Heidi Ryder Photography: The Blog » Southern California and Destination Wedding Photography

You may remember Charlotte from her family portrait session several months ago – six months ago, in fact. Because now, that six month old baby is a 1-year-old! I can’t believe it’s already been six months since I met this beautiful little girl. Charlotte’s mom, Jillian, planned a super cute birthday party in honor of her baby girl and she asked me to capture the day. I had so much fun! Here are some of my favorites.

Jillian worked very hard on the details for this party and it really showed! There were lanterns, balloons and paper pom poms all over the house. She even made the cupcakes and cake, including the flower and butterfly fondant details. So impressed.

One of my favorite elements of the party was a time capsule that Jillian planned for Charlotte. She had every guest write a note to Charlotte for her to read on her 18th birthday. Such a great idea and so personal. I wish someone had done that for me!

Charlotte’s dad, Dennis, cooked up some wonderful butternut squash soup, a delightful salad and even croque-monsieur (fancy name for grilled ham and cheese sandwiches) for everyone to eat. Sophisticated food for a one-year-old’s birthday party? Maybe, but Charlotte was the only baby in attendance and she LOVED the soup!

When it was time to blow out the candle on her cake, Charlotte got a little help from her mommy. I love the look on her face. She was having fun!

I think it’s kinda cute that the balloons behind Charlotte’s head look like balloon antennae. Very festive!

Charlotte dug into her cake like a true lady. Barely made a mess at all – and she even used a spoon!

After gifts were opened everyone just sat around and soaked in Charlotte’s cuteness. She obliged by hamming it up for all of us.

Happy birthday, Charlotte! You are the sweetest, most adorable one-year-old!

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Chris and I have known Joe’s mom and dad for several years now. Joey is 2 1/2 years old, but we hadn’t seen him since he was just a wiggle worm of a baby, which is way too long to go between visits! I was so glad the day finally came for me to make some portraits of Joey and I had such a blast chasing after this adorable little energy drink disguised as a child. Here’s a tip: if you wanna get in shape, change your career to kids photographer! I’m rethinking the whole wedding photographer thing just so I can lose a few pounds!

Here are a few of my favorites from our play date in the park.

So, like most boys his age I’ve known, Joey is completely obsessed with Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movies. He brought along his costume, which mom and dad say he LOVES to wear as much as possible. Getting to put it on was his treat at the end of the shoot for being such a great little model. He had an absolute blast running around while wearing his Buzz wings and yelling, “To Infinity, And Beyond!”

Yesterday I spent some time with my new friend Ninah at Lemon Creek Park in Diamond Bar. For the past couple of years, Ninah has been expressing interest in acting and being in commercials, so her grandma asked me to take a few headshots so that she could put together a portfolio for her. I was happy to oblige, but I already had it in my head that I wasn’t going to make an eight-year-old spend a couple of hours at a park without getting some play-time in, so we got to work right away with some headshots, with a plan of finishing our time together with some rowdy fun. Here are a few of my favorite headshots:

Ninah was kind enough to let me indulge my artistic side with this one:

After getting those out of the way, we let loose a little. Ninah was all business up until I said it was okay to fool around–an activity she obviously takes very seriously:

She even recruited her cousin, who was hanging out behind the scenes, for some piggy back action:

And, of course, we got some jumping and running in. Wouldn’t be a trip to the park without those two activities! Note the Camp Rock outfit, which Ninah picked out special for our shoot. Jonas Brothers reprezent! (She thinks Nick’s the hot one, in case you were wondering):

I had a superfun time hanging out with Ninah. With a face like that and personality to boot, I know she’ll go far.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Sunday’s baby shower was anything but ordinary. I thanked my lucky stars during the entire thing for being able to witness and photograph such an exciting party. But, at the same time, there were plenty of things about the party that did make it feel like baby shower. There were games, pink and blue favors––and even a onesie and bib decorating station! Still so many images to go through for the family, but here are a few of my favorites so far.

I think the best part about photographing kids is that for the most part they don’t try to pose. Heck, most of them refuse to pose. For someone like me, this is great, because you are able to better capture the essence of their personality in a photo. This one was taken during a company kickball game/picnic. It was a family affair and this kid is the son of a co-worker. He was a rambunctious one–in your face on the kickball field and unable to sit still when it wasn’t game time. I captured the shot just as he picked up the ball and tried to persuade his dad to get the game started. I like to think you can see the wheels turning underneath that curly mop of his, as if he’s thinking, “Hmmm, how can I get what I want?”