Megan and Andrew's Engagement

Megan and Andrew are a great couple to work with! They did everything I asked without question, and we had a great time! I would tell them that we were changing spots and on our way, I would see another really cool spot and send them over to there before we made it to the next spot! I called it my photographer's ADD! But it was worth it because the photos turned out great and instead of missing the opportunity, we made the most of it! I am very excited for their wedding in March! Megan is going to be a GORGEOUS bride! My favorite part of shooting the engagement photos is that it gives me a chance to know my couple personally. I get to know how they interact with one another and what they are the most comfortable with. Also, they get to know me and my style and my photographer's ADD! It makes the wedding day so much more easy-going and comfortable. I love developing relationships with my clients, not just viewing this as a "contract". Each couple means something to me and I value their opinion! The engagement photos is definitely a great chance to get to know one another on a more personal level! I cannot wait to finish going through all of these and than have the wedding photos! And also to be able to get to know Megan and Andrew even more in the months to come!

Fall is for Family

As the holidays are fast approaching, family pictures come into season! I aim to take family portraits that show the love and emotion your family has. With Chris, Victoria, and Jessa it was easy to capture their joy and love! I wanted them to be as comfortable and  natural as possible. What sets your family apart is that no one else has the same family dynamics. I strive to capture that to the fullest. I want to see what makes your family different! I love the joy that comes from being with family, and the love that always pours out. Often I direct things than wait for that perfect moment like these below!

Yvette and John

Yvette and Jon had a simple but beautiful wedding! Her dress had a beautiful train that I had a lot of fun making the most of! We were also able to visit a winery for some bride and groom photos! They have a lot of personality and are a great couple to work with! We were able to take their engagement photos at this same winery, so it was fun coming back with them in their wedding clothes! 

An unforgettable experience

I went to Seattle, Washington early June of 2011 on a trip with my family. One of the things we attempted was Orca Whale watching. The day was cloudy and freezing and it began to rain and to top it all off, on our way there, our boat began having engine trouble. We were informed that we would need to turn around without going out to whale watch. Reaching port, we received vouchers to go whale watching again within the next year. Seeing that we live in Southern California, we did not know when we would come to Washington again. 

I have several close friends in the area (including one of my best friends and her husband) and shortly after coming home, found an amazing deal on Southwest and booked my 2nd trip to Washington for the end of summer! It was for the end of August and the Orca Whales are more frequent during that month. I was able to stay with my best friend, Rochelle Woods and her awesome husband Jon, and so began my Washington adventure! Rochelle, like me, is a photographer and we had a great time being camera buddies together! 

Thursday was the day that we planned for whale watching and Rochelle, Jon, and two other friends-Daniel and Max- set out at 4:30am to drive to Seattle to make the 7:30am boat boarding! Our adventure began with Krispy Cream donuts and coffee. The boat ride started at close to 8am and all of us opted for the top of the Victoria Clipper. I had checked the weather the night before and it was to be clear skies and 0% chance of rain in Seattle (which had to be a record of some kind!!!!) 

The wind was blowing hard and it got a little chilly, but we didn't care and laughed and talked and took photos as we settled in for our 3 1/2 hour ride to Friday Harbor. It passed by quickly with all of us friends and no engine trouble this time! We let some people off at the harbor than the rest of us set out to see the whales! It took us twenty minutes to circle the island and get to where the whales are supposed to be. 

We saw some other boats and headed towards them. We hear that there is whales off to the left! We see them way in the distance sprouting, and I am already snapping photos and grinning from ear-to-ear! They start heading towards out boat and I am peeking above my camera watching and than clicking the shutter as fast as I can when one surfaces for air! We see about 5 all spread out and we never know where or when they will pop up. Our captain turns off the engine according the the law that says you cannot be within 200 yards of the whales (unless they come to you). Well, the whales do not know this law and they keep coming closer! Everyone is packed tight on the railing as one surfaces 60 feet from the boat! We look and we can see him swimming under water and suddenly he surfaces right at the bow of the boat! I snap as fast as I can, never dreaming I would get this close to them in the wild! It was truly amazing!!!!

I was bouncing from excitement, and my eyes were scanning for more. Another one surfaces near the bow! And again, I snap as fast as I can in the brief second he is out of the water. They swim fast and are soon long past our boat. We followed once they were far enough away and headed further into the sea.

