I met up with Bonnie and David Bickford and their daughters one shimmery, golden December day to get photos for them.
I first met the Bickfords at these community dinners that I go to. David writes two blogs, one about hiking and one about restaurants along the Light Rail Line. Since I both love the Light Rail and I love food, I find his food blog delightful. It's fun to read about places that I have never heard of and also fun to read about places that I have visited and see his take on them. I need to read his hiking blog more this year, especially since I would like to go hiking more in the new year. They are both such good resources if you live in the Phoenix area.
Here is David's guide to good eating along the Light Rail Line: PHX Rail Food
And here is his guide to less traveled hikes in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area: PHX Trail Dude
You can follow David here on Twitter: @exit2lef
*********************************
This is how blue the sky was that day.
And this is how cute this family is.
Oooh, those sparkly eyes!
Beautiful momma, beautiful daughters:
I love getting images like this one. Eyes closed or cast down. Not sure why.
I think it's because of something like this: it takes me, the photographer, out of the equation and it becomes just an image about the two them.
I absolutely-absolutely-absolutely love how the sunshine falls and floats into this one. Did I say I LOVE it? I really, really do.
This one (below) is almost an outtake, but it cracks me up. Look at her cute little face!
This is one of my most favorite photos that I have ever taken. I love how the shimmering trees frame Bonnie and her daughter. And I just love the sweetness of the image, how her baby fits into the curve of Bonnie's neck.
Another one of my absolute favorites:
More shimmer. See her batman shirt? She was going to a Batman birthday party after the photoshoot. Actually it sounded like they had quite the weekend ahead of them, I seem to remember hearing about swimming and about Christmas parties and a show at a local theatre and even a stop thrown in to go to a picnic amidst sunflowers.
My FAVORITE image of them as a family. I think this one really tells a story for the youngest daughter about what it's like to be the little sister and the baby of this family.
This is the type of image (the one below) that I always try to get for holiday and Christmas cards. Everyone looking at the camera and all so adorable. When I review all the photos I've taken it's a total sense of relief to realize I got one like this.
One of my tricks to get babies to look at the camera is to start (literally) yelling Here Kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty (as loud as I possibly can). I have no idea why I started this, but I did it for one baby one time and it worked better than any other trick, so I do it for all the other babies I come across and it works more often than it doesn't. So if you are a photographer, I highly recommend my trick. You just have to be prepared to say Here Kitty, Kitty realllly loud and reallllly fast in order to get their attention.
Turns out the Bickfords have cats like I do. I got the girls to tell me their cats' names and I seem to remember there was a Pineapple, a Mango and a Nutmeg, and some others but I could be getting those names wrong. The Bickfords and I have the same number of cats and no, I won't be telling you how many that is. LOL.
UPDATE: Not Pineapple; Peppercorn. All of their cats have food names. There's a cat a named Vanilla and the names do correspond with their appearance.
I use that piece of cardboard as a reflector for light, but the girls found it to be a fun toy.
Flying baby:
Girl in the woods:
Thank you Bickford family for having me create photos for you guys! It was such a pleasure and delight! :) :) :)
