Fall in Napa

The rain let up this weekend so we packed up our little family and headed out to Napa for some lush greens and fall colors.





Our little Mochi will be a year old in a few weeks! We are very excited! I'm sure he is too although all he wants to do is eat leaves. Now if only we get him to keep his shoes on...

xoxo
Megs

Stamps of Love

Second from my love of paper is my love for stamps! I literally jumped for joy when I realized we were out. Most normal people would have been annoyed but not yours truly!

Now I don't just buy my stamps at the post office or the grocery store. I kind of consider myself a stamp snob because I only order them online. Online you have soo many choices beyond the boring average ones that you quickly grab while standing in the 10 Items or Less line at the supermarket.

The holidays are now upon us and Christmas cards and Holiday cards will be swirling around in our mail boxes. Since you painstakingly took the time to get that amazing family photo taken onto your amazing card, why not send them out in amazing style? (Yes I realized I overly used the word amazing but they really are amazing right!)

Ok. I will now get off my soap box and carefully put my stamps away in a protective sleeve. Yes a protective sleeve. That's what us stamp snobs do.

xoxo
Meg

The Lenahan Family

Lions and pumpkins and Alice oh my! We had such a fun shoot with the Lenahan Family the other week. I absolutely love it when my clients are creative. It was a great kick off to the fall season with the costumes, the pumpkins, the location, and the super duper cute kids! The light was amazing! Thank you Roslynd and John for being such a fun and wonderful family!









The camera loves Aurora!


Noah is such a sweet boy!


A lion, a tea set, and pumpkins!


















Wishing everyone a Happy Halloween weekend!

xoxo
Megs

Luke: Fashion Icon

I just had to share a picture of these tights I got Luke last weekend at the Babes and Babies event in Mill Valley. I got this from the Posh Margot booth. They have such cute stuff! It's a shame Luke isn't a girl or I would have gotten him the bunny one. The adorable, PINK, bunny one.

Speaking of Luke, I have about 4 weeks to get things ready for his big 1st Birthday Bash! This first year has FLOWN by! Well maybe not the first couple of months but these past six months have just slipped through my fingers.

I only have a couple more weeks until my baby is no longer an official baby T_T.

xoxo
Megs

Sneak Peek: Lenahan Family

A peek at the fun shoot we had this weekend with the Lenahan Family! We had costumes, pumpkins, and a tea party!

Fall is truly here! I have just a few spots left for family/holiday shoots before it's too late. Soon rain and cold weather will be upon us. Contact me if you'd like to book a session.

Happy Monday everyone!

xoxo
Megs

The Gettys

A year ago I had the pleasure of meeting Emily. She is one of the warmest and sweetest person you'll ever meet. Her smile instantly makes you want to smile and her personality makes you want to sit and sip coffee with her all day. She also happens to be the mother of a cute little guy name Drew whom you may remember from one of my shoots last year.

Emily will be having twins at the beginning of next year and I am soo excited for her! I just know Drew is going to make a wonderful big brother.

When Emily contacted me for another session (but this time with herself and Scott) I was dancing with joy! ^_^

It was a very cold and windy Saturday and I felt terrible about the conditions but both Emily and Scott were such troopers (oh and Drew of course).

I think Emily is one of the most gorgeous pregnant woman I've ever seen! She looks amazing!

Congratulations again Emily and Scott! Wishing you a happy pregnancy and a safe delivery. I can't wait to meet the twins!

xoxo
Megs

I talk not good.

I am not a speaker. Or at least a good speaker. In college I took a speech class thinking it would really help me improve my fear of speaking in public. Instead I found myself giving excuses on why I couldn't make it to class; traffic jam (although I was only two blocks away), being hungry, or I really needed to cut my toenails. Eventually I had to drop it but I told myself I'd take it later. That was several years ago.

I don't find myself speaking much in front of people. When I do (even in small groups) I get so flustered.

My face starts burning, my palms sweat enough to wash cars with, and everything moves in slow motion. I hear myself stuttering and a big ball of wailing swells up inside me. Luckily I usually finish in time before I collapse in to a big sobbing puddle of Meg or break out in hives. And this was just me trying to describe a movie the other day!

The reason why I'm bringing this up is that I'm doing a reading at my sister's wedding next month. There's going to be 200+ people there. Thankfully it's a scripture reading and all I need to do is read. I know I'll do a gold star sticker of a job but I can't help just being a wee bit nervous. Just a wee bit.

I suppose I can practice in front of the mirror or picture everyone in their underwear (although that is a lot of people in their knickers sitting in church).

