Anna Myers Photography Blog » Bay Area Modern Portrait Artist - Specializing in Photography of Maternity, Newborn, Baby, Children, Family & Teens

May 17 2013

Bay Area Baby Photographer : Oh Baby! Did that First Year go by Fast!!!

Oh yes – you would not believe how fast babies grow up! And that is why I created my Oh Baby! Club – to document the milestones of the first year with modern, fun professional baby portraits in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Oh Baby! Club sessions are specifically tailored for babies aged 3 months to 15 months old, featuring 30 minute mini sessions on weekday mornings in my East Bay Alameda photography studio. The Oh Baby! Club comes with three mini baby sessions spread out between three and fifteen months of age. The first two are in studio on weekday mornings – my ideal ages are 4 and 8 months – but I am happy to shoot other ages as well. The last weekday morning session can be on location near the studio for active walkers – ideally at 12 months old for a fabulously fun one year portrait session.  Oh Baby! Club membership is $295 with additional weekday morning mini sessions available for $75 each. At the end of our time together, you will receive a 10×20 Oh Baby! Club panel with one image from each session to document the milestones of the ages. ( fyi – the cost of that product is normally $295, so you are kinda getting the sessions for free – or the panel for free – however you want to look at it)

Siblings, parents, pets, grandparents and special loved ones can be added into any of the sessions for no additional charge, but the main focus of the 30 minute mini session will be on the baby. Because we are working together at least three times in the first year, Oh Baby! Club members get special pricing on prints, products and books with the studio – saving an average of 10% to 20%. Newborn sessions can be added on to the Oh Baby! club for a special discounted rate – though newborn sessions will always be longer (90+ minutes).  In the case of multiples (twins, triplets…), the other baby sibling(s) can be added on at a special rate to extend the session time accordingly, and they would of course receive their own Oh Baby! Club panel as well.  All in all it is a pretty sweet deal – filled with quick, fun sessions that create modern, artistic portraits of your baby so that you will never forget that first year.

Many people choose to turn their first year portraits into a custom design fine art baby album – and for your viewing enjoyment, here are layouts from the albums of Reina & Brandon who I have had the extreme privilege of photographing from newborn through their first year in my Oh Baby! Club program.  In fact they have just graduated to my Toddler Adventure Club :)


Posted inBabies,Family,Home Study,Newborn,WoodsyTags: ,,,
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May 14 2013

San Francisco Bay Area Maternity Photographer – Memorialize the Curves of Pregnancy with Light & Shadow

I have been photographing pregnant women in my Alameda studio in Northern California for almost 15 years now (yikes! time flies!), and I have learned a thing or two during that time.  I have to admit that maternity sessions for me are like a little vacation – kind of like a day-trip to an art museum – when I get to focus on just the woman in front of me in all of her glory.

And in my eyes – pregnant women are simply magnificent.

 

It amazes me every time that there is a human being inside of that globe-like belly that will be entering the world in a matter of weeks.  I am a mom myself  - so I understand how it feels to suddenly be much larger than one would think possible.  Based on my understanding of what is a uniquely female experience along with my expertise as a fine art maternity portrait artist, I strive to capture the essence of a woman’s pregnancy and to make her feel as beautiful as she truly is at that moment in time.  In order to achieve this – I use light and shadow.  I shoot almost all of my maternity sessions in my Alameda studio. This enables me to use professional lighting and backgrounds to focus on my subject and her curves in a very private environment. Some women do nudes, some women incorporate clothing, and some women use fabrics – most women to do some of each. We discuss this in detail in our pre-consultation, along with suggestions on hair and make-up. I have many, many fabrics in studio.

I encourage women to bring their partners/spouses and children to be part of the session. When I have a couple – I still enjoy using shadowy lighting to create a romantic mood.

 

I also love to incorporate siblings in the session. Got a toddler you want in your maternity session? No problem – Plenty of experience there.

But even with siblings and partners involved, I will still use a good portion of the session to focus on solos of the woman – and that belly. Because it really is all about the belly and all of those curves at this point and the woman that is bearing them.. and using light and shadow to capture them.

Interested in a learning more about modern fine art pregnancy portraits in the Bay Area? I recommend 32 to 36 weeks if you are pregnant with one baby – 4 to 6 weeks earlier if you are pregnant with multiples. All of our prints and products include retouching to remove the things you do not want to memorialize in your pregnancy ;)

Contact the studio to get more info about studio maternity sessions and print/product pricing. 

 

Posted inMaternity,StudioTags: ,,,
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Feb 28 2013

Northern California Marin Children’s Photographer : Fun Portraits of Three Kids and a Bull Dog in the Woods

Nicholé is a busy mother with two active young girls, one baby boy and a burly bulldog.  Besides managing the day to day of her crew, Nicholé has a *great* blog  at www.drooloverthis.com that helps parents find the perfect baby products for their lifestyles that are functional, cool and environmentally friendly.  And like any astute parent, Nicholé realizes that the time when her children are young is very fleeting  – so she came to me wanting some great portraits of her children that were very natural and playful,  in a Bay Area location that was more then simply pretty.  It had to be dog friendly, kid friendly and safe for a baby to explore and no more then a few minutes away from her Marin home.  Game on!

