As I’ve been sharing more about the non wedding photography I like to do (namely family photos), I think it’s hitting folks that photography isn’t just about the big moments in your life, it’s about all the moments in between. And so it’s nice to do family portraits…for no other reason than, “just because”. And keeping that in mind, watch out for some information about Family Portrait Days I’ll be organizing very soon which should make it easy for every family to have wonderful portraits made without having to set aside a whole afternoon or deal with boring photos from the chain stores.

So with the summer holidays upon us, I spent some time with the Thekdi family for portraits while everyone was in town. We started off at a park near their Saratoga home, then proceeded to some portraits in their house as well as in their backyard. Here are a few I liked from the session. Enjoy!

This first photo is actually montage of several photos laid out for an enlargement…rather than just enlarge a single photo, this is a great way to show off a number of photos all at once. We actually have a number of these in our own home and we find them to be so much more unique:

N. is into tennis and longboarding so we took some time for some fun shots while he was doing what he loves.

If you liked these family photos, drop me a line to setup a session for your own family!

Oh boy…where does the time disappear. After months without an update, here’s something which should make everyone smile. The Qureshi family have been great clients of mine for some time now and when Tayyiba, Cody, and little Z-Man were in town last fall, we got the chance to take some fun family portraits.

This was actually Tayyiba & Zamaan’s second photo session with me in 2009. Here’s some of the previous session with his masis

With family portraits, we never know what exactly to expect, so the sessions are way more loose and playful than usual. As you can see from this sampling, Zamaan didn’t leave us much chance to pose for shots…which is a great thing!

Mamatha & Ranjeet got married a couple of years ago and I was lucky enough to photograph their wedding in San Ramon. Fast forward to this spring and they had a son just a little bit after we had our own daughter. So it was a pleasure doing a life session focusing on their one year old son, Ishaan. We started off with some clean portraits with a background then moved onto their backyard and finally to Piedmont Park nearby. I’ve gotta say, photographing a child in his or her own environment is key to capturing great moments…

I went a bit more abstract with some of the editing. Since I was getting so many great expressions from Ishaan, I just had to go out on a limb with some of these photos.





The dreamy look in this next photo really just hit it for me. I knew it was out of focus when I took it, but I couldn’t let go of it. I’d say it’s my second favorite from the afternoon.

And what’s my fave shot from this session? The next photo! The sheer joy on Ishaan’s face with Ranjeet in the background is what these sessions are all about!


And finally…the happy family!

Thanks guys for inviting us to your home. We had a great time and hope to see a lot more of Ishaan as he grows into the rockstar he’s destined to be!

The Gellons are close friends of our’s and with their son Zaver’s first birthday coming up earlier this year, I wanted to make sure they had memorable portraits before his birthday. Instead of going out to a park or the beach, we decided to take advantage of Vic & Sophina’s lovely home. We all thought this would not only lead to fun portraits, but make them much more personal.

I had trouble narrowing down the selection of photos for this session, so enjoy this cute and handsome young fellow!

The next bunch of photos are actually from the galf course which is in their backyard.

We did a fun & relaxing family session last month in Avila Beach. Where is Avila Beach, you ask? It’s in Central California near San Luis Obispo & Pismo.

We photographed Tejal & Nalin’s wedding last year. And this year, her big sister, Roshni, wanted to do family portraits before the first birthday of her twins. So I joined the whole family at Avila Beach close to where their mom lives. And what a wonderful day it was! The weather in mid-June had been so unpredictable, but we all lucked out and get an absolutely gorgeous day at the beach. Besides the awesome weather, it was great catching up with the whole family since I hadn’t seen them in over a year. It was also pretty cool doing 3 or 4 mini portrait sessions since the whole family was there.

Here’s just a few of the photos from the session:











Happy Birthday Aiden & Alina! I know your mom loves these photos…when you grow up, I expect you to love them too

Catching up on one of the many portrait sessions from the Spring, here are some highlights of the Patel Family from a sunny April afternoon in San Francisco.

