the blog

I first met Shana in 2012 when I was pretty much just getting started in photography. We were both attendees of Anna Kuperberg’s workshop (Kuperschool). We kept in touch the way many of us do when meeting at networking events, conferences or workshops – following each other’s work and lives on social media, but not really chatting much (although initially we did have a small group of us try to continue to meet up once in a while… but you know, life). Fast forward to 2020, and the world is basically on the verge of collapse. With weddings getting postponed left and right, I was looking down the barrel of a basically non-existent income stream for who knew how long… I decided to offer up half-priced discounts for session files to anyone interested in buying now and scheduling later. Among the many folks who reached out to take advantage of this deal, was my old friend Shana. She initially booked me for a family session, which we did at the Old Mill Park in May of 2021, but during the session, we got to talking about their property up in Sea Ranch where they often go to get away from the Bay Area. The idea came up to do a day-in-the-life session, which is basically just me hanging out with them for a day and photographing a “typical” day in the life (yeah, a bit on-the-nose). Anyway, we were both excited for the idea of documenting her family in a way that was essentially 100% candid. And Seth, her husband, was extra excited because he absolutely hates posing for photos, though he sees the value in having them.

So we ended up scheduling a date for me to go up to Sea Ranch for a day to photograph Shana and Seth’s family while they spent the day doing the things they typically do when they are up there including: swimming at the pool; picking up bread for sandwiches; hiking along the trails nearby; obsessively scrutinizing the clouds to see if they’d break; and visiting the playground and nearby beach. Here are some of my favorite photographs from their day in the life session.