Capturing Timeless Moments: A Family Photo Session at Scripps Pier, La Jolla, CA

Capturing Timeless Moments

A Family Photo Session at Scripps Pier, La Jolla, CA

When it comes to creating cherished memories, there’s something uniquely magical about capturing them against the backdrop of a stunning natural setting, like those available for family photography in San Diego. For families looking to blend the beauty of the ocean and their vacation memories, a photo session at Scripps Pier in La Jolla, California, is an unparalleled choice. For families that are visiting San Diego for vacation and/or family reunions, a family photo session is a great way to document these joyful memories.

One of our recent clients surprised their mom with a photo session in La Jolla during their family reunion. They all came into town from around the country and decided the gift of capturing memories was the best gift to give. As a mom myself, I absolutely agree. Some of my favorite souvenirs from our family trips are photos of us spending time together.

This family had such a beautiful and loving bond, and I think you can absolutely see that through the lens of my camera. I even had to stop the session at one point to let the mom know that their love for each other was so obvious that it shined through in all of their interactions. It is an honor to capture it for them.

If you are thinking about booking a trip to San Diego, reach out, we would love to help you preserve your memories from sunny San Diego. Take a look at their session!

Fall Family Photo Outfits Perfect for San Diego Family Photo Sessions

Goodbye ☀️🌊, hello 🍂🎃🍁

Have you ever been so excited for an event and then realized you had no idea what you were going to wear? Or maybe you’re not a picture person and the idea of coordinating outfits stresses you out?  Or, you are a picture person but choosing outfits is your biggest stress point in the process? Whatever your problem with Fall family photo outfits, we’ve got you covered!.  One stop at Kohl's, or even just their website, and we've got your entire family covered for fall family photo outfits. The best part? You and the whole fam get to wear your favorite jeans (or skirts, or skorts! Remember those? Sorry if you were trying to forget them, but they’re back, y’all, and we’re totally digging them as part of a San Diego Fall family photography outfit)  Just make sure to mix and match light, medium, and dark washes or throw in a pair of blue khakis or corduroys to mix things up!  We love this look because it isn’t too matchy-matchy, you know? Everyone gets to stand out in their fancy (or casual) ‘fit. We built this set around the Lauren Conrad ruffle top. It is just so… autumnal. Those amber and burgundy leaves, that fluttery neckline and hem, and a subtle v-neck for that hint of “What’s happenin’ hot stuff?” From there, the mixing and matching is fairly simple because you have the focal point you want to work around. We chose a similarly amber-colored top for her partner and went with the denim look for the children’s outfits to tie them into the parents. 

 Remember, you don’t have to have everyone look the exact same unless you want that look, even this may be too matchy for you. Maybe it’s a goth day, pajama day, or find-something-clean day. Or maybe you’re desiring something a bit more elegant, a bit more posh. If so, maybe this Sweater Weather ensemble may be more your type.

Lauren Conrad Inspired San Diego Fall Family Photo Outfits Links

Lauren Conrad Ruffle Top: https://tinyurl.com/Womens-Ruffle-Top, $36.99

Brown Polo Top: https://tinyurl.com/Mens-Polo-Brown, $12.99

Pink Cardigan: https://tinyurl.com/Girls-Cardigan-Pink, $24.99

Denim Overalls: https://tinyurl.com/Girls-Overalls-Denim, $24.00

Navy Polo: https://tinyurl.com/Boys-Polo-Navy, $10.99

Sweater Weather Inspired San Diego Fall Family Photo Outfit Links

Green Sweater Dress: https://tinyurl.com/Green-Sweater-Dress, $36.99

Boots: https://tinyurl.com/Womens-Square-Toe-Boots-Black, $22.49

Shacket: https://tinyurl.com/Mens-Shacket-Plaid, $79.99

Cream Sweater: https://tinyurl.com/Mens-Quarter-Zip-Sweater-Cream, $50.00

Yellow Shirt: https://tinyurl.com/Boys-Short-Sleeve-Tee-Yellow, $11.47

Brown Pants: https://tinyurl.com/Boys-Pants-Brown, $20.00

Grey Coat: https://tinyurl.com/Boys-Barn-Coat-Grey, $49.99

Nature's cure

We brought the family on a hike on Day 2 of social distancing, determined to keep our minds clear and our bodies moving. Of course, we had to watch Frozen 2 first so that I could see what happened. I’ve never related more to Olaf in my entire life.

We decided to hike the hills behind our house to limit our contact with others and because Hailey has never joined us on “artichoke mountain” before. This was such a great learning and bonding experience for our family. Hailey got to find snails and was ever so careful to avoid them. The boys charged up the hill, as if they had boundless energy and no fear of climbing hills, and Hailey and I took the hills slowly and one step at a time. We took that opportunity to practice counting to 10 and then to 20. It was a fun little game of “Mommy will carry you up this massive hill for 10 seconds, and then you walk for 20 seconds, and then sadly repeat until mommy passes out.”

I love hiking with Hailey because she gets tired and starts to say, “I can’t do this,.” This is always my chance to be her biggest fan and life coach. Look, yes, this is hard, but we’ve done hard things before. Then I insert some distracting example of a time that she did something REALLY hard.

Just like this current situation, there are two important things we always have to do with faced with a hard challenge:

1. take a deep, healing breath and

2. take it one step at a time, then repeat this cycle until we’ve made it up the literal or figurative hill.

My favorite part of this? I get to hold my daughter’s hand and teach her how to face challenges in a controlled way. We feel the fear and step into it anyway. Then we ALWAYS turn around, look at that hill we just dominated, and she screams “WE DID IT! WE MADE IT!”

Mason and I made it our mission to take pictures of all the flowers we found on the trail with the plan to look them up at home and read about them. We also looked for new or creepy bugs and took pictures of them, too.

We stopped, enjoyed the fresh air, the slowing of our hearts after the climb, and tried to find our house in the distance. We also pretended we could see Auntie’s house too, even though, according to Mason she lives in the boonies and another country.

On the walk down the hill, I asked them to walking slowly and be aware of their footing, but of course they charged forward without minding my words at all. However, we try to allow them to explore and learn with a bit more freedom in nature than we can afford them on the busy streets.

Hailey whispered to Mason, “I’m scared to fall” and he said, “then hold my hand.”

She fell down a few minutes later and Mason bent down, hugged her, helped her up, and whispered, “That’s what big brothers are for: to help their sisters and keep them safe.” Can we just take a moment and appreciate the sweet nature of that kid? He may be hell on wheels most days, but he surely loves his people.

Next time, join us on our adventure? Well, not physically because then I’d have to run away from you to keep my distance, but you know, bring your family out into nature. Reconnect with the earth, your breath, and your family. I promise, it is worth it. Unless you get lost, have to drink your own pee or breastmilk, and then realize you were just behind the hill from your house. If you think that might happen to you, maybe bring a GPS.

Cloudy days and sunny dispositions

Let me start this off by saying, this is Jenny, and I have a very silly bone in my body, so don’t take anything in the blog too seriously. I mean, yes, it is here to potentially give you some ideas, but we are on day ONE of this mess and I am fully aware that I will run out of steam by like, tomorrow.

So, what should we do with these kiddos all day long? Well, today we started off by bringing them to Mission Trails to stomp in puddles and go on a hike. It involved wet clothes, chocolate egg bribes, and a lot of laughing. We are trying to abide by the social distancing philosophy, but we knew we woudln’t see anyone and if we did, we could keep our 6-15 foot distance. When we were leaving out hike, the kids and our dog were all high on joy and low on energy.

Home for PB&J and NAP TIME. My Daughter, Hailey, told me, “can we skip lunch and just sleep?” That's my girl. Naps are life.

Then we colored, and colored, and colored, broke up some fights because I left the room for one minute and that’s all it takes for my kids to go Lord of the Flies on each other with colored pencils, and then colored some more (surprisingly not with each others blood, but it was a close call).

Hailey made cookies with my husband, Matt, snuck chocolate chips, danced, screamed, and celebrated when she was allowed to eat some dough. She celebrated again when she snuck more dough before I could stop her. The dog celebrated when Hailey flubbed her second attempt at dough thievery and it fell to the floor. Matt celebrated when he got to eat some dough. My son, Mason, celebrated when he got to eat some dough. I celebrated when I got to LICK THE BEATER. That is how you assert your dominance in any family dynamic. Thee who licks the beater, is the leader (say it like it rhymes).

Then we went to do chores it the backyard. Mason mowed the lawn, meaning he pushed it forward twice and pulled it backwards once. He immediately asked if he earned his dollar and handed the job off to Matt. He and Hailey then filled a bucket with water and pretended it was an ice cream shop. They then tortured each other with the cold water from the hose.

