More to follow soon.

I’m here because I helped my great friend Meg Perotti shoot a wedding yesterday. It was beautiful and took place in one of the most amazing locations I have ever seen in person. Seriously? This is real?? And it’s my job??? The past couple of days have just been so amazing… spending time with a great group of people here for the wedding, relaxing a little by the pool, and getting to look at this view all day… I have spent a lot of time focusing on what an incredible opportunity this has been and feel very fortunate to have been asked to be here. I am so, so grateful and will write more about that gratitude in a later post. Experiences like this truly make me realize that life is incredibly good and leave me changed as a person.

I am so looking forward to sharing more about this trip soon! Until then, I have a couple more days to explore the rainforest and beaches of Costa Rica - ¡Pura Vida!

P.S. – I apologize if you’ve emailed me, but Internet access is less stable in locations like these than they are back in the highly networked land of Los Angeles. I will be returning all email by early next week.

Knowing who I am is important to me. Knowing who I want to be is also important. I’m constantly striving to grow and adapt and improve so that the former becomes the latter- and that constant drive for personal growth is what truly inspires me on a daily basis in all aspects of my life. My experience during these past few days at WPPI have truly helped me to more fully embrace that philosophy and not only allow, but encourage it to spill over into my work. I have learned to embrace the change in myself that I feel daily and let that manifest visually in my photographs… and I feel very good about that.

To all the photographers I was able to reconnect with and meet over the past three days: This year at WPPI was phenomenal for me because of you. I am coming home this year feeling extra lucky that I am part of such a great industry where socializing with one another is such a fun, interesting, educational and inspiring experience! That is pretty unique to our industry, and my gratitude for that grows everyday. At the risk of sounding sappy, if I was given the opportunity to talk to you for even a few minutes in Vegas, you helped to shape my experience there and for that I am grateful because it was exceptionally positive. For those of you I spent more time with, I am especially grateful for you for the conversation, the insight, the inspiration, and most importantly the friendship. I look forward to these relationships continuing to build over the next weeks, months and years.

I cannot wait for next year to do it all over again!

________________ 

Note: I will be traveling for the next week and will have limited Internet and email access. I so appreciate your patience in waiting for a response should you try to contact me while I am away!

I love modern and simple logos contrasted with fun colors and fun imagery– I think this look feels like me. That’s my goal; to create my own little space on the World Wide Web that looks and feels like me so that people who visit, including everyone from fellow photographers and blog perusers to potential clients, get a glimpse of who I am in addition to the work I do.

I designed the logo and created the visual concept for the blog. A very talented and awesome programmer named Pete Medina made my visual concept a functional reality. He is super fantastic, so great to work with, and I highly recommend him to anyone who wants a custom blog. Contact him for more information.

I used Showit to design my main site- and love it for the fact that I can create a site on my own and change  and update it whenever I want. I want the control and I also want the freedom of not feeling locked in to a certain design or layout. There are still some minor changes that will be made, and because I’m one that likes to continually improve and change little by little, I think that will always be the case. I hope you like what you see here, and I truly hope that you can better see who I am.

In other news, one of the biggest events of the entire year for international wedding and portrait photographers is about to commence in Vegas! WPPI is a mixed experience of photography education (for both creative and business aspects) and a huge social extravaganza. This will be my 4th time attending the convention, and each time I have come home inspired, exhausted, and with many new friends. If you’re a photographer, I really encourage you to attend for yourself! It is an experience for people in our industry like no other… I’m not sure I’m mentally prepared for it yet since I’ve been so busy, but I’m so excited for the experience this year!

If you are a photographer attending WPPI this year and you’re reading this, it would be fun to get together as I always love meeting new people! You can email me, leave a comment here, or just find me on Twitter. Or, maybe I’ll just run into you on the tradeshow floor or at one of the many parties that will be happening. Make sure to say hi if you see me around!

Finally, I have a great engagement session to post very soon. Until I post the full session, here’s a Sneak Peek…

Happy Thursday, everyone!

This is a 12×12 flush mount album for which I decided to use a pink suede cover with a 4×4 photo opening. This wedding used some much pink in the details, I just had to use this fun cover to set the tone for the album!

I set this 12 inch ruler next to the album to give some perspective to the images. I think this is such a great size for an album.

Earlier this year, I was on a flight home from Northern California along with about 40 fourth graders who were also returning to LA after a quick overnight trip to explore Sacramento and San Francisco landmarks. I had been looking forward to a quiet flight and being able to get some reading done. Needless to say, that wasn’t going to happen with 40 10-year-olds on board. I happened to sit next to a young girl named Ryann who wore a headband and glasses and simultaneously wore all five of the necklaces she bought for people as souvenirs of her trip. And who, unbeknownst to her, made an impact on my life forever. Before the plane took off, she told me she was afraid to fly and politely asked me to close the window shade to help put her at ease. I obliged and we started talking… about life. She had just had her 10th birthday and had such a vibrant, energetic and optimistic energy that impressed me so much I still find myself thinking about her and the conversation we had. It was a simple conversation that involved the Harry Potter book she had in her lap, visibly worn from the number of times she had read it, and the cats that were waiting for her at home. It was simple, but it reminded me of childish optimism and the ability to cherish the little things in life. This is just one of those simple, good experiences I learned to cherish this year… the kind that aren’t expected, can’t be planned, and that enrich your life with perspective.

Other things this year happened not by chance, but by my hard work and dedication to this career I have chosen- the career that is truly a dream for me. I am so lucky to do what I love, work with people who inspire me and to work for clients who trust and encourage me. This time last year, I sat down to write my goals for 2009. I wrote reasonable goals and those that were quite far-fetched but gave me motivation to continue to better myself. While I consider these goals to be private- for my eyes only, if you will- I will say that I accomplished many of the goals I set… and those that I have not yet achieved are currently being transferred to the “2010 Goals” list I recently started to write.

Looking back, 2009 has been an incredible year for me and while I don’t want time to go by any faster than it already is, I am so eager for 2010 and all the possibilities I know are just around the corner. I’m here with open arms, ready to accept the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities I know are ahead.

To celebrate the end of a great 2009, I have selected five wedding images of the year that represent to me some of my best work. It’s an impossible task to select just five favorites from all of the weddings I shot this year… I have far too many favorites to even compile a list. But, the following images were chosen because they each represent something that I hope to capture in every wedding I photograph.

Love.

Happiness.

Spontaneity.

Environment.

Uniqueness.

I hope you all are just as excited about the new year as I am!  Here’s to a happy, healthy and successful New Year for everyone!

xoxo Heather

Here’s one of my favorite creatures, Wolfie, celebrating Christmas morning. Don’t let this stare fool you… he really loved wearing that elf hat.

Love and all the best,

Heather xoxo

Is anyone else feeling like Christmas should have already come and gone? I think I over did it a little too early this year with many different holiday festivities that I keep forgetting that Christmas hasn’t even passed yet. Nevertheless, I still have to brave the stores later today to finish up some Christmas shopping… yikes. Merry Christmas Eve Eve everyone!