Oh yeah, been getting creative with fun children’s photography wall collections! This is our newest springtime offering, and can be ordered in sizes from 10×10 to 30×30! Just choose a few of your favorite images, and we’ll do the rest! Can be completely customized to match your child’s room’s color scheme! See how our creative adorable garden grows!! This would also make a perfect custom invitation to your little one’s birthday party!
I promised to show off each of my little subjects from our day of mini-sessions at my San Carlos kids portrait studio! First to arrive was the Carrico family, Joel & Pia, being fellow photographers, welcome the chance to get the family in a photo without having to resort to self-timers and photoshop of multiple exposures… Baby Ossi, just a tender newborn two weeks old, stole my heart, but his big brother, Noah, was quite a charmer himself!
So great to see Miss Madeleine and her sweet sister Gianna, and Mommy Nicole at my San Carlos photography studio on Friday! Can’t wait until our next photo playdate with the fabulous fairy dress! Here are a couple of my favorte for Valentine’s Day! I heart you guys!!!
I could say it a million times, baby portraits in my San Carlos studio are such a joy! I will have a blog post for each of these babies (oh, how they have grown!) but first, here’s one of all of them together! (no small feat at 4PM when the afternoon crankies can sneak into the sweetest of babies!) Their mommies are all the best of friends, and I have photographed each of their weddings over the years, and as fate would have it, they all have wonderful sweet babies in their arms these days, who I am sure will love growing up together!
I am feeling the spring time, and am so pleased to offer a special portrait mini-session in and around my San Carlos children’s photography studio on Wednesday and Friday, February 10 and 12th, just in time for Valentine’s Day!!! Only $95, which is a savings of almost $200 from our regular session fee! Reserve your 30 minute studio or outdoor session today by calling 415.515.6370, or sending an email to inquiry@millcottagephoto.com. Sessions are available between 10AM and 4:30PM on those two days only!!! We also will be having a special Woodland Series portrait event on Monday, February 15, and are accepting only three clients for that day for an on location session in the Los Altos Hills. The times available are 11:30, 12:00 noon and 12:30, and sessions will be 20 minutes, 1-2 children only.
All new clients will receive a special $25 gift card with purchase of a session, and current clients will receive a complimentary 5×7 print of their favorite image from the session as well as a $25 gift card! Images will be shown in your own personal, password protected web gallery, and will be available for purchase on-line for 3 days after they have been posted, so alert the grandparents, friends and family to be ready! Reposting your gallery after those 3 days will incur a $100 fee, which will automatically be applied to your order!
Jungle Joe with his handmade puppets rock the house!
One of the things that makes a birthday party, and thus the birthday party ph0tography, so much fun is the activities provided for the children who attend! I know when I go about planning the next birthday party for MY son, Josh, the only website I will visit is California Puppets planning site for Bay Area kids birthday parties! Not only will you see puppet show ventriloquist extraordinaire, Jungle Joe, but there is a plethora of amazing tips and ideas for making your child’s event a huge success! It is a really great resource, especially for first time parents, who have no idea where to start and what to do! Mill Cottage Kids has a great bunch of party ideas, so make sure all your lovely party plans get the photographs they deserve so you and your tot can look back on the occasion for years to come!
Thanks to everyone for the wonderful comments on the portraits of Alana from her party and from my children’s portrait studio in San Carlos! I am so glad especially that family and friends who weren’t able to attend the celebration are able to see how happy everyone was for Alana’s miracle! I know everyone is clamoring for more! So here’s a little video for you of all the images from the party! Enjoy!
Right around the corner from my San Carlos photography studio is a wonderful park where I have done many portrait sessions! Today I had the honor of photographing a 4 year old’s birthday party, and you might think that was all in a day’s work… Well, let me tell you why this little lady is especially incredible! I photographed Alana, and her parents and their doggie for their holiday cards when Alana was about 9 or 10 months old. She took her first steps in my studio, and then the following January her mommy brought her back to do a one year session with CAKE!! (one of my favorite things to do!) To this day I have two big canvases of that session in my office, and her smiling face and adorable blue eyes greet me every day! Fast forward to a few months ago when I was devastated to hear that she was involved in an accident that almost took her life. Thanks to the amazing first responders, the emergency team at Lucille Packard Hospital, and an amazing staff at Children’s Hospital in Oakland, as well as so much love and devotion from her family and all of us who love her and prayed for her, she was running around, enjoying her party, and everyone who was there couldn’t be happier! I came to document the celebration, and we even set up an impromptu portrait station, and my lens was focused on a non-stop parade of adorable children! Just wanted to share one of Alana for everyone to smile, and be so thankful for every day we have with the ones we love! Happy Birthday special girl! I can’t wait to see you and your family again soon!
