Ashley & Tony

Ashley was a bridesmaid in Julie & Nick’s wedding a few years ago, and I was thrilled when she called me to tell me she was engaged. I photographed Ashley and her fiance, Tony, in Fort Worth. It was about 100 degrees that day and we went to multiple locations during the shoot and felt even hotter. I am surprised that neither of them melted. I suppose it didn’t hurt that one of the locations was one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants in Fort Worth’s Stockyards district–so the margaritas helped cool things down a bit.

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Anne & Doug

I photographed Anne and Doug on my last trip to Fort Worth. We started the session on the big front porch of Doug’s house and even got their dog in a few of the pictures. The light was really beautiful that afternoon and it made me miss summer evenings in Texas and porch swings a little. I am looking forward to photographing their wedding later this summer.

We got the cover!

Last summer Haley and I did a fun shoot with San Diego Style Weddings at The Fenton Ranch.   We were excited to hear that one of our images made the April/May cover of the magazine–and our images are all through the magazine.   Kyle Karges with San Diego High Definition Weddings shot this fun behind-the-scenes video of the shoot.   It was really HOT that day and I was about 6 months pregnant–so kindly excuse my shorts and t-shirt look!  I don’t show up like that to weddings!  And a big thank you to our models who braved the heat that day in huge dresses and balanced on tricky rope swings for us!   

San Diego Style weddings is on newsstands now and is a fabulous resource for planning a wedding here in town.   We love the Who’s Who Bio section and the venue guide!

Jump Into Creativity!

We are proud to announce a partnership with Ellie Culver and E Claire Design.   Ellie is the design guru behind many of our cutie baby announcements and fun holiday cards.   After getting so many inquiries about the cards we sent out last holiday season, it is time to share her creative magic with everyone else!   Ellie is now offering custom designs not only to our clients, but to any one out there looking for custom wedding invitations, birth announcements, and even custom monograms.    She even offers Emergency Design! for those who have a tendency to wait until the last minute…

Red Nose Day!

Today is Red Nose Day!  Red Nose Day is a British comic relief fund to help raise money for African aid.  Visit www.rednoseday.com to find out more, or if you are a facebook user you can join the group and download the silly nose for your avatar.  I realized what a huge nose I have while pinning this digital guy on mine!  I picked the goofy one with the glasses…but there are a lot on the Media Center of the Red Nose Day website!

Red Fire

This morning I attended a seminar compliments of Dena Malasek the great gals at San Diego Style Weddings Magazine.  The always fabulous Liz Goodgold of Red Fire Branding had tons of inspirational tips and pointers about energizing your business and your brand.  Liz’s energy (combined with the uber caffeinated coffee from Joes On the Nose) definitely re-ignited me and got the creative wheels turning in a new direction.    We had already planned on rolling out some great new stuff for 2009, but now it will be coming at you on the fast track.

Think Pink

Brides Against Breast Cancer has their annual wedding gown sale this Saturday at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in downtown San Diego.    All of the dresses have been graciously donated by their owners and proceeds benefit breast cancer research.  In years past I have been pleasantly surprised at the quality and selection–yes, there is even the rare Vera Wang and Monique Lhuillier.    Full disclosure: there also a few “what were they thinking?” dresses there if you are looking for a bit of comic relief.  It is a true treasure hunt and the gowns range from the gaudy to the glam.  If you are really looking to buy, then I would recommend buying one of the VIP/Power Hour tickets to get in early.  Or, if you have a dress hanging in a closet that could get a little love from somebody else, consider donating it to the cause!

April

Today I photographed singer/songwriter April Geesbreght at her home in Fort Worth.  April is a exceptionally talented musician who just released a new album Big Fire.   Last night, April had a midnight show but she still had tons of energy this afternoon.  For more info on April, visit www.aprilsmusic.com or look for her on iTunes.  Her music will also be on my website very soon!  

New Camera Bag

I am sad to say that my old camera bag is getting close to retirement.  My dad bought it for me when I was in school in 1995–so I have used the bag for nearly 14 years!  It is old, ugly, and holey and I love it.   I even had it back in the days of film.  (Remember film?)  The bag has criss-crossed the country with me and has been overseas enough times that it probably should have its own passport.  