We have a group of four that we find also to the left of us. They are heading straight for our boat as well!!! I catch one coming head on and run to the other side to see them surface, but they stayed under for 15 minutes and finally surfaced further away. There I got the perspective of them, a fishing boat, and the land, for an amazing scenic photo!

All in all we saw probably over 20 whales in an hour out on the water with them! It was spectacular! It was the K-quad, the smallest of the three known in those parts. But to me, it was amazing! It was a gift from God, and all I could do was smile and thank Him! It was an amazing gift from Him and I was in awe! His beautiful handiwork, wild and free! And seeing them, being able to photograph them so close, was all I could dream of! Thank you, Lord, for the amazing beauty you have let us see! And for my amazing friends that I was able to spend the time with and get to share in an incredible and definitely unforgettable experience! 

Lighting the Wedding

As a photographer, especially as a wedding photographer, you encounter many various lighting scenarios, and it is your job to make use of them all! For Shanna and Mark's wedding, we started out in the shade to get beautiful diffused lighting for their photo. Their venue was called the Sons of Italy in Fontana, and inside of the banquet hall was a giant map. I saw the lighting by the map and took some ambient light photographs using the lighting provided for the map. I moved Shanna and Mark to the perfect position so that she would be highlighted in a high drama lighting scenario and I could achieve the photo I envisioned! After that they had their first dance. The lights were beautiful and I wanted to emphasize them and mainly the couple! I used two off-camera flashes to illuminate Shanna and Mark while exposing my camera for the background. This enabled me to get the look that I really desired for their first dance! I really enjoyed the wedding and playing with the lighting that I had available or that I "created". Shanna and Mark were a great couple and really good about doing as I asked them too! I am excited to go through and edit the rest of their photos! 

Tips for the photographer, it is so important to always be aware of what is around you, especially what lighting is around you. Bringing the moments, the composition, and the lighting all-together is the aspiration of every photographer! Each time I shoot, I look for the "light at the end of the tunnel" to make my photograph as perfect as it can be!

An Antique Wedding

This wedding was at a beautiful venue in San Marcos! The bride and groom were so laid back and fun! I had a great time and really loved the whole day! I shot this wedding for a friend, Jodi B Photography, while she is on maternity leave. The wedding went great and I was so blessed to have the opportunity to shoot this wedding! I loved the antique look of everything, including the bride's dress! It was a fairytale looking wedding for sure!

The pondering of a photographer

"A good photographer doesn't take great photos, they make great photos." -This is something I was thinking about as I read a photography business book. As a photographer who has been in the business for four years now, I am starting to really understand the meaning of this. There are the photos that capture THE MOMENT perfectly and that every photographer should do and be aware of, but every person with a camera has the opportunity to capture THE MOMENT as well. It is a game of chance as well as skill. Good photographers know to look to capture that moment no matter what is happening, but does that make a person a great photographer? If anyone with a camera can catch that same moment, what makes a photographer different than say Uncle Bob?

This is where that quote comes into play...a quality photographer is someone who not only knows how and when to capture THE MOMENT, but someone who can create magic on their own. They are not limited to just an outside view of the event, only able to capture what they see. They should transform a person or place with thier vision. A great photographer changes the pumpkin into the carriage and the mice into horses. They make cinderella a princess by the vision and life that they bring into a photo. Location should not matter, what a person looks like should not matter, beauty is from within... and if a photographer cannot see and capture that, than I believe they are in the wrong profession!

I want my clients to be able to see themselves in a way that they never envisioned themselves before. I want to capture the beauty within their features, yes, but most of all from within their souls! This is my passion! Every person at one time or another has had some struggle with how they look, feeling like they don't measure up or can never be good enough. But, I want to be able to show every person that they are perfect just the way they are! (And no, that does not mean that I use a ton of photoshop to make them that way!) I believe that beauty is within each one of us, and that there is a special way to capture each and every thing that I photograph. I don't want to ever just take great photos, I want to use this vision of beauty that I have to make the best photos that I possibly can! To pour my whole heart and soul into my work and show the world my vision and the beauty that I see all around me!

