McNeal Family Portraits : Old Town Temecula

December 17, 2010 by Loren Scott

On Saturday, December 11th, Rachel and I were in Old Town Temecula for a fun family portrait session with William McNeal, his son Cruz, William’s girlfriend Angelica, and William’s sister Amber. William had contacted us for portraits in anticipation of two upcoming family milestones: William’s 40th birthday, and Cruz’s 2nd birthday. When discussing ideas for locations, William wanted a place where we could take advantage of a variety of urban textures. Old Town Temecula is the perfect — and just about only! — local location to find urban scenery. So, at 10:30am, we met in front of the Temecula Old Town Community Theater and began our 2-hour adventure!

As is commonly the case when a two year-old is involved, the shots you plan to get may not be the shots they are in the mood to take. And Cruz was in no mood to take pictures. But… I’ve got a simple little trick I often use at weddings with fussy young ring bearers or flower girls. I pulled a quarter out of my pocket and, after making sure that he wouldn’t try to eat it (which the younger ones sometimes might), I pretty much bribed Cruz into smiling for money. It worked!

In fact… later in the shoot, Angelica bribed Cruz again — first with some juice, and later with a little bag of Cheerios. When all else would fail, and Cruz would start to get fussy, William would just give Cruz a little tickle and he’d start laughing again. So… in summary… a quarter, some juice, some Cheerios, and a tickle here and there, and you end up with some pretty fun photographs!

As we walked around Old Town, hitting some of my favorite photo spots (and discovering some new ones), we really captured a great variety of fun images. Here is just a small sampling of the McNeal Family Portrait collection: