Sarah + Sophia: Laguna Beach Portraits

I had been wanting to do a beach photo shoot for ages now. I made one attempt a couple of summers ago, but I had to force my model (my sister) to work with me, and her outfit merely consisted of a t-shirt and swimsuit bottoms. It was lackluster, but I knew that moving down to SoCal meant redeeming my vision of a full portrait session at the beach. My friend Sarah had been asking to do a shoot for some time, and I mentioned my beach idea and showed her my inspiration: she was sold. We set the date, picked the outfits, and chose our locations in Laguna Beach. Sarah’s roommate/my friend, Sophia, tagged along for the trip, but ended up borrowing one of Sarah’s outfit’s to do some shots of her own. (So, if you see both girls wearing the same dress in different shots, it is not because they own the same dress).

We first played around with casual outfits in the brighter part of the day, but when the sun starting hugging the horizon, we changed to the longer gowns and everything seemed magical. The way that the dresses would move with the waves: perfection! On top of the gorgeous ensembles, these girls have the most beautiful locks, AKA lots of twisting and twirling to get that hair moving! This shoot was definitely an experience, even if it was just for fun. I wanted to keep everything light and airy, clean yet relaxed, and filled with laughter.

This session was by far the most elaborate one I have done so far: two locations, multiple outfit changes, and chasing sunlight for as long as we possibly could. I got to experiment with different lighting this time around (not just shooting around “golden hour”) and it was a dream come true. My vision has been fulfilled and I’m so happy with the outcome!

(P.S. If you want to do a portrait session, contact me! Or DM me on Instagram, that might be the easiest way.)