The trip they'll always remember.
Somewhere between booking the flights and packing the sunscreen, this turns into the fun part. We go hunting for the light. We time the tide so there's lots of sand to play on. We talk outfits until everyone looks like themselves on a very good day. Permits and paperwork are my problem. By the time you land, it isn't a shoot on the calendar. It's a part of the trip everyone is looking forward to.
We plan it together. You enjoy it. I'll handle the remembering.
40 Five-Star Reviews on GoogleGolden hour is the plan. Sunrise works too. Nap schedules honored.
Two ways to plan it.
Every vacation session is one of these two. Both get built around good light, usually golden hour, sometimes sunrise. The only real difference is how much of the plotting you want to be in on. One I plan for you. One we plan together.
The Picture Book
I'll do the planning. You just show up.
A classic portrait session, candid-leaning with light direction and prompts. Golden hour is usually where this one lives, though sunrise light is every bit as good and the beaches are still empty. Before you land we've picked the spot, picked the hour, and checked the tide if we're on the sand. Permits are my problem. You get a styling guide with colors that hold up on camera and hold up next to each other. Then I give you easy things to do and let the real moments land on their own.
Planning · Handled for you
Light · Golden hour, or dawn to an hour after
60 to 90 minutes · 75+ images
The Side Quest
Plan the route. Live the moments.
A storytelling session built around an activity, shot like a photo essay with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Pick from my curated adventures or bring your own idea. Golden hour is the classic, but mornings open up more of them, anywhere from dawn to about 11am depending on where we go and what we get up to. Then we build the whole thing out together in the Side Quest Workbook: the route, the timing, the tide, the outfits. Families tell me this part ends up being its own piece of the trip.
Planning · Handled together
Light · Golden hour, or dawn to 11am
Keepsake · The Polaroid Pack, included
90 min to 2 hours · 95+ images
Afternoon at the Park
The Souvenir
Eight prints. Home in your carry-on.
Your gallery lands two weeks after you fly home. These don't wait. Eight full-size instant prints, made on real Polaroid film while we shoot, handed over in a custom 3D-printed case before the trip is even over. Everything else from your vacation arrives later. These are the ones you can hold on the plane.
Included with every Side Quest · $100 with a Picture Book
Both Sessions Include
Golden hour or sunrise timing · Tide charts · Outfit and styling help · Every image edited & lightly retouched · Private gallery for six months
Check Your Dates →*Traveling with a bigger crew? Groups of 7+ add $150. *Some locations also need a permit pulled in advance, so the earlier you reach out the better. (Cost added to total.)
For example.
A few ideas to borrow whole or ignore completely. Every session gets planned around your crew, your pace, and whatever your trip already looks like.
Most sessions happen in early morning or late evening, when the light goes soft and golden and everything looks its most epic.
Fun Zone to Pier Sunset
We start with Ferris wheel rides and a frozen banana that probably won't survive the first block. From there we wander the boardwalk and end up on Balboa Pier just as the sun goes down. It's a whole story arc in one easy evening.
Side QuestTide Pools in Laguna
We time the tide, pick a rocky cove, and spend the session seeing what the ocean left out for you. Expect anemones, hermit crabs, and at least one kid narrating every discovery at full volume.
Side QuestPancakes in Your Pajamas
No leaving, no packing up the crew. We stay in, flip pancakes, and let the morning be exactly as unhurried as vacation mornings should be. Pajamas encouraged, bedhead welcome, syrup on someone's cheek all but guaranteed.
Side QuestThe Hidden Redwood Grove
There's a grove of actual redwoods in Orange County that most locals have never heard of. The shade stays cool, the trees run impossibly tall, and the whole session carries the quiet thrill of being in on a secret.
Picture BookHuntington Beach Pier
This one is classic California, full stop. You get warm sand underfoot, surfers drifting through the background, and a pier that glows as the sun drops. If you're after the photo that ends up framed on the wall, this is where it happens.
Picture BookGolden Sunset at Quail Hill
Rolling golden hills, sun-kissed and wide open, with sunsets that seem to go on forever. The trails wind through grasses that catch the last light, and the whole place feels a world away from the freeway just past it. Pure California gold.
Picture BookChoose Your Own Adventure
Nothing above is a rulebook. If your crew has a thing, a donut run, a kite day, a slow lap around the farmers market, we'll craft a session around it from scratch, workbook and all.
Either SessionStart Here
Send me your dates and a rough sense of the trip. I'll come back with what's open and a couple of ideas built around it.
Usually within 24 hours, often much sooner. No pressure either way.