Creepy Attic Portraits

December 19th, 2016:

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Daniel

The past couple years I have had a growing interest in portraiture, I love seeing images that capture something unique about a person. I spent most of 2014/2015 letting myself be consumed by wedding work and kept putting off any type of personal projects like this, but the idea to start making portraits was always rattling around in the back of my head. In May when we moved up to Seattle I found myself with a huge attic(1000sqft), and I decided that since I have a space where I could keep things set up all the time, I would try to photograph a portrait of anyone who visits. Now I missed a few people, but here are the first dozen sittings.

Since I mentioned the Seattle move above, and since I get questioned a lot about it, I need to remind everyone, that YES, I still shoot wedding in Los Angeles (or anywhere else in the world). Please don’t hesitate to call or email me.

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Madalyn

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Regan

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Bill

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Sommer

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Greg (Check out his travel blog, Vagabonding Life, if you want to hear his stories from an entire decade traveling)

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Bryan

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Bob (My father)

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Marie

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Julienne (and you are absolutely correct, she wasn’t into it)

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Huong

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Rob (this is me, by the way – photo was set up by me and taken by my niece Madalyn)

——————-

These images were all created in my creepy attic with a single speedlite in an umbrella, a roll of white paper, and white foam core to fill some shadows – keeping it super simple. Everything was shot on a 5D Mark III using a 50mm f/1.2L, 85mm f/1.2L or the 135mm f/2L.

Here’s my set-up:

Seattle, Portraits, Headshots, Photography,Photographer

Twins! | Newborn Photography

March 7th, 2014:

Family, Photography, Photographer, Babies, Newborn, Los, Angeles, Orange, County, Blog post by Felicia

Being wedding photographers often means that we not only get to share in one momentous day in a couple’s life, we often also see the trajectory of that relationship evolve over time. For John & Drea, we had our first meeting at their home, hung out after their engagement shoot, witnessed their lovely backyard wedding, and this time when we visited, they are now a family of FOUR!

Drea & John are new proud parents of twins: Sara & Christopher. We spent the rainy Saturday indoors, marveling at the cuteness of these little ones – and amazed at how their parents are absolutely radiant and glowing despite having twins! (I only have to deal with Rob and I’m exhausted)

BIG congratulations to Drea & John, and thanks for having us over!

Family, Photography, Photographer, Babies, Newborn, Los, Angeles, Orange, County,

The “Family Emergency”

February 19th, 2014:

My younger brother, Matthew, has been battling stage 3/4 skin cancer (metastatic malignant melanoma) for the last 18 months, and he suffers from multiple tumors throughout his body and is currently able to move around for just a few minutes a day before becoming exhausted. He’s undergone a number of various treatments now, but nothing has yet put the cancer into remission. He has a wife, Niki, and two young daughters: my nieces Ally and Lilly.

Last month when I received that middle of the night call, we thought the worst. Matt had suffered multiple seizures, and ended up unconscious for 2 days in a hospital in Northern California where he lives. When he came to, the MRI showed six unidentified spots on his brain, leading to the deduction that these were brain tumors.

This all happened a couple days before Felicia and I were supposed to leave on a trip to Singapore to visit Felicia’s grandparents, including her 90-year-old grandfather who is also battling cancer (F***ing cancer), then we were to head on to Japan for a little vacation for us. Needless to say, I canceled my trip and Felicia shortened hers (you can see pictures she took in Tokyo), and I headed up to Sacramento to be with my brother and our family. The next weeks were extremely difficult, but the spots on his brain turned out to be an infection (which had caused the seizures) and they have since cleared up. Matt is still stuck on the couch or the bed for most of the day, but not having brain tumors is nonetheless a small victory for now.

About two weeks after all this happened, I was still with Matt in Northern California. He was having a good day and wanted to do some Angels Baseball themed photos with his little girls and his wife. We headed over to a park a couple blocks from his house and he tapped all his strength to get out and play with his kids for about 20 minutes. Here are a few of those images.

If you would like help out Matt and his family, you can check out their page, www.ThePaetz.com

Davis Family | Santa Rosa Plateau

June 28th, 2013:

Santa, Rosa, Plateau, Photography, Photographer, Family, Children, Temecula, Pala, Lake, Elsinore

Blog post by Felicia:

Many of you may recall we recently has the opportunity to photograph Aaron’s homecoming at Camp Pendleton, which was one of the most emotionally-challenging events we’ve witnessed (birth of a baby counts too).

Last week we made the trek down to Temecula to do some family pictures for Aaron, Yvonne and their dangerously charming little ones before Aaron leaves for another tour of duty.

Thank you Aaron & Yvonne, for your service & sacrifice, and good job on making these super cute kids!

We’re gonna miss you, Aaron.

Santa, Rosa, Plateau, Photography, Photographer, Family, Children, Temecula, Pala, Lake, Elsinore

More Nieces!

March 13th, 2013

Sacramento, Roseville, California, Family, Photographer, Session, Photography

Blog post by Felicia:

If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you would have noticed that we’re pretty close to our two nieces, celebrating birthdays and making time to hang out with them as they grow up all too quickly.

