This time with the lovely Courtney.

My goal for this year is to get a picture of myself with every one of my clients!! Think I can do it? I hope so. Brides, if you’re out there, remind me before the night gets away from us! They’re my fave, and you ladies always look gorgeous!!!

New blog! New blog!!! So… now that you can, tell me what you think! 

LEAVE ME A COMMENT!!

I don’t think I ever forget how much I LOVE the spring time! It’s really the best time of the year for this industry, because we get overloaded with fun stuff! In the past 24 hours I have been delighted to, whilst blog-stalking, find pictures for 2 of my ‘08 couples posted!

Meet Jennifer and Jacob, courtesy of Sarah K. Chen:

They’re tying the knot in May! Man, 3 outfit changes and the girl ROCKED them! If you want more, visit Sarah’s blog, because she posted a ton!

Now, Meet Ann and Chris! Nearly-weds anticipating their big day in September! Special thanks to Kim Le for capturing their love!

Gotta love it! To all of my photographer friends: keep ‘em coming! It makes me count down the days to every single event that I have! I’m so lucky to love what I do!!

Josh and I set up yesterday and today as a date day and have been looking for it for quite some time now. We are at the point in our hectic lives where we really, literally have to pencil into our agendas whenever we want to spend time together. So, when I took a meeting out in the Inland Empire last night, we decided to make a trip out of it, get a hotel, and take the night off. This morning the husband and I enjoyed some much needed time together mid-week and headed done to get our outlet-shop-on at Cabazon. On the way back, we stopped for lunch at a great little taco restaurant [with a dinosaur theme... strangely enough] down the road and snapped some photos.

YUMMM

And one last one for the road:

All in all, it was a great break from the norm, and will probably be the last time I see Josh this whole week! My poor, overly busy and uber talented, husband is in the process of moving his entire music recording studio and is frantically finishing up tracks before the BIG move this weekend! Say a prayer for me that everything goes smoothly, nothing gets lost or stolen or broken, and that I have my husband back sometime next week!!

Okay, this is just not my favorite arrangement. Last night we focused on arrangements made to back to a wall. Basically, a one-sided arrangement that focused on height. It was definitely interesting but just wasn’t my favorite. Look at this like it’s a small altar piece or splash:

And of course, the Steph pic:

That being said… I’m making some changes to my site that are THRILLING me! They’re not huge changes, so don’t expect to notice, but hopefully in the next month we’ll get to debut some exciting things and some definite eye candy! Because of my disapproval of my weekly flowers, I may have to make the trek up to LA and take matters into my own hands sometime soon…

For having a social life: yay! I loved seeing my husband rock last night. And you know who else rocks…

My friends!

Two hot mommies, Lauren and Angi!

And of course we had to have