Yucca Valley Family Photographer | The M. Family’s New Home

This session was a gift from a real-estate agent to her clients. Many times an agent will do something nice for their clients after a new home closes (at least the best agents do!) When we bought our house, we got a good-sized gift certificate to our agent’s awesome Antiques Shop – a *really* great gift that gained me access to a bunch of really cool old furniture which I love. This idea is just as good, or better. These clients received the gift of photography, a session to commemorate a new chapter in their lives, the beginning of a journey in their new home – their BEAUTIFUL new home.

We wanted to to do the session mainly outside (since they’re still working on getting fully moved in) and so we set the session up for a time of day when the front porch would be cast in flattering light, which meant getting the kiddos up really early in the morning. It took them a little while to wake up, but they did amazingly well one we got the sleepies out. Their Mom, Holly, wanted to stick with a less scripted session that captured natural interactions between the kids and some of their favorites things.

If you know anything about me, you know this kind of session is right up my alley and falls in line with my vision for DelaLane Photography. I encourage activity-based sessions because they usually end up feeling more real – probably because they are. When we base our photo sessions on something fun and familiar, activities that are natural to you, you are more relaxed (and kids are more relaxed!) so we end up getting better images in general – both candid and posed – with a lot more fun and a lot less effort. In this instance we got out some of the kids’ favorites books, some coloring materials, a tricycle, a scooter, and a basket for picking (is it called picking? or cutting? or clipping?) artichokes. I champion “At Home” sessions (click here for more examples) too. I believe that using your own space and things as a backdrop for your photos, you are commemorating a piece of your history for yourself and for your kids, and for future generations. You’re letting me help you create images that are completely unique to your family – a situation where your photos are guaranteed to be different than every other family’s because they’re taken in the space you living in, the space you’re creating, a true part of your family history. That’s a beautiful, sentimental, worthwhile thing.

Congratulations on your new home, M. Family! I enjoyed our early morning session. Your house and your family are beautiful. Thanks for letting me capture a little piece of your history. 🙂