I had so much fun yesterday with one of my favorite families– The Dixons! I shot Mandee and Doug’s wedding back in April (view their wedding slideshow here) and I was so happy when Mandee contacted me to shoot their family portrait for their Christmas card this year. Mandee and Doug are such sweet people, and their kids Kirsten and Chase are two of the greatest kids on the planet. They are so sweet and fun– I could hang out with them at the park all day!

Here are some of my favorite photos from our session!

We started out the session by feeding the ducks. This is such a nice park in Palm Desert– and the weather was GORGEOUS!

I love this one. These two kids are the best!

I think this one might be my favorite. You can tell how much fun this family has together.

A little swing action. Swings were definitely my favorite playground attraction when I was little.

These just make me smile. Swings are awesome!

Another favorite…

A fun series with two of the greatest kids. Did I mention I love these kids??

They brought their bikes along for the shoot so they could burn off some of that crazy kid energy between shots. One of their favorite things was to ride their bikes down this grass hill. They got some serious speed!

Simply a nice family portrait.

To the Dixon family. Thanks for a wonderful Sunday afternoon! It was so fun to hang out with you guys. Can’t wait for our next session!

If you would like more information about a family or children’s portrait session, email me at heather@heatherkincaid.com.

6 Comments » Posted by Heather / Portraits & Fun

I had such a great holiday weekend! It was filled with hanging out with family and friends, eating food, talking, singing karaoke, watching football and movies and otherwise relaxing at home. It was the perfect, long holiday weekend– I hope you all had as great of a time as I did!

Part of that great weekend was spent at my cousin Maribeth’s bridal shower which took place at my aunt’s house in Tehachapi, a small town up in the mountains of SoCal. Maribeth currently lives in Hawaii and her sister is going to school in Alabama, so we all don’t get the chance to get together very often. It was so much fun to see them and celebrate Maribeth’s upcoming wedding, which I will be shooting in Tehachapi a couple days after Christmas! Since the wedding will be taking place in that same small mountain town in late December, I’m hoping for snow because I think the photos would just be fantastic! The bride, however, will be wearing a strapless dress and therefore isn’t on the same page with me about the snow.

I took a bunch of photos of my cousins, which I hope to post soon. Until then, here’s the gorgeous bride-to-be!

This setting was absolutely stunning and the light was amazing. I have to give credit to my mom for making the girls and I hike over to this swing for the photo op– she was the only one motivated enough to make us go over there and I’m so glad she did.

Maribeth could be a model and she is going to look so gorgeous on her wedding day.

2 Comments » Posted by Heather / Portraits & Fun

As a very busy wedding season begins to wind down for me, I wanted to take a moment to remind my blog readers that I am not just a wedding photographer. I absolutely adore shooting weddings — it’s really fantastic to be invited to be a part of such a special day for my clients. But, I’m a photographer, and love photographing people no matter the occasion!

So, if you or someone you know is looking to set up a kids or family portrait session for holiday cards, or just to have some awesome photos, email me!

And because no post is quite complete without an image or two, here’s a look back at my adorable little cousins from 4th of July!

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A couple weeks ago, my good friend and totally awesome artist Laurel asked me to take some portraits of her for her new Web site she is designing. Of course, I jumped at the chance to photograph her because I knew it would be a good excuse to get together and have fun. So we came up with a concept of a warm, natural, desert kind of feel for the shoot. Laurel is a super vibrant and fun person, and her artwork is the same. But, she is also very intellectual and sophisticated, so I tried to capture all of those elements of her personality.

Here’s the image I posted in the preview post. Definitely a favorite of the entire shoot.

Love the classic feel of this antique loveseat.

Laurel, don’t kill me for posting this. This was just a moment in the shoot where I felt we needed a little energy pick-me-up. This was never a series I thought I would do anything with (except for maybe blackmail Laurel in the future…) but I think it’s so funny. So, I’m posting it and hoping that Laurel will still call me a friend.

LOOOVE this one. So classically beautiful.

A different perspective…

Including some of the artwork…

She is famous for her jumping shots. I don’t know anyone else who can get that kind of height in heels!

Crazy-beautiful eyes. I think she looks very mischievous here.

Love the light!

And finally… a series that really deserves a good explanation, but I just can’t think of one. I guess it’s just what happens when you mix a seatless chair, two friends, a camera, and a little too much creative energy?

Love you, Laurel! Wish we could do a shoot like this every week!

…Since I have posted some of my portraits of Laurel, I thought I would share a portrait she did of me last Fall. Love it!

4 Comments » Posted by admin / Portraits & Fun

Yesterday I did an awesome portrait shoot with my amazingly talented and great friend Laurel. She’s an illustrator, painter, graphic designer and all-around super creative person who was in need of some new portraits for her new Web site. Here is one image that popped out at me during the first round of edits. Be prepared for a long post with the rest of the fun session to be posted soon!

6 Comments » Posted by admin / Portraits & Fun

Meg has posted some of the photos she took of me last week at our double portrait session. Here’s one of my favorites– a fun series we shot in Los Feliz Village, but check out her full post and give her some comment love!

Speaking of comment love… seriously, post comments when you stop by a blog. At my wedding on Friday for the fabulous Amber and Nathan (to be posted soon), I met some lovely people who told me they love my blog and read it daily (thanks to the encouragement of Amber), but that they never leave comments. After expressing my grattitude, I asked them why the never leave comments and they couldn’t give me an answer. So, I know you blog stalkers are out there and I would love to express my appreciation to all of you for checking out my work… but I can’t if I don’t know who you are. Let this be a new day… leave some comment love.

