My little sister (technically the middle sister of us three girls) came back to the USA to visit us (my mom, my other sister and myself) for four weeks. She has been living in Spain for nearly a decade now and owns/operates an awesome cafe in the little town of Vigo with her longtime boyfriend Manuel (whom we all adore). I only get to see my sister once every few years and the time we do get together face-to-face is beyond special to me. Naturally, we stay in touch via phone and email but that physical closeness of being able to hug her and laugh with her is something I miss dearly. The time we had, as always, whizzed by and our original plan for her come down to Santa Cruz to hang out with me and my family for a few days was initially thwarted by a nasty stomach bug she got (poor thing!) and had to be rescheduled for the tail end of her stay. When she was finally able to come it was during one of Jason's "gone for three days straight" 72 hr shifts so my sister and I didn't get much "alone" time (ie: sans kids) but we did maximize a 2 hr block one morning when the kids had their mini clay camp to attend. We decided to do an early morning photoshoot together with that block of "free time." My sister is an avid & excellent photographer herself with a GREAT eye for composition. She is actually WAY more artistically inclined and naturally gifted than I am and can draw anything on a scrap of paper and make it look amazing. I am only artistic when it comes to photography. And yes, I'm totally jealous. Whatever. :)
So, basically, we had a 30 mn drive to our location each way and a full, solid hour of shooting together. And boy did we pack in a lot during that hour of shooting! Three outfit changes for her, various backgrounds and so much ridiculous laughter! My sister, as you will see for yourself, is QUITE the character. In fact, Ellie reminds me so very much of her (as much as my sister will deny it) and is very outgoing, funny and goofy. She had me in stitches the entire time. You'll also see, though, that beyond just being a bit of a nutcase (and I mean that in the nicest way possible of course) she is also positively stunning. Funny thing is she has no clue how gorgeous she is.... Which is good because if she did she'd get a big ole head... :)
We arrived at the kids' clay camp early and my sister grabbed a couple shots of me and Ellie in that early morning light. Gavin had zero interest in this as he was far too preoccupied climbing trees. Then I grabbed a few shots of my sister alone and some of her playing with the kids. She had this beautiful scarf that she turned into a "cape" and had the kids pretend to be toros running through it. They could not get enough of it! Then their class started and off we went!
I had so many favorites of the final 190 (yes, nearly 200!) edited shots from our one hour shoot that I decided to just put my top 50 in a slideshow to post here. Anytime I am having Seraphine cravings I will just click on this link and get my dose. :)
I'll start out with a few shots that my sister took of me and Ellie, then the one and only shot I managed to get of her and the kiddos and then the link for the slideshow. I should point out that the shots inside the barn were actually her idea and she saw a possibility in there that I had never noticed despite doing more than a few shoots at that location. Such a great eye for composition! Oh, and in case you are wondering, since we look absolutely NOTHING alike.... she looks exactly like my mom. But, we both have that high strung, slightly OCD, goofy, bossy, speak your mind, workaholic personality that runs in our family. We blame our mother for that gene, it's *totally* all her fault... :)
I miss you and love you Pookie.
Yes, I said that in print. On the world wide web. For everyone to see.
