling me that it would be a challenge photographing her family, partly because one of her children is special needs and one is a 7 month old. I accepted her challenge and am very happy with how the photos turned out.