I love to photograph newborn babies, and today was twice the delight – TWINS… 20 tiny toes and all the sweetness I could handle! These beautiful twins were born to Nicole & Miguel, whose destination wedding I photographed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! I am so happy for their whole family!! Lovely to see Miguel’s mother again too!
I truly had hoped to have time to schedule some mini-sessions for the holidays, but weddings and regular portrait sessions kept me hopping until the bitter end… I will be organizing a spring open house instead, so we’ll be all ready for Mother’s Day! Thanks for understanding! I do have a couple of openings for some regular sessions during the next couple of weeks, so call if you have some extended family in town for the holidays, and want to capture those special relationships… Hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season, and an amazing new year in 2010!
Special thanks to “Uncle” Mitch for giving Josh his first flying machine today! Daddy and Josh took the plane out for a spin, and crashed a lot to Josh’s giggly delight! Daddy giggled too… :^)
I love to photograph children in a pumpkin patch! The candid style with the colorful background is always a favorite… Doesn’t hurt that Fall is my absolutely favorite season! The crisp snap in the air, the bright blue sky, and pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!! Here’s two… same patch, same kid, 2 years different… my baby is growing up so fast! Ahhhh…. love that face!
Whew, it’s been a hot time in the City this summer… we have had numerous days that we could play in the backyard, which in the 10 years we have lived in this house in the fog, have been a rarity until the past year or so… what does that say about global warming?? I digress… Josh and I had to take a trip to Cold Stone Creamerywhere we had a wonderful treat for our tastebuds… Jello pudding ice cream. OMG. so good. Josh just had the basics… “gramilla” (his word for Vanilla) and m&m’s… He seriously enjoyed it! Here’s a cute image…
Audrey's Baby Portraits by Mill Cottage Photography
It’s so hard to believe that I photographed Michelle & Patrick’s wedding almost 4 years ago… and I was thrilled to hear from Michelle that they had a baby girl back in October! Today was the day I got to see Michelle and meet Audrey, and she couldn’t be cuter! She’s got her mommy’s grace (and that of her namesake, Audrey Hepburn!) and she looks so much like her daddy too! Here are just a couple of teasers for you guys!! Really looking forward to sharing them all with you soon!!
Every once in a while we do a studio playdate, and we always have a great time, and catch some great portraits! Today Josh & I got to play with Adam & Luke (and their parents, of course), and here area couple of favorites!
Ahhh… the beautiful Rachel. Can you believe the eyes on this girl??? She is so gorgeous, and I am so glad every time her mommy brings her in to see me!! Thanks also for bringing the yummy dim sum! It was a life saver! Love you Martha!! (I am still holding out hope that Josh and Rachel will marry some day… I know he’ll have to fight his way through her suitors!!)
oh, man… Josh is getting so big, talking full sentences and complex thoughts, learned to swim last week when we were in Tahoe, and today he told me he had to potty four times, and he did. It was not just a ruse to get m&m’s, he really had to potty.
Why am I sharing this with the world on my blog?? Well, that’s just how I roll – I wear my heart on my sleeve, and it’s one of the things that makes me really good at my job of being a wedding and portrait photographer. As a photographer, you really need to connect with people in a short amount of time on a real and personal level! It has to be real… especially with children’s photography. They don’t care if you have the most expensive camera in the world or where you studied, or any of that. Can you get in there and connect with them and play with them? Then you’re the hero, you’re fun, and they have a good time.
So many times parents are stressed out because they have taken time off from work, paid a session fee, and gotten it together to get everyone to the session, and they really want it to go well. I can tell you hundreds of stories about families who have left the session feeling like their kids misbehaved, or didn’t cooperate, and so therefore their images probably won’t live up to their lofty expectations. Then they come, see their images, laugh, cry, and are amazed at what they are seeing – their family, not just what they look like, but who they are… Anyhow, I am so proud of Josh, so happy to get to photograph him, and everybody else’s families, and just wanted to share… Feeling all warm and fuzzy today :^)
Ahhh today was so much fun! I have never photographed so many adorable children in one place, and we raised some money for the March of Dimes to boot!! This little beauty is so grown up now at age two… I have been photographing her since the day she was born! You’ve got your mommy’s eyes!! So beautiful! More later as I get them processed!!
Michelle and Steve got married 5 years ago (where has the time gone???) and we were pregnant with our sons at exactly the same time – due just a day apart. We always love it when we get to see Michelle and Connor, and Josh kept asking for his friend all evening! Here’s Connor on the big Tortoise!!