We began our location photo session at a meadowy local Northern California park where I took advantage of the beautiful morning light, and a bulldog who loved to have his belly rubbed.  Of course I always come prepared with arm chairs in my van to create sets in what may seem some unlikely places – but if the light is right, even a spot by the side of the road can look like a vast landscape when photographed at the right angles.

To add variety to the images we went to the next wooded location not even 5 minutes away with a completely different feel.  This also gave the kids a mini-break and opportunity to switch up outfits. The girls swapped out jeans for bright tutu’s which really popped. The children soon discovered the dramatic redwoods as our photo excursion continued. This natural playground doubled as a storybook backdrop for fine art children’s photography, as they pulled out their horses and dump trucks to get down to some serious play time while the bulldog napped near by.  When we found a bridge to play and dance on, the bulldog rejoined our session – just in time for the bubble machine!  Though I must say he did not seem too impressed with the bubbles.

Throughout our North Marin portrait location session, I so enjoyed the process of making memorable images of each child’s unique expressions and interactions, while capturing a collection of fun Bay Area children’s photography that included the family bulldog.  The resulting images became great material for one of our custom design coffee table books. Below is the album that was designed for their 2012 session in the woods….

Posted inBabies,Children,Dogs +,Family,Locations,WoodsyTags: ,,,,,
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Jan 25 2013

San Francisco Beach Portraits : Fun Family Portraits in the Presidio makes for Great Art!

fun family portraits at the san francisco palace of fine arts
Alma came to me with a wonderful project : she and her husband are going to be celebrating their 15th Wedding Anniversary, and she wanted some sweet, romantic photos of them as well as some joyful, modern family portraits that included their adorable two young sons. Sounded like a great project to me – so we planned out the clothing and the locations in our pre-consultation in my Alameda studio. I also took notes on her children’s personalities so that I could interact with them and grab their attention quickly with subjects and games that interested them. I knew I needed a place were they would be comfortable running, playing and being boys.

On the day of the session we met in the Presidio area of San Francisco – always a favorite spot of mine to shoot as it offers such a variety of inspiring locations.  Baker Beach was our first stop, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background on a glorious morning – we were off to a great start.  I knew that the session needed to be a great location that lent itself to both, some romantic couple portraits but could also function as a playground to capture the boys in action. When taking pictures with children of any age I strive to make it an adventure, not an appointment.

After an outfit change we headed off to the nearby Place of Fine Arts in the San Francisco Marina District. With its classic architecture,  this location is an awesome Bay Area backdrop to create modern family portraits.  We explored the space getting individuals of the boys along the way.  One of my favorite series shows the boys having fun in the foreground, unaware of mom and dad are kissing in the background until… “gross!”

We continued to stroll along the Palace of Fine Arts making unique images that captured their family interacting to provide some lifestyle portraits.  After many giggles and kisses the photo journey came to an end.

The images were turned into a modern wall collage for their home as well as a fabulous custom design album which blends the more traditional portraits with lifestyle color and black & white images  – two fine art products that they will cherish for many, many years to come.

Here is their Modern Wall Collage set in a room using our uber cool software that let’s us show you the proposed artwork on your walls :)

 

And here are layouts from their custom design fine art album….

 

 

Posted inBeach,UrbanTags: ,,
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Jan 09 2013

Bay Area Modern Senior Portraits: Fashion Glam or Urban Cool? Why not both ; )

No teen fits into just one box, outfit, location or background. And your senior photography experience should reflect this.

When photographing talented teens like Madison,  I strive to combine my expertise in portrait photography with a fresh spin on edgy senior photos to capture the many sides of Madison.  Madison booked one of my “Experience Sessions” – which gave her the option of splitting up her session into part in studio and part on location near the studio on different days.  This is a great way to be able to do different hair and make-up in the session, as well as several outfits for each session.

Madison is an accomplished dancer, and chose to use her studio time to capture some action dance shots as well as some more glamorous fashion images in heels. The next time we got together  – later that same week  – we headed out to the urban areas near my Northern California studio. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, we have some great urban landscapes to choose from – from gritty East Bay graffiti, to bright city mosaic backgrounds, we worked the urban locations and had great fun doing it. Madison’s modern photography adventure came to a close at a natural location, featuring greenery and grasses.  Having such a variety of outfits, make-up and locations gave her great images for her art style session book as well as to use in her custom design high school graduation announcement that truly showcased her unique styles.

 

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Posted inStudio,Teens,UrbanTags: ,,
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