Rachel and Dusty had a very cool backyard wedding at Dusty’s parents home in beautiful Long Beach, CA. I went to college at Cal State Long Beach so I lived in that area for about 3 1/2 years or so and just loved every minute of it. I made some of the best friends there, and have some of the best memories from living and going to school there.

Now, about the wedding… Rachel and Dusty, with the help of Harvey from Food Fetish Catering, redefined the meaning of “backyard wedding.” It was stylish, fun, simple and really represented what they wanted from their celebration. I had such a good time with this couple– they were really easy to photograph and just fun to be around– and all of their friends and family were really fun, too. So much personality everywhere.

Thanks to Kim Fox for her referral for the wedding, and to Tammy of True Blue Photography who was a stellar person to have with me on this wedding!

I have so many favorites from this wedding…. get comfortable because there are a lot of photos here.

First off, the insane shoes that Rachel wore all day like a champ. I love my heels, but there’s no way I could walk around in heels that high and that thin all day. They sure do look pretty, though.

Rachel’s ladies watching her do some last-minute touch-ups.

The fabulous and stylish bride.

The totally relaxed groom who was in his sweatshirt and shorts until minutes before this photo. It never fails to amaze me how quickly guys can get all spiffy!

Rachel and Dusty wanted to get as many formal photos out of the way before the ceremony as possible, because they knew they would just want time to party afterward. So, we arranged a First Look…

Then it was off to do some portraits!

We walked across the street to the beach to get some shots with the wedding party…

Here’s the whole wedding party. Fun people.

Then I took some time to shoot the bride and groom alone… I love this moment.

At one point we were worried it was going to rain, but it never did! The clouds hung around long enough to make for an insanely gorgeous background, then left just before the ceremony began.

Harvey at Food Fetish Catering designed the event and did a great job with simple accents. I loved these paper lanterns over the ceremony/cocktail area.

Keeping things on the simple side, they opted for just hors d’oeuvres. Food Fetish provided the most amazing sushi and other tasty treats. The floral arrangements were also very simple yet funky.

Rachel and her dad coming down the aisle.

A great moment during the exchanging of the rings.

The First Kiss.

Dusty’s dad has this great red 1960’s Mercedes. Tammy and I saw it in the garage during the reception and immediately thought it would be awesome to use a prop in some photos. But, before I could mention it, a friend of Rachel’s came up and told me they want to do some shots with the car! Sweet!

So, after the ceremony, and after Rachel and Dusty had a bit of time to hang out with friends and family, we decided to do some fun stuff with the car. (See the slideshow tomorrow for more.)

At the end of the reception, I took Rachel & Dusty out on the beach for a few more portraits before leaving for the evening. I love this shot of Rachel walking in the sand. Of course, she took those shoes off by this point…

And one last shot of the newlyweds!

Congratulations, Rachel & Dusty! I hope you have the most amazing time doing the Ninja Warrior course in Japan! (How cool is that??)

The slideshow, with many more images, will be posted tomorrow.

3 Comments » Posted by admin / Weddings

Hey everybody!

I just got back from shooting a fabulous wedding in Long Beach, CA. It was a gorgeous Sunday wedding and we managed to avoid the rain that was rumored to come in, which was great. After a busy weekend of shooting, I’m so ready to relax tomorrow. Hopefully, the weather will allow for some outdoor relaxation! (How weird has this SoCal weather been lately??)

I was so excited to share some shots from Rachel & Dusty’s special day, that I’ve already gone through some and prepared them for posting! Here is one that I just love….

More on this very fun wedding soon!

Hope you all enjoy your holiday weekend! Take some time to remember why we celebrate Memorial Day and celebrate safely!

1 Comment » Posted by admin / Weddings

I am so lucky to have some great friends in my life. I must admit, sometimes I get lost in my work and other stresses and start to forget what life is truly about — sharing experiences with those you care about. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in striving to accomplish another goal that I sometimes forget that life is not about the destination, it’s about the journey. (I’m pretty sure I read that on a fortune cookie or something.) Hanging out with friends and family helps me to keep focused on this…

A few weeks back, my great friend Donna had some of us ladies over to her new house. That’s right! Donna and John (who were married last year– you can see the post about their wedding here) have purchased their very own home! They’ve taken advantage of this awful housing market to make an investment for themselves, which I admire so much. For young people, especially here in California, this may be the best time to buy as prices are low and likely won’t stay that way for a very long time.

