Mini sessions are always a great way to get pictures of the kids
when you don't want to pay for a full private session.

Setting up back-to-back cousins' or buddies' Mini Sessions
makes the morning a TON of fun for everyone, too!

Sunday was the day for a COUSINS Mini Platinum in the park!

The kids' moms are sisters and brought all of the cousins for back-to-back mini sessions
at a nearby park here in Chula Vista. I've taken the kids' pictures before, and they're always
so fun (and gorgeous!!!).

Nicole, the oldest female cousin, is going through life with three older brothers.

She handles it with grace befitting the princess she is
(she does toss in some eye-rolling when the brothers show off a bit too much dorky masculinity).

I thought this was a great picture of her showing her & her big brothers:

Bradley, one of Nicole's brothers, is always my biggest challenge, but we got a great smile out of him!

His mom is going to FREAK (in a good way) when she sees this picture!!

Emily (Nicole's younger cousin) is going through life with two big brothers.
It wasn't hard to convince the big boys to tickle and kiss their little sister!

I'm off to scale Mt. Laundry before school ends for the day...
Happy Monday everyone!

~Carey

A month before his third birthday, Mat came up to me,
pointed to his bike's training wheels, and said,
"THESE are making me GO SLOW! TAKE THEM OFF!"

Rory is a totally different kid.
She's PINK. There's really no better way to describe her.

She'll be seven in a few months and has shown very little interest
in building up enough speed to keep herself upright on a 2-wheeler bike.
But last week, she shocked us all when she hopped on Mat's 2-wheeler bike and took off!

Isn't it funny how kids are so different?!

To honor the big development,
and to get Mat his bike back,
we headed to REI and found Rory's soulmate.

There were 2 shoppers in the store that saw Rory,
saw the bike that the tech as assembling, and said,
"They were made for each other."

Can you guess the color of Rory's new beach cruiser??

Of course you can...there is such a thing as a stupid question!

She loves it, and Molly loves bouncing alongside her up and down the road.

Molly, however, had some learning to do when it came to being Rory's WingDog.

The two of them are very very cute, and sometimes very very ditzy,
but I promise, no ditzes were harmed during the making of this movie!

Enjoy!

Do you remember the cool shots I created so that Mat's soccer team
could win their trip to the David Beckham Academy?

I've decided to donate shots like that to a lucky (and generous) Eastlake Little League family!

If you've got a player in Eastlake Little League down here in the south bay of San Diego,
you know that Opening Day is tomorrow! (Saturday, March 7th)

I've had a lot of interest in cool sports shots of youth athletes,
so I decided to donate a "YouthProShots" session to the ELL silent auction.

Each team had to donate a basket of goodies to the ELL silent auction,
so if you're there at Opening Day, look for the basket from a cute little T-ball team
that has a goodie in there from YOUTHPROSHOTS!

The winner's team will get an action photo session where I'll take action shots of every player
with the uber-cool snazzy lighting.
I'll use those shots to make a SUPER COOL 3ft x 5ft team full-color team banner!

(We're not talking the air-brushed felt things, people! You know I wouldn't do that!)

I've already heard that lots of folks want to win this,
so my recommendation is to get together with fellow team parents and pool your money
so you can WIN this for your team!

Good luck!!

~Carey

PS: If you want something like this for your team,
check out YouthProShots.com

Today has been "review the calendar" day.

April is coming up fast (I can barely believe we're into March already!),
and families are planning out their Spring Breaks.

My weekends of photo sessions in April are almost full,
but I wanted to let you know that there are a few Mini Platinum sessions open.

HERE is more info on the Barefoot Memories Mini Platinum.

Minis are scheduled on a first-come-first-served basis,
so whichever family asks for a day FIRST gets to pick the location for that day.

If you're a control freak who wants to be the one to choose the location,
you'd better book your session pretty far in advance!

The wonderfulness (yes, that's a word! I just made it up, so there!) about a San Diego photo session
is that the locations around here are all beautiful,
so even if you don't choose the location for your mini yourself,
you're still guaranteed a gorgeous place for your photos!

If you're interested in a session for April, there are still some weekday openings,
but if you want a weekend session, here are your choices:

-the morning of Friday, April 10th in La Jolla (one slot left)
-the afternoon of Saturday, April 18th in La Jolla (one slot left)

Have a great day!

~Carey

A perfect sky, an adorable expecting couple wearing great colors, and an English Bulldog.

What more could a beach photographer want? (that's sarcasm)

I met these folks in La Jolla last weekend for a maternity beach session,
and they brought along Fergie, their English Bulldog.

Baby Paxton will be arriving in a few weeks,
so mom & dad wanted to capture this unique time in their lives.

Anyone can see how in love they are, and their fun spirit made my job easy!

I kept joking throughout the session that Fergie was a camera magnet.

I couldn't help it -- my camera just kept pointing at her. Can you blame me?
Look at how cute she is!

That last one is one of my favorites.

Enjoy!

~Carey

PS: I used the awesome (or should I say RAD) Totally Rad actions for the "antiquee" look.

Specifically, I used "Lux" and "Antique Tone" combined with "Cinamon Toast."

I love combining actions together & turning up & down the opacity to make unique effects.

For the black & white image, I used my go-to B/W favorite, Kubota Artistic, BW GM warm 2 + snappy: