Loved This. <3

We all had originally met at John and Christina’s Wedding in May of this year. Bob Botsford, the head pastor of Horizon Christian Fellowship in Rancho Santa Fe, California, had been the officiant… and the beautiful church was the venue for both the ceremony and the reception. Not only was he the officiant, but he is John’s uncle… more affectionately referred to as “Uncle Bob.” Bob is married to Bonnie… the cutest thing since puppies were created and the sweetest wife I’ve ever met. Together, Bob and Bonnie have three awesome children… Mitch, Annie, and Matt. While all three children have their good looks and awesome smiles in common, all three are quite different on their own. Mitch, who’s the oldest, is a blooming tech and graphics guy who works for the church graphics department outside of taking college classes. Annie’s the cutest 16 yr. old I’ve met in a long time and I’m way jealous of her cake making skills (she made John and Christina’s cake… and she’s going to be making Lance and Laurie’s cake in November… can’t wait! ) Matt is a cool kid. He’s the youngest of the three Botsford children, and he’s super fun… loves a good laugh… is uber involved in extracurricular activities and sports… but best of all… he LOVES his family!

That’s actually something I really admire about the Botsfords… they genuinely love each other and want to spend time together. They’re all in different places and involved in many different things, but I love how excited they were to spend time together and take some family portraits.

We actually began the day shooting some sweet portraits for Bob’s new blogsite. In talking about some ideas he had before hand, it was funny to hear how competitive he is with his pastor friends from other churches. He told me ” I kind of want to out-do them with these pictures.” I loved it. So I did my research, combined it with my own style of shooting… and here’s some of the images we came up with… I, personally LOVE THEM.

Something I love about Bob is that he’s very concerned with his personal relevancy to this generation. He talked a lot about his blog, about his Twitter, and how he wants to be able to use it to relate and interact with people. I know maybe 3 pastors/churches who twitter… and maybe 1 church who uses a blog effectively. So we chatted about that for a bit and we pondered questions like, ” what do I write about on a blog?”, “What is the purpose of having a blog?”, ” How can I use my Twitter and my blog more effectively?” They were some good, thought provoking questions… and I’d love to hear what all you guys think about the use of blogs, twitter, and what their purpose is… leave some comments…

The afternoon would not be complete without some “pastor” shots… so we headed to the nearest Starbucks in Del Mar… and rested a little before the family joined us at the church….

Probably the coolest thing about the day was this conversation…

Bob: “So what are some ideas you have for future shoots?”

Me: “Well… one of these days I want to find myself a sweet antique couch, plop it in the middle of a field, and do a shoot there. But first I have to find a couch and a way to get it to where I want it. Someday….”

(Speaker phone in the car starts ringing)

Bob: ” Hey Mitch, after you pick up Annie, will you guys stop by the house and pick up our antique couch, put it in Grandad’s truck and drive it over to the church? Thanks!”

Me: “Seriously? YESS!”

So…. we took the sweet couch and plopped it in the middle of a eucalyptus grove on the side of the road and shot some sweet family shots… I was IN HEAVEN!

Can you believe this girl? How gorgeous is she?!!!

This is Matt… and during the shoot.. I told him if he continues to be so good at this… I’m gonna have to use him as a model! He was amused…

On our way back to the church, we stopped at an OLD dairy farm we shot at earlier in the day and shot some more family shots… I love these. This barn was awesome and the older lady who owned it was happy that it’s seeing some use after 80 years.

Twas a fun and eventful day full of wonderful people, great smiles, and a loving family! Thank you guys for choosing me to document your family this pre-holiday season and it was a complete honor to have a glimpse into who you guys are! Cheers!