Anyway, we all live in different parts of Southern California, so for all of us to get together frequently is difficult. When we do get together, we like to make the most of it and make a whole weekend out of it. This was the weekend to celebrate Donna and John’s housewarming!

Because it’s been a while, I wanted to hurry up and post just a couple of the images I took during the get-together. I decided to have an impromptu portrait session, since we were all getting dressed up to go out anyway. There are many more photos from this day I will be posting soon, but for now, here are some I could get to easily. We’ll begin with the lovely and oh-so-sassy Kaitlyn. (Don’t worry ladies, you will each be featured very soon.   )

Katilyn, you are such a natural in front of the camera! I just love this expression…. and the red shoes.

While Kaitlyn was trying to work it for the camera, John was trying to get some attention on his latest favorite thing, their new puppy Shoebox! More photos to come of of both of these characters.

After I got some photos of all the ladies (which will be posted soon), John offered to take a photo of all of us. Here we are.  I have no clue where Nicole was looking…

And here we are being goofy. Seriously, to have Brooke and Donna in a normal photo together is near impossible…

Fun times!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Memorial Day Weekend! I’ll be busy shooting two weddings, so I’ll have much more to post very soon.

5 Comments » Posted by admin / My Life

I posted a while back photos I took of the band The Signet Ring… Well, since then, the band has a new drummer, a new name and a new EP coming out soon, so that all means they needed new photos!

Last night I spent some time with Ryan, Toph, Josh, Charlie and Camille in and around Valencia, CA . The only time they all had available to get together was pretty much right after sunset, so I experimented with some off-camera strobes and other creative techniques to shooting with minimal light.

I also brought my mom along on this shoot! My mom, as a graphic designer, is also very interested in photography and always wants to go with me on various shoots that I have. I knew I would need a little help with equipment, and I knew the band wouldn’t mind her tagging along, so she came with me to this shoot and got some great shots of both the band and of me in action. Thanks, Mom! It was a lot of fun to have you with me last night!

Here are some of my favorite images from the session.

This one we took at the very start of the session when we still had a little bit of light left…

For this one, I had a lot of fun with textures and blend modes. This effect was actually kind of an accident… I love when accidents turn out to be super cool!

Even less light for this one, but I love what it did for the sky (with the help of some post-production).

Here I am shooting the above shot (I think). Thanks, Mom!

You would think I was a wildlife photographer from seeing this shot… The places a photographer must go to get a shot.

When the light completely left us, we ventured over to this really cool tunnel that Charlie and Ryan had found the night before when scouting for shooting locations. Loved it! Great job, guys!

This is my favorite from the entire shoot. I knew we would be shooting at night, so I had thought of experimenting with using a strobe to backlight some of the shots. I’m so happy that it turned out how I had envisioned!

Here’s my mom… She was a great assistant and demonstrated some posing techniques to Camille. Good work, Mom!

Love this one and the texture of the tunnel wall.

To check out the band and to hear some of their older music, visit www.myspace.com/daggerdivide. Their new music should be out this summer!

3 Comments » Posted by admin / Portraits & Fun

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks, which is the main reason for not posting in a while. I will try to get back into the swing of making more frequent posts by next week.The past couple days I have been tying up some loose ends on some miscellaneous projects I’ve had going on for quite some time. As soon as those are complete, I will be able to focus more on my photos! Yay! •Also, I shot the most amazing traditional Indian wedding with Kim Fox on Saturday. More on that to come soon, but it was a long day (17 hours to be exact) filled with amazing color, tradition and emotion. I am so excited to share with you what I was able to capture at this wedding! I’ll be posting that soon, as well as some portraits I did of some of my closest friends at a little get-together we had the previous weekend. •Btw, what’s with this SoCal weather lately? Hot, then cold, then hot, now cold? I wish the weather would make up its mind so I can start storing some of my winter apparel and make some more room in my closet for the Summer stuff! Who’s with me??•Speaking of Summer. I have a great Summer lined up with a lot of shoots, a little traveling, and some much-needed time to focus on my business. I’m so excited for that! •Finally, is anyone else totally excited for the Sex and the City movie? I hope it doesn’t disappoint! I can’t wait to see all the wardrobe changes… and the shoes! Oh, the shoes…    

No Comments » Posted by admin / Just a thought...