For months I have been looking for a bag that could replace my haggard looking sidekick when I stumbled across this bag at Calumet in Escondido.   It is a fun little tote/wheely bag from Jill E Designs.  They had a wild hot pink one which I was really tempted to get, but decided to be conservative and stick with black.   The bag holds two bodies and about four or five lenses.  I am sure with some clever packing I can get even more in there.   While it isn’t big enough to hold ALL of the gear I take to weddings, it will hold what I need to carry on the airplane with me.  It has a fun polka dot printed interior and a padded pocket for my laptop.  

So next time you see me wheeling through the airport on Sunday mornings after a big wedding, be sure to notice my cute new camera bag and not the bags under my eyes!

Erin & Steve

I shot Erin and Steve’s engagement session this past weekend.  They met in high school will be tying the knot this summer at the Stanford Chapel in Northern California.  Erin and Steve have such a natural, playful chemistry with one another–they were so easy to photograph.  Yes folks, their smiles are real.  We also went into an arcade where Erin hit the high score in skeet ball.

 

Ramsey & Bo

We kicked off the year with Ramsey & Bo’s wedding in Houston, Texas.   Their wedding and reception were amazing–the actually had a clear dance floor built above the swimming pool and had colored lights shining up through the floor.   The band was great and the guests danced until after midnight!   There were so many fun images I had a really hard time picking just a few for the blog!  More to come in the client galleries in a few weeks, but here are a few sneak peeks in the meantime!  Congrats Ramsey and Bo!  

Darcy & Brent

We shot Darcy & Brent engagement session in Balboa Park and in Downtown San Diego last week.    They were both instantly relaxed and fun in front of  the camera and were willing to hike all over with us–and she had on some pretty high heels.  They are getting married this summer in east county San Diego (about halfway to Arizona!) and we are excited to shoot in the valley. 

Lauren & Cole’s featured wedding!

We are thrilled that The Knot Texas has selected Lauren and Cole’s wedding to be one of their feautres. You can pick up a copy of The Knot Texas on newsstands now.

Emily & Sean

I photographed Emily and Sean’s engagement in Fort Worth right after Thanksgiving.   They are such a cute couple and are both pros (really) in front of the camera.  Emily and Sean met while working for a television station in Austin, Texas.  I went to high school with Emily and spent many a study break with her at Starbucks drinking way too many of those caffeine-sugar-calorie packed frozen drinks than you can only drink when you are 16 and have the metabolism of a hummingbird.  Mummm.   Emily and Sean were my first session post-baby and were a wonderful and refreshing way to get back to work.  They were so fun and refreshing it reminded me all over again how much I love shooting fun people in love.  I am so glad that she has chosen me to photograph their wedding this year in Austin!

What happened to October?

If you are wondering what happened to posts in October, this is it.  Why?  I took a bit of time off from shooting to have a baby.  I don’t take too many breaks, but I figure having a kid is a pretty good reason to rest a bit.   We were still working away in the office, but I kept my shooting schedule pretty light.  As it turns out, I felt great and was able to shoot right up until he was born.  I was hoping that chasing toddlers around the beach with my camera gear would help him arrive early, but no such luck.  Michael made his big debut at the end of October is a happy, healthy little boy who seems to grow every second!  We are lucky that we got an easy and content baby, but if you call someday and hear some happy babbling in the background, it is probably him!

 

Hot Off The Press!

The new issue of San Diego Style Weddings magazine debuted tonight at their annual launch party in La Jolla and the new issues are on newsstands now! This is the third year we have been included in the magazine and it seems our images are everywhere!  We are very excited to announce that one of our images will be the April/May 2009 cover!  We are all over the fashion pages and have more than 8 full pages of fashion spreads (holy cow!) in the “Escape To The Countryside” and the kids spread,  “Lovely Looks for Little Girls”.   Keri & Kelan also have their Italian garden themed wedding and reception as one of the features!  You can also see my mug in the Who’s Who section (thank you to Sommer for the headshot!).  As always, the launch party was a blast and the magazine looks great!

Lily & Scott

I photographed Lily & Scott’s wedding last August at the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe.  They are such an amazing couple and I think Lily was one of the most calm brides I have ever photographed.  They had put so much thought into the fun details of their wedding–including cute little program fans with their engagement photo and pomanders hanging from the tree above them.

Confessions of a delinquent blogger

It has been a really long time since I have blogged.  There has been a lot of activitiy in the studio lately and lots of things going on–but there have been so many updates that I haven’t had the chance to write about them!

