Early Risers: The Boquiren Family

7:30 am – that was the call time for my session with the Boquiren Clan, and it says a lot about a family who can look this good and be in such a great mood so early on a Saturday morning. It’s so funny, the familiarity you can develop with friends’ parents, siblings and family in general. I’ve known Larnie and Andrew since college (which was quite a time ago), and in that time, I’ve gotten to know their wonderfully kind and fun-loving family. Their house is always open to a rowdy group of friends and I never feel less than welcome every time I’m there.

Great job in front of the camera, everyone! What a great-looking collection of smiles!

The Non-Photoshoot: Tam Lontok Photography

A whirlwind friendship – that’s what Tam and I call our newfound union. After years of hearing each other’s name through mutual friends, we finally BECAME friends on our own and I feel so very blessed to know her. Aside from sharing a love of family and friends, aside from sharing a faith to which we both cling, aside from sharing a desire to be good photographers and writers, and aside from “Thank you” being our most favorite words – Tam and I just seem to share this understanding, kind of like kindred spirits.

Our most prominent shareable quality however, is probably our fear of having our pictures taken. hahaha! It’s so ridiculous the lengths with which we go through to get a proper picture of the other or avoid it. After work one day, we met up at a cute little cafe in Thousand Oaks called Chocolatine. We had our yummy macarons, some iced coffee, then headed off to Paramount Ranch for a little shoot…though we don’t like to call it that. If we’re not the ones doing the shooting, the words “photo shoot” make us nervous.

“It’s not a photo shoot,” I suggested. It’s just us walking around with our cameras, practicing…yeah, that’s it. We’re just practicing.”

So off we went with our non-photoshoot, tricking each other into poses.

“Can you stand here, I just wanna check the light,” Tam said.

“I think it’s a little too dark. Can you stand here really quick?” I said.

Lame, we know, but every photographer’s got their methods, right? =)

So happy we’ve started this new adventure together, Tam!

Center of Attention: Natalia and Her Family

“She gives away her smiles for free,” my friend, Grace said about little Natalia (Lia, for short).

When I arrived at the Lopez household after a long day at work, I was greeted by a little ball of sunshine crawling around the living room. It took all but 2 minutes for Lia to assess whether I was friend or foe, and then it was all smiles. Her big sis, Olivia (Livie for short), was a harder sell, but she was a good sport nonetheless.

I’m so amused by the relationship between two sisters, maybe because I’ve got a little sister of my own. That’s why the last 15 minutes of our session had me cracking up. “Hug your sister!” Grace urged Livie. Hilarious, these two!

Thanks, Jorge, Grace, Livie and Lia – the long day at the office and the drive through rush hour traffic were but fleeting annoyances after an evening with you!