lovely lovely yellow flowers • orange county photographer

jeff reminded me a few weeks ago that every year the yellow flowers come to town and every year i say im going to take the family out in them and every year … i dont.

so last saturday we had nothing planned. and shane and rachel were coming over.

so i cooked up a little outing.

i have only just begun to work on the photos that we took, (i did a shoot with the two lovebirds and in between they shot us) and ive been sitting on these since saturday and i just cant anymore. i just have to share these because as you can imagine i look at photos like this everyday. but they never have me in them. or my husband. or my children. or OUR connection. or OUR love.

and now, thanks to jeff pushing me to do this, and shane for playing photographer, i do.

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this photo makes my HEART BURST INTO A TRILLION PIECES OF TINY HOT PINK GLITTER.

and this one, i just have no words. like i said, i am rarely in photos. i LOVE the yellow flowers. like, i love them so much my soul drinks them in with every glance i get. i drive down streets surrounded by them and i cant stop looking at them and taking in the beauty and serenity of them. they bring me peace. the beauty of them washes over me everyday from march-may. so to have this shot of me is seriously a big deal. a huge deal. we were walking back to the car and i was looking at the images quickly in the back of the camera when walking and when i came across this one i screamed out loud to jeff. the flowers, the light, the way i am looking at him (he was shooting these), the outfit rachel and i carefully chose, the crop. yes i set up the shot but he clicked at JUST THE RIGHT SECOND.

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and this

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you can only kind of tell that the strap of my dress had popped off when i was getting back up from laying on the ground and was tucked ever so delicately into my bra strap.

but you can TOTALLY tell how happy i was in this moment.

happy happy happy happy happy.

i love feeling happy.

just as much as i love the yellow flowers.

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164 Comments

  1. Tara, You are so obviously a beautiful person inside and out. The way you love your husband and kids, the way you bring out the beauty in your clients. And in my case, the way you inspire others to follow their dreams!! I feel slightly stalker-ish (which I am definitely not, just a mom and photographer like you) to say this, but seriously – I fell in love with your images and vision just as you were beginning your blog (can’t even remember how I linked to you back then!) and you have been inspiring me DAILY to “just be” – to be me – a mom, a wife, a daughter, a friend – to follow my dreams and to develop my own style. I am finally doing it and I have never been happier!

    I am so glad that you have these lovely images of yourself to look at. Now you can see yourself just as the rest of us do! THANK YOU, Tara Whitney for being a cool chick and for inspiring so many women to be the same!!!

  2. I absolutely adore the shot of you and your husband and can tell why your heart would burst looking at it. Someday I hope I will get a picture that conveys so beautifully the love between my husband and I as this one does for the two of you. {{sigh}} gorgeous

  3. HOT MAMA!!! I love those flowers too. My new commute takes me past the hills off the 57 that are covered in them, and it makes me happy. In fact, I almost hit somebody trying to take photos on the way home yesterday. :) Thanks for the inspiration, as always!

  4. Heck to the yes girl,, it makes me happy to see how happy the flowers make you. We just had our pictures taken this week and I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally have mine and my hubsters love captured on camera. LOVE the yellow flowers, LOVE love, LOVE you!! Yaay for your pix,, can’t wait to see more!!

  5. These are just awesome Tara, I can totally see why you are so thrilled! Wish we had fields filled with yellow flowers like that in T.O., then again, with my allergies it would probably make me sneeze. ;-) Loving the ‘love’ in the shot of you and Jeff, and awesome backlighting on the third shot! Very cool! :-)

  6. Wonderful,wonderful photos. It is hard to be on the other side of the camera…to be out of our comfort zone. I personally do not like having my photo taken. I know I am too hard on myself but that’s just how it is. I am so glad you did! These are gorgeous,sweet, and happy. So glad it made you happy!

  7. That first shot Tara.. wow.. you can just feel your love.. its amazing and the ones of you.. AWESOME.. its so wonderful to see you in some photos you are so damn pretty and to know that you are in a place you love a place that makes you feel at peace makes these even more magnificent.

    e

  8. WOW…first the pictures of the women on the Thailand trip and now these beautiful ones of you. I can only say that I’ve always wanted my picture taken like these of you and of all the beautiful women on the trip. Im not sure that you know how inspiring you are to me and many others. Seeing your work and seeing how proud you are to show these pictures of yourself well…just makes me feel like there is nothing weird or stuck up or embarassing about liking myself enough to want to have beautiful pictures taken of just me.
    Thank you…thank you thank you
    Sandy

  9. I feel so thrilled for you! As a photographer I know what it means to never see yourself in images, and the fact that you gave yourself that opportunity amongst the people and flowers you love so much – well I just want to Burst! Man I hope I can create that for myself sometime soon.

  10. I cannot tell you how hugely I am inspired every time I visit your site, Tara! I am now following you on Twitter in hopes that through your Tweets a little Tara magic will rub off on me! Also, I live in Alaska, where everything right now is brown and gray (from volcanic ash!) and seeing those yellow flowers makes me want to CRY! Thanks for sharing so much of yourself with us on the web!

  11. Amazing! Just gorgeous. You, the flowers, the light…everything! Wish I had gotten photos like these when we were in Napa a couple weeks ago with the mustard blooming.

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