Continuing my catch-up with the portrait sessions squeezed in between the weddings, here is a sneak peek into a session I did with the Lo family at their house.  Evelyn and Chung Yung had recently just welcomed their newborn son into their family, and with her parents and her brother’s family in town to visit, we managed to get the whole family into the pictures.  It was an interesting shoot in that it felt like we were switching gears every second shot – from serene newborn pictures at one moment, to hustling and bustling candids of the adults chasing after the toddlers the next!

Again, the great thing about shooting on-location at someone’s home is being able to capture some of the details and context of their lives.  Some of my favorite shots included the rocking horse that Evelyn’s father had hand-built for his grandchildren.  Another whimsical favorite: the newborn baby unintentionally striking a kung fu attack pose.  A quick handful from the session:

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DJ and Erica were coming up on the due date for baby #3 and couldn’t decide whether to get maternity photos or newborn photos.  So in the end, we did both!

You’d think the first session would be all about the belly, but their two little daughters – Becca and Bella – had different ideas.  Bursting at the seams with energy, ideas, and just awesomely crazy hair, it was hard not to make them the stars of the show!  But we did get manage to get some pics of the belly, and even squeezed DJ in for a shot or two.

It wasn’t long thereafter when news came that the Seales had welcomed a little boy – Andrei – into their family.  Within a week, we went back into the studio so that we could catch Andrei while he was still in the “brand new baby” phase.  Brand new baby he might have been, but this little guy was unreal – lifting his head and looking around like he was already a 2 month old.  Both DJ and Erica are avid volleyball players, and naturally wanted a shot of the little guy with a ball.  But his strength of neck + his strength of will made it super difficult to get the shot, as he kept pushing himself or the ball away (ironically, he had no qualms about hanging about with a football though…).

Between the fun shots with the girls, to the cool maternity and newborn shots with DJ, Erica, and Andrei, it was a tremendously enjoyable shoot.  It was also neat to witness/be part of what sometimes feel like the overnight transition from big belly to little, new baby.  Congrats to the Seales family!  Only a handful of many, many shots I liked:

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Even though they moved away shortly after their wedding several years ago, it hasn’t felt like I’ve been all that removed from Deepak and Michelle.  Whether it’s working with their extended families for portraits, or seeing them again at Deepak’s cousin’s wedding, or bumping into their families at weddings because the East Indian community in Winnipeg is so tightly knit, it just seems like I’m never more than a few degrees of separation away.  This time when they came back to town, there were no degrees of separation at all as I took them down to the studio for a shoot of their new little boy Rayan.

Like most babies his age, Rayan was extremely tactile.  It was fun just watching his extreme fascination with the red wicker stools and the fuzzy orange chairs that we have in the studio.  I’m sure they look better than they taste, but he didn’t seem to mind their flavors either way.  Between the furniture and his chewy giraffe, he couldn’t be bothered with the green stuffed animal/monster that his parents have been using as the unofficial “reference chart” for his size.  Another thing I thoroughly enjoyed was this little lick of his hair that would casually flip up during the shoot (I still find it hard to believe that Rayan was apparently one of the “balder” babies in the family).

It was great working with Michelle and Deepak again, and if they stay true to the patterns in their families, I can’t help but wonder if Rayan will soon have a sibling in the family portraits…?    But before we jump ahead of ourselves, let’s share some pictures from this session:

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Having just gotten married last fall, I figured there might be something of a break before I evolved from being Devin and Julie’s wedding photographer to being their family portrait photographer.  Turns out they didn’t waste much time at all!  And just a couple of weeks ago they welcomed little Jasper into their world.

Since they knew ahead of time they wanted baby pictures, we planned to do the session while Jasper was still very newborn.  With my wife being Caucasian and myself being Chinese, I always have a personal interest in seeing what other mixed babies look like.  Right away I noticed that Jasper seemed to favor a more Asian look than my kids did at birth. And I’d forgotten how peely newborn skin could be!

With a huge bank of soft window light and this great big green circular couch at my disposal, their house was pretty much a perfect setting for taking pictures. We managed to get some really nice shots with mom, dad, and grandma, although poor little Jasper had his nap interrupted a couple of times by all the transferring between arms holding him.  I certainly appreciated Julie and Devin accommodating all my requests to jostle the baby back and forth – I just hope they didn’t pay the price later on with a cranky and sleepless baby!  Hopefully the pics were worth it:

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I was excited when I got Crystal and Shane’s e-mail: not only was it a chance to work again with one of my great former wedding clients, but also in that they were keen to participate in this maternity series idea I’ve had floating around for awhile.

At this first session, Crystal was about 5 months into her pregnancy and, for the most part, was hard to tell that she was even expecting! I look forward to documenting her progress as she gets closer to term.  Some sneak peeks from the first session:

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