martinez family photos // fresno, california

Here is another session from my little tour of central California last year… this family was so fun to spend time with! Nikki is a family photographer in her area, and she pours her emotions into her work as well as into the way she raises her children & the way she is with her husband, which I find hugely inspiring. Photographing them, and spending the afternoon with them (…they fed me dinner & gave me chocolates!) felt similar enough to a normal family session for me, but it wasn’t until she sent me an email that I realized how important these photos were to her. Not just the photos themselves, but their time together in this home; and it made me feel so happy to have visited them during this moment in their lives.

“I’ve been thinking about the day in general. How completely unprepared we were to have you here. How you probably thought we were this horrible mess of a family that doesn’t have anything together…..kids rooms completely not put together, didn’t even have like 5 forks in the house at the time, dog poop in the backyard that we neglected to get picked up before you got there, even our floors a complete mess, because our vacuum cord had been chewed up a few days before our shoot… all these crazy things. We had just moved here recently after having my father-in-law live with us for a good long while in our other place so being in our new place has definitely been a breath of fresh air, but we do feel like we’re still trying to pull ourselves together and really finally make our new place a home…”

I’m reminded once again, that life is never perfect… but that as long as we have each other, life is always beautiful.

And a couple of quick shameless plugs here:

1! Is that I will only be doing photo sessions through the end of October, as I prepare for this new chapter in our own lives of welcoming our second child into this world. Weekdays are great for me, but I also have single-day availability on most weekends until then… but that’s only about six weekends left!

2! As you know, next year we will be taking our van & our new little one, and hitting the road! And my question is… where should the road take us?! I would love to do a sort of “photography tour” through the states, with the hopes of connecting with so many of you & also documenting your lives in places as far as our little home on wheels will go! Please comment below, or make mention of it on instagram, or email me with where you are & where I should go! hello@catherineabegg.com

Wait… a third plug! Thanks to Let The Kids for featuring this beautiful family on their blog! xo!

Hope to see you soon! Here, there, or… where?!