I was so impressed that many of the vendors knew Alina and her dad. This was undoubtedly a weekly trip for the two of them. After the market, we headed home to see mom and baby Fiona. We had a little tea featuring my absolute favorite ceramics company Heath Ceramics, ate more pastries, and spent some time in their contemporary art-filled home (which is actually an amazing renovated fire station). I was envious of their photography collection to say the least.

Thanks to Daniel, Svetlana, Alina, and Fiona for a lovely morning. Enjoy a few of my favorites. When’s the last time you took your kids to the Farmer’s Market?

making our way to the market

dad and Alina at Panorama Bakery

Alina admires the tomatoes!

…and some brightly colored rainbow chard

one happy little girl

spiderman greeted us on the way back to the car

opening the old fire station doors

enjoying her purchase from Panorama

baby Fiona

a little tea featuring Heath Ceramics

Fiona gets a quick bath

one of my favorites from the day

Fiona and dad

upside-down

Alina and mom

Alina is exhausted

If you haven’t already read about my brand-new session this year, click here to read my top five reasons why Sunday Morning Sessions are so awesome. In the meantime, enjoy this Sunday Morning Session with the Strober Family of Los Altos Hills. We ended the shoot with a family stroll. How sweet is this family?

Thanks to the Strober Family for inviting me into their lovely home! And a special thanks to Ari for the yummy, lemonade!

Yesterday I started my morning with a lovely drive down 280 to Los Altos Hills where I had the pleasure of spending the morning with a really wonderful family. We did the Sunday Morning session which is my absolute favorite type of family session. Sunday Morning sessions are a little longer than normal lasting between 3-5 hours depending on the family (it sounds long I know but I’m pleasant, I promise!). This session is really special because we do normal Sunday morning things like making breakfast, taking walks, playing at home, etc. I love that these sessions are so easy, natural, effortless, and unique to each family. Yesterday we did all kinds of fun stuff like making lemonade straight from the tree, skateboarding, pulling carrots from the garden, a visit from both grandmas, fighting with light sabers, multiple wardrobe changes for the budding model/actress in the family, and a family walk to end the session.

For the rest of my Sunday, I couldn’t stop talking about it to my husband. I think he was getting annoyed. The image above is a quick sneak peek from the shoot. I love Ari’s little hands holding freshly picked carrots from his garden! Also here are five reasons to do a Sunday Morning shoot of your own.

1) Sunday mornings are the best! I personally feel like Sunday’s were made for families. Every family I know (including the one I grew up in) has Sunday morning traditions. From special types of food that is prepared (chocolate chip pancakes) to adventures in the wild (farmer’s markets, beaches, grandma’s house, coffee shops, etc.). What is your family’s Sunday morning tradition? I guarantee it would make for great photography!

2) Kids are at their best when they are at home and doing stuff the love. Kids love to share. They open up immediately when they can tell me about their gigantic collection of Star Wars legos or show me the carrots they grew in a garden. I’m basically your personal family photographer/Au Pair when I arrive on a Sunday morning so it makes the process so easy for everyone, especially the kids.

3) You can’t shoot this yourself. Ok, so some of you out there will disagree with me. I have lots of friends who are parents with fancy digital cameras. I promise you no matter how hard you try you can’t and shouldn’t always be behind the camera. YOU NEED TO BE IN THE PHOTOS! You might be the creative director at some fancy Bay Area company or a self-proclaimed ‘photographer’ with nicer gear than mine but please trust me and put down your cameras for a morning and let someone else document it for you. I guarantee you will be happy and hopefully surprised by the results (not to mention supporting a local business and someone who loves what they do). Most importantly your kids will actually be able to remember what their mom/dad looked like back then.

4) You get a fabulous coffee-table book to go with it! Who doesn’t love a custom coffee-table book documenting a typical morning? How great will this book be in five years, ten years, etc. Did I mention how excited grandma/grandpa will be with this as a gift?

5) Because your kids are only [fill in your child's age] once. Yep, it’s true they grow up faster that you can saw college tuition. Parents know how fast kids grow up. It’s probably the #1 thing I hear from them and I see it all the time; tiny newborns that are suddenly walking, talking, 3 year olds, big kids who are suddenly studying for the SAT’s!

Jeez, I’ve said all that and I’m only showing one image! What a tease! I promise to show more when the rest of the images are completed. Please stick around for more posts about recent shoots and don’t forget to comment and tell me your family’s Sunday morning tradition. This is how my family spends Sunday Mornings:

We are currently kid-less so we spend it as follows:

• up by 7am, Farley’s coffee shop on 18th & Texas, dog park or Fort Funston (if Luna is lucky), and then we read the New York Times in a hammock in the backyard and some Sundays I get to spend it with you…