This session means more to me than most.
I nannied for the Erenbergs for seven years. I watched their boys grow up. I watched them become a family in the truest sense, through the hard seasons and the really good ones. I was there for the everyday stuff that never makes it into photos but somehow shapes everything.
For as long as I knew them, they talked about moving away someday. It was always a conversation in the background. Not rushed, just a knowing that life might eventually take them somewhere else.
So taking their family photos felt different. It felt personal.
We took these at their home in the Palisades, right after they finished remodeling. They had just put in the most beautiful garden in the backyard. It was calm and full of life and felt like a place meant for slowing down. The boys ran around barefoot, the parents laughed easily, and everything felt comfortable and real. No forcing anything. Just them.
Because I knew them so well, there was a lot of trust. They did not need to perform. I did not need to direct much. I was just watching a family I love be themselves and documenting it.
Just a few months later, fires tore through the area. Everything was covered in ash. Their home was no longer a place they could stay, and they had to move away. In a strange way, the fires became the thing that finally pushed the move they had talked about for years.
Knowing that now makes these photos feel heavier, but also more important.
These Palisades family photos are a reminder of a season that mattered. Of a home filled with love. Of years spent building something together. This is why I care so deeply about family photography as a San Diego family photographer, even when I travel for sessions. Photos hold pieces of life that change too fast.
What I hold onto most is that a family is not a house. It is not a garden, no matter how beautiful. It is the way people show up for each other, wherever they land next.
I am so grateful I got to be there for this chapter. First as their nanny, then as their family photographer. And I know this is not the end of their story. It is just a turning page.