Happy Monday, everybody!

7 Comments » Posted by admin / My Life and Portraits & Fun and Just a thought...

Here are some more images from my day with the lovely and talented Meg Perotti. Seriously, we had so much fun together! I’m so lucky to be able to work with her and call her a good friend… LA would not be the same for me without this woman!

This was one of our first locations… and outfits. I just love this shot. I think it may be my favorite. It reminds me of a girl exploring the secret garden or something… Anyone feel me on that one?

Then we went to this great secret location that Meg new about. I loved it! Great light and a cool, rustic feel.

Amazing light! This shot is also one of my favorites from the entire day.

This gate is the gate to the Ennis House, which I never even knew was in the hills above Los Feliz. I seriously love that neighborhood… you can see something new everyday. The gate looked so awesome with that amazing dress she is wearing!

Serene…

…and sassy!

And, let’s not forget the silly side of Meg.

Then we went to this open field (yes, an open field in LA!) and had some fun with this great chair from Meg’s apartment.

This was the result of a wacky, artistic vision I had. It worked out perfectly.

Meg,

We so need to do this more often!

Happy Friday, everyone!

5 Comments » Posted by admin / Portraits & Fun

I spent Sunday afternoon in Los Feliz, one of the most amazing neighborhoods in Los Angeles. I was lucky enough to live there with Meg for a little over a year while attending grad school at USC. It was one of those things that just happened because of perfect timing, and we had some GREAT times living there together. I love that area so much and it was great to spend an afternoon there…

The purpose for our day together was to get some portraits of each other for our Web sites and blogs. And, thanks to some amazing locations around that area and some great light, we got some great images! It’s always a good time shooting with Meg, but normally we are shooting other people. It was quite a different experience to shoot each other, but it was tons of fun! If you have been reading my blog, even for just a little while, I’m sure you can tell that Meg and I are very close. We met while living in the dorms together at Cal State Long Beach, and we’ve been lucky enough to get going into this photography industry at about the same time. We have similar goals in business and in life in general, and our responses to the things that happen around us are often so similar, it’s surreal. We’ve shared some amazing experiences together (most recently– seeing an exclusive screening of the soon-to-be-released film Twilight complete with a conversation with the director!) and have fun together no matter what we’re doing.

I’m still going through all of the images, but this shot just popped out at me. First of all, how fabulous is Meg’s dress?? Totally Med Men-inspired. Second of all, doesn’t she look amazing? So elegant and ‘polished.’ (That last adjective is for you, Meg.):)

More from this shoot soon!

1 Comment » Posted by admin / Portraits & Fun

A few weeks ago I finally got the opportunity to go visit one of my best friends Ashley up in Northern California. I’ve been meaning to visit since she moved up there in March for work, but was finally able to make the time when our schedules fit together!

Ash and I have been friends since 8th grade. We’ve gone through so much together — growing up, fun times, stupid/silly moments, family tragedies — and no matter what we were going through, or where we were, I’ve always known that if I really needed something, Ashley would be there

I am so happy for, and proud of, Ash for everything she is doing in her life. It takes a lot of courage to move to a foreign town, knowing nobody, to take on a new and very challenging job. But, she has done it. She’s met some great people, has a great place to live, and I can say with confidence that I know she is truly happy, despite the occasional bouts of missing home.

Here are some of the photos I snapped on my trip:

I had to pull over on my way up there because I just thought this view was spectacular.

Ashley and me at a little lake near Monterey where we fed the ducks. Thanks to Chris for taking this for us!

These guys looked docile enough… but they scared the heck out of me! They’re pretty ruthless when it comes to getting their food.

And of course I had to get some portraits of Ash alone. Her eyes are really this stunning.

Great laugh. We manage to do this a lot together.

I got these right before having dinner in downtown Monterey.

This one was on the way home off of a different highway than the one I took up there. I’ve always had a strange fascination with these machines, having seen them a lot on family road trips as a little kid. I’ve never seen so many of them in one place, though! It’d be so fun to do a shoot in this field.

Thanks for hosting me, Ash! Looking forward to my next visit up there soon!

1 Comment » Posted by admin / My Life and Portraits & Fun

Lauren called me a couple weeks ago as a referral from my client-turned-friend Amber, of the fabulous Amber and Nathan. Lauren is a singer and currently attends a very prestigious music school on the East Coast, for which she needed some portraits as part of her senior project. She also needed some standard headshots for some projects she has coming up, so, we got together last week and did a short evening session. Amber tagged along and was great at helping me with the reflector, and providing entertainment in the form of her singing along to the songs from the musical Wicked she had blasting on her iPod. (Amber, you know I had to include that in this post! )

The three of us had a great time together… we even topped off the evening with dinner at a local Mexican restaurant… Lauren is lacking authentic Mexican cuisine back East, so it’s always a treat to come home to SoCal for the real stuff.

Here are just a few of my favorites from our shoot:

We started off the shoot with some standard headshots. This was my favorite of that bunch.

Then we had some fun with different outfits. How cute is this hat that Lauren brought to add a little something different to her look? I love her expression here.

I knew Lauren probably wouldn’t be using this kind of shot for her project, but I took advantage of the model I had in front of me to play around with composition. I love this shot… and it has been made to be extra awesome by one of my favorite TRA2 Actions — BAMF (B&W). This B&W conversion is just amazing everytime.

Good luck with everything, Lauren! I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing you soon at Amber and Nathan’s wedding!

2 Comments » Posted by admin / Portraits & Fun