Ryan Bates Photography, Vacaville

Husband-and-wife team Ryan and Angie Bates man the shutters at Ryan Bates Photography, where Ryan draws on 15 years of experience as he snaps images that bring out individual personalities and family dynamics in every shot. Professional lighting shines down on subjects as they say cheese, eat cheese, or impersonate cheese in the boutique studio, and the natural light of the outdoors illuminates on-location shoots held amid trees or at the shore. Captures of candid smiles, playful interactions, and motion shots celebrate timeless family moments, and senior-portrait sessions—viewable afterward on a private online gallery—yield prints worthy of relatives' mantels or wallets. Ryan also occasionally leads basic to advanced workshops, where pupils learn to manipulate their own DSLR cameras with coy winks and promises of mink-lined camera cases.