Taken about forty seconds after somebody said “I don’t wanna.”
Hey, I’m Daniel Wesley.
Family photos that feel like your actual family.
Family, maternity, newborn and senior sessions across Orange County and Los Angeles, from my home base in Anaheim Hills. You don’t need to know how to pose, and your kids don’t need to behave for an hour. I’ll handle the direction, make the classic one for the wall, then photograph everything that happens around it.
49 five-star reviews on Google
A filmmaker’s eye. A kid’s sense of wonder.
Why choose me, the short version.
What you get: thoughtful photographs, comfortable direction, and someone who enjoys getting to know your family before anyone says cheese.
I learned light and framing in a high school darkroom, then studied film at SDSU. When your son bolts down the beach, I’m low in the sand, sun behind him, so the spray lights up and you’re still in the frame.
I grew up on Spielberg, where a bedroom closet hides a friend from another planet and an attic map starts the whole adventure. I’m still the adult who joins the game.
Years in the service industry taught me to read a room and make people feel at home. The playful stuff happens on its own, and we still make the beautiful smiling one for the wall.
Pick your chapter.
The notes in the margin are me.
Family, maternity and newborn sessions all run as The Picture Book: one spot, and I run the session so you don’t have to. Seniors get two options, The Main Character and The Origin Story. Anywhere in Orange County or Los Angeles: beach, park, trail, or your own living room.
The first fifteen minutes.
Easy direction, room to be yourselves.
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one
I say hi to the kids first.
Before anybody is asked to stand anywhere. Usually there’s a dinosaur question to settle.
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two
You see a frame on the back of the camera.
A few shots in, I turn the screen around. It’s the fastest way to stop worrying about how you look.
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three
Then the hour follows your family.
Some families need to walk and wrestle before anyone can stand still. Some love dressing up and making polished portraits. I plan around yours. We make the portrait, then catch the twenty seconds after it, and you’ll want both.
There’s always a plan, and it starts with your family rather than a formula. I give plenty of direction, so nobody is guessing. Where to stand, what to do with your hands, when to look at me. You’ll get the classic portrait, everyone in and everyone smiling, the one for Grandma. You’ll also get everything around it: the hugs, the chasing, the laughing at whatever Dad just said. Both are the point.
Two things I’ll actually say out loud:
- “Everybody look at whoever ate the last cookie.”
- “Give Mom the slowest hug in history. Slower.”
Somebody always cracks halfway through the slow one. That’s usually the photo.
Want to see how whole sessions hold together? A handful of frames from each: real families, real couples, real weddings.
Kind Words
He gave us just enough direction without making anything feel forced or awkward. Within minutes, we were laughing, relaxing, and genuinely enjoying ourselves.
Sierra Gsell
He was incredible with our two energetic little ones and even managed to get our teenager to enthusiastically participate.
Kristina Mitchell
The practical part.
The three questions everybody asks. Good questions.
What it costs, and what you get
The Picture Book, $650.
Family, maternity and newborn sessions all run as this one session: about an hour at a spot you choose, up to six people, and $30 a person after that. In-home newborn sessions run a little longer, at the baby’s pace. Want more than an hour? Add Another Chapter, +$200.
Every session includes a full curated gallery. Every photograph I select and edit is yours, lightly retouched. No choosing favorites, no extra image purchases.
- Seniors: The Main Character, $650, or The Origin Story, $850.
- Couples: The Double Feature, $650.
- Weddings: from $1,500.
- Expecting? Maternity + Newborn together, $1,050.
When the photographs arrive
Within two weeks.
Your full gallery lands online within two weeks of the session, ready to download and share. It stays up for six months, and the print shop is built in, so the good ones can actually leave your phone.
How to book
Send a note. I reply within a day.
Tell me who’s coming and roughly when. We’ll pick a spot and a time (sunset usually decides the time), and I’ll send a short session guide so the wardrobe and the plan are handled before the day.
A 50% retainer holds your date, and the balance is due a week before. The retainer isn’t refundable, but if life happens it moves with you to a new date.
About Daniel Wesley
Three things that explain the photographs.
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Art
Day one of my first high school photography class, and that was that. I shot for the yearbook, worked at a movie theater, chased film to SDSU, and figured out somewhere in there that a movie runs at 24 frames a second but you never get to look at just one. A photograph lets you stay.
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Wonder
E.T., The Goonies, Back to the Future. In those movies the kids run the story and the grown-ups mostly get in the way. I still see it that way. If your kid starts a game in the middle of the session, I’m in it, and I’m photographing it.
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People
Before photography paid the rent I pulled espresso, bussed tables and waited on a lot of Friday nights. You learn to listen, read a room, and figure out what somebody needs before they ask. Turns out that’s most of the job of making a family feel welcome in front of a camera.
The supporting cast:
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Katie
My partner
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Noodles
Editor in Chief
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Samantha
from Accounting
This fall:
The Weekend Matinee
Twenty-minute mini sessions on weekend dates through December 5. $295 for twenty-five photos, or all 40 images for $370.
Ready when you are.
I reply within a day. Noodles remains unavailable for comment.
You don’t need a location, a pose list, or any experience being photographed. Tell me who’s coming, roughly when, and what your family is actually like. That’s enough to get us started.