A Sunday Wandering at The Getty

To my friend, Nicole;

A Poem of Friendship
Nikki Giovanni

We are not lovers
because of the love
we make
but the love 
we have


We are not friends
because of the laughs
we spend
but the tears
we save


I don't want to be near you
for the thoughts we share
but for the words we never have
to speak


I will never miss you
because of what we do
but what we are
together

Ryan & Emily Engagement

I am so excited to share this engagement session with you.  Not only was the lighting as near perfect as I've ever seen, but these two are some of my favorite people.

Ryan is my cousin, though I love him more like a brother, and Emily is his beautiful bride to be and best friend and already considered part of the family so I know we all are so excited that it will finally be official.

This is the engagement session that wasn't.  Ryan and Emily were visiting San Diego and certainly were not planning having their pictures taken, (Emily almost vetoed the whole thing!) but Ryan's mom insisted.  And of course I wasn't going to refuse the opportunity to shoot these two; I mean look at them, they're gorgeous!

Anyway, it all worked out and we kept it low key, with only two locations. It was definitely a challenge for me to try and find ways to keep the pictures interesting with so few location changes, but a welcomed challenge at that. Plus, once we got to the second location with that gorgeous light through the trees, I didn't really want to leave anyway.

Thanks for letting me photograph you two! Can't wait for your wedding in September.

Ryan & Emily Engagement: A Preview

Baby Shower

I got to know Hannah when I moved down to CA this past fall because she is the manager of the coffee shop I work for.  Hannah worked nearly every morning at the shop, so naturally she was well known (and loved) among all the regulars.  Little side note, my coffee shop is filled with fiercely loyal customers who are so friendly and care for all the baristas; we are really blessed.  Well when many of the customers found out that Hannah was pregnant, they showered her with baby gifts, and a few even attended her baby shower.

This was my first baby shower to photograph, and I came into it with more of a photo-journalistic kind of approach rather than directing people to get the shot I want.  It's so difficult trying to get candid photos of people some time when you're sticking a camera in their face, so this was great practice for learning how to be more in the background capturing the moments rather than interrupting them.

Thanks Steffenie and Malia for putting this on and for letting me share these photos Hannah!

Autumn Day Portraits

As a photographer, I have yet to establish my own post processing style.  Other than my brief introduction to photoshop in a high school arts class, I had always used my computer's basic photo editing program to play with my pictures.  For the longest time I used Picasa, a program that, even in its simplicity, fulfilled my post-processing needs.  It wasn't until last year that I actually gained access to a proper editing program.

Enter Adobe Lightroom.

I have personally loved using Lightroom. It's not nearly as extensive as Photoshop, but as an editing newbie, I'm thankful; Photoshop would have overwhelmed me.  Also, using Lightroom really allowed me to better understand how light works in photos (white balance, exposure, color hue and saturation etc) as I began to play with all of Lightroom's features.

With this session, I really wanted to emphasize the seasonal feeling of the day, so I wanted to try and accomplish an autumnal look for my photos with my post-process.  I edited these without the use of a preset, focusing more on the Split-tone feature of Lightroom to accomplish the look I wanted.

To be honest, I think the pictures still might have too much of a reddish/purple tint to them. I don't really know what I'm doing, and these might be edited horrendously by a professional's opinion.  But, I haven't posted in a while, and I need to start posting more of my work to both keep myself accountable and to show my work to nagging family and friends. ;)

Now on to the photos.  I took these photos back on an autumn day in November while I was babysitting Peyton.  The colors of the leaves were just too perfect to pass up, so I decided a mini photo shoot was in order. Peyton is the perfect model, he has no inhibitions and acts completely like his precious, sweet self when I stick a camera in his face.

Let me know what you think.  Do you like this edited look? Are the pictures too red? Don't you think Peyton is just the cutest? :)

 Peyton is still learning to walk, so as an alternative he scoots on his butt, no matter the muddiness of the ground. :)

Stewart Wedding: Mukilteo, WA

I don't think I can ever fully express how thankful for I am for Sarah and Luke.  They took a chance on me, a brand new photographer, to capture one of the most important days of their lives.  I had never shot a wedding before. Actually, come to think of it, I had never shot anything for anyone outside of my family before.

Basically I was really nervous to shoot this wedding. Of course, I didn't tell Sarah and Luke that. To them I was cool as cucumber, professional and in control, photographer extraordinaire.  Ok, not quite, but I do hope that I was somewhat a reference of calm in the craziness that is planning for a wedding.

Anyway, enough about me. Everyone, meet Luke and Sarah Stewart. Luke is from MN, Sarah from WA. They met as counselors at a a summer camp, and spent the entirety of their relationship miles apart.

Maybe it was the long distance, maybe it was their personality, but it seemed that Luke and Sarah really seemed to live in each moment, not taking each minute they had together for granted. They were so present, so enjoyable, so relaxed; I absolutely adored shooting them. Plus, they are both so good looking. 

It's a pretty long post, so go ahead and check out more pictures by clicking on the Read More link. :)

All Hallows Eve

Happy festivities!