Here’s a quick preview of our shoot today in the lovely Los Angeles neighborhood of Los Feliz Village… it’s a brief moment I caught that sums up what I think a great day is all about.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

This past year was an incredible year when it came to my photography. I had a lot of dreams, hopes, ideas and plans for my business– most of which, I am proud to say, came to fruition. I kept hearing how important it is for small business owners to set goals in order to be successful, so I took the advice early in the year and am so pleased with how it worked out. I still have so many ideas and goals for where I want to take my business, but I am so happy and satisfied with where I am beginning 2009!

A huge thank you to all of my awesome clients! You have made this great year possible.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Maribeth entered the Army four years ago and has been stationed in Hawai’i ever since. (Poor thing… I know.) While there, she met and fell in love with Landon, a kind, caring, fellow member of the Army. Because they live so far away, the wedding was really the first chance I had to spend time with them together– and I could not have been more impressed with how happy Maribeth is while in the presence of Landon. I am so thankful and happy that my darling cousin has found such a great man to spend her life with and feel comfortable that as they head over to Germany for Landon’s newest assignment, Maribeth will be taken care of well.

Not only was I happy that Maribeth was marrying Landon, I was overcome with such intense happiness that our family was there to celebrate together. I cannot even describe how amazing the whole experience was for me and all the members of our families… so I won’t try. Let it suffice to say that I will never forget that day.

Now, enough of the mushy stuff– I’ll move on to the many, many photos that I adore from the day.

A great moment of Maribeth getting her hair done.

The dress!

Here are Maribeth’s parents and beautiful sister Krisanne watching her put on the finishing touches right before the ceremony.

Absolutely stunning. My cousins are all like models— it’s ridiculous how beautiful they are.

I was so excited when Maribeth told me the wedding would be at a ranch in Tehachapi because I knew there would be a great chance of snow on the ground and I’ve never shot a snowy wedding. Well, my hopes came true! I was so inspired by this landscape and the contrast of the elegant bride with the rustic fencing.

Landon looked extremely dashing in his ceremonial Army suit. Check out all that flair!… A very decorated soldier.

And he even wore a sword! So awesome.

Some of my favorite moments from the ceremony…

The ceremony took place under this AMAZING oak tree. It was definitely the talk of the wedding… It has actually been determined to be the oldest oak tree in the San Joaquin Valley!

Because of a few issues with health and travel arrangements, Landon’s guys couldn’t make the wedding. So the wedding party consisted of these lovely ladies– from left to right: my cousins Shanna, Sarah, and Krisanne, and on the far right, my sister Hayley.

The happy couple.

The image from the preview post.

I think this might be my favorite shot of the year… It’s so classic and timeless and, believe it or not, they stood like this on their own. No posing required. I just love everything about it…

Inspired by the famous painting American Gothic.

Loved this moment.

I dropped one of my cameras in the snow trying to get this shot… totally worth it and no damage done.

Amazing light right before sunset…

Had to post this fun one of Krisanne having fun with Landon’s sword.

Here’s my Grandpa with his five oldest grandchildren. (The youngest three, Johnny, Brent and Nicole, couldn’t attend the wedding.) From left to right: Laura, Krisanne, Maribeth, Grandpa, me and Hayley. I love these people so much and it was so great for all of us to get to spend time together!

A great moment at the end of the first dance.

To Maribeth and Landon,

I am SO happy for you guys and and so honored to have been asked to photograph this amazing celebration. I love you and will miss you so much when you’re in Germany. You may regret offering to have us come visit because I feel like buying my plane ticket now!

To all of my family,

I am so happy we were able to get together for this great day and I hope you all enjoy the photos as they captured some truly happy memories for all of us.

They were married in Tehachapi, a small town in the mountains here in Southern California. Thanks to some recent storms, there was snow on the ground!

However, even though I’m a little under the weather, I am finally in the Christmas spirit and wanted to take a moment to wish all of my blog readers — the loyal, less-frequent and brand-new– a very lovely Christmas!

To all of my clients of 2008: Thank you so very much for being so awesome! I had an amazing year in photography and it is all thanks to you– my fun, trusting, wonderful clients. I truly love what I do and am very lucky to be able to do it thanks to all of you.

I hope you all are having a fantastic holiday enjoying family, friends, food, presents, and all of the other goodies we get to enjoy this time of year!

These were all taken around midnight in and around my yard:

And this I took this morning in my front yard. Stunning.

Here are some photo collages of all the fun we had, thanks to Jules Bianchi for taking and posting these!

So much fun. Happy Friday, everyone!

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.

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.

This wedding was actually my last scheduled wedding of the year! It’s been quite the wedding season. I’ve had the best time working with all of my clients this year and now I’m looking forward to having a few weekends off, shooting more portraits, as well as working on some other projects I’ve wanted to get started. I hope to even set up a just-for-fun shoot with models, hair, make-up — the whole nine yards — where I can really experiment with different technique. Any one interested in modeling??

Anyway– on to the many photos of this fabulous wedding!

Here’s Jill getting ready with the help of her Maid of Honor.

A twist on the shoe shot– you know me and shoes!

Love this!

The flowers by City of Commerce Flowers were AMAZING!  This bouquet was a real beauty– and weighed a ton!

The gorgeous bride. How incredible are her eyes??

Dan looking all dashing.

The First Look. Love love love these moments!

The happy couple.

Jill, Dan and Dan’s son Bradley who was truly the life of the party!

Dan with his nephew. Such a cutie.

The ceremony. I adore Dan’s expression as he saw Jill walking down the aisle.

Yeah… did I mention the flowers were amazing?

Married!

All of the incredible details.

Dan and Jill’s reaction to Bradley’s Best Man toast. That kid knew how to work a room!

We set up an impromptu photo booth for the guests…

Hayley and I had some fun with the rings and the props they had for the photo booth. I can’t decide my favorite between the two.

The First Dance.

Jill and Dan — Thanks so much for a great day! Congratulations!!