{krystene & tony | part 1 | portraits}

Krystene and Tony are friends of Aldo and mine, as well as one of my best friend’s roomies. Krystene is known as NF. This is because when we meet Krystene (NF), Aldo and I had a strict policy that we won’t photograph friends. As we were being introduced at a party, Blondie (Margaret) said to Krystene “don’t be friends with them or they won’t photograph your wedding”, lol. So, since then, Krystene and I and Tony and Aldo have all called each other non-friend and over the years it has come down to NF, lol. Even though we have budged on our “non-photographing friends wedding” policy we still call each other NF’s. Tony’s nickname however, has become Sancho, and you will just have to wait for Part 2 of NF and Sancho’s portrait session to find out why. We had the pleasure of already photographing Krystene and her roomies previously at one of our portrait day’s, unfortunately, due to Tony’s work schedule he was unable to make it. When NF received our name change announcement with the gift certificate for a free portrait session she immediately called me to schedule a session with her and Tony. NF and Sancho had their session scheduled two months in advance and we were all so excited when the day came. The weather however, had other plans for us. It was scheduled to have thunderstorms the day before and the day after. So I called NF (who is from San Diego) and asked if they still wanted to take the chance in the rain or reschedule. They decided to take the chance. I was super excited because our original plan was to shoot in an open field and the back-up plan was to shoot in the rain. So for those of you who read about my April Fav’s you can imagine how stoked I was. YAY! But again the weather had different plans, lol. The good news was it didn’t rain! The bad news was it was so cold and so windy it was difficult to shoot and poor NF and Sancho were freezing. So much so that in one of the shots posted below NF has her fists clenched because it was so cold. It looks like her and Sancho are about to fist fight, lol. So this is Part 1 of NF and Sancho’s portrait session. We decided to reschedule for a not so cold and windy day. The tight shoulders and clenched fist just wasn’t working for the feeling we were going for, lol. Even though the weather didn’t have the same plans as us we had a fun time and I am looking forward to Part 2 of NF and Sancho’s portrait

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{pantone | ideas}

I love this idea of having pantone colors for your wedding. Especially since part of my background comes from the design industry, where pantone chips are the Gods, lol. I have always thought they should do something like this since so many couples, well lets be honest here, brides, are trying to match colors and often times it just doesn’t all come together. Hopefully soon all the vendors will be on the same page and use pantone colors so everything will be in perfect color harmony. In the meantime, I am loving the pantone chips and books that dressy.com is offering. Each card is divided into 14 chips of the chosen color which can be provided to anyone with color related tasks, such as invitations, cake decoration, flowers and more. Another great tool is if you haven’t picked out your colors they have the Pantone Wedding Color Fan Guide, which offers 194 color options to help you decide. In addition to the chips and books they have an inspiration style board online where you can design a board using your favorite colors, styles and accessories. A definite must have for every bride no matter how big or small the budget!

{guzman | pregnancy}

A big congratulations to Nicole and Javier! They are expecting in June and last weekend we got to photograph Nicole and her beautiful belly. I can’t wait to meet baby Guzman. We did Nicole’s pregnancy session at Manhattan beach pier. Other than in-studio shots, one of my favorite places to do pregnancy shoots is the beach. The peaceful soft colors and feel of the beach seem to match perfectly with a pregnancy session. It’s a beautiful miraculous backdrop to show off the beautiful miracle that is going on in Nicole’s body. Nicole and Javier were great and Nicole just looked so gorgeous! We had a fun session and luckily it wasn’t too cold or windy. Can’t wait to photograph baby Guzman in June! I don’t know who is more excited for baby Guzman to arrive, Nicole and Javier or us, lol.

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{jennifer + mike | e-session}

A few weeks back I photographed Jennifer and Mike for their engagement session in Santa Barbara. Jennifer and Mike are from Northern California and they meet each other while going to school in Santa Barbara. So we decided to have their engagement in Santa Barbara as well. Jennifer and Mile will be having their wedding at Four Seasons in Santa Barbara. I can’t wait to photograph there, such a beautiful location! We started the session off at the Fours Seasons Hotel where Jennifer and Mike were staying for the week to finalize the details and vendors for the wedding. We got some fun images of the cute couple riding bikes, well pseudo riding the bikes. You know how they say it’s like ridding a bike, it will come back to you. Well Jennifer will highly disagree with that statement, lol. Riding a bike again takes some work and is a bit splotchy when coming back to you, lol. It was also super cold, and poor Jennifer was freezing, but she toughed it out and we got some cute shots. We then headed to downtown Santa Barbara to the Court House and State Street where Jennifer and Mike used to hang out in their college days. I was amazed at the amount of traffic and driving skills in downtown Santa Barbara. I thought LA drivers were the worst, so not true, lol. I don’t know how people who work or live downtown deal with all the traffic and chaos everyday. Yikes. Mike says you get used to it (which I am sure is true) or you learn to ride a bike everywhere. We walked around all the restaurants and shops and I got to hear about all their experiences at many of the spots on State Street, lol. Sounds like they had a great collage experience, lol. Well, I hope you guys had fun and made it to your dinner reservations afterwards. Looking forward to seeing you guys in July!


