Heidi Ryder Photography: The Blog » los angeles portrait photography

Ricardo Family Portraits

Heidi — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:58:08 +0000

One of the coolest parts about being a wedding photographer is I get to watch two people build their lives together, which includes starting a family. And while I wasn’t available for Caroline and Raul’s wedding, I did shoot their super cute engagement session, so I was honored when they asked me to shoot their first family portrait session with the sweet new addition to their family, little Olivia.

Olivia is such a beautiful and happy baby and watching the three of them together was really beautiful and made me imagine what life might be like when Chris and I decide to get one of those baby things people are always going on about. So much has changed since Caroline and Raul’s engagement session a little over a year ago. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for them next!

Alexis and Giannina: Cooking!

Heidi — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:34:34 +0000

I know it’s wedding season, and I promise I have tons of amazing weddings to blog, but for today I wanted to share a super fun mother-daughter shoot with a cooking theme! You may remember Alexis, the daughter in this scenario, as she’s been featured on this blog a couple of times before, for her engagement session and her wedding! She’s basically one of my favorite people and she reminds me of why I love my job so much – meeting new awesome people is a major perk of what I do. Alexis and Mitch are so awesome and Giannina, Alexis’ mom, is the best. She made me feel so welcome and appreciated on Alexis and Mitch’s wedding day and welcomed me into her home with open arms for this shoot.

The reason for this shoot is because Alexis and Giannina realized they spent almost no time togehter on the wedding day, hence, they don’t really have any photos together of just the two of them. This made all of us sad, so they decided it was time for a portrait shoot of just the two of them. The best part is, they were inspired by this cooking engagement session I did earlier this year and wanted to do something similar. Plus, they’d feed me the results. So, obviously I was sold.

Alexis and Giannina, I’m glad we got to spend the afternoon together. Thanks so much for the laughs and yummy food! Here are a few of my favorites from the day:

Natali + Cory = Expecting!

Heidi — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:59:02 +0000

Remember back when I posted maternity photos of my best friend Kim and her husband Johnny? I had mentioned that I planned to only photograph maternity sessions for previous wedding clients, and I’m sticking to it! This maternity session is very special to me because not only have I known Cory since he was about 10 years old (he’s Kim’s little brother!) and Natali since she was about 17, but theirs was the first wedding I ever shot! I don’t have those photos online anymore, but I added a couple from that day at the bottom of this post, just for fun.

I feel like this post is long overdue, even though I only shot the session a few weeks ago. Baby Kash decided to make his grand entrance just a few days after this shoot! Congratulations, Cor and Nat! I can’t wait to meet him.

And here’s the wedding shots I promised. I’ve definitely learned a few things since then but I’ll always cherish my very first wedding job.

Kim + Johnny = Expecting!

Heidi — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 21:45:15 +0000

I’ve talked about my best friend Kim a few times on this blog before. It would be impossible for me not to—she’s been my dearest friend since we were 12 years old. No matter what, I know that we will be friends for life. She has, and will always hold a piece of my heart. She is my sister. Her family is my family. So, it should come as no surprise that I was OVER THE MOON when I found out she and her awesome husband, Johnny, were expecting their first little one. That means I’m going to be an aunt!

When Kim told me the big news she actually did so under the guise of asking me about maternity photos, but made it seem like she was asking for someone else. I told her I haven’t really done many maternity photos and actually would only be interested in doing them for past wedding clients. And then she asked me if I could make an exception for my best friend. And that’s when I proceeded to FREAK. OUT. Squeeee!!!

So, we waited for Kim’s belly to get nice and big before we scheduled the session. This was excruciating for me because it felt like it took forever for her to look even remotely pregnant. Every time I saw her I would examine her bump. Sign of progress meant we were that much closer to her session, and then after that all we would have to do was wait for that adorable little baby. Well, Kim’s due in a few short weeks so we finally got some photo time in.

Because I am the awesomest friend ever, I scheduled an appointment to get Kim’s hair and makeup done before the shoot. I wanted her to feel extra special and beautiful. And, apparently I am a poor planner because that process took much longer than I expected so by the time we left the salon we only had time to race to a nearby Beverly Hills park to catch the last five minutes of light. But we managed! My amazing professional camera equipment is the only reason we were able to pull this off. We shot 90% of the session in almost pure darkness. Not ideal, mind you, but I am so in love with the way these turned out.

Congratulations to my beautiful friends, Kim and Johnny. I can’t wait to meet my beautiful little niece, Mackenzie!!

When I just couldn’t squeeze any more natural light out of the setting sun, I busted out my video light and had Johnny assist me with lighting Kim. I had her look away for a few frames and love this next shot. She looks like a super (pregnant) model!

And I just had to throw in this scene-setting shot of Johnny rockin’ the video light for me. So funny!

Lin Family Portraits

Heidi — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:15:57 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I got to spend some time with this awesome family at their beautiful home. Usually when I do family portaits, we spend some time outdoors in a cool location, so I was very excited when Joey wrote me saying they wanted the session to take place at their home. I love photographing people in their natural environment, I think it really makes for something special. Plus, the family dog and bird was able to get in on the action!

