Remember the baby we took pictures of in this post from a year ago?

Well, now she can walk! And point! And make animal noises! My, how time flies.

This year’s Sadie holiday photo session took place at Wilder Ranch State Park, where there were at least two other photoshoots happening with other photographers, one of which involved a whole family doing a line dance in the doorway of a barn. (I wonder if we’ll ever get a family to dance for us at a shoot. Seems like an great idea, now that I really think of it.)

This year, instead of dressing in a Santa-themed costume, Sadie went for a more rustic-chic look. She was, as usual, adorable. In fact, we agreed that Sadie is steadily making the transition to outright beautiful. She loves Wilder Ranch, especially the hay and the farm machinery. And the bikes she found in a meadow. And the dirt, and the plants, and the goats and the chickens. We just followed her around and watched her enjoy herself.

Below is a movie of some of our favorite photos from that afternoon. The soundtrack is by Land of the Loops. This movie file is larger than last year’s, so it may need a bit of extra time to load.

At the end of the show, you can see Sadie crawling rapidly away in terror, in response to a sheep noise that was louder than she expected. Poor Sadie burst into tears at that point, and thus our shoot was concluded. It was one of those times when a toddler is crying and the adults are trying not to laugh. Aw, Sadie, we’re sorry you got upset, but that was pretty funny.

I’ve got more stuff to post from 2009, but it will have to wait until 2010. Anyway, Sadie photos seem like a good way to end the year. Enjoy the show, and Happy New Year!

This post is part 2 of 2. Click here to read part 1.

Jill and Chase approached us with an unusual plan: to get married outside somewhere with an ocean view, with no guests, just the officiant and two photographers, and keep it a secret until Christmas. Would we be willing to do this? Of course we would! I love anything that’s both secret AND romantic. I was also quite thrilled that they made photography a top priority at their wedding.

Plans were made and emails exchanged, and the time came (in October) for this engagement session. It quickly became very clear that Jill and Chase are meant to be together. They were afraid they’d get nervous in front of the camera, but it didn’t take long for their feelings for each other to cause them to forget everything else. They couldn’t stop smiling at each other and kissing each other, which was just perfect for the purposes of the shoot.

We took them to Big Basin Redwoods State Park and had them reenact the proposal, and tried out all kinds of ideas for poses throughout the park. Jill and Chase were great sports about this and went along with every weird idea we thought up. There are lots of beautiful spots to work with at Big Basin, and we will definitely be taking couples here again, if they’re up for the long-ish drive.

We couldn’t resist taking them to the beach afterwards and getting a few shots there. It was a whole afternoon of driving and shooting, which we don’t normally do for engagement sessions. But because I knew we had a genuine case of true love here, I wanted to take as many photos as possible. And it’s always nice to hang out with new friends under those tall trees.

Here are some more photos from their engagement session; I’ll post some of their wedding photos in a few days.

Thanks for choosing us, Jill and Chase. It’s been a wonderful adventure to work with you two.

UPDATE: Jill and Chase got married! Read about it by clicking here.

The story of my trip to Joshua Tree this spring is being told in a very disjointed fashion on this blog. I’ve given you a tiny preview that didn’t show the park at all, and an image from a Wal-Mart parking lot. Now I’m going to show you a handful of images from the drive home, none of which are from inside the park itself.

Behind the scenes, of course, the photos from that journey are being made into a fabulous multimedia production. Which you will be able to acquire, if you want it, eventually.

Most of the pictures below were taken from inside a moving RV, so any smears or splotches you see are probably bug guts on the windows. The top picture is from the end of our first restaurant meal after we emerged from the park. This was at a Thai restaurant in the town of Joshua Tree. After spending five days in a windy desert, it felt very strange to eat in a restaurant.

Which one of these fortunes do you think I got? You can post your guesses in the comments. The first person to get it right wins a copy of the Joshua Tree trip dvd when I’m done with it. Which will be soon, I promise!