Introducing Bryant and Dylan!

When Adm and I first moved to Oakland five years ago, I didn't know much about some of my relatives on my dad's side of the family who lived up here.  I felt a little apprehensive meeting family for the first time in my twenties at a birthday party in Oakland's Chinatown.  After all the milestones we have since shared it is fun to look back on what it first felt like to meet them.  I am so lucky to have been accepted  as a part of their family with open arms.

So, without further ado, I give you my cousin, Yen Yen and her husband Davin's newborn twins, Bryant and Dylan.  The sleepy baby is Dylan, but you have to give him a break because he is a growing boy.  It was a lot of fun photographing my brand new baby cousins, and I am sure that there will be many updates on their lives along the way, just as we have followed their parents.  You can see Yen Yen and Davin's engagement session here and their wedding here.

Little Dylan

My dear friend Jamie and her husband Steve just had a baby!  This is little Dylan Jacob at about two months, with his doggie brother Charlie at home in San Diego.  Dylan is pretty stinking cute, especially when his mama dresses him like a snuggle bear.

Four Generations

A couple of weeks ago, my grandma asked me to take a picture of her, my aunt Carolyn, my cousin Stephanie, and Stephanie's baby Marcella - four generations in one photo.  We also had time to do some photos of Steph, Bill and Marcella, who is just the cutest.

Meet Chloe!

Remember April and Arthur and April's big tummy?  Well, here's their new little girl, Chloe.  I had the opportunity to meet and photograph her yesterday, and she is super adorable.  I have not been around many newborns, and so I'm always amazed by how tiny these little babies are.  She is actually smaller than most as her newborn clothes are even too big for her.  Chloe was such a good baby throughout her first official photo shoot, and April and Arthur couldn't stop smiling throughout as their gazed at their baby.  Congratulations to this sweet family!

Ichien Family Portrait

I love this family.  You may recognize Stephanie as one of the bridesmaids in Erika and Colin's wedding last summer.  In addition to bridesmaid extraordinaire, she has been one of my best friends since sixth grade, and so I have so many fun memories of playing with her and being at her house with her family.  Even though she now lives in Oregon and we're in the Bay Area, we've managed to stay in touch throughout the years.  While we were both down in southern California last week, we got together to photograph not only her immediate family, but her extended family as well.  It's amazing how time flies and everyone has all grown up - Steph's older sister Jess now has her own baby, Hank (who stole the show for most of the shoot), and their littlest brother Nick, who was five years old when I first met him, is now in college in New York!  Yikes that makes me feel old!  At any rate, Adm and I had a fun evening with them all in Culver City, and the light was absolutely perfect.

Adm took the following two photos of Hank:

April + Arthur Maternity

I had the great pleasure of photographing April and Arthur's maternity session this week.  In a lot of ways, it wasn't all that different from an engagement session, except that the whole focus of the shoot was on the baby girl growing inside April's belly.  We started at their home in San Mateo and then walked a few blocks to the Japanese Tea Garden.  Even though I haven't done a ton of maternity sessions (this brings my total count to three), it was super easy to take photos of them since they are so in love with each other and excitedly awaiting their little one.  You would think that April and Arthur are models because they seemed to really easily forget about me and just focused on being with each other.  Despite the fact that with the exception of her tummy April doesn't look pregnant at all, she is due in a couple of weeks.  I can't wait to meet their new baby!