We started out at Baker Beach…it was Aarav’s first time at the beach and above all, he was just confused by all the water and sand. So it was definitely cute to see him make new discoveries about this ‘wierd stuff’



We then moved onto a nearby playground where Aarav really opened up. When photographing kids, I always love to catch them in moments that they just LOVE. In this case, Aarav just loves swings and playground equipment…






And just in time for Aarav’s first birthday party, the family had a couple of gallery wraps made to hang in their house. We wanted to do two completely different looks so the first one with black & white photos just have a simple background. The second one is more playful and colorful.


Aarav, I’m glad we got the chance to spend an afternoon photographing you! It’s going to be a blast watching you grow up!

Keeping on the Family portraits tips, here are a few highlights from a shoot we did last year of the Le family.

Mom + Daughter + Dog = Lots of fun!

I had met Abra, Asia, and Bodie before, but I had never had a chance to really talk to Asia or play with Bodie. The great thing about doing small portrait sessions like this is that we get a chance to talk, get to know each other, and have some fun along the way. So when Asia’s ready for her Senior portraits (hint, hint), this will be an old hat for her!

Somethingt that I just love is parent & child interactions. On a wedding day, there are certainly chances to see and capture those special moments, but it’s such a stressful and agenda packed day that I don’t think any parent or child can really appreciate things. In a relaxed session like that, we always find some time to let everyone have some fun not just with their poses & the camera, but with each other.

In this case, Asia had a lot of mock anger/angst like any teenager, but we could see right through her facade Of course she was just having fun with it and she ended up having a good deal of fun with shots too






Isn’t Bodie a sweetheart! He was just happy to be out and about and I wanted to make sure we got some of him into the photo session. I have to admit, he didn’t want to do EVERY pose imaginable, but he was a real trooper and was smiling throughout!

Thanks Abra, Asia, and Bodie! It was a pleasure spending the afternoon with you and I’m glad you all love your photos!

Well, whaddya know, a photo from the last photo shoot I posted was selected as Photo of the Week for the “Pieces of the Picture” blog. Always nice to know that people enjoy the work we do and even a little recognition is appreciated. Thanks to Tommy over there for the consideration!

Here’s the selected photo:

Here’s the blog post on their site about the Photo of the Week

Have a look at the rest of their blog for some great advice on photographing families, especially children: Piece of the Picture

Wow, what a fun afternoon with the Qureshi sisters and their kids! I’ve been itching to post these photos to the blog and now that we’ve presented the photos to the family, I’m happy to show you some of the highlights.

As we’ve been doing some work outside of the usual Indian weddings, I’ve found family life sessions to be so enjoyable. There’s a very different vibe with an entire family interacting with each other. And notice that I called these Life Sessions, not portraits…after all, the time we spend with these families is about capturing their lives together, not just about posing for a camera. So during these sessions, we do the usual group portraits, but most of the time is spent finding those family interactions which are so special and will be remembered forever.

Anyways, onto the photos! I know the family from Tayyiba’s wedding about 3 years ago. We covered many of their events and so it was a great chance to see the family again, especially how the kids have grown and to meet the newest member of the family, Tayyiba’s son, the little Z-Man!

Enjoy the photos!

We started off at the Ferry Building in San Francisco….
Talking about family interactions, this is one of those moments which are so common between a mother and her child. I decided to take this simple moment and make it a bit more special with some extra post-work, tying in textures & illustrations for something which highlights that special bond.

Little Inaaya was a bit shy when posing for her pictures, but she just loved showing me her dancing skills! So here’s a few shots I took while she showed me how to dance.




From the Embarcadero, we moved onto Baker Beach. The sunsets there just can’t be beat!









And this is an example of the unique montage enlargements we like to provide. It’s a way to take a wonderful photo and turn it into something really special that will look great in the family room, living room…anywhere you please!