Southern California is known for the beach… and surfing… and palm trees. Socal is not a place known for the beauty of changing leaves…. in fact, it’s ridiculously hard to find some good autumn leaves around here. So when Matthew contacted me about taking some “secret” shots of him and his boys for a Christmas present for his wife in autumn leaves, I thought “Uh…..yes?” After a few excited emails back and forth, Matthew tracked down some sweet maple trees to take pictures by…. he just didn’t tell me it was in some random person’s yard… and that we’d have to trespass to get in. Cool. Luckily though, the owner of the house turned out to be this sweet old lady who thought it was awesome that we trespassed into her yard to take pictures with cute children and waved us on.
So I had met Matthew once before when I shot Bob Botsford’s portraits earlier in the month (he’s one of the very talented media/graphics guys at Horizon Christian Fellowship)…. and I had never met “the boys”… and I had no clue what was coming…. Matthew’s boys are probably THE CUTEST CHILDREN EVER! The oldest and most spunky of the group was Milo, next is the Mr. Bashful McSmiles Autry, and finally the baby of the family Finlay. Matthew + Milo + Autry + Finlay = the coolest names ever!
We spent the first part of the shoot taking as many posed and “Mom” pictures as we could before the kids lost interest and when they finally got antsy enough….. we gave them candy and set them loose so they’d sleep well that night ;). I hung out with Autry for a while and examined the fall colors that painted the once green leaves of the baby Maples. This guy LOVED the camera… he kept wanting more pictures taken of himself and then wanted to see them all. I’d take a few pictures, show him… and his hands would reflexively shoot up to his mouth, he’d get a huge smile and the uncontrollable giggles and run away laughing…. then he’d come back for more.
While the boys ran free, Matt and Finlay examined the colorful leaves too…. Finlay definitely has an appreciation for the autumn colors… at least for the taste of them.
I thought this picture was hilarious because THAT day, Matthew had taught Finlay how to shake his head “no” and he’d been doing it all day. When I was taking this, Finlay was shaking his head “no” with his finger on Dad’s lips…. “Shhh, Dad. Stop talking for a second…I know I’m handsome.”
I finally caught up with Milo for a little… but it took some convincing to put his sticks down for a picture. He swore his face only made a sad face…. not a smiley one… so insisted that if I took a picture, it had to be the best and most convincing sad face ever…. he happily obliged.
Then Autry joined him… and his was his attempt at a sad face….
Later on in the shoot, Autry saw Milo jump in a pile of leaves. He stood there amazed for a second, and when Milo ran away looking for more sticks, Autrey walked slowly up to the trampled mess of leaves and gently pushed them back together into a pile. He smiled at me, walked away for a second, and then ran back full speed and jumped in the pile of leaves squealing with joy. Such a fun moment….
At the end of the day, Matthew gathered the boys together and gave them a quick lesson on why autumn is so cool….. then gave them all a group hug.
Matthew, I hope you know you’re WAAAY blessed to have such adorable and well behaved boys. Your wife must be proud…. and speaking of your wife… if she just read this blog… the pictures are supposed to be a surprise, so make sure you’re surprised on Christmas morning! 😉
Many thanks to Christopher and Mitch for tagging along and helping with the kids!