Ahh, precious family memories.

We went inside for a snack and to snuggle on the couch.

We left the kids alone in the living room for about 15 seconds and the darned pencil made an appearance again. Someone let out a war scream, someone let out a regular scream. Mommy needed to be quarantined with ice cream. Everyone had to go take a break in the bedroom. That is when we decided to hang up the massive amounts of colorings on Mason’s walls. Remind me to show you the rainbow that looks oddly like female anatomy, later… not here. Then we all went to bed.

Anyway, look, I have no idea what to say. All I can think right now is the stress shouldn’t be shown to my children. I am trying to focus on real interactions, real laughter, and real memories. This is a terrifying time for me and loving on my family helps. Maybe it will help you, too.

-Jenny

An Alpine, Ca Family Session

I’m just going to say it-Alpine has the best golden hour light around. There is something about being up higher than everything around you that makes the light that much softer and that much glowier. The English teacher in me knows that isn’t a word, but the light watcher in me knows that it is totally a thing. The right light makes you glow :)

Still, people don’t always want to head out to Alpine from town, but when we get people interested in this location we do a little mental victory dance. For this family, they were actually coming from east of Alpine, which meant this was closer to home than most of our locations.

We’re so glad they did because this was one of our favorite fall sessions. When you have an inquiry for six kids, you panic a little, because getting six kids to look at the camera at one time is just a little tricky. Anyone who has tried to do it with one kid knows the challenge :P But these kiddos knew exactly what to do-from the little one hamming it up (were only giving you one guess who it is based on the family photos), then everyone looking at the camera at once, and then being 100% in on interacting with each other without worrying about the camera, they were a dream to work with!

So, are you ready to head to Alpine for some dreamy, golden light yet?

El Cajon Tree Farm Mini Session

Hello! Christmas photos at the local Christmas Tree Farm? YES PLEASE! We absolutely love bringing a little holiday cheer to families by photographing them in front of rows and rows of Christmas trees. These are some of our favorite mini sessions of the year. Christmas is a big deal in our family-Chris,and my son, Mase- were both born on Christmas Day, just 30-something years apart. -Jenny

Wright’s Field Mini Sessions

Have you ever heard of Alpine’s beautiful Wright’s field? It is absolutely worth the visit, especially if you plan to have a picnic at sunset. The light is golden and pure, and the sunset is simply stunning. We absolutely loved bringing our blue couch in for families to snuggle up and get comfy. Golden fields, beautiful trees, a nice place to rest, what else could you need for a photo session? I mean, happy and laughing kids help too! Thankfully, We had plenty of those as well. -Jenny

Santee Couch Mini Sessions

We love being able to provide our clients with something a little different for their holiday cards each year. Since our yellow couch was so popular last year, we thought we might try out a new blue one. Wow! Did everyone look stunning on it, and Santee’s rolling hills looked equally stunning. There is something magical about snuggling on a couch with your family to really capture the sweet bond between you. It brings a little bit of home and a little extra comfort to your photo session. Plus kiddos love that their shoes are welcome on the couch AND we encourage them to snuggle up in their favorite position for a few, “just for them” photos. -Jenny

Ramona-Pre-wedding Family Session

When this family saw our blog post about a wedding at this location, they knew it was the right spot for their family session. They were visiting Ramona for a wedding, knew they’d be all dressed up, and thought this was the perfect time to fit a family photo session in. I think they were right!

It was extra special that they could include grandma in the session! Multigenerational photos of the women in a family are one of my favorite shots to include in a gallery. I know it is because of the value the same shot holds for me in my own family photos, and I always hope that it will speak to our clients as well. -Christine

Karina's Celebratory Session at Santee CKO and Old Poway Park

Karina is doing what we think every woman should do: celebrating all that she has accomplished through hard work and dedication. The best part about this shoot was at the end, when she said that she felt like a Queen - and she should because she is awesome.

A few years ago she joined CKO gym to get healthy and become active. Now she’s punching her way through her goals. Best of all, she found a new level of self love and confidence. These are the moments we love to document, and we especially love it when we can highlight all the amazing women in our lives.

Girl, we are proud of you and all of the hard work you put into yourself. Sometimes finding our own value is one of the most difficult things we can do, but it is always the most worthwhile. Keep it up, we know you will crush it.