Redwood Maternity Session in Orange County

Jun 30

Carbon Canyon Maternity Session

Orange County Photographer | Summit and Sur Photography

This small redwood grove at Carbon Canyon Regional Park in Brea, CA is one of my all-time favorite locations in Southern California for photoshoots! It is the perfect place for this looking to incorporate a feel of the forest for their photos and makes a great location for families, engagements, and even maternity sessions like this one. While there are a few ways to access the redwood grove, the easiest way is actually from the neighborhood above rather than the park itself. From there, it’s just a short walk down to this little hidden gem of coastal redwoods in SoCal!

The Lock Family reached out to me when they were traveling from their home state of Washington and wanted to do a maternity session in SoCal during their visit. We talked about a few different options but ultimately landed on this always great option of the redwoods since it’s a great place for families and, bonus, I hold an annual permit to shoot here which makes everything about shooting here rather easy! The other thing they wanted to do was have a family film done at the same time; so while you don’t see it here, there was actually a videographer grabbing footage from their early morning session that winter.

Upon meeting at the redwood grove, we spent a few minutes capturing some “say cheese” photos which I always like to take care of first, you know, the ones the grandparents love! These are typically the photos that people stress over the most since they kind of require the kiddos to be smiling and paying attention. I will be honest, they aren’t my favorite photos to take during your session but I know how much they mean to some people, especially around the holidays when folks are doing their cards.

Anyways, after those few photos were taken care of, we moved on to the fun stuff: playing and exploring! The two kiddos, Olivia and Zoey were super excited for the games and prompts I had planned, even though they were still pretty tuckered out from their full day at Disneyland the day prior. Even so, they had fun with mom and dad, cuddling the baby bump, and even reading a book together about the redwoods. Through the entire session, the outfits they chose stood out amongst the giant trees on that gloomy morning—-bright colors definitely are a “YES” for this location. It was an absolutely incredible morning in this little hidden forest of Southern California…enjoy!