Personal Post – Our Session at Home

For the last few years, we’ve had professional photos taken of us. In 2011 it was our wedding and engagement photos by Jennifer Smutek. In 2013, we had our photos taken by Melissa McClure in San Diego on the anniversary of the day that my parents met, in the very place that they got married. Last year, Natalie Franke was up to the challenge to photograph us as a couple as well during my headshot session. As I wrote in last year’s post, we don’t often take selfies with each other. I have more selfies of me and the cat than me and my husband. And I’m also notoriously bad at documenting my own life. So each year, I make it a priority to find someone to photograph us! It’s been fun to collect the work of so many talented photographers, with such vastly different styles.

This year, our session was done by Tony and Amy with Hoffer Photography. I first discovered and fell in love with their work about a year ago when one of my photographer friends posted about registering for their workshop. I read about the workshop – which is an intense 3 day class designed to challenge you and get you out of your comfort zone with shooting– and I was blown away by their work. I wanted so badly to register too, but I couldn’t impulse purchase it having just heard about them. The next morning I had decided to do it, but it had already sold out. Tony and Amy are incredible photographers who see things differently than most. Their eye for creative composition and lighting makes every session completely unique and absolutely stunning. I’ve been following their work closely ever since. When I was considering options for our photo session for this year, I was originally thinking I’d like to do a session in Venice when we’re there on vacation in July. But ultimately I decided that something close to home would make more sense, especially since we had such limited time on our trip. Tony and I chatted back and forth for a little while about possible locations and we ended up settling on our home. After all, what’s more personal and more ‘us’ than the place that we’ve made our own over the last four years of marriage? I knew if anyone could make our little 1920s house work, it would be Tony and Amy, and they sure did. These photos mean more to us than words can say.

Enjoy some of my favorites from our session with Tony and Amy – and head on over to their blog to see more!

These following two photos were taken at the same time. I love how they work.

We used a ladder to get up into this tree, one of my favorite parts of our yard. Sadly this tree is dying and needs to come down – something I’m really bummed about. I’m so glad we were able to get this shot!


Buddy! Sherlock wasn’t having it. He was way more interested in Tony and Amy than us, he just wanted to rub against their legs and not be photographed by them. I’m still glad we got a few photos with our little furball even though they aren’t perfect. What aspect of real life is?

Also during our session, we got updated head shots! Steve recently quit his full time job to work as a freelancer in TV production, so he had a need for a professional head shot as well!

And this one is already in place all over the website for me!

I love that I was also able to get a photo in my office! I love this space so much, it’s been wonderful having it as a place to meet clients for the last 2 years – and now it’s on the website as well on the About Brea page.