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, "He makes everything beautiful in its time." God has made EVERYTHING beautiful, and I want to be sure to see and capture a small part of that extraordinary beauty inside each one of us to share with the world. I may not have a magic wand, but I have a gift that God has given me and I am going to use it to the best of my ability in all that I do!

4th of July Engagement

Tish and TJ have been together for 6 years and are getting married on July 7th of next year! They wanted a 4th of July themed engagement shoot and I immediately began thinking of ideas to make this happen! After locating a giant flag, playing with flashes, and using some sparklers, we got some great shots! The first shot is one I envisioned right away and I was so happy with how it turned out! Also Tish and TJ were better models than I could have asked for. They were so easy going and fun! Tish has a beautiful smile and laugh that was so fun to capture, and they did everything I asked with laughter and joy! This was my first time meeting them, but it didn't take long to feel very comfortable all together and have a lot of fun! We were able to go to the beach for some sunset photos before tackling the giant American flag and sparklers. All we were missing were fireworks, but these two created their own! I am so happy I was able to meet and work with this wonderful couple!

Lizzie and Ray

Lizzie and Ray were a very fun couple to work with! We traveled all over the Huntington Library to take photos in all of the different gardens. We ran out of time before we ran out of picture spots! It was a beautiful cloudy day out, perfect for shielding the hot summer sun! I couldn't have asked for a better for day! The two of them kept teasing about how awkward they were in pictures, but all I could see is how natural and in love they were! Definitely a fun couple to hang out with for the day!

The Photographer's Workout and Diet

For all my fellow photographers, I found these posts to be pretty humorous and true!

For all my readers, I often get asked what I do to workout and more often than not, I just hold up my two cameras and say, "These babies!" On a shoot, I most often have my two Canon bodies with battery packs, a 70-200 2.8 on one and a 24-70 2.8 on the other, and one flash. I find them very effective for keeping my arms toned and strengthening my back and shoulders (or so I say as I try to loosen the always present knots in my shoulders!)

Another great way I find that photography helps me keep in shape is when I bring my camera out on a hike with my non-photographer friends... I usually stop to take photos and than look to see that they are way ahead of me, so I sprint and catch up only to stop and take more photos! This repeat cycle is definitely something that keeps me in shape ;) And the photography exercise number 4 is definitely true when it says that those 2 mile walks turn into 10 mile journeys!!! I have had experiences like that starting with, "Hey, let's see what is over that hill!" Followed by trudging up and seeing another hill and saying, "Now let's see what is over this one!"

http://www.canonblogger.com/2010/06/21/the-photographers-workout/

5 Photography Exercises

1.  Grab your biggest camera body and with nothing else attached, see how long you can hold it straight out in front of you unsupported.  5 minutes?  10?  If you can hit ten minutes, proceed to add attachments:  lenses, flashes, gobos, whatever.  Repeat for right and left arms and you’ll bulk up quickly!  Supposedly this will also increase your hand holding capabilities to slower shutter rates because the camera weight becomes less of a factor.

2.  Take an appropriately weighted camera setup (body, lens, flash, etc.) and do arm curls with it – get a paper towel and hold it by the lens, with the camera on one side, then switch and do reverse curls.  Your wrists will stay nice and strong for those long wedding shoots.  10-20 reps a day

3.  Stuff as much of your gear as you can into a duffel bag or pack.  Lie down on the floor and put the bag on top of your legs.  Now slowly lift your legs until your feet are about 6-10″ off the floor.  Leave in position for 30-45 seconds and rest.  Repeat for 10-20 reps per day to keep your abs in shape after those morning lattes before each sunrise shoot! 

4.  Take that same bag and zip-tie it to your tripod (or conversely, attach your tripod to it with Vel-cro straps as applicable).  Extend the tripod legs out and you have a weight you can raise and lower behind your back.  Repeat as desired to keep your back and shoulders prepared for those 2 mile photo walks that turn into 10 mile journeys!

5.  Buckle on that weighted-down backpack now and stand with your feet about shoulder width apart.  Place your hands on your legs and proceed to squat down until you are almost sitting on the floor.  (The “squat” part of squat-thrusts…)  This is great for legs and lower back exercises.

