One of the things that is nearest and dearest to my heart is helping women. I have a soft spot for hard working women that care about their families and care about their husbands but in their looking out for others fail to care for themselves and nurture who they are as women. Over time, or even perhaps from a young age, many women can lose site of their femininity and their aspirations and my dream is to fight to bring them back! Being a hard working mom and forgetting to moisturize or getting lazy and resigning to a few extra pounds or whatever it is are totally normal things. Embrace who you are, and in accepting who you are it will empower you to take the next steps to becoming who you want to be.

Women, you are beautiful! Its not whether other people think you are beautiful but how you feel about yourself. There is nothing in the world more fulfilling to me then when I take a pregnant mother who is feeling completely self aware and vulnerable and sit her down in my chair and spice up her makeup and hair. All of a sudden she isn’t just willing to be photographed but excited. Her persona changes. She starts to exude confidence and her husband starts staring. Ladies, its not as much about looking good, but how you feel when you look good. Confidence is contagious and attractive! But here is the amazing thing…that confident woman was always in there, she just needed a way to get out!

I just felt inspired to write this but I hope it helped someone 😉 If you spend every day daydreaming about doing this or that business or getting healthy or whatever it is, I hope I can encourage you to take the first step. Acceptance of self and your humanity. Life gives you a hard enough time. Stop being your own worst enemy.

I’m not sure how any of that is relevant to newborn photography and photographing the beautiful Carmen and her lovely family in their home in Orange County 😉 It was such a blessing working with this special family. I have known Carmen from our South African school days since we were 14 years old. We now both live in Orange County 😉 She has always been such a dear and truly special friend to me. Carmen and her husband Seth have such a beautiful relationship and I have loved seeing their family blossom. I love both her boys Dylan and Ethan so much. You can see by their pictures just how adorable their children are and so well behaved. When Dylan tells me “I wuv you” for “I love you” I can just melt! Their two year old Dylan has a beautiful little heart full of unencumbered joy and love. Ethan his little brother is soooo cute as well! His eyes are the most incredible shade of blue I have ever seen.

With this home shoot Carmen and Seth had already photographed the “traditional” photos with their first born and wanted more of an organic photo shoot.

My husband helped me set up our portable studio while I did Carmens hair and makeup and then we spent about an hour and some photographing around their home. We loved capturing a moment in time with our photographs for this absolutely precious family.

To a beautiful family, I love you guys so much!

By Nicoletta Daskalakis

Nicoletta Daskalakis is a Photographer, makeup artist and hair stylist based in Orange County and Los Angeles. She focuses on weddings, engagements, infant, maternity and family photography. Please contact her at nicoletta@nicolettadaskalakis.com