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A fun little treat from a recent portrait session in Old Town Sacramento:

I think I had more fun with this family in an hour and half than I do on my own in a week. They were up for anything: skipping (as evidenced above), jumping, climbing, and eating lollipops and ice cream. And, to me, the one thing that showed through in everything they did was what a happy family they were. All four seemed like best friends. It was inspiring to say the least, and I felt so honored to be the one to capture that for them.

I realized yesterday that I almost never show the entire family in blog posts, so I thought these lovely East Sacramento folks would be a good place to start. But just before that, I want to slip in one more day of spring mini-sessions! Here’s the info and then on to pictures:

Mini-Sessions
Midtown Area
Sunday, June 12th
9am – 12pm

Your $50 mini-session includes:

20 minute session for up to four people (each additional person $15)
Viewing gallery of 10-12 images from which to place your order

To reserve your spot or for more information, please send an email to info@jillcarmel.com or call 916.933.8352.

Now for family pictures — Little Colin was just on the brink of learning to walk…chances are he is by now. I love this stage for pictures (right before walking), because they don’t run away from me yet, lol!

We made sure to involve their three cats as well as their super-sweet greyhound. Love the lens flare on this one!

Showing off his pearly-whites!

I adore that this family was ready to just be themselves for their photography session. We got some fun, unconventional, unique pictures from the day — just the way I would want my own family photographed.

One of my favorites:

Every now and then my fiance will look over my shoulder at what I’m working on and make some random comment say something nice. Today’s statement was: “Wow, what a beautiful family!” and I whole-heartedly agree. Not only are they simply stunning to look at but they are also some of the sweetest people I’ve had the fortune to photograph.

This photo shoot was a Christmas gift to Mom from the handsome gentleman you see in the picture below. It was something I think she’d been wanting for a long time…and I’m pretty sure it was a surprise. As soon as I was sure Mom knew about it, I had to email her and say “How sweet is your man???” What a perfect Christmas gift!

You may recognize this beauty – she currently graces the “teen” gallery on my website.

And her lovely sister with oh-so-pretty eyes.

And brother who was just a straight-up model – how handsome is he?!

I had so much fun with you all! I can’t wait to show you the rest of your gallery tomorrow!

Oh, how I love fall in Sacramento, especially when it comes to family portraits. It’s like having colorful flowers in every tree – reds, yellows, oranges and even a beautiful apricot color. (BTW, if anyone knows the name of the trees with the apricot leaves — they’re in the picture below — let me know because I want to plant them all over my back yard!)

Okay, how cute are they in their little knitted kitty hats?!

I swear, she has the makings of a model. Such a graceful little girl and only five years old.

Love this shot. Remember doing that with your own mom?

Oh boy. These family portraits on the beach in San Francisco make my heart sing! I adore this family — we’ve had quite a few sessions together and each one is better than the last. We try and do something a little different each time and, for this one, they wanted to go to the beach. They picked out simple clothing with a splash of color (my favorite combination) and just had fun being themselves.

It was so cute — at first, little “J” didn’t like the sand.

Then he started to warm up to it once he saw that you could play with the water…

When we were all done with the sand, we had a spontaneous tickle-fest on the grass. Love this kid’s smile.

One of the last shots of the day, but also one of my favorites. You can’t really see it here, but little “J” has the BIGGEST smile on his face. Love it.

J, J & J, I had SO much fun with you guys. Thanks for being just plain awesome!

We can all use some more outfit ideas for family portraits, so I thought I’d include another post for good wardrobe tips. When selecting clothing for your family, a good place to start is to ask yourself: Where in your home are you going to display your pictures? What colors are in those rooms? Blue, greens, browns? If you have some time to plan ahead, your portrait session can result in wall art that perfectly compliments your interior decor.

Love the mix of textures and patterns –

Beautiful faces don’t hurt either, lol!

We’ve been getting some beautiful fall photos this year — Sacramento is wonderful for its abundant deciduous trees. Random fun fact (according to an NPR article): Sacramento has more trees per capita than any other city except Paris. That’s pretty cool!