What many people don’t realize is that we actually have FOUR nieces, not just two (+ two step-nephews who are totally awesome too, for the record). However, Rob’s brother Matt and his family live up in Northern California, so we don’t get to play uncle and aunt to these two little ones very often.

Last week we finally were able to go visit and get to know the newest members of the Paetz clan. These girls have two distinct personalities: Ally (age 3) is fearless, rambunctious, opinionated and outspoken – including yelling “Auntie ‘Fenisa’ you’re CRAZY!!!” when I did silly things to make her look at the camera – whereas Lilly, on the opposite end of the spectrum, is possibly the most mellow baby I’ve ever met.

Thanks Matt & Niki for a wonderful weekend. We miss you guys already!

Sacramento, Roseville, California, Family, Photographer, Session, Photography

Nellie + Family | Long Beach Session

January 18th, 2013:

Long, Beach, Family, Session, California, Los, Angeles, Photography, Photographer

Nellie and I met way back in the day I was a bartender (somewhere around late 2004 or early 2005). I served drinks, and Nellie usually dropped by once a week or so during happy hour for an icy cold beverage and we developed a banter-filled relationship across the bar top. When I finally decided to ditch the house, the car and take off on a 1 year round the world trip in February 2006, I started this blog (hence the title “Mom Says I’m Running Away” ) and Nellie became one of my first followers as I posted about my travels through Europe, Asia, South America and the U.S. – she even named my bicycle when I rode PCH from Santa Monica to San Francisco (go read the comments). Needless to say she has always been in the background rooting for me. So when she shot me a Facebook message about doing family photos for her, Ambrosia and Samuel we immediately got it all set up for a cold January afternoon.

Felicia and I had a wonderful time with this beautiful family and just have to say thanks once more for the ribs + beer post shoot. Nellie, I think we should try to do this more often than once every 6 years…

Long, Beach, Family, Session, California, Los, Angeles, Photography, Photographer

Yoga with Rose

June 18, 2012:

Yoga, Photography, Photographer, Southern, California, Los, Angeles, Burbank

Back in March when Felicia yoga-ed for charity, I took pictures and my 94-year-old grandfather ate cake, we also gave away a couple of portrait sessions as a charity auction item to raise funds for the National Lung Cancer Partnership.

Rose, a teacher at Yoga Blend where Felicia practices yoga, won one of the sessions, and recently got in touch for photos, as she was about to launch her new website, and she also had a bunch of workshops coming up.

And so it was, we spent a beautiful morning with Rose (and her wonderful Australian accent), glad that we could get her some nice pictures while raising funds for cancer research!

Yoga, Photography, Photographer, Southern, California, Los, Angeles, Burbank

Jill at Malibu Creek State Park

May 1st, 2012:

Malibu, Creek, State, Park, Photography, Photographer, Hiking, Outdoor, Southern, California, Portraits

It’s almost the season for college graduation, and yesterday Felicia and I spent a lovely spring day morning at Malibu Creek State Park with Jill, a graduating film school student. We had a great time photographing and getting to know this vivacious, confident young woman, as we talked about the movie/TV industry (Felicia and I have done a few independent movies on the side). We are quite impressed by her great attitude, wit and charm, so if anyone out there in LA who knows of an entry-level film/TV role to fill, let us know and we’ll send Jill your way!

Congrats, Jill, and all the best!

Malibu, Creek, State, Park, Photography, Photographer, Hiking, Outdoor, Southern, California, Portraits

Hello Noah Edward!

April 3rd, 2012:

Los, Angeles, Santa, Clarita, Baby, Newborn, Photography, Orange, County, Family, Photographer

Having met Jessica & Nathan at Jose & Hellen’s wedding, then shot a maternity session with them, Felicia and I were thrilled to finally be able to meet their little one – Noah Edward. We showed up to find a beautiful aviation-themed nursery, and thankfully, in between feeding and changing, Noah gave us about 45 good minutes for photos before he called it a day.

Los, Angeles, Santa, Clarita, Baby, Newborn, Photography, Orange, County, Family, Photographer

And…. his patience for cameras had run out.

Congrats Nathan & Jessica!

Photo Session with Lissette, Jason + Mason

January 11th, 2012:

Maternity, Session, Photography, Photographer, Wedding, Travel, Los, Angeles, Chatsworth

Several weeks after we did the maternity shoot for expectant parents Jessica & Nathan, we got a call from Jessica’s sister Lissette. Both sisters are pregnant, and are due only a month apart!

We met the excited trio at their home where I popped off a few shots in front of an open window, then we trooped out into nature on this cold & blustery winter’s day. Felicia has been particularly enamored with Mason since she met him as the charming ring-bearer at Hellen & Jose’s wedding, and she was thrilled to be tasked with keeping him entertained while I photographed his parents. That’s right Felicia, keep borrowing other people’s children, so we’ll never need to have our own!

Maternity, Session, Photography, Photographer, Wedding, Travel, Los, Angeles, Chatsworth