The photos below are from an outing at Carbon Canyon this evening. I had planned on working with softboxes to make the most of what I hoped would be a great sunset, but we ended up not really using them. By the time I did break ’em out it was too dark and my camera couldn’t get focus. Oh well. I hope you’ll agree that we got some good stuff anyways.

Thanks to Chris and Perla for making the drive out and letting me shoot their great young family. Oh, and little Christopher: it was a pleasure to take pictures with you as well!

Before I continue, let me just mention that Casey filmed his proposal on an old 8mm camera. How rad is that?

In any event, below are some samples from my attempt to capture this wonderful couple with an eye to cross processing and desaturation like one might see in older photos. I’m crossing my fingers that they like them!

Edit, 2009-07-07: more photos added.

Without further ado, here’s a sampling of what we took. For those of you reading this at 22:00 Sunday, I’ll add more a little later.

This is one I like to call “Who’s this lady think she is, trying to get my Cheerios?!?”

Edit: More shots are available here.

I met the Gills at Corona Del Mar for some shots in celebration of Danger’s 9th month. We lucked out and had pretty good light, although it would have been much better without the incoming storm blocking the sun.

Here are all the shots I have in the gallery for now. Click away to see larger versions.

So, the idea for the shot on the left was that dad (blue) + mom (yellow) = Danger (green). As soon as blue and yellow walked away into the background, green went straight for the sand. He looked thoroughly annoyed that he had this sticky stuff all over his hands, but he went for it time and time again. Too funny.

Edit: I’m pretty sure the photo on the right was shot by Becky, so kudos to her!

A parting, contemplative shot for you.

Kids are like secret agents. You might see one on the street and say “hello Gary”, and they’ll just keep right on moving because they have a mission they need to accomplish. They don’t need to tell you why they need to do it; they just know they have it, and it’s going to get done.

I had the great pleasure of meeting and photographing the Riley family today, and their two-year-old son Jack fits this secret agent thing perfectly. Several times he looked right at me, and you could tell his eyes were saying “hi Mr. Cameraman. I see you and your big fancy camera, but you know what? I have GOT to play with this toy train right now. Nothing personal, it’s just that if I don’t get this train moving, the lima beans aren’t getting to market, and I’m not going to let that happen. So you and your camera can come back later.”

In other words, kids have priorities, and your camera isn’t it. It’s what makes shooting kids so much fun. Below are some sample pictures from this immensely enjoyable shoot. A larger set, as always, is available in the gallery. As I write this, not all the gallery items are up, but will likely be up by tomorrow night.

A big thanks to the Svobodas for letting us shoot at their house!

Meet Sonja K. It’s her birthday.

I had the honor of shooting her at the Melting Pot in Brea for her celebration. Seeing as how I’m a gentleman, I wouldn’t ever give away a lady’s age, but suffice it to say she’s old enough to buy her own alcohol now.

Here, Ben does his husbandly duty and delivers the birthday spanking. His hand was so sore after all those swats that we had to amputate his arm. Poor guy.

Sonja had custom M&Ms made for her party. It was a really cute idea, but I think it would have been funnier if they had been peanut M&M’s. The variety of peanut shapes would have made for some great mods to the pictures. ;)

As always, more pictures are available in the full gallery. As I write this, I only have a few up, but will continue to add more. Even so, I thought this picture was worth sharing as part of the initial batch. I have no idea what’s going on.