Get ready for some super-smiling holiday portraits that I took in downtown Sacramento last week! Also, I have a confession to make…I have a HUGE crush on this little guy. He makes me laugh until my eyes are watering and my face hurts from smiling so much. I first met him when he was just a few days old for his newborn pictures back in April and he was already charming the socks off of everybody.

Okay, who could resist? Love, love, love the eyebrows!

Feet kicked up! So sweet.

Mom and Dad must have abs of steel with all of the laughing that is inspired by this smiley face!

It’s been pretty busy around here the last few months and, although I wish I had time to blog every session, getting out and actually taking the pictures has taken priority lately. Even still, I had to share these pictures with you. If they don’t put a smile on your face, well, I don’t know what will!

At the planning stages of every photography session, I always discuss with my clients what to wear, so I thought I’d start a new topic on the blog with clothing ideas. Within the category “clothing”, I will feature families that coordinated their outfits perfectly. And I say “coordinated” because sometimes it’s not just about one person’s outfit and how great it was, but how all of the outfits work together.

If you’ve had a session with me, you know I’m not a big fan of the “matching outfits” situation…instead, I prefer “coordinated clothing” = outfits that don’t look exactly the same but all come together as if they could be one (slightly busy) ensemble (love that word but feel silly saying it…).

This family totally got it. Nobody is matching, but their outfits all look like they belong together. The little plaid top, Dad’s striped shirt, the flowery scarf, Mom’s awesome boots…shall I go on? Love it.

Adore his eyelashes, by the way. And another good idea — check out Mom’s textured top. If you don’t want another pattern in the mix, go with texture. Same concept for the little girl’s hat above.

Love her little ear sticking out and her hair getting whipped up by the breeze.

It also doesn’t hurt that these folks are just downright good people and put a smile on my face every time.

I think I just made up the term “Sunset Meadow” but I think it fits for this set of family pictures…. he he. Last July, I went to Montana for a photography retreat and came back with about a zillion photos that I had taken. As I was sorting through them, I found this set of images that just “got me” and I thought I’d share them with you.

And by the way, if you’ve never been to Montana…well, just go…that’s all there is to it. It’s like there’s a little bit of magic around every corner and the skies really are bigger there. I half expected to find fairies living in the trees!

These pictures were taken at the BEAUTIFUL home of Teresa of Meadowbrook Farm. She is a mother, interior designer, chef, gardening maven, photographer — and now a good friend. If you want to see more, go check out her amazing blog.

My heart melts over this one…

The sunset light…mmm, delicious.

Beautiful sister smiles.

The paper boat didn’t go too far, but it was fun while it lasted!

Those big brown eyes! Too sweet!

Love the intense looks on their faces as they spot something in the grass. Oh, Montana adventure!

We’ve been busy little bees here as we head into our most popular time of the year for family pictures. The calendar is filling up quickly and there are only a limited number of spots available, so if you’d like to reserve a session, give me a ring.

- Jill

Ever since this family booked their apple orchard family portrait session, I couldn’t wait to meet them and see what fun we’d have.

I immediately felt a connection with them because these kids are home-schooled. Little known fact about me is that I was home-schooled until I was 12 and LOVED it. Although mom is an amazing mother and teacher to these two beautiful children, I think she also has a secret profession as a set designer…they brought along boxes of apples, a red radio flyer wagon, baskets for apple picking, and a bunch of other fun things.

One of the most special qualities that I noticed about this family is how much the brother and sister ENJOY one another. It’s a really beautiful thing to capture in pictures — holding hands, hugging, running together — we got it all.

Gotta love the gap in brother’s teeth! So cute!

Rosy apples and rosy cheeks. Ahh, I was in heaven.

If you’re interested in doing a photography session in an apple orchard, NOW IS THE TIME. Give me a call or shoot me an email if you’d like to have your own special apple orchard photo shoot.