a few months ago i got an email from beth opel telling me that she wanted to purchase a photo shoot for her family that would be visiting CA in may. her mom and dad would be travelling to visit her brother and his family, and she wanted to give them a photo shoot as a gift.
how awesome is that?
i normally do not book large family groups, but i couldnt resist beth and her love for her family. it was kind of tough nailing down a date, with a game of email telephone states apart, but once we did it was smooth sailing from there.
i met her family and immediately fell in love with her mom and dad. corinne and ed are special people. full of life and they were so into the shoot.
kurt and anna (her brother and SIL) were hilarious and totally my kind of people. i said something pretty racy on accident to anna and we both laughed it off. so glad she was so cool. kurt was quite the comedian and the boys-oh the boys-totally just like my boys. gorgeous and hysterical and just a LITTLE bit crazy. (in a very good way).
the rest of their preview is here.
i just have to say-i am so lucky to have met the people i have met. i have not come across one person who i didnt like. one person who i didnt click with. i feel so lucky that my clients trust me enough to let me in. let me see who they are and laugh with me and play with me. thank you, all of you!
Beth is the sweetest person ever! How cool that she purchased this shoot. FABULOUS stuff Tara. Love what you captured :)
wow tara, you really caught the love, joy and fun in this family. i mean, you always do, but i can see it sooooooooo much more here than ever. maybe it’s the people, but these photos are the ultimate! love the ones of the boys by the water. and the ones of the grandparents are to die for!!!! truly woman, you ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!
tara
Just gorgeous, Tara. I love how you capture everyday people – their spirit and love and light. You make everyone look – and feel, I’m sure – like the most beautiful people in the world. Well done.
These are great T. What a lovely family that is. You can see there is lots of love between the grandparents, you can see it shining through the photo. Awesome :)
Alette
I bet those boys will love to look at these photos when their grandparents head back home. I adore the photo of the grandparents together, especially the way she is looking at him. You did a wonderful job :)
I have to say your photo’s of families just absolutely move me!
Great photos. I too like the one of Corrine and Ed together. The way she is looking at him is so touching.
Oh, Tara! This makes me SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy! You truly amaze me in a million ways. What you have done for our family will be cherished for generations. These pictures are phenomenal (and I’m not just biased!). I love these people so much, and by capturing this all on film they don’t seem so far away… Thank you, thank you, thank you…
I just have to tell you…Susan and I were late for school today…just a little bit…because we were lingering over every wonderful image you caught on film. You are an absolute gift. Thank you for understanding how important these people are to me and figuring out a way to coordinate all the scheduling and everything. I am so, so touched by the things you said about them in the blog, too. I love my family, and I’m totally aware of how special they are, but it’s wonderful to hear that others recognize it too.
Regarding the pictures…I can’t even speak…I’m crying, laughing, smiling…they are indescribably perfect. We will cherish them forever. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
FAbulous shoot Tara!! It looks like the lighting was just about perfect!!! The grandparent shots are GORgeous! The emotion in them is fantastic! What a fun fam!
Great job!!!
:-)
What wonderful photos of my Aunt and Uncle with cousin and family. Tara, you have a marvelous gift and an obvious love of photography and life. Good job!
What a gorgeous, lively HAPPY family! Fabulous pictures!
I got teary-eyed reading your post and seeing this album. I love Beth & Susan–they’re 2 of my closest friends and I KNOW how much these photos mean to the two of them. You’ve captured their family beautifully. They’re going to be on cloud 9 forever. Gorgeous work, Tara, gorgeous work!
I so love to read your blog! I am envious of all the people who get their photos taken by you! I wish CA wasn’t so darn far from NH!!! If you ever decide to come to CKU NE again I’m not letting you get away this time! Had I known who you were the first time I wouldn’t have been so stinking stupid!
HOW PRECIOUS IS THAT? i totally teared up with the grandparent ones. i want to go find them and hug them. can they be my grandparents? they are so cute. There is something about an older couple who plainly love each other after “all these years” that gets to me. And Beth’s family is gorgeous….those boys have the sweetest faces! What a ton of love that family has. you captured them beautifully, tara. Wonderful job.
oops….i guess i meant Anna and kurts family!
Tara, these are breathtaking. Love the color ones where the foreground is vivid and the background is more muted. Please PLEASE consider doing a book on photography, your work is just amazing.
awesome to see you do several generations like that. great shots!
AWESOME! can’t wait for may 28th!
well, the feeling is SO mutual, girl!!! so, so happy we were lucky enough to score your talent and to have it plastered all over our walls! AND to fall in love with you in such a short period of time. you make it easy. Thanks again!
Yummy, yummy, yummy Tara! Both these shots and the previous ones with the baby and the son! Yummy!
So – a plead – could you get a feed on your blog? I have bloglines set up, but it’s not getting anything current for your blog. Help a girl out, please???
Have a great day, Tara! :)
I’m all teary eyed and I don’t even know this beautiful family. Such precious moments to have captured among them, truly :)
Love the photo of the grandparents. Brought tears to my eyes.
WOW! Beautiful photos as always and what a cool chick that Beth O is! :-D
dude
when i saw the family pick
i like almost busted out in tears
what
is
up
with
that?
that is one good picture to do that to someone just casually looking
kellicrowe
beautiful – love how you captured the boys excitement! :)
I love the pics of the boys with their grandparents. Such sweet pictures.
Amazing talent Tara.
absolutely love these last couple of posts – the photos of these families are just wonderful. Love the little boy kissing his brother while the parents are kissing also.
Tara – I usually don’t get teary eyed when I look at pictures, but this photo shoot is fabulous, I mean that truely, I was in tears looking at this family that I don’t even know, so so wonderful! thank you for sharing!!
thank you so much everyone. i am so flattered that you are tearing up-that does mean a lot. :)
girl what can I say: COME TO THE NETHERLANDS SOOOOON!!!!!
corinnexxx
Beautiful pictures!! Wish I could use you as a photographer! You don’t travel do you? hee hee
FANTASTIC JOB!
I love that our album is still front and center here! Can I just mention that I am continuing to visit and sigh and get misty several times a day!?
This is coming from Beth and Susan Opel’s mother. Those girls are continually coming up with wonderful ideas and gifts that make us so delighted they are our daughters. We are not the best looking, loveliest family on earth, just a family, but Tara has made us look so good in these photos. She has this marvelous way of making people feel at ease and just out having a good time…and praise God she got the little grandsons to smile natural smiles that are not all “cheesy”. The spot at Laguna Beach is so gorgeous, a perfect background for taking pictures. Our son and family live in the Los Angeles area, so David and Jonathan love splashing in the Pacific Ocean. This was just an ideal setting. Living in Michigan, Grandma and Grandpa feel transformed to a different world when we visit our children in California. To have these pictures and look back on all the fun we had that day will be a cherished memory for our family forever. I sent the link to many friends and family across the country and they are responding with adjectives like: incredible, awesome, amazing, wonderful, magnificent, professional, like pictures in a magazine, absolutely gorgeous, neat idea, outstanding, they tell a story of a three generational family outside having a wonderful day. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Tara. You have blessed us beyond measure!
Corrine Opel