Wildflowers Photography » * Family Sessions http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog Blog Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:22:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Life on the farm with the Housh family! http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-housh-family/ http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-housh-family/#comments Thu, 26 Apr 2012 18:25:57 +0000 Joy http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/?p=5850 one of our very favorite places is milk & honey farm in santa barbara and it is pretty much the backyard to this quirky and fabulous family!  it is a fully functioning farm with a veggie garden, lavender and wildflowers are blooming like wild around the pasture and animal pens, the turkey and chicken coops are decorated in quirky vintage flair, the barn is amazingly crafted and styled up lovely and the housh family can be regularly seen frolicking around there in all their funky farm glory.  we have held two professional photography workshops there and have more in the planning stages and we just can’t express our love of these people and their homestead enough.  they let me use them as our models for our ‘a wildflowers workshop’ that we held there a few weeks back and i know you are going to fall in love with them, just like we did, and their spunky zest of living their happy life!
and one little behind the scenes shot of some of our attendees photography the housh family too!  

]]> http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-housh-family/feed/ 10 the official ‘WE LOVE DONUTS’ post… http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-official-we-love-donuts-post/ http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-official-we-love-donuts-post/#comments Thu, 12 Apr 2012 23:02:01 +0000 Joy http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/?p=5800 so it’s no secret that we love donuts over here at the prouty house!  we used to only have them on very special occasions from our corner donut shop but when i saw that cute little donut maker on the shelf at target, i knew that it was really love at first sight.  now we have donuts atleast three times a week!  as a disclaimer, i am not saying that we are the healthiest house on the block (not a chance!) but i do try and have really gotten pretty good at making healthier versions and it makes for such a fun, happy morning for all of us!  donut party!   the best part is that our chickens began to lay eggs a few months ago so it is such a fun activity on donut mornings for the kids to pull on their boots, run out to collect the eggs and then put join me in the kitchen to mix all the goodies.  the whole process is fun and super easy and fast.  trust me, with very early mornings and the three kids in addition an endless to-do and work list, not much sleep and the very rare shower thrown in there somewhere, i don’t have time to make a big breakfast.  and it is super hard to please everyone!  but not on donut days!  and i can typically have the recipe or mix done in 5 minutes and the donuts cooked in another 8.  the kids love to frost them (and this keeps them entertained so i can wash the dishes real quick) and everyone is happy and fed.  best part is that YOU CAN USE ANY MUFFIN, BREAD OR CAKE MIX!  yay!  i stock up on trader joe’s bread mixes (cheap and so yummy) and i also grab muffin mixes when i see them on sale.  and i always do my best to make them healthier by using purees in them, sub out the oil and also sneak in vitamin rich stuff for added nutrients (my normal add-ins are sweet potato puree and appleasauce).  i learned about this from jessica seinfeld’s book ‘deceptively delicious’ and highly recommend it!  she has yummy recipes and so many tips for moms and i also love the blackbird bakery gluten-free recipes for special occasions or when i bake them sometimes for friends with dietary restrictions.  i especially love and often make the blackberry bakery cream cheese frosting.  my kids have their own fave donut recipes… gracie’s are blueberry smurfy donuts, brandon’s are southern cornbread, donny’s are pumpkin spice and mine are strawberry cheesecake!

so, i am not up on my donut high horse, i am surely not a baker.  but i am pretty excited about this little contraption that gives me that added inspiration to not dread the early mornings.  it helps me to transform my mind into being the fun mom instead of the grumpy, bitter mom.  it helps inspire me to wake up for the kids instead of to them.  i love that i can feed the whole family so affordably and intentionally.  and it gives us a reason to make any morning into a party, and let me tell you that turning on the disco ball at 8am is just as awesome as 8pm, actually way more awesome because we are already in our jammies.  <—  that is our favorite part.  ;)

so here are some of our donuts, all images taken in instagram with my iphone.

so here is my step by step process of the quickest possible way to do the donuts, this is like 14 minutes flat…blueberry, pumpkin spice & strawberry…we make them for every occasion…it can be entertaining for quite some time!  icing makes for good finger painting too…
these are two of my fave recipe inspirations…

