Milagros was the winner to our giveaway back in December, but due to unforeseen issues we had to postpone our family portrait photography session. Milagros had mentioned that she was interested in doing an outdoor style shoot for her family. I haven’t seen many do work in Santa Ana, so I was excited for the challenge.
We met at the parking lot at Santa Ana where we walked over to Malachite Trail for our first location. We followed Malachite Trail over to these beautiful lake by the park’s entrance where we began our first family group shot.
I always try to do group portraits first because kids tend to get fussy very quickly.
Did group portraits of just the children for some variety, but by this time you could tell baby Mauricio was not having too much fun. We let him walk around a bit and explore to not spoil his mood. We took this time to capture some beautiful couples’ portraits.
Once I felt comfortable with the amount of family portraits, we captured we moved to the next location. Milagros wondered about getting some family group shots with the Spanish moss showing in the background, so we set out to find the perfect place.
We walked over to Willow Lakes and on the way, we encountered a beautiful wooden bridge that was perfect for some extra family portraits.
We finally reached our second location near Willow Lakes. Spanish moss grows long and hangs off the trees everywhere. This place was perfect. We again, started with group shots and as usual, young children get fussy, so we had to move quickly. Managed many different group combinations, but these were my absolute favorite from the full set.
On our way back to our vehicles Milagros fell in love with a section of Spanish moss and suggested we try a headshot. Don’t have to ask me twice! Background was beautifully backlit, but I was having trouble getting good light on my model. Had to bring out my light deflector which really helped bring out the model in this shot. Used white side to try and soften any shadows.
