carlie statsky photography » modern wedding and portrait photographer

I asked my Mom what she wanted for her birthday, and she said that all she wanted was a girls’ day…so we chose Cornerstone Gardens in Sonoma as our destination, and had the most idyllic summer day wandering through the sculpture gardens, art installations and shops, followed by some wine and olive oil tasting and ending with dinner on the water in Sausalito. Now that I am a mama myself I can appreciate my Mom to a whole new level of love, and every year I come to celebrate her life a little more. She is the most amazingly strong, huge-hearted, fun-loving, passionate woman you could ever hope to have nurture you from womb to adulthood. She brightens the lives around her with her enthusiasm for life, her invented vocabulary, her liberal use of curse words, her over-zealous hand gestures, her beautiful shock of red hair and her youthful spirit. I love the fact that she continues to celebrate her 18th birthday every year. Mom, I hope that all of your wishes are granted and grown upon.

I had to post this first picture of both of my moms. I love them both to the moon and back, and my life is infinitely better thanks to their presences in it.

I am so in love with this family…because they are my actual family, (thanks to my husband Gabe having Jessie as his sister.) I honestly have no idea how I lucked out in marrying someone with a family that I actually enjoy being with, and even calling after the ‘being with’ to talk for a few late night hours. This is a family that offers a permanent supply of  love, support and hand-me-down gossip magazines, so they definitely deserved a little something back, but being an artist with little to offer besides some creativity and heart I was forced to give the lamest excuse for a present ever: a hand made gift certificate. Granted it was an excessively large gift certificate, colorfully written on a stretched canvas, with instructions to hang the certificate on a wall in their home until it was redeemed for the real gift; a family portrait session, but it was still essentially a gregarious coupon posing as a Christmas gift. Finally, a half a year later, I’m finally offering something back to the most deserving and beautiful family ever; documentation of their connection as a family and some memories of this fleeting moment in the girls’ lives. I usually post mostly color photos, but for this session the toned black and white images felt much more powerful to me. I think when the color is removed from an image we are more easily able to focus on the emotion within the image. I find so much love and spirit communicated in all of the expressions and gestures that these four share. I included a little color some color at the end,  to show that it really was a stunning summer day at the beach, that there are some insanely dazzling blue eyes in this family, and to convey that there is a very vibrant future ahead of this crazy hula hooping crew!

I have to thank my daughter’s preschool for connecting me with this sweet family. I spent some time with these brothers in their classroom when I photographed them for Midtown Montessori’s new website. I got to observe both boys completely quiet and still as they focused on their work inside the classroom, and then I got to see their extroverted and active sides come out when we met at the beach one windy afternoon for their family portrait session. There is a sense of freedom and fun that the oceanside offers, and the boys were definitely feeling it, as they ran, jumped, laughed and got giddy….all of which kept me thoroughly entertained and permanently pressing the shutter button.

It’s a rare thing to walk into a family home with two young kids and immediately feel a sense of calm. Even more impressive were the abundance of manners and smiles exhibited by their 5 year old boy. I have to give full credit to these two parents who seemed to put so much effort into raising their children with a conscious and loving approach. These are some amazing parents who manage to be educating their kids without sacrificing any of the fun. I loved following them around while the family explored in the garden, read books, danced around, and even played chess together. Yes, they have a 5 year old who has been reading for 3 years and plays chess already…I told you they were an impressive family.

A husband who makes every effort and arrangement to grant his wife’s birthday wish is the sweetest, but a husband who has a super-hot wife who cares for their three angelic kids with her calm and kind ways is the luckiest….so I guess these two are even. Dad scheduled this family portrait session on Mom’s actual birthday, (right before the party that was happening at their house that afternoon) and chose the brand new sand bar beach at Cowell’s for the location. I drove by the spot earlier in the day and was a little worried to discover that there was no beach, only waves crashing against the cliff. When I went back only a few hours later the little beach had appeared, along with the crowds of surfers and families eager to experience the novelty. We explored around and found cliffs covered in algae, a kid-sized cave, beautiful boulders and mounds of seaweed. I had so much fun getting to know each of the personalities within the family, and the whole time I couldn’t help but be inspired by the grace of these two parents, the beauty of their kids and the amazing obedience of their dog. They definitely made having three kids look far easier then I imagined. Getting all three to look at the camera and smile, however…not so easy. Sending out a big Happy Birthday to Chelsea! Wishing you a wonderful new year filled with good times and many more beach days (oh, and a daughter who completely overcomes her fear of the beach! )

I got to photograph the very beginning of this family, back when big sister had just been born. Fast forward two very short years, and I am back to photograph this family again, together with it’s newest member; a little sister! It’s always so amazing to get to experience the growth of a family and the personalities that emerge once those newborns grow up into toddlers. I loved being introduced to little sister by big sister, and as I stared at this beautiful new life I wondered who she would grow up to become. We managed to have some fun and get some shots in between the fussiness and fatigue that is expected of a newborn, and the desire to play and resistance to pose that is expected of a toddler. In those ‘between’ moments I am always trying to capture the character of each child and each family at that time and the beauty of this ’stage’ because I am so aware that we’re all in a constant state of evolution.

I have to say that I love a Dad who keeps his daughter home from school on a Friday just so that they can hang out together, (I hope I’m not ruining any alibis ) a Dad who wants to remember each stage of his daughter’s childhood by doing annual portraits together, a Dad who builds the things that his daughter designs and launches a business together called Sugarline because her middle name is Sugar, but mostly I love a Dad who simply adores his daughter.

I am a self proclaimed post-a-holic, and so I’m going to do my best to resist the urge to post about 100 images form this single portrait session. There were so many great moments, expressions and acrobatics documented that I find it really challenging to be selective. I think that I get extra snap-happy whenever I sense a depth of connection between the people I am photographing, and this father and daughter are so beautifully close and comfortable together that I never noticed the time nor the frames flying by until the raindrops started falling. I could tell that they just truly enjoyed each other’s company…and of course I loved being around them too.

Sometimes one portrait session isn’t enough…so michelle chose to do two: one with her sisters, and one with her husband and her 3 babies.

Three beautiful sisters who live in different parts of the country were united in Palo Alto for the holidays, so I came to capture some of their time together. Lots of laughter and sisterly antics ensued, as the youthful spirit of adolescence re-emerged while they posed, pulled funny faces and played in the park together. The three of them have such a connection with each other and with their sweet father, who joined us too. I love how they were all up for anything and even agreed to lay on the ground and let me hover over them to get the shots I had in mind. I love my brother to pieces, but I kinda wish I had two sisters now.