San Francisco, November 2010.

This is the second time I have photographed this gorgeous family in the city. (Original session in Alamo Square here.) We met via our mutual friend Joan, who owns Timeless Treasures. A must stop on any visit to San Francisco.

When we first met there were only four of them! I was excited to meet their newest addition and see their home. Bravo to them for having such a large family in the middle of it all, and making it work so well.

xo
Tara

21. Leaving Wednesday at noon and hitting traffic in LA that didn’t stop until we made it to the Grapevine. It took us five hours to get to that point, 9.5 to our hotel in the city. Shockingly, I was the most antsy person in the car.

20. Driving across the Bay Bridge and talking to the kids about the location of San Francisco and the three bridges that lead in. Nathan thinks the bridge is called “The Babe Bridge.” We almost don’t correct him. For the rest of the trip, we constantly ask him if he wants to go look for babes on The Babe Bridge.

19. Waking up Thanksgiving morning with nothing to do but whatever we wanted.

18. Taking the kids across the street from our hotel, to our favorite breakfast spot Pergamino Cafe. One that we have talked about to the kids for years. It is an extremely casual place, with the most friendly staff. You seat yourself, you get your own coffee (from a huge selection of random mugs and coffees along one wall – so charming), and you get enough homemade food to fill your belly all day. Drew ordered banana pancakes and you get one pancake, only it is the size of a turkey platter. His eyes BUGGED out of his head.

17. How Anna found nooks and crannies all over the city, and then posed in them while asking me to take photos.

16. The day Mckenna had to go to the bathroom every twenty minutes. Leaving me trucking all over to find her one, washing our hands raw every twenty minutes, and leaving the rest of the crew bored, even while patiently waiting for us to return.

15. Getting to do this with all six of us at the Musee Mechanique.

14. Waiting in line for the cable car and taking these photos. We were all in the best mood, even though we were cold and tired from walking. Watching Drew and Anna hold onto the sides as we careened up and down the hills. Hearing Mckenna laugh every time the bell clanged.

13. Jeff looking at me over dinner and telling me that I was so happy I was glowing.

12. Taking in views like this while my heart wanted to burst with happiness for being there, happiness for being with them, happiness for all that we have come through, and happiness for all that we have yet to do together.

11. Getting to the end of the trolley ride and realizing we are far too exhausted to make it to our 8:30 Thanksgiving dinner reservation at “our” Italian place, Mona Lisa. So we stopped for french fries at Burger King (the only thing open in Union Square on Thanksgiving) and ran six blocks and up four floors through the inside of the closed mall (with Christmas music playing) to get to the 7:15 showing of The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Our words echoed off the walls as we stripped off jackets and scarves. Mckenna shuffled along behind us, going as fast as she could, getting pulled along by Jeff, singing the words. The movie was brilliant. I sat, grinning, through the whole thing.

10. Hailing a cab while watching their wonder and amazement at the newness of the situation, and piling in and having it take us to Denny’s for our Thanksgiving dinner. Where we dined romantically on appetizers and banana splits before heading back to our hotel, hopping the fence, and crashing into warm beds.

9. Waking up late and lazy and taking the kids to  The Exploratorium. Mckenna avoided us and sat down on benches or chairs. She wasn’t all that interested. Jeff and I followed different groups around while we all took turns testing out the hundreds of experiments and hands on goodies. Such a trip to see that not much has changed since I was there last at the age of 18. I have a photo of me with my younger sister Alisha (aged 5) in those same exact BIG/LITTLE chairs.

8. Driving around and around and around and around North Beach looking for parking so that we could make it to our second reservation at Mona Lisa. Walking up the streets in the dark, with the bustle of Chinatown all around us, holding each girl by the hand. Eating in the tiny, loud, adorably kitchy restaurant and getting very warm and flushed after sharing a bottle of wine with Jeff. I can still taste the Salmon Alfredo. (Slurp.)

7. Getting to see this dear lady. Joan is the owner of Timeless Treasures, an incredible shop I have posted about many times before. She was thrilled to meet the family, and gifted me with a beautiful necklace made by a local artist named Adjowah Brody of Oakland.

6. Spending twenty minutes to myself after completing my last session of the trip. I drove around with all my windows down, blaring Dead Heart Bloom. It was a PERFECT DAY, the weather was insanely beautiful and warm. I could drive up and down and around that city allllllllllllll day, just taking in the architecture and people that I love so much.

5. Walking along Haight Street in the sun, all of us taking up the sidewalks. This I think, is my favorite memory of the trip. HOW LONG have I longed to bring them here? Popping into shops here and there to pick out trinkets and treasures with the kids. I felt so at home there. Haight Street smells like incense and pizza.

