I met up with the Sambito Family (Joe, Jennifer, Sophia and little Giovanni) in Laguna Beach for their family portraits. It looked like the kids had a good time running around the beach, but I probably had more fun following them and taking their photos. Needless to say, they are such a beautiful family and it was my pleasure to tag along. Check out some of my favs:

What a great looking bunch!

Big sister Sophia taking care of Giovanni.

Mom and dad looking good.

Give me a kiss!

The girls.

The boys.

Up on Daddy’s Shoulders (btw…that’s Lucas’ favorite book :P )

Big smiles.

Such a cutie! Sophia.

The little man. Giovanni.

Flying high!

Walking on a (not really, but looks it) secluded beach ;)

We spent a very special afternoon taking pictures of little Amber Duke. How perfect is it that Diana and Tad’s little baby girl was born on Valentines Day! So cool. She is now about 10 weeks old and is such a cutie. She was sleeping when we arrived, but soon after, she treated us with her huge gorgeous eyes. She was great the whole time and I see some modeling in her future ;)

Here’s a small sample of Baby Amber Duke or B.A.D.!

Amber and her Mom were matchy, matchy!

We did some very nice classic black background stuff.

Such cute little arms, hands, eyes, nose…

Awesome moment with Daddy.

Needed a change right in the middle of our session. You think it’s a girl’s room? :)

I took this at the very end of our session. She was still bright eyed and ready to go! The ones from this sequence are my favorites.

On Sunday, we drove down to San Diego to meet up with Dan and Lisa. We met 3-week old Baby Ella for the first time. She is just a cutie and such a good little baby (unlike another baby that I know, Lukie Dukie :P ). We hadn’t seen them in over a year and Lisa and Dan are doing such an awesome job as new parents. We had the honor of taking some baby portraits of Ella. It’s so nice to be able document the start of someone’s life. It’s just as emotional as weddings and it’s a nice change of pace from our typcal photography commitments. We hope to do more. Here are some of my favs:

It’s always nice to be able to go out and take some pictures with the family. I can’t even remember the last time that we did this that was not Christmas. Even better that my brother, JB, was in town from the Philippines. We ended up going to Corona Del Mar, CA about an hour and a half before sunset and were able to get some quality shots in there. I ended up using my 70-200 f/4 on a tripod for all of these and they came out well. I wish I had my new 2.8 L IS or 85 f/1.8 but they’re in the mail and should be arriving in a few days. I hope to make this an annual event. At the least.

Here are a few of my favorites. To see the rest: http://www.flickr.com/photos/janearlgarcia/sets/72157594327272312/.