For people who already know what a good frame looks like.
Candid, documentary leaning family photography across Los Angeles. One hour, 75 photographs, and no travel fee.
I lived in Silver Lake. Then Venice. Now I just drive.
This is the part of the hour I actually wait for.
One leaf out of roughly four hundred leaves. She was very clear about it.
Nobody asked them to lie down. That was entirely their idea.
Chapter one
Nobody feels natural in front of a camera.
I have a film degree from SDSU and I have spent years behind one, and I still go stiff the second a lens points at me. So I don't need you to be good at this part. That part is my job.
Which also means your kids do not have to behave, stand anywhere in particular, or produce a real smile on command. They can be shy, feral, hanging off your arm, or negotiating very hard for a snack.
I was a wild child. My parents once cancelled a family vacation halfway through the drive because of my temper, so I have a lot of sympathy for the four year old losing it in the parking lot.
I don't get mad. That's most of the job.
What actually happens
An hour, and we keep moving.
You pick the spot or I bring three. Sunset sets the time, not your calendar. If it is somewhere I have not shot before, I drive out and look at it the week before, so I already know where the light lands at 6:40 and where you are going to park.
Prompts, a few games, some classic frames where everyone looks at me, and a lot of room for the rest of it to happen on its own. Nobody stands still long enough to get bored.
All still photographs. No video.
Chapter two
Or we never leave the house.
Some of the best sessions I shoot happen entirely inside somebody's place. Cookie dough on the counter, the dog underfoot, the kid's room where all the good stuff is, the couch everybody piles onto without being asked. Whatever your morning actually looks like before anyone decides to perform it.
It works especially well with babies and little kids, who have strong opinions about a parking lot at sunset and none at all about their own living room. It also means no drive, no racing the light, and no negotiating with the 405 while a toddler comes apart in the back seat.
Your place is not too small and it is not too messy. It is the set. It is the only room your kids will ever remember this specifically.
Same hour. Same price. Just your house instead of a trail.
Chapter three
Twenty four frames a second, and you never get to look at one.
That is how a movie runs. Every frame is gone before your eye can land on it. A photograph is the opposite, and that is the whole reason I still make them. One moment, one frame, one feeling, one memory, holding still for as long as you want to stand there.
Your hour is 75 of them. Roughly one a minute. Few enough that each one had to earn its place, and enough that they run in order, like something you flip through rather than a folder you scroll past once.
Frame 06
His parents got about four seconds alone before he came in to break it up.
Frame 14
Denim shirt, last of the good light, no notes.
Frame 23
Over Dad's shoulder, which is where he spent a good part of the hour.
Frame 38
Mom and her guy. He held still for this one. Briefly.
Frame 51
And here is the one for the wall. You still want the one for the wall.
Frame 62
Piggyback, most of the way back up the beach.
Frame 71
End of the hour, walking back toward me, no longer thinking about the camera at all.
Swipe. It's a reel, not a grid.
Kind words
Rated 5.0 on Google, from 47 reviews.
He makes you feel at-ease the entire time. My kids hate pics but he has changed their minds they had so much fun! I have used many photographers and by far he is the best!
Easy to book online and a fun family photo shoot. My boys thought he was hilarious! Will definitely be doing our pictures with him again!
The rate
The Picture Book
$650
- About an hour, at your place or anywhere in Los Angeles
- 75+ edited images, delivered in a gallery that stays live six months
- Up to six people, $30 for each one after that
- Planning, location scouting and styling help included
- Access to the print shop
No travel fee to Los Angeles. Not a promotion, just the price.
Last frame
The ordinary stuff doesn't stay ordinary forever.
Your kid's current face is going to be gone in about eight months. I'd like to get it first.
Based in Orange County. In LA most weeks.
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