4. Ending the day (and our trip) at Golden Gate Park. It has been a dream of mine to bring my kids here and sit with them in the sunshine on Hippie Hill. As we entered the park, and I heard the drums, my eyes welled up with tears. I turned around and looked at Jeff and said, “We are here!” The environment could be seedy or wonderful depending on what you see when you look around. I just see people being. They are playing drums, throwing frisbees, laying in the sun, and just feeling the magic of the place.  The drum circle just takes you to another place – there isn’t any judgement from anyone.

3. Hippies are selling rocks and homemade items along the sidewalk path. Nathan and Anna sat for twenty minutes talking to a young couple and haggling over rock prices. Anna surprised me by buying a gold butterfly charm with her last dollar. She loved giving this to me, and I loved receiving it.

2. Bringing them here after wanting to for years and watching the PURE UNADULTERATED JOY in their faces as they zoomed down the cement slides in the best park in the world. And that no one started bleeding. And how much Nate loved it when he won the race on the last trip down.

1. Saying goodbye, as always with a heavy, heavy heart. With questions on my mind as to where we should live and why I feel so drawn to this place. How hard it is to want to be in two places at once. As we drove out of the city and got onto the freeway, everyone plugged into their personal entertainment devices and Jeff and I put on Bob Marley. It was the perfect way to start the drive home. Then I saw this sign coming up and luckily had a break in traffic in order to get this shot. I am not sure, but I think it was there just for us.

xo

Tara

Before you continue looking at the rest of the photos, let me tell you a little story. Izidora (Izi) contacted me at the beginning of the year. She was interested in signing up for a Seattle travel session. They live in Canada. So, I put her name on the list. A month or so later, it became clear that travel wasn’t in the cards for me this year, and I contacted everyone on the list to let them know I wouldn’t be able to make it to Seattle after all. She emailed me back and said, undeterred, “I am not letting you get away so easy. We are coming down to you!” And so, they traveled down to southern California in August for their session.

The day they arrived, (Thursday) I woke up with the worst case of Strep I have ever experienced. I was in the ER with a bleeding throat and a severe fever several times over the course of it, and ended up being so violently ill that I was in bed for 15 days. IN BED. I literally couldn’t function for 15 days. How insane is that? I still shake my head when I remember how long I was sick. Two weeks from my life, gone. Our session was planned for Sunday afternoon. Jeff had to call them, because I literally couldn’t speak, on Saturday morning to let them know what was going on. Jeff and I felt TERRIBLE because they had already been disappointed once, and I could hardly bare the thought of disappointing them again, after coming all this way. I was panicked, absolutely RIDDLED with guilt, and not sure what to do. I offered to refer them to a friend, but they sweetly declined, they wanted me.

If there was any way for me to get out of bed and do their session, I was going to do it. But Sunday came, with another ER trip, tears, guilt, and sadness for having to cancel. Once again, we had to make the call, and they were so understanding, and so empathetic, and so wonderfully NICE about the whole thing. Izi and I both cried together on the phone over our disappointment. They decided that they would lengthen their stay, in the hopes that after two more days of antibiotics, I would be able to manage. Tuesday was the absolute last chance to get it done, they HAD to be back home by Thursday. (And they were driving.)

Monday came and went with a lot of pain, fever, and guilt. I was sure it wasn’t going to work out. Jeff started looking up flights to their city. We decided I would fly to them as soon as I felt better.

Tuesday. I woke up in the morning feeling alive for the first time in five days. My fever had broken, the pain was tolerable, and so I called to let Izi know the shoot was on. We cried again, this time out of happiness and relief. They couldn’t have been more amazing through the whole crazy experience. The whole reason for their trip was canceled and up in the air through-out their stay. And yet, their attitudes and decisions were so positive and so caring and so sweet. They reacted in a way that made me gradually realize they were more worried about me, then about missing their session. It was almost comical on the phone, how we were both falling over each other trying to get across how sorry we were for each other. Amazing, amazing, amazing – this group of people is just amazing. Nothing was going to get them down. I will never forget how they made me feel, and I am so appreciative of all of them for being a very soft place to fall.

I felt okay all through-out that Tuesday, okay being that I wasn’t crying and clawing at my throat. As I drove to our location, I started getting the shivers again, meaning my fever was probably coming back. Without the pain, I was able to buckle down. I did their shoot on pure adrenaline, and by the end of it could feel that I was deteriorating again. I stayed with them as long as possible, until the light stopped us from shooting. We said our sappy, soppy, tearful goodbye’s and I drove home as fast as I could and crawled back into bed. Where I stayed for ten. more. days.

There was a reason the clouds parted on my illness so that I was able to meet them. They may have needed me that day, but it turns out that I needed them just as much.

I asked them if they could drop some mad rhymes. They could! And they did! I was busting a gut over this. Love people that can be silly. Especially love Dad’s who can be silly.

They are HUGE classic Chuck fans.

Beautiful, beautiful girl. Her lovely spirit just shines out at me in these.

