The Mission Engagement Session

I went to the Mission in San Juan Capistrano to photograph an engagement session with Carly from Carly Daniel Photography. This was my first time at the Mission and I was amazed at how everything was so beautiful. Also, it was wonderful to see the love the couple shares, which is evident in the photos below. He made her laugh so much, it was wonderful to be able to capture this on camera.

Thank you Carly for letting me shadow you! I truly appreciate it!

A Day and Night in the Desert

This past Saturday, Brad and I drove out to Lucerne Valley so that he can go riding with some of his family. I usually stay a home during these trips, but he pouted enough that I finally caved and made the trip with him. He was actually able to convince me this time, because I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some shots of the family and the desert. I know people may want to smack me, but its nice to get away from the beach for a day...but just for a day.

The day started out great. The weather was wonderful and it was great catching up with Jen and the kids. Then the night set in and the wind picked up. This would all be fine and dandy if I wasn't sleeping in a tent. It was so cold that night, but worse the wind shook our tent so bad, that there was no possibility of sleep. I just toughed it out until the morning and we packed up as soon as the sun came up and took off to go home so that I could have a nap.

Anyone who knows me really well, knows I do not do well on no sleep. That is one thing in life I absolutely treasure....my sleep.

So here are some shots from the weekend

This is right before we got to the lake bed where we camped. I was playing with my telephoto lens at the gas station and didn't realize these were circus cars out in the middle of the desert.

We camped on a dry lake bed. This was our view during the day:

I had to get a group shot of the guys before they went out for their ride

I love this shot. The girls' battery operated Barbie Jeep:

This is Lenny, the dog. He was hoping the girls would drop some cupcake crumbs:

This was strange to me. This is an icecream truck that came to the desert. Its a great a idea, but it was a huge surprise. The girls loved it!

The music from the icecream truck woke Morgan from her nap. I got this shot outside the screen door to their camper.

This is Morgan, she looked so adorable with her sunglasses.Those eyes are just hypnotizing!

One of the only pictures of me from the day. This happens a lot when you're the one behind the camera.
We hiked to the top of the hill to watch the sunset. Madeline got to the top first and I was able to get this shot of her.

There was a cross at the top of the hill. If you look close enough at the picture below, you'll see our campsite in the bottom right corner of the picture.

I was experimenting with my camera at night. I used the light from the fire to get this shot of Eric and his daughter Courtney.

The girls were carrying around glow sticks at night. This is one of the shots I got with lighting just from the glow stick and no flash.

My First Wedding

Hi all! Many of you may not know this, but I've really been getting into photography. Carly from Carly Daniel Photography was wonderful enough to let me shadow her on Shelli and Mark's wedding at Tivoli Too in Laguna Beach. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the sunset was gorgeous. Shelli and Mark were such an amazing couple. Their love for each other was so evident and they just couldn't stop smiling and staring at each other. One just couldn't help smiling right along with them! Congratultions Shelli and Mark!

The First Day of March - Birds, Kites and Crosses

Sunday was a beautiful day in Southern California. The weather was amazing and the beach was crowded with lots of activity. Brad and I went down to Main Street in Huntington Beach to enjoy the sunshine and were surprised by all the kites, birds, crosses, and of course people. It finished off our day watching the amazing sunset and Brad getting attached by birds. It completely reminded of the Alford Hitchcock movie.

The start of the day. There were so many people on the beach that it really got me in the mood for summer!

These were a couple of the kites that were being flown right by the pier. These kites were huge!

They had a memorial set up for all the casualties in Iraq. Every cross represented 8 American soldiers that have died in Iraq.

There were so many birds out that day as well. Brad found a bag of bagels and decided to feed them. I was just making sure I didn't get hit with any bird crap.

Here was the sunset from Sunday night as well!