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{johnson | portrait}

I love getting to watch how families grow and change. The Johnson family is a great example of that. A while back we photographed Mommy with little Niko in her tummy. A couple of weeks ago (I know I am behind in blogging, ekk) I had the pleasure of photographing the Johnson family. Little Niko is now 6 months and is so adorable and fun. He just loves to laugh and play. Aldo and I had a blast with Niko and his little jolly personality makes us all giggle with him. It was funny to watch him play with the mulch and discover he didn’t like the taste of it after all. The grass on the other hand was a different story, ha ha ha. We had a great session and the light was perfect as well as the subjects. They are such a laid back, loving family, which makes for such a fun to photo session.


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{favs | personal}

A few of my favorite things...

I love vintage - you name it if it's vintage I'm loving it! However, I'm still trying to figure out how to rock the vintage look. Maybe my lovely stylist, and awesome friend, Jen will help me figure it out! (HINT HINT!!)

As part of the vintage style, I'm dying to photograph in an open field with tall grass and weeds. I have also been wanting to photograph a couple in the rain!!!! So if any of you are interested in a portrait in open fields or rain let me know.

When I'm in need of inspiration my two favorite sites are GreenWeddingShoes and StyleMePretty! I love looking at the images and creativity of the photo shoots and weddings. I highly recommend the sites for inspiration for a clients point of view as well. Even if you are just having portraits, the character and style is fun and delightful.

I have severe allergies that cause me to loose my sense of smell. Sad I know, but I don't miss it until those rare occasions that I can smell. And then the world is this amazingly different place. Good and bad I know because with the wonderful smells come not so pleasant ones. One of my all time favorite smells is Japanese Cherry blossom from Bath and Body works. I just love the smell and it matches my body perfectly. I have to say I smell o so yummy, lol.

In addition to the Japanese Cherry Blossom smell, I love when the cherry blossom trees start to bloom. The view evokes a very peaceful pleasant sensation for me, and I think they are so pretty!

I watched The Blind side and fell in love with Sandra Bullock's character. I found the movie very inspirational and I really connected with Bullock's character. She sure did deserve that award!

And while I know I'm not supposed to eat them I can't help myself and have to admit that I'm addicted to cupcakes! My favorites come from Yummy Cupcakes! I can't pin point one thing that makes them more awesome than the rest but trust me I'm never disappointed!

{jenny & fernando | e-session}

Jenny and Fernando like to shop at outdoor malls with their dog Iggy. So we thought Pasadena would be the perfect spot for them with the park and cute little shops around. The lighting was amazing and we got some fun shots with Iggy, who couldn’t figure out why he was taken to a park and not able to run around or play with the birds. Too cute! After the shots with Iggy we continued the session around Pasadena and the local shops! Talking with Jenny a bit more I found out she works at a cupcake shop, Sweet E’s, (one of my favorite things) and she was featured on the pilot of cupcake wars with her boss. I even watched the show and didn’t realize that it was Jenny, too funny. However, I do remember cheering them on. They didn’t win but were one of the finalists! Sweet E’s will be featured on another show airing on Food Network so stay tuned to see the famous Jenny! I can’t wait to head down to Sweet E’s and check out the cupcakes and visit Jenny, yummmmm! Fernando and Jenny are a super sweet couple who are both very much into the arts, so Pasadena was the perfect spot for them. I enjoyed spending the day with you guys and can’t wait till your wedding!

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{griffin | portrait}

The weekend before Easter I got to photograph the Griffin’s first portrait session for 2010. We decided to do a spring theme at William S. Hart Park in Valencia.Last month at my trade show I had purchased a super cute pink tutu for portrait sessions; last minute I thought it would be fun to have Ella wear it! Luckily her outfit matched the tutu! Let me tell you did she fall in love with this tutu. She loved it so much that her mom may have to go out and buy her one now, lol. Sorry Carolyn. I found a great website that you can purchase some super cute tutu’s at http://tutugirl.com/. Once we got Ella out of the tutu and convinced her that she couldn’t take it home, which was such a funny conversation in itself we continued with the spring session for the Griffins. Fortunately, the Griffins know the drill, because the kids were super bouncy that day, as if they had already eaten their Easter goodies, lol. But as always we had a great session and got some fun images! Enjoy guys. See you in the summer for some water fun!

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