It was super fun spending the afternoon with this family. Here’s a photo recap of our day.

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Ebnet Family Portraits

Heidi — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:04:00 +0000

I’ve known Natalie and Sam, the parents of this lovely family, for many years now. I even photographed Sam over a year ago for some promo pics for his music. Natalie is a film and TV editor who worked with Chris on a show five or six years ago, maybe more. They were both on the night shift and I used to IM with Chris at night while he worked. Eventually I was IM’ing with Natalie, too! We don’t see them as often as we would like to, mostly due to the fact that Chris and I have the WORST work schedules when it comes to being social. Weekends and evenings are usually out for us, which makes us big losers. But, I digress. About nine months ago, Natalie gave birth to the adorable Weston! I’ve seen tons of photos of him on Facebook but I didn’t get to meet him until the day of this shoot.

It took a lot of restraint on my part to not take Weston home with me. He’s one of the happiest babies I’ve ever met, and he’s funny, too! I was so happy to finally meet him and it was great seeing Natalie and Sam again. We had fun playing around in the park a couple of weeks ago and I just adore these shots of this lovely family…

As you can see, Wes has the best smile ever. Cute baby belly laughs are really what make the world go round, I think.

He got his first taste of grass that day. I don’t think he’ll be ordering it again any time soon…

This next series tickles my funny bone. When we first met at the park, Wes did this thing where he raised his hand to the sky and sort of shouted, as if to say, “Oh, the humanity!” His dad told me he does this a lot and would love it if we could get a shot of him doing it. I was so excited when he did it again, near the end of the shoot. I crack up every time I look at this sequence, it’s so hilarious! I’m glad we’ve got it on “film” now.

Thanks for hanging out with me, guys! I hope not too much time goes by next time before I see you again.

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Rutt Family Portraits

Heidi — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:58:29 +0000

The other day I got to photograph another sweet family. This was very fun shoot for me because the dad in this family used to be my boss! When Chad and I worked together he would talk about his wife and daughters all the time and I felt like I knew them even though we had never met. That meeting finally happened when Chad, his wife Kim, and their beautiful twin daughters, Sophie and Abby, met me late in the afternoon and proceeded to make me laugh and giggle the entire shoot. It was so awesome to finally meet Chad’s beautiful family!

Photographing them was a dream. All four of them are super fun and pretty comfortable in front of the camera, so I didn’t feel like I was working, at all. And that’s the way I like it!

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Charlotte’s 1st Birthday!

Heidi — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:32:33 +0000

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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Paramount Ranch Family Portraits : The Armes Family

Heidi — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:37:48 +0000

I was so excited when it worked out that my first shoot of 2010 was with the winners of my Giving Is Awesome giveaway. I think that means great things for 2010! When I emailed Alan on Christmas Eve to let him know he and his family were nominated and won, I was pleased to hear back that the whole family was game for a fun shoot at Paramount Ranch. I was so excited because it was my first time shooting there and Alan and Debbie were excited because they love Westerns and Alan had even visited the set of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman years ago, when it filmed on the ranch. Plus, their youngest, Willan, has a new cowboy hat that he’s currently obsessed with. Obviously, Paramount Ranch was the ideal place for this family shoot.

When we got the the ranch to meet up with the Armes’, some of the kids had fallen asleep on the drive over. Speaking from experience, getitng woken up in the middle of a nap is no fun at all, so I was preparing myself for a couple of grouchy kids, at least for the first few minutes. That couldn’t have been farther from the truth though – all four of them were smiley and happy and they blew me away with how smart and polite they were. It was obvious to me that this is a close and happy family and Alan and Debbie are great parents. I was excited to get started.

Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot. A big thank you to the Alan, Debbie, Brayden, Aubrey, Rethy and Willan for being such fun subjects. And also, thanks to their friend Natalie who nominated them!

There’s a beautiful old tree at the Ranch and I was very pleased to find that this family is a tree climbing family.

Clearly, the kids get it from their mom!

And here’s one of the two responsible for this lovely family.

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Los Angeles Portrait Photography : Janelle + Katarina

Heidi — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:29:26 +0000

I’ve been waiting since mid-November to share this shoot. I couldn’t blog it because the photos were meant as a gift for Janelle and Kat’s family members and most of them read my blog regularly. I couldn’t ruin the surprise! I’ve known Janelle since I was 12 and she was 17, and I’ve known Katarina since the day she was born, just over 15 years ago. Holy cow, does that make me feel old.

Janelle is my best friend‘s sister and Kat is Janelle’s daughter. When Janelle asked me to take some portraits of the two of them, I was super excited. I only got more excited once we started and I realized that all this time I had these fabulous super models at my disposal. We had a lot of laughs and the session was a lot of fun. And I’m so excited by the shots we got! I’ll photograph these beautiful ladies any time…

We found this awesome field in Rancho Cucamonga that used to be a vineyard but all the vines were dead and dried up. It was a great backdrop for cool portraits.

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