Michelle approached us with the idea to do a family session a little out of the norm. Meeting her you understand why. She is a fierce mother in every regard, from her kids, to her look, fierce is really the best way to describe her. Flat. Out. Cool. We make it a point to meet our clients to get a feel for them, and with Michelle, she had us do that over dirty gin martinis in a cool bar downtown, and getting to know her and her family, we would expect just that. Taking all this in about her, we thought trading the usual park for the monoliths of glass, brick, and metal in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood in San Francisco would fit.

From the first time you meet Michelle, she crackles with moxy and an intense I-get-deals-done-in-YSL-and-pumps style. She has to be one of the cooler moms in line to pick her kids, Micaiah and Mason, from school, and mom's attitude and cool definitely rubs off. Micaiah is a budding programmer and an engaging conversation, with a truly heartwarming love for her brother. Michelle raised a great package of confidence and responsibility in Micaiah that manifested many times during our session as an inspiring sense of responsibility for her brother. She is the best of the curiosity and innocence of being a kid, but with an intelligence and heart that allows her to be so much more than a sister to Mason. You get the sense that the love of her family is from Michelle, but we also realize it takes something special to turn lessons from mom into the incredible sister that is Micaiah.

Mason was [mostly ;-)] a perfect gentleman and it was great to see Michelle walk the fine line between reigning him in and allowing him to learn on his own and enjoy being a kid. No doubt he’ll follow in his sister’s precocious footsteps.

The shoot itself felt like a cool hangout with friends who happened to be great in front of the camera. Micaiah definitely gets her fearlessness in pictures from her mom, and even if he was a little nutty, Mason was simply too adorable to deny. We can’t thank Michelle, Micaiah and Mason enough for allowing us to catch them on a great day in this part of their lives together.