Shannon Montez Photography Blog » San Jose's Family and Child Photographer, Shannon Montez, captures all aspects of family life: Families, newborns, children, babies, high school seniors, and weddings.

I *love* photography. Obviously. It’s kind of been the focus of my life for the past few years. I still love it. But I’m also rediscovering all of the things that led me to photography in the first place, just a love of beautiful things, of making things from scratch with my own two hands. I came across a picture of this afghan a few weeks ago and I became instantly obsessed.

I found out that I could buy this amazing blanket here. It’s totally worth it, when you consider the amount of time it would take to make and the high quality yarn she’s using. But given that I don’t have $990 in my budget for a blanket, and given that it’s fall and I always crave doing a yarn project in the fall, I decided to make this myself (and I’ll probably spend about $990 on yarn in the process, ha ha). I’ve actually figured out how to make the squares, and I’ve gotten over a dozen of them done (out of over 150), and I’m loving it. Each new square feels like its own project, and it’s the perfect activity while watching TV. And I like to watch TV. So, perfect. I’ll share pictures of my own project sometime… but for now, really, it looks just like the one above.  (except that it’s not sewed together, and I don’t have a pretty white floor to lay it on)

Tonight I took all the pretty pictures I’ve been saving and put them into a Tumblr blog. I’ve seen these around a bit and think they’re so cool! I can post the pretty stuff I find online and the links to where I found them and go look at them all together and share them with other people. Fun. So… here. Take a look. It’s just a baby, I haven’t figured out how to do anything but post. Hopefully I’ll figure it out soon.

A sneak peek, in case you’re too lazy to click over:

Gosh, that makes me happy. I may never post again, just so I can keep this post at the top of my blog, ha ha.

This family is special to me because the mom, Kari, just so happens to be one of my best friends in the whole wide world. A completely amazing person, a completely amazing family. Kari moved several hours away over a year ago, and we’ve been missing them a lot. I’m so glad I got a chance to capture their beautiful family! As I was proofing these images, I teared up a couple times, just feeling fortunate to have them as friends.

aaannnddd…. the “grandma shots”…. (you know, because Grandma loves the shots with everyone looking at the camera and smiling…)

I need to get another vacation/visit planned!

Words can’t describe how much I love these guys. Hopefully pictures can.

Their wedding was amazing. So emotional, so beautiful, so genuine. I felt so honored to be a part. The wedding took place at a historic farm called Ardenwood Park. It was the *perfect* location… rustic and majestic. I was DYING over the beautiful light and towering trees. Still am, actually, when I look at the images! Ok… here goes… (it was so hard to narrow this down)

Alyssa and Albert decided to do a “first look” and see each other before the ceremony. I can not recommend doing this enough!! It was so touching and special for them to have that first moment privately and be able to connect before the ceremony. The stress melted away. I was tearing up behind the camera watching them.

We also had time to get a bunch of the portraits done so that they were able to spend more time with their guests and enjoy the day…

A couple from the beautiful, emotional ceremony…

Laughter to tears…

Love this look from her mother and father.

A few minutes after becoming man and wife.

Have you ever seen a more beautiful wedding dinner? With a mariachi band? Are you KIDDING me? So fun.

Even SUPERMAN made an appearance! (ok… it was actually Alyssa’s nephew)

First dance.

The dance with Dad was touching…

Ok… enough for the blog. But here’s the slideshow if you’d like to see more!