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Big Feelings Welcome

Big Feelings Photography is Los Angeles family photography with a big heart.

It's just me, Monica: lifestyle/documentary-style family photographer, a bit of a storyteller, and mom of two, living and working in Los Angeles.

I'm here, and thrilled, to document huge stages in your lives - pregnancy, adoption, newborn, toddler, kids, teen, generational/grandparent, whole-family sessions, special events and birthday parties - in a style that's emotional, playful, charmingly kooky (what is life without irreverence?), perhaps mildly chaotic (in the best way) and generally rather non-traditional - which is just the way kids prefer it. Over the years I have honed my process down to the best and most fun parts of this sort of photography and let me tell you - you will not find me anywhere near a baby bucket/basket if I can help it! However - during almost every shoot - I WILL make an absolute fool of myself performing a one woman show to get your kids to laugh. You can't have any shame doing what I do and I do not haha!

My favorite thing to do for families is simply this - some classic portraiture (necessary and important and honestly it kind of is a warm-up so trust the process) with the shoot evolving to meld in lots of playful family photos where your real life unfolds: at home, at the beach, in your kids gloriously chaotic bedroom or creative nook, on the streets of the city we love. Candid and perfectly-imperfect: newborn photography in the slivers of nursery light between the thick curtains, cinematic maternity sessions, playful kids' sessions centered on their unique vibe, teen portraits with real personality (and probably some healthy sarcasm too!), and most of all - heartfelt family storytelling - all with a lil' West Coast, LA lifestyle sass and soul that the families of this town have a plethora of!

Big city. Big FEELINGS. Come on, get in here!

(that's right I'm talking to you too, Grandma! It doesn't matter that there is dog hair on your sweater and you don't have your favorite glasses on you're adorable! Don't worry about it - you don't want to miss this moment.)

Portfolio

Family

Here's the thing about family photos: they're not really for now. Sure - maybe you need them for the holiday card or the applications now, but currently, in this era - you are familiar with all the nuances of your current day to day lives together and you know exactly what everybody looks like because you just saw them at breakfast.

The family photos are for later. For when playing Clue doesn't feel the same because somebody's off at college. For when you can't remember when the littlest one's laugh changed. A family session is a time capsule you get to open forever. And the family picture-taker - the one who's never actually in the iPhone photos half the time - can get in the dang frame finally! I'll hold the camera, I've got you.

And even better - do the family shoot at home, in your natural environment, with one of my slice-of-life "Big Mood" sessions: kids in their rooms with all their crafts and treasures and posters, maybe baking or dancing together - whatever feels good to capture at this time in your lives. Relaxed, natural, personality-filled, timeless.

So bring everybody - bring the shy one, the loud one, the one who "hates photos." Especially that one (and let's be real, that one is usually Dad). Let's capture the whole crew, exactly as you are right now.

Maternity

Here's what I see when I photograph someone who's expecting: a person mid-transformation - and I've been there, and it is a wild feeling. Growing a human, or waiting on one. Any way that baby arrives, you're doing something enormous, and it shows. Not just the bump. The experience. The look in your eyes, your partner's eyes. Wonder. Worry. Adoration. Fascination. The look that says somebody special is coming... and I already love them. Like a TON. You're mid-wait, full of big feelings for someone you haven't met - someone who's going to rock your entire world in a few weeks!! This chapter is short. Let's shoot it before the sweet little plot twist arrives.

Newborn

Your parenting journey - each one special for each baby you have - begins the moment your baby arrives, however that may happen for your unique path. Sometimes it's your first baby. Sometimes it's your fifth.

I just saw my very first little client go off to college - she was nine months old when I first met her and took photos of her magic and personality (and then her little brother and eventually their little sister!), and before she went off to school for a whole new chapter of her life, I had the honor of capturing one more session with her, in her home, with her family, her dog, her stuff. And that's the journey that I'm here for. Because they will never stop being our babies.

Whether you're on this wild ride with one little human or a whole crew, alone or with a partner, whether you are currently pregnant or your sweet baby is coming to you another way (and there are so many ways to be parents right? Through a surrogate, donor, adoption, fostering) - we are all simply learning as we go! If I know one thing for certain: having kids is hands-down the most amazing thing I've ever experienced in my life. It is exhausting yesssss absolutely-positively, but it is also rejuvenating in a wild, unexpected way. Filled with wonder - your own and theirs. Refreshing and creatively inspiring.

That's the place I try to capture it all from: beautiful, complex, candid, messy, unexpected, painful, delightful, real, funny, awkward, hysterical, absurddddd.

Newborn sessions are best in the first two to three weeks - but honestly, any stage is the right stage. And it starts here, with this new little person!

Babies (Under 1 Year)

Rolling. Smiling. Sitting. Teeth. Laughing. Drooling. Scooting. Soooo many teeth. Crawling. Curiosity. Mischief. Cruising. Opinions! Walking. Runnnnnning. Adventures.

Year one is the fastest year of their whole childhood - and the most genuine. Babies this age don't perform for cameras. They just proceed on their own adorable trajectory: determined, delighted, furious, amazed, proud - sometimes all at once and always very candid and natural. (Your reactions are pretty candid too!)

This first year - in my professional opinion, ahem - needs at least three sessions to capture it all: newborn, six months, and one year (at minimum! 9 months/crawling is also so fun!!!) - so right around that first birthday and right around those first steps. And like a well-prepared mama/photographer - I have a package for that: it is called ALL the Feelings (the perfect first-year milestone package - just ask and I'll share all the info!) - it locks in the whole first year of photo sessions ahead of time so you know you won't miss a thing. After that, things slow to a pace you can acclimate to, and one session per year from then on is just the right speed.

