Hey! Thanks for landing here and considering me to capture your family's magic - welcome!
Since this is an "about" page, it only made sense to share something wonderful and wise my own kids (featured all over this page, of course!) have instilled in me and remind me of daily - and that I'd like to pass along to you:
These are the good times. (Grandpa wasn't kidding. And time absolutely is a THIEF!!!)
That's the whole reason I do this, if I had to nutshell it. I know that now that I'm older and wiser(ish). That if we don't try to absorb these moments as much as possible, as they happen, well... we are being fools - utter buffoons I tell you, total ding-dongs, NUMBNUTS!
And honestly, as a photographer of kids and families, I literally watch time fly by between shoots so I know it is true. The kids just grow right the heck up.
So, I'm really just a magician doing a magic trick with my camera. Trying to take a moment and make the good times hold still. Just so we can catch them and have a little bit of them that we can pull out of the hat forever.
I document my own kids and our life for the magic hat of memories for myself. And if you like where I'm going with all this (if you are picking up what I'm putting down) -
Well, then come on up (i.e. email me) - I'll try to do some magic with you and your family, too!!!*
*However, I promise I won't saw you in half, I did not go to school for that **I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be, an actual magician.
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I love it when you call me Big Feelings...
OMG!
These adorable frames move around!
Try it! (It's the little things!)
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Welp! Here we are! Big Feelings Photography is just me - capturing you! I'm Monica: photographer, mom and silly goose - forever turning everything into a song (out loud or in my head, you can be certain it's happening - like turning my business name above into a Notorious B.I.G. song. I cannot be stopped.). For those who know me already and whom I've been capturing for years: what an honor it has been to document your family journey, and welcome to this next chapter! And for those who are new here - I'm a Los Angeles based family lifestyle photographer with the heart of a (lion!) storyteller. I thought I'd be a filmmaker, and instead found my niche telling real stories for real people in photos.
I'm particularly drawn to every family's unique humor dynamics (inside jokes with your kids are such an underappreciated perk of parenting - I love using them at sessions to get real reactions!) - and I'm kind of obsessed with the way every family communicates emotion like it's their own private language. One look and they know exactly what the other is feeling. You know the looks. My favorite comment is when a parent looks at a photo I took of their kid (or their partner!) and goes: oh yeah, that is SO them. And then I do a little dance of joy because that's the goal!
Also, "About" sections on websites are weirdddddddd (like, do you really care if I like Scrabble and Rocky Road?!) - but on the other hand I truly understand it's important that you get an idea of my energy, just a smidge. So you can lightly assess and make sure that we can gel. That our vibes mesh. That our jives are jiving. Our rizzes are rizzling. That we can click and possibly even clack... Anyway, that probably told you a lot right there! So to get down to brass tacks and toot my own horn - or, as my kids would say, do some major aura-maxxing - here is a bit about me...
First and foremost, I'm a mom, which is THE most incredible thing I've ever experienced. Motherhood informs and inspires everything I do, and my kids really help me keep it real. From early in my photography career (almost 18 years!) - I knew traditional wasn't going to be my bag - kids are inherently non-traditional, and embracing that is freeing. Creative framing + candid emotion + playful moments: that combo became my creative north star long ago, and I've been riding the fun wave ever since. Fast forward to now - many years behind the camera, educated by life and by parenting two kids of my own - and I'm more in love with the complex reality of family stories than ever. Even on the days when the state of the world leaves me a bit disillusioned, I rely on the things that have never, ever failed me, in photography or life: empathy, finding the pockets of joy everywhere I possibly can, and of course - levity! Laughing cures everything.
My family and I have lived in LA for many years and we love it - it's home, and a place of endless inspiration, where our kids are finding their own paths, where I'm unsuccessfully growing a yearly vegetable garden (Cucumbers? Joke's on me every year - I grow nothing but tiny withered green troll thumbs). We hit the beach with our "beach friends" a lotttt (even in winter), I bake consistently hideous-but-delicious birthday cakes, and I am DEFINITELY listening to music or dabbling in playing bass and piano with my hubs and kids for our rag-tag pretend family band! Our quest for exciting vegetarian restaurants leads us all over town (and every new neighborhood means finding its best thrift store - thrifters unite!), and of course there's taking SO many photos of our rescue dogs (but holy moly, SO much pet hair). All the while I'm capturing some of THE most unique, beautifully diverse, silliest, coolest, utterly muse-worthy families in Los Angeles - so lucky that they spin into my orbit. So let's hang out and take a bunch of amazing photos, and as the years go by we can laugh and laugh - because if you're here, reading this, I'm sure you have a great story to tell, and I would love to capture you telling it.