First of all, we are happy to announce that we have brought on a great team of editors and designers.   We are already seeing faster turn around times and smooth back-of-house operations.   In the last month and a half we have been able to complete more than 20 wedding albums (which is a TON!!!), retouch and post the majority of our summer weddings (more to come soon!), and lots of portrait sessions.   

Many of you have already met Tashena, who has done a wonderful job second shooting and weddings and portrait sessions and is an amazing color editor and retoucher.  Thanks to Tashena our production schedule and turn around times are shorter than ever.  It is so nice to have her in the office!   We are also glad to have James doing some color editing and retouching.  James has been a “color guy” for more than a decade and is a whiz at correcting some of the tough color jobs.

This holiday season we are proud to introduce our new amazing designer, Ellie, who will be the lead on creating custom cards and lots of other fun products unique to you and to our studio.   If you have not ordered your holiday cards yet, please check out the products page of our Client Galleries and get those orders in soon!   We will be accepting our last orders for holiday cards on November 7th.

Kristen & Eric

We shot Kristen & Eric’s wedding at The Dana on Mission Bay in early September on their dating anniversary.  They met several years ago through work and share a love of techie things (cameras-yay!) and Disneyland.  They had a fun relaxed weekday wedding and I was glad that I could be part of it.  Their amazing coordinator, Scott O’Hara put so many nice touches and made sure everything went off very smoothly.  Congrats!

Christine & Dave

Christine & Dave were married this past weekend at Mary Star of the Sea in La Jolla and had their reception at La Valencia.  While we were shooting outside of the La Valencia In downtown La Jolla, a little girl jumped off of her bike and ran over to Christine and was absolutely ecstatic–she kept saying “You are my bride Barbie!”  It was pretty cute and funny.   Christine & Dave both work in the floral industry, so not only did they have great flowers, but they incorporated the cute floral theme into their decor with their tables being named after different flowers.  Big thank you to the folks at La Valencia and to Kristin with Pink Papaya events who, as always, put on a fabulous event!

Keri & Kelan

I shot Keri & Kelan’s wedding at North Chapel and El Cortez this past weekend.  Keri and Kelan put so much thought and detail into their Italian themed wedding including a cheese bar and a gelato bar (yum!).  In fact, they are one of the featured weddings in the current issue of San Diego Style Weddings magazine.   I posted a few of their detail shots here, but there are a lot more in the magazine! 

The Last Piece

During the winter of my senior year at the University of Texas I  was taking screenwriting, speechwriting, and business marketing.  Because I was writing a lot, I was burning through paper very quickly.   I was getting annoyed at making weekly runs to the office supply store and spending what little money I had on paper. Copy paper was at the top of my list that Christmas.  My dad’s younger brother, Shawn, thought it was funny that a college kid would ask for paper, but he obliged and went down to the local Office Max and purchased not just a ream, but an entire case.   So during Christmas 2001, I became the proud owner of 5,000 sheets of copy paper.  That huge box moved with me to Austin, Fort Worth, Abilene, and 3 houses in San Diego and got lighter with every move.  The case lasted through the end of my college, graduate school, my master’s thesis, Jeff’s graduate school, and four full years of my photo business.  Well, today I finally used the last piece!  The famous last piece went to printing out Christine and David’s wedding timeline.  I think Shawn wins the award for giving me the most useful Christmas gift ever.  Those 5,000 sheets of paper lasted me 7 years!!!

Kristin & Carl

I met Carl last year when he was a groomsman in a wedding I shot in Fort Worth.  This summer I met his fiancée, Kristin, at Lissa & Chris’ wedding on Sea Island in Georgia.  We decided since we were at the Cloister and in such a gorgeous location, that we needed to take their engagement pictures while we were all out there.  

  

Morgan & Chris

Morgan and Chris were married this evening at the La Jolla Women’s Club.   They had their ‘first look’ at one another in the lobby of La Jolla’s Empress Hotel, which is also gorgeous.   Morgan and Chris were amazing subjects and indulged me with all of my funny photo requests–but think the results were worth it.   Kelly with Mint Weddings did a wonderful job coordinating (as always) and I was very lucky to have a new and amazing second shooter, Tashina, working with me.

 

 

Erica & Bryan

I met Erica & Bryan last year at Joan & Jimmy’s wedding and was excited when they called and asked us to shoot their wedding.  Allana and Melissa shot their wedding at St. Michael’s in Poway and their reception at Maderas Golf Club.   Erica & Bryan are both in the Navy so they had one of my favorite wedding traditions at their wedding–the arch of swords.