A Mama Bear and her little cubs

After almost a year away from my camera, I picked it back up again and this happened. As nerve wrecking as it was to pick up my camera again, I quickly fell right back in love with what I do. I love photography. But I have seen a change. A change in my vision. A change in how I shoot. A change in my perspective. I still want my photography to tell a story, particularly the story of the people I am shooting, and to tell that story the way my eye sees it. I still want emotion to fill up the frame of each shot I take and that will never change. But I find myself wanting to play more with light, contrast and oddly enough, motion. As I have reevaluated my vision and purpose with my photography over the past year, I've come to find that I really love some sort of movement in a photo (weird, I know. But it's true.). So with all that said, I was so excited to get to shoot in the Redwoods. So much texture, cool lighting, playing with shadows and the some what dramatic tone the woods gives. I finally got to play with all the things I had been itching to try. I love that this shoot has a more serious tone but the undeniable love between a mother and her daughters is still very present. These girls were troopers. They did all the silly and dangerous things I asked them to do. You'd probably never guess we lost our light before the shoot began, had a scare with what we thought might be poison oak, and left covered in forest brush... but it was all worth it. It was a great night and I am so grateful to live where I live, do what I do and meet the people I get to meet because of my job. I hope I get to do it more often now that I am back up and running. I hope you enjoy.

Redwood Regional Park | Castro Valley, Ca