If you’ve been following my blog long enough, you will recognize some members of this beautiful family from my shoot back in 2007. Since then, they’ve added a new little one to the family: meet Gia! Gia is quite the troublesome little sister to Reza, and is already a rather fearless explorer. Her head is always on a swivel, looking for what she wants, and when she spots it, she is going for it. There were times I wanted to put down my camera to marvel at this little person’s awareness and tenacity.

It was so much fun to be with the Mohammeds again, to see them grow in number and to experience their family. Every family is different, and I just love how it feels to be in the middle of all the various families I’ve had the privilege to photograph over the years.

There is something really special to me about photographing the same people over a span of time. There is an incredible familiarity. The trust that is established through those experiences is almost tangible.

I hope you get to experience a bit of this beautiful family through my pictures.

See more on Facebook: Mohammed Family [Lifestyle Portraits]
Reza’s Baby Pics: 2007
Location: Pasadena, CA

Sometimes I feel a little strange blogging completely different types of images one post right after the other. The last post with Ethan was this explosion of energy and curiosity. This post is more of a meditation on the precious and intimate beginnings of new lives. For some reason, I am very emotional about this set of picures. I’ve known Grace, the new mother, for many years and there’s something about the tenderness in which Joe touches his babies that really gets at my heart.

So I think about these things, and I realize that they are all intricately connected – the explosions and the meditations, the curiosity and the fragility, the joy and the (joy). We are immensely capable of feeling this huge range of … things … yes we spend so much time trying to compartmentalize them all, as if one thing cannot be experienced in fullness while experiencing another. I sit in this tension as I write this post, reveling in that ballistic celebration that was Ethan’s birthday and the quiet serenity of Caleb and Peter’s new life.

You might remember Ethan from a few months ago in my Moser Family shoot. Apparently, these creatures known as babies grow rather quickly. Ethan just had his first birthday. And that means he gets his own cake. Don’t try to separate a boy from his cake!

You can watch the entire thing unfold on video as well: [Natalie's Blog]

Back in July, I shot a really experimental session with the Bangash family. They asked me to come back and do a little bit more of a structured shoot as well as spend some more time just shooting some portraits of the parents together. I was more than happy to see the Bangashes again. The kids grow up so darn fast!

It wasn’t that cold when I shot this session, but I went with a decidedly winter/fall feel for this shoot. There’s something nostalgic about this time of year that I really wanted to convey.

It was an incredible privilege and honor to be asked to do a family lifestyle session for my good friend and gifted photographer Natalie Moser. I shoot with Natalie all the time, at a variety of event and weddings. I think I actually shot one of her last weddings before giving birth to her son, as well as the first wedding she shot after… so I’ve gotten to see this boy grow. And boy, has he grown (22lbs at 7.5 months)! Anyway, I am a bit speechless at this point. I feel like these pictures say more than I can with words about how much love I have for this family. They have a beautiful energy and I hope these pictures communicate that with some clarity.

Last night I had the opportunity to photograph an event in Los Angeles encouraging people to go out and vote. The event was at Les Deux and hosted by Brooke Burke of Dancing With The Stars fame. It was so different from a wedding, so it was nice to do something brand new. While brand new to me, everybody has seen the red carpet photos from things like the Oscars and other events. I joined in with that crowd of red carpet photographers to make sure I got my shots, but I also got to try some other stuff. My friend Jeffrey Neal came to shoot the event with me. He got to shoot inside the club while I was shooting the red carpet stuff.

It’s actually really difficult to get away from the existing aesthetic of red carpet photographs, but I just wanted to share a few things I tried to do a little differently. (No, I didn’t crawl on the ground, or climb any walls this time.)

On a more serious note, I want to encourage people to go out and cast an informed vote next week. It’s an exercise of our citizenship, honoring the freedoms in this country that we take for granted. Wars have been fought for this right, and we neglect it in this country because of our ridiculous sense of entitlement. As far as the presidential race goes, don’t vote for a candidate just because of perception. Read up, understand what each candidate stands for before voting. And don’t forget about third party candidates, i.e. Ralph Nader, Bob Barr. You’d be surprised how much more you might agree with their platforms than the Mc’bama choice.

Even if you aren’t fired up about the presidential elections, there are still tons of propositions to vote on in California. My guess is that everybody cares strongly about at least one of the issues on the ballot. So get off your lazy ass, fire up that world wide web, get educated on the issues and exercise the privilege of voting on Nov. 4.

Yesterday was the Nike+ Human Race – basically a 24 hour series of 10k runs all across the world. In LA, there was something like 12,000 people running. Pretty cool, eh? It was rather crazy to be running with that many people. As I was running, I saw a girl running with a prosthetic leg. It’s always so inspirational and humbling to me when I see people go out and do things of incredible mental and physical fortitude. Whoever you are, you freaking rock and inspired my run last night.

Perhaps the best part (at least for me) about running in LA was that Kanye West was doing a small concert after the race for the participants. Jeannie and I actually had really wanted to go see him during his summer tour, but that didn’t work out, so this was sweet. Common made a guest appearance as well.

Happy Labor Day, folks!

For all the things I don’t particularly love about LA, being able to go to a place like the Getty Villa is definitely an exception. It’s been so busy for Jeannie and me lately that we haven’t gotten to spend that much time together – this was our first day out in awhile. And it was great. Except for the traffic.

Anyway, much silliness ensues in the following picture, so you can either bear with it or skip this blog post altogether. I actually feel like when doing silly pictures, I look back at them and feel blessed to have found such a compatible partner. (I know, I know. I’m such a sap…)

Also, I wanted to mention that my photography professor from Pomona College, Sheila Pinkel, is having a show at the American Jewish University which we went to see yesterday. If you’re into political art, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Holy cow, people. Things have been busy for me. Busy enough, in fact, that I’m not even going to put together a well organized and cohesive slideshow today. Instead, I’ve decided to just post pictures I’ve shot in the past two weeks… kind of a a snapshot of my life since my lifestyle shoot with the Bangash family. I’ve been second shooting a ton for my friends Jeff Lawler and Natalie Moser, and I’ve included some of the more experimental stuff I’ve been working on with lighting (as well as some details and a few PortaStudio shots). I also have two pictures of tomatoes and basil that Jeannie and I have been growing this summer… just because growing stuff kicks-ass.

Just some notes on the pictures:
- there is one picture where I think I used 7 mirrors for the shot.
- two long exposure night shots.
- there is a lot of flash used in these pictures, but…
- some shots aren’t lit, but i like them, so i’m posting them.
- trying new things is a lot of fun… but a lot of stress too.
- multiple flash exposures can give you some interesting cubist looking forms in the pictures.
- the Nikon 50mm f/1.4 D doesn’t really do well with backlight… rumors have it the f/1.4 G is coming out in September… and that a 1.2 is coming out next year.
- a big shout out to all the random catalogs I’ve been looking at to get ideas for lighting.

Weddings:
James/Sarah – Natalie Moser Photography
Jason/Marissa – Natalie Moser Photography
Ron/Rachel – Natalie Moser Photography
Hans/Holly – Natalie Moser Photography
Martin/Hong – Natalie Moser Photography
Randall/Emma – JNP Studios