There you have it – five tips for a photo-centric workout.  As always, if you are concerned about your health, consult with a physician before starting any physical regimen. 

http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/06/photographer-workout/

The Photographer’s Diet is limited to:

1. Bottled water warm from sitting in the car while you are out on your Photographer’s Work Out.
2. Granola bar 6 months past the expiration date because you had the forethought 2 years ago to drop it in your camera bag.
3. Handful of nuts you snuck from the wedding reception table. Don’t tell about the fingerprint in the wedding cake icing.
4. Fruit moldy and dry from being left in your camera bag 2 weeks ago. Call it “dried fruit” and all the naturalists will buy it!
5. Candy….mainly chocolate, used after an especially stressful family shoot of 4 children, an inattentive dad, and a screaming mom. This should be taken in high doses.

I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I did, and got a little laugh and insight into a photographer's life!

Ha Long Bay

This is a video produced by my friend Mario Davis with photography done by me! It is from Ha Long Bay, Vietnam. I went to Vietnam in March with a specialized journalism class. There were 13 of us all together. We had a mixture of videographers, photographers, and print journalists. Our trip was for 12 days including travel. We started in Hanoi and moved further north. We traveled with a medical mission team known as Project Vietnam. They provide training to the doctors and medical personal in Vietnam as well as vitamins, medication, and medical attention for the people there! Project Vietnam also provides surgeries for the people there including cross-eye surgery and cleft-lip surgery. The team is made up of volunteers who offer there time, money, and expertise to the mission. Anyone is welcome to join and will be gladly used by the team! It was a great experience and Ha Long Bay was a wonderful way to end this trip! It was a beautiful place that I only imagined in movies! I was in awe of God's creation the entire time I was there! It was beautiful beyond words and this video and photo is only a small example of the majesty of being there! But I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I did! And for more information on Project Vietnam please visit:  http://www.pvnf.org/

Announcing Mr. and Mrs. Phillips

The very first wedding that I shot on my own was for Christian and Kenny Prosser who happen to be Barbie's sister and brother-in-law! I was very excited to be shooting Barbie's wedding this year! Barbie and Matt where just as wonderful as Christian and Kenny were! They were a great couple to work with and willing to go out for more photos each time I asked! We were able to have fun and play with taking photos by the water at Lake Mission Viejo. It was a beautiful wedding with an amazingly handsome couple!

Miss "I am not photogenic"

 This is Meggan Bishop, and today I took head shots for this beautiful woman. But one of the first things she tells me is how she is not photogenic. As a photographer, I hear people say that a lot. I always hear people saying how they do not like how they look in photos, how it never turns out right, how they cannot stand being in front of the camera, and the list goes on and on. But also as a photographer, here is what I have to say... each person has their own personality, their own charm, their own attractiveness, allurement, and their own things that make them stand out. I personally believe that it is my job to go and photograph you in a way that tells the story of you. Meggan is a beautiful woman inside and out. She is full of laughter and fun and God's love; She has a gorgeous smile and personality. But here is a girl who usually does not like how her picture turns out. We went over her pictures after the shoot today, and she was so excited! She said that she usually freezes in front of the camera, but I was able to make her feel comfortable and to just have fun. I love to have fun myself, and I want each one of my clients to feel like they can be themselves with me. I am not out to just photograph, I am out to photograph you, who you are from the inside out. I want your personality to shine through and to capture the smile that encompasses all of who you are. That is one of my main goals! I want to have fun, be creative, play around, and put all of my effort into each shoot that I have! I am blessed to have been able to shoot these photos of Meggan and for everyone else out there who feels like they are "not photogenic" and hate having their picture taken, I hope you read this and believe it. You are perfect just the way you are, and I want to help inspire confidence for you to be you. As the saying goes, "You only have one life to live, why not live yours?"

From First Kiss to First Baby!

Charlotte and Steven waited to have their first kiss until the day of their wedding, and now they are going to have their first baby! I was privileged enough to be their wedding photographer and now shoot their maternity photos. They are two of the happiest people that I know; seeing the two of them together, you cannot doubt their love and adoration for one another! I am very excited to see this great couple bring a new baby into the world! 

Newport Beach Harbor Cruise

Larissa Anne Photography had the privilege of shooting a dance put on by Olive Tree Christian school. The dance was held at Newport Beach, California on a boat called the Spirit of Newport. The boat circled the harbor as the students had dinner on a yacht and than danced the night away.