Beautiful, beautiful boy. He loves his family so much.

Beautiful, beautiful baby of the family. He has massive amounts of spunk and character.

Heading down to the beach:

Beautiful, beautiful love.

On their trip down, they stopped at my favorite place in San Francisco, Timeless Treasures, to snag some lovely vintage letters to use for the session. (Hi, Joan!) xo

The kids are teaching themselves how to play guitar.

They laughed like this the whole time. Correction: WE laughed like this the whole time.

The Cirjaks own their own toy company out of their garage. (The Shrunks) Their toys are geared towards helping kids get over their common fears. The dark, the dentist, the closet, etc. They shared four of their Ududolls with me to give to the kids. They are very loved additions to the Whitney house, and remain close to all four pillows every night.

Wouldn’t you love to grow up in this family?

xo

Tara

She says that she is the Canadian Tara. And that I am the American Michelle. Now, I am not TOTALLY convinced because of her love for Third Eye Blind and hockey, but the coca cola IV and cute clothes she requires are certainly making me okay with the comparison. Also her incredibly sexy flaming hot red hair.

I met Michelle a little over a year ago, when she was pregnant for the first time with her son Rowan. She flew down here for a photo shoot. And lied to her husband that the doctor said it was okay and that she had gotten insurance! Naughty Michelle. Thankfully everything was fine and she didn’t go into labor. I had such a great time with them, we hit it off immensely and went out for dinner together after. That is when I basically fell in love with Michelle!

Our relationship was able to go to another level when she came along on the “find yourself” retreat. We spent lots of time every day together, and it was great to be able to really get to know her. She is spunky, funny, and has such a dear dear heart. I love that she dishes it back to me just as fast as I give it to her. She is also just fabulous for my self worth. Hiring me three times in the span of one year!

This time the shoot was about her. About her friends. About feeling good about yourself after having a baby. About celebrating being a girl! The three friends met in Chicago once upon a time and now live in three separate places. Rosie still lives in Chicago and owns and operates an AMAZING boutique, Roslyn. In fact, most of the clothing from the session is from her store. Amy now lives here in southern CA, and works as a psychologist at a men’s maximum security prison. (Clarice Starling!) And Michelle, well, she is a mother, wife, and IT geek working for IBM who lives in Toronto.

When making plans she asked me if there was anywhere I had always wanted to shoot but hadn’t had a client interested. I said without having to think, “A trailer park.” I have driven by this place so many times on my way to a beach session, and have imagined the possibilities. I was glad to have three willing participants. We spent a lot of time together, so this was just one of our stops.

Just so you know who you are looking at (from left to right: Amy, Michelle, Rosie)

Amy is from Kansas-or Kentucky. One of the K states. Showing her roots.

We also made a quick stop to a field of flowers. (All of my amazing yellow flowers are dried up now!) (SOB) The girls were so serene, sexy, and confident. PERFECT mood to go with the location.

We also stopped a few times on our way to the beach.

Letters from my favorite antique store Timeless Treasures in San Francisco. (Thanks Joan! You are amazing!)

And then we wrapped at the beach, because the Chicago girl badly wanted some California sunshine to take home with her.

michelle wrote about our session here and here.

she also shared how she became friends with rosie, and shows images from her amazing boutique in chicago here.

x0

Tara

right after i freaked out and jumped up and down on my chair, i calmly and professionally emailed her back-HECK YES!

it was an awesome process. joyce smith interviewed me and asked really really good questions! questions that were all really fun to answer. and i know sometimes when i read an interview, whether it be a photographer, actor, musician, whatever-i get disappointed when their answers are lame fluffballs obviously meant to blow off to the interviewer, so i tried really hard to answer everything in a way that wasnt fluffy. i hope that anyone who subscribes will get something out of it.

AND all of the photos in the feature are brand new and never seen before.  it was SO HARD not to share my recent favorites on my blog! so glad i dont have to keep any secrets anymore. that watermelon shot came about because momma told me everyone said she looked like she swallowed a watermelon. i emailed her back asking “would you feel weird picking out a watermelon that matches the shape of your tummy and bringing it to our session?” she didnt feel weird at all and i freaking LOVE THAT PICTURE because it means something to them. the letters in the cozy picture were purchased at timeless treasures in SF, one of my favorite places of all time. they are meant to be hanging above my bed, but we all know how that goes…

and while i am on this self promoting kick, todays mama has me featured in their “dream big” section for a few weeks this month. fun questions there too. their website is geared totally towards moms today, and the dream section features moms who turned their dreams into reality. pretty inspiring to go back and read past interviews.

an exciting time over here for me-thank you so much for all of your support and constant and amazing feedback. to think that almost four years ago i started this blog to share photos with far away family and friends and it turned into what it is now? is just all kinds of freaky amazing.

so thank you.  xoxo