Our shoot started at the Carlsbad Flower Fields, which, unfortunately, were on their last legs.  We did manage to get some great Stuff of Maddie amongst the color.  The real fun began at the beach, though.  Jen and Brian had told me that Maddie loves to run.  In fact, they told me they often take her and she’ll just run for hours, leaving everyone else exhausted.  They were not kidding–this kid can motor!

During our hike, the landscape struck me as something that would be a great site on which to photograph portraits.  This past Sunday I had the opportunity to photograph some very good friends of ours, the Marazoni family, and I chose those same hills as the location for the shoot.  I photographed the girls several years ago and in looking at those pictures now, it’s amazing to see how much they’ve grown.  They are one of the sweetest families you’ll ever meet and my family and I are very lucky to have them in our lives.

The Nichols family was photographed late Sunday afternoon, just as the most recent storm was approaching.  I really love shooting in this type of light–really low with dramatic texture in the clouds–but I knew with the strengthening storm we’d need to get this done quickly.  It was the perfect situation for big, soft light, so I set up a single strobe in a 5-foot octodome.

The drawback to using the octodome is that, in strong winds–even with a sandbag–it pretty much turns into a kite. I managed to shoot many of these images with one foot on the bottom of the sand, holding it in place.

Nevertheless, the Nichols family hung in there through the cold and were absolutely great during the shoot!