On Saturday baby Tessa celebrated her first birthday with a traditional Korean “dol” party and I was lucky enough to be in attendance to photograph the event. It was a small gathering with close friends and family and it was such a treat to spend time with such a warm and loving family! Tessa is definitely a well loved baby!

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day:

As part of the traditional “dol” celebration, Tessa wore the “hanbok” which is the traditional Korean dress. She looked absolutely adorable!

Tessa with her proud mom!

The party was absolutely full of adorable children

How precious is this little girl? I love it!

Tessa kept running outside and doing laps and dancing around in the courtyard. It was absolutely adorable… check out her face in this one! So cute!

Time to blow out the birthday candles! Tessa was actually born on her daddy’s birthday… she wasn’t turning 37 but he was

Happy birthday Tessa! Thank you so much to the whole family for letting me come along and share in your joyful occasion. If you would like to see more photos from the party, click the play button below to watch a slideshow!

Ok get ready because this is going to be a long post! These two were so much fun I had an absolutely enormous challenge trying to narrow down my favorites!

To say that these two were running, jumping, climbing trees during their session would be an understatement. These two were off the walls but SO much fun. They were definitely up for anything and didn’t stop laughing the whole time! Thanks for being such a blast to shoot and here are a couple of my favorites.

I’ve tried to do the “American Gothic” pose a couple of times in my sessions and sometimes I feel like it’s getting old, but how often are you going to have an actual farmhouse with actual farming equipment to try to pull it off? Come on I just HAD to do it. And yes, I know she’s on the wrong side. Next time I’ll read up on my art history before heading out for a shoot Don’t you just love her face in this one?

I told you that these two were up for anything and I meant it! At one point Tai asked me “Should I get up on his shoulders now?” I figured she meant a piggy back ride… but no. I was wrong. I’ve definitely never seen this at a session before!

And then of course she had to give HIM a piggy back ride

Like I said… running, jumping… Tai I’m sorry but Sam got more air than you. You’re gonna have to work on your “jump like a star” pose.

It was hard to get these two to keep a straight face but when they did it was just gorgeous. I love this close up of the two of them.

You won’t believe me but this was totally spontaneous. I definitely did NOT tell them to do this. That’s just how cute they are!

Sam and Tai thank you so much for being an absolute blast to photograph. You really made my job ridiculously easy and I hope you like your photos!

Kate and Jon are super fabulous and that’s about all there is to it! They never had engagement photos taken before their wedding so I was really excited to find out that I’d be able to take portraits for them while I was in France. Here are just a couple of my favorites.

Don’t they have fantastic smiles? They kept looking at each other and laughing…. which is fabulous for me because a laugh is the most natural looking smile!

We found this weird abandoned shack in the midst of all of these trees. Definitely not a southern California backdrop, but so much fun!

I take this kind of shot at almost all of my portrait sessions but I think this is the best face I’ve ever seen come out of it…. very suave!

And because we never ever have pretty fall leaves in southern California I just had to take a couple of fun shots playing with the leaves. This one is pretty sweet…

and these ones are way more fun!

Kate & Jon thanks so much for running around and letting me try out all of my crazy ideas with you. You two are the best and I hope you like your photos!

Ok, here it is! The last of my Normandy blog posts (but don’t worry… still plenty of vacation photos to come… I still have Paris and New York to go!)

The last couple of days in Normandy were very laid back… we went cider tasting and cheese tasting and generally just ate and tasted lots of things Along the way we saw some chickens…

and some fake chickens.

We also stopped in to look around a garden which was advertising to be one of the most beautiful gardens in all of France. It was quite nice… although it did seem rather similar to the rest of Normandy (which was all beautiful of course)

Sam got tired of looking at the gardens and instead started jumping hedges

We also got some up close and personal time with some cows. And because I couldn’t decide on a favorite I’m posting two cow shots. The one in the second shot has got some serious attitude! I think they were expecting us to feed them.

And last but not least… the farmhouse that we called home for a week. Thanks so much to Ben’s parents and siblings for a fabulous vacation! Hope you like the photos.

Ok here goes… part 2 of what will be 3 entries from Normandy…

On our third day in Normandy we drove to Honfleur, a scenic little town not far from where we were staying. The town is centered around the old harbor.

By far the coolest thing we saw in Honfleur was the Maison Satie. If you are ever in Normandy I think it’s worth the drive to this town just to check out the museum. Very surreal and very fun!

And while we were in town we happened to notice a street with our name… here’s Ben with his dad under our sign

One of the best parts of the vacation was having the great farmhouse to go back to at the end of every day and just relax. We spent quite a bit of time playing cards…. hearts anyone?

On our next day we made the drive to Etretat. It was a holiday when we were there so it was super packed with French tourists and their dogs. I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear anyone speaking English (other than ourselves) the whole day.

Couldn’t resist a self portrait

I told you there were a lot of dogs!

Stay tuned for part 3 of Normandy… plus lots of portraits. They really are coming up. Promise!