]]> http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-official-we-love-donuts-post/feed/ 19 a log cabin in the snow & a feather bed with the BROOKE family!!! http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/a-log-cabin-in-the-snow-a-feather-bed-with-the-brooke-family/ http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/a-log-cabin-in-the-snow-a-feather-bed-with-the-brooke-family/#comments Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:46:21 +0000 Joy http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/?p=5594 ready for a serious amount of fun?   to sum it all up… a tiny little log cabin up in big bear mountain in the snowy winter, millions (and i mean millions) of loose feathers and one overfilled (and then ripped open) feather bed, footie jammies, a big abandoned barn, lots of laughter and one amazing family, the brookes, (they are wedding photographers themselves so it was such a huge honor to photograph them) who are our new sweet friends that we are so very happy to now live life alongside!  we had anticipated it for half a year, counted it down to the hours, collected feathers for weeks and then laughed straight through from start to finish.  it was madness and i am pretty sure that we are all still finding feathers in the most interesting of places, lol.  now prepare yourself for a lot of images, i just couldn’t bear to narrow them down, and these are just my favorites.  ;)

 

 

]]> http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/a-log-cabin-in-the-snow-a-feather-bed-with-the-brooke-family/feed/ 24 a dr. seuss inspired shoot! http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/a-dr-seuss-inspired-shoot/ http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/a-dr-seuss-inspired-shoot/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:10:09 +0000 Joy http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/?p=5196 our little do-it-yourself crafty take on a dr. seuss scene inspired by this sweet family’s own adorable ‘thing 1 and thing 2′ !   :)

]]> http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/a-dr-seuss-inspired-shoot/feed/ 9 Twister & Waffles with the Parsons family! http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/twister-waffles-with-the-parsons-family/ http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/twister-waffles-with-the-parsons-family/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 01:59:36 +0000 Joy http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/?p=5072 this is the parsons family, down for a visit all the way from friday harbor, washington!  sara and her hubby, sean, are college sweethearts and have been married for 11 years (and i can testify after photographing them that they are still giddy in love).  stella is 8, she loves to laugh.  jonah is 6 and all boy.  ava is 4, the baby, silly and loves to be barefoot.  sara is a photographer too but they had never had family photos taken and when she wrote me an email with the starting sentence “hi, my name is sara and i am your number one fan” i knew we would get along famously.  ;)   she said they would be near me for thanksgiving and would love to have a family session.  what stuck out in sara’s email more than anything was that “they were so thankful to be a family” which i thought was just plain inspirational.  not everyone can say that!   so, the parsons have a tradition of waffle breakfasts with lots of syrup and laughter so we of course had to keep the tradition rollin for the shoot along with a vintage game of twister for a little extra fun.  :)  and i feel like i gained some very sweet friends in the process…

]]> http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/twister-waffles-with-the-parsons-family/feed/ 22 “What Little Boys Are Made Of” – themed session! http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/what-little-boys-are-made-of-themed-session/ http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/what-little-boys-are-made-of-themed-session/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 02:02:04 +0000 Joy http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/?p=4953 this is a new favorite session of mine! cameron & carson’s mama had told me all about how these brothers were 100% boy… getting dirty, building forts, fishing with sticks, catching bugs in jars (especially fireflies like they had done in the country!) and running free.  and so the vision for this shoot was born; “frogs and snail and puppy dog tails” with a bit of a holiday feel thrown in.  it felt like pure magic that evening.  before we headed to our location, donny chopped off some branches off of the tree in our backyard to build the branch fort for the boys and it was so special how even as he was setting up when we got there, cameron and carson were right in there with him with their imaginations running wild from the first second!  this shoot really shows the beauty of why we love telling a story with our family sessions, especially with the children, they just get right in there and start playing in this wonderland made special just for them.  there was hardly any posing, just waiting for the boys to get into character.  :)

i usually like to blog in the sequence that the session unfolded, however, i have to begin with one of the firefly images and then go back to the beginning so that you will be more likely to scroll all the way to the bottom… i promise it will be worth it (i just couldn’t narrow these down)!

