Katrina and Jackson met me at my favorite beach location on a Saturday afternoon.  It was a beautiful day and there were sea lions sunbathing on a rock not far from where we shot.  I love this beach for family portraiture because there are usually very few people on it.  More room to run, especially for children. And there’s very little chance of a stranger popping up in the proofs later!  :)

They brought their dog Sugar with them.  I brought Pippin, my little pooch too and the two of them ran all over the place.  I followed mother and son with my camera, allowing them to interact naturally with one another.  I prefer to shoot portraits this way because I get more of the true personality of my subjects 

If I had directed them, I probably would have never found out that Jackson likes to jump when the waves come.  He would hold onto his mother’s hand and the two of them would leap together.  Such a beautiful thing.

During the hour I shot their photographs I learned that Jackson recently learned how to write out his name.  He did this for his mom on the sand.

The smile on her face, as she pet the very happy Sugar, was so proud.  A real smile comes from within and lights up the world. There isn’t anything like it.  And to watch a mother’s love pour light onto her son, encouraging him to write his name again and again just made my day.  I never get bored of being a photographer.  

I later heard back from Katrina that her husband Bret absolutely loved the photographs.  It was an afternoon well spent.  And fleeting yet gorgeous moments…. were captured forever.  

The Yoshioka’s sent me their address via a google maps link that, when I clicked on it, came up with the text written in Japanese.  I thought this was very cool.  It never occurred to me that google comes in other languages.  The sheltered life of an American.  In Europe lots of people speak many different languages because of the proximity of countries.  Here, most of us just speak one.  I think this is a real pity.

Regardless of language, I can usually follow a map.  This time however my assistant and I got a bit lost and passed the exit completely.  We caught on quickly and backtracked, while I called Yasue and told her we were on our way!  She told me people always got lost going there so I didn’t feel so bad.  

We arrived for the portrait photography session with all of my equipment which took several trips to bring in.  As it turned out the father is a bit of a photographer and had a studio-type setup in one of his rooms already.  We plugged in the lights and I tested lighting before we brought in little Itusi.

One of the things I love about photographing babies is watching the parents and learning about their ideas of parenting.  With the Yoshiokas they had pasted magazine images up in the hallway.  When I asked about this they said it was to stimulate his mind.  When they held him they’d walk him in front of the images and let him look at them.  They showed me some of his favorites, one of which was a Prada ad.  The kid has good taste.

Little Itusi only liked to be held.  If he was laid down he would cry and so I had to devise ways to capture all the details of his little baby self.  His parents both wore black which served as a nice backdrop for his feet or hands, his ear, or any detail I wanted to photograph.  The shoot went wonderfully.  They were really beautiful together.  And it was impossible to capture a bad photograph of Mom.  She was exquisite in every shot.  :)

As always I love being a photographer.  And to be able to capture moments like these is a real honor that I don’t take for granted.