I'm just really glad that I won't be standing directly in front of everyone. So if I do melt I can do it behind a podium. They can shop vac me up later.

To be continued...

xoxo
Megs

Oh and a picture to look at :)


Mitch showing you the many uses of the 24-70mm. Baby seat.

Vanessa: Senior Session

We had a fun time shooting Vanessa's Senor portrait the other weekend. The light was a fiery red towards sunset in Modesto Ca. She was a bit nervous at first which is understandable for anyone who isn't always in front of the camera. Towards the end though she had a lot of fun and really came out of her shell. Hope you love these as much as we do Vanessa!

xoxo

Megs

Sneak Peek: Getty Family

The wonderful Getty Family coming up soon!

xoxo
Megs

Willette + Derek Engagement Monterey Bay Aquarium

To know Willette is to love Willette. She is someone who when you meet, you love instantly! She is spunky, energetic, caring, and I can go on and on. I've known her for years (in fact I consider her the older sister I never had). I was absolutely thrilled she chose me to shoot her Engagement photos.

At our initial meeting she picked a Hawaiian BBQ place and I wasn't sure which was more exciting, to eat there or to see her again (of course it was the later, don't be silly).

Then she had to BLOW me away by telling me she wanted their photos done at the Monterey Bay Aquarium! Are you kidding me! I was just beyond thrilled!

It was a gorgeous day in Monterey that day. While the rest of the Bay was sweltering in an odd heat wave we were in a dark cool place surrounded by beautiful aquatic life.

Derek and Willette, thank you so much for such a fun shoot! Wishing you nothing but happiness, laughter, salsa dancing, and love.

xoxo

Megs

Sneak Peek: Vanessa Senior Session

It's been a hectic week. I know I'm behind but wanted to share a peek at Vanessa's fabulous Senior shoot. The sky was just a fiery red near sunset. More to come. I pinky promise!

Sneak Peek: Engagement Monterey Bay Aquarium

A Sneak Peek of yesterday's shoot at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

(I was sweating bullets because of the low light situation but thankfully it was dark and you couldn't see my face melting:)

Family Reunion

Three generations

Hanging with Dad at Sunset

We headed up to South Lake Tahoe for a small family reunion. The weather was nice and warm (most of the time) and the lake was the pretty blue that you see in postcards. Luke got to spend some time with his grandparents, his twin cousins from San Diego, and some time sitting on the beach eating sand (or at least trying to).

It was a wonderful five days. I didn't want to come back. Well at least not so soon :)

Megs

Rock a Bye Baby

I always say I'm a Mom first and a Photographer second (err well maybe third since Wife comes before that). I love being a mom and have always loved babies. Long before I even thought of having a Luke I use to help put my baby sister and brother down for naps by sitting in our old wooden rocking chair and singing to them.

Like so many Moms nowadays I've been told rocking my baby to sleep was bad because it develops bad sleeping habits. Luke's been pretty good at falling asleep on his own at bedtime because of his nightly routine (bath, bottle, cuddles, and then bed). What he's not good at is naps. While my other mommy friends had babies that slept for hours at a time during the day, mine would nap for 20 minutes and wake up. Barely time for a shower or to shovel food down my throat.

Yesterday I watched on Luke's baby monitor as he sat quietly in his crib for half an hour. He stared off into the distance, crawled around, and then started checking out how sturdy the bars on his crib were (probably planning a future escape). After struggling to keep his head up he finally got frustrated and stared into the camera (oh he knows he's being watched) with his 'come get me' look. I finally decided he needed some love and snuggles. After scooping him up I sat quietly in our dark room rocking him back and forth while listening to an instrumental lullaby. He snuggled his little nose up against me and fell asleep instantly.

I thought to myself WHY didn't I do this earlier? I love rocking my baby to sleep. I love singing lullabies to him. I love the bonding, the closeness, and the way he smeyes* at me with half closed eyes before drifting into peaceful sleep.

I use to rock him as a small infant before this whole sleep training started. I thought to myself, "My baby will only be a baby for so long and I am missing out on this!".

Well not anymore! I think from now on (at least for naps) I'll take every opportunity I can to do what I've always wanted to do when I had my own baby.

Rock and sing him to sleep.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky!

*Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!*

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveler in the dark,
Thanks you for your tiny spark,
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye,
Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark,
Lights the traveler in the dark,—
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

-wikipedia

*smeyes is smiling with your eyes

** So this post is probably plagued with tons of errors but I have a 9 1/2 month old crawling into everything so I'll just leave it the way it is. Making sure Luke doesn't chew on the iPhone cable is a bit high on the priority list at this time ;). k k!