]]> http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/what-little-boys-are-made-of-themed-session/feed/ 30 what i’m working on now… http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/what-im-working-on-now/ http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/what-im-working-on-now/#comments Sat, 19 Nov 2011 21:29:01 +0000 Joy http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/?p=4934 lots of sessions to blog!  just a few sneak peeks for now…

cameron & carson (“what little boys are made of” session!):

skye & gary (a very special farm stand shoot, a year in the making!):

dorothy & josh (their very lovely wedding at the victorian in santa monica!):

the fike family (and all their organic farm fun, taken at ‘a wildflowers workshop’):

little ryker, our workshop newborn model and our own ‘local honey’!:

mon & milk’s engagement session (they flew allllll the way from hong kong for the shoot! awesome!):

the lovely miss lizzie metcalf (celebrating life!!!):

the jankelow family (he gave his wife this session as a gift all the way from canada! so sweet):

jennifer & steve’s engagement (a little dog washin’ with their pup, bailey!):

lisa & mike’s wedding (with a stunning old hollywood feel at a beautiful location in los angeles):

dylan & drake (our styled up version of an ice cream truck using our vintage trailer!):

the precious eynon girls (and our chickens in the backyard! so fun!):

the trejos family (a family full of life, celebrating a very healed and healthy little boy):

my sweet little clementine… just because she is growing so quick:

chris & alicia’s wedding (a beautifully styled and creative vintage wedding, can’t wait to share the images):

… full posts coming soon!  :)

]]> http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/what-im-working-on-now/feed/ 22 The Hahn Family all painted up! http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-hahn-family-all-painted-up/ http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-hahn-family-all-painted-up/#comments Sat, 22 Oct 2011 05:42:33 +0000 Joy http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/?p=4820 i have known the mama of this family, nicole, for years and had seen her photos online of her kids just being covered in fingerpaint from head to toe year after year.  that is their happy place, being able to be free and messy and forget about everything else.  so when she contacted me about a family shoot my mind went immediately to the theme of being all painted up, in their happy place.  i was so glad that she was 110% on board with me about the idea and they surely did not disappoint and keep things too clean.  ;)  besides their love of art they just really dive in to life.  they play even when it is difficult.  and the joy in their children in so evident because of it.  love you, hahn family!

]]> http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-hahn-family-all-painted-up/feed/ 20 “Papa, please get the moon for me” with the Kido family! http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/papa-please-get-the-moon-for-me-with-the-kido-family/ http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/papa-please-get-the-moon-for-me-with-the-kido-family/#comments Sat, 27 Aug 2011 22:02:23 +0000 Joy http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/?p=4717 this session was FUN!!!  :)  our theme was based on eric carle’s wonderful children’s book, “papa, please get the moon for me”… a very sweet book that tells the story of a little girl who peers out the window of her little red house every night and stretches and stretches to get the moon but can never reach it.  that was until she kindly asked her papa to get the moon for her… he built a very long ladder to reach all the way up to the moon to bring it down for her.  now i can just tell you that ryan and anna, the papa and mama of these little girls in this shoot, adore their daughters to the ends of the earth and i also know that if there was any way for them to reach the moon for them that they would do it.  but seeing that i couldn’t find a ladder long enough to retell this story exactly as it was told in the book, we did our best to build a set that would set the scene.  we painted a huge canvas in classic eric carle style, made a cardboard happy faced moon, donny built a very colorful and child-friendly moon-reaching ladder, and we brought out my very favorite dollhouse and gave it a fresh coat of red paint to be a tiny version of the house from the story!  we then made a cozy little spot right in front of it on a fun quilt perfect for playing and dancing and we had ourselves a little party.  it was wonderfully fun and i love that we were able to tell this classic children’s story but at the same time really make it personal for the kido family.  i have been blessed to be able to photograph this family for the last four years and am so very touched to continue to be in their lives and photograph their children.  thank you, kido family, for dancing your hearts out during this session; the love you have for your girls is so very joyful and incredibly contagious.  xoxo

]]> http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/papa-please-get-the-moon-for-me-with-the-kido-family/feed/ 34 The Comden Family at Venice Beach! http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-comden-family-at-venice-beach/ http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-comden-family-at-venice-beach/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:49:29 +0000 Joy http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/?p=4600 one of the most lovely and relaxed family sessions i have photographed i do believe.  it was natural and it showed exactly the way they live their happy life as a family every single day.  playing at home, riding their bikes, skating at the beach and a whole lot of cuddling in the sand…

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