Tavie's Senior Portraits

Octavia is our (Shawn's) like 67th cousin or something . . . ok, it's probably closer to 3rd, but he has so many people in his family and I get so confused as to who fits where-- All I know about Tavie is that she's family, and I think she's fabulous! Shawn's parents came out to visit in August and Tavie came with them. She was about to start her Senior year the day after they got back to Idaho, so we decided to do some Senior Portraits of her on the beach right before they left. I've never actually done Senior Portraits (they just aren't big out here) so I have no idea if I did 'em right :), but I do know that Octavia is an absolutely beautiful girl who has overcome a lot in her life and managed to let that gorgeous smile prevail, and so I was happy I got to take her pictures!

Duygu and Yusuf's new family set-up

Back in May I got to photograph little Deniz's birth (a major highlight in my job!). Then in August I went back down to Palo Alto to photograph everyone as they adjusted to life with a newbie around: Duygu and Yusuf, Derin (3yrs), Deniz (3mo) and Grandma (still visiting from Turkey). I remain a huge fan of this family- such thoughtful and warm people.

Derin makes me realize I don't think I was cut out for boys; I think 80% of what he does involves wrestling of some sort or another. He spent much of the time just climbing on and over anything and everything, especially the rest of his family! Every once in a while he took a short break and lounged around on the big bed for a minute, and he showed me how he fit "perfectly" into Deniz's bassinet, but mostly he's just pure, joyful energy! At one point, as if I couldn't love these guys more, they pulled out their VitaMix to make some smoothies! (If you know me at all, you probably know I love that machine as if it were one of my children). At the end of the day we left the house and headed over to Stanford, where Duygu and Yusuf went to school together, and where they still go almost every weekend to let Derin ride his bike around, and we spent the warm evening running and lounging around there.

I absolutely love this next one of Duygu and her mom- such a beautiful bond they have.