But this year? This is the action year - and your baby is the little action star. If you let them anywhere near a helicopter and a t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off... well, they just might save the world. Kids these days are pretty amazing so I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Little Kids

Somewhere between your baby's first steps and the first day of school, elements of kids' personalities take real root and begin to shine! Opinions about hairdos, socks and peas. An obsession with knights, turtles or narwhals. Jokes that make no sense and are still, somehow, hilarious.

That little person is brand new and so completely themselves, and this is the age to document it unfolding early, amidst the era of superhero capes at the grocery store, of "do it MYSELF," of facts about dinosaurs delivered like a TED talk.

Parents often pre-empt the session with: "they might not sit still." Great news, dudes - I don't expect them to! I'll get the portraits (somehow, amidst it all, I always do - you'll have the classics). But the good stuff? I want the personality for dayyyyyyysssssss: the playful running, the twirl, the negotiations, the sass, the dirty knees (usually within minutes of my arrival haha!) - allllll the big feelings, at full volume but make it visual. Trust me - that's what you'll want too.

And here's my favorite version: lifestyle vibes, at home. There's nothing like documenting a little wild child in their natural habitat - their room, with all their treasures, at exactly the stage they're at. They LOVE the show-and-tell of it, and it makes for timeless little vignettes about who they are, right there and then. Do it at least once before they're a teen. Some of the most treasured photos I have of my own two kids are exactly these.

Bring the whole personality. Capes 100% welcome!!!

Big (ish) Kids

Here's a secret about big kids and teens: they are still SO cute - no matter how much they aw-shucks it, that is the gosh darn truth.

And the pre-teen and teen years are complex. We may be parents now but we also lived teen-dom too once, so we know, amiright?! This is the age of becoming - the music taste, the hobbies that turn into identities, the fashion sense, the bedroom walls that change every year and tell you exactly who's living in there (with the stuffies still prominent on the bed!). Which is why I love shooting this age, especially documentary-photo-style, at home and in their space: the gamer setup, the sketchbooks, the dog or cat (sometimes... rats, birds, lizards!) that they love snuggling, the trophy or jersey collection, the chaos curated just so. Their room is a self-portrait - I just let them share it, and put them at the heart of it. And then for these, we get the family photos too: cuddling on the couch or the porch, tossing a ball, showing off wicked dance moves, baking something experimental, slime (and more slime or endless squishies!). Portraits + real life + love. And big feelings, obvs.

And here's the part I need you to hear about the pre-teen/teen era: this is the age when families slow down on booking photo sessions. The kids groan, the schedules explode, and the camera quietly retires. Please don't let it. Get this - apparently research has suggested for decades that kids who grow up seeing themselves in family photos feel more valued, more rooted, more seen - and teens, whatever they claim, need that more than anyone. They may be more reluctant and grumpy at that age to do a session but they (and you!) will treasure the pictures. Both things can and will be true. I've witnessed it, and I'm living it.

Because here's my reality: my daughter is an incredible illustrator who runs circles around me in graphic design, and my son is only newly a teen and he towers over me now - I look WAY up to talk to him! Regardless - they are still, and will always be, my babies. And understanding their world now and always is precious.

All I'm saying is: keep taking the pictures. Especially now.

Parties & Special Events

I have covered every type of event and party you can think of but my favorite, favorite, favorite are family oriented gatherings because they hold so much meaning for a million different reasons. And it is when the whole tribe shows up and I often get to meet my client's extended family and friends and capture their interactions with those they love! It is absolutely a day worth documenting. I'm lucky to be a Los Angeles based event photographer because the variety is endless - from covering kid's very first (or second or third or 15th) birthday parties, 100 day celebrations, dohl celebrations, baby showers, baptisms, bar and bat mitzvahs, gender reveal parties, quinceañeras, school plays, graduations (from pre-school to college!) and full-on backyard blowouts blasting Nelly - you can't beat getting to crash parties every weekend and take photos of all the adorable characters there - some portraits for sure but mostly documentary style: candid, emotional, playful and real. Then you can actually BE at the party - and in the moment - instead of trying to capture the moments from behind your phone.

Capturing events is where I often get to witness several generations in action and that is a delight - but to be sure, my favorite part is the in-between little moments: Mom with a frosting hand print on the back of her cute dress (classic!). The cute tension of the Doljabi grab, every auntie leaning in, breath held, phones up (will the baby be disinterested or cry or choose the paintbrush or the calculator or the hundred dollar bill??). Perhaps it is Grandpa getting farrrr lower than wise while entertaining the kids during limbo!! The always-sketchy piñata wholloping line-up combined with the epic candy-explosion split second, every kid diving like it's the dang World Cup. Streamers in the jacaranda tree, the most lovely balloon arch combined with folding tables sagging under the generous potluck, the parents clapping and the birthday kid's face lit gold in the half-second before the candles go out. Cousins, chosen family, the neighbor who's basically family - lots of all your favorite people mingling together is an amazing photo op - and all in one spot. It really doesn't happen very often so you gotta take advantage of it!

Every celebration of love is a joy to capture! Event photography coverage that I do also includes a sweet opportunity to grab family portraits (that friends and extended family and chosen family can jump into!) before the party and then also included is the download link to your complete gallery of images from your event, delivered in full resolution. From Santa Monica to Pasadena to wherever your people gather to get jiggy, let's get the whole crew in the frame - big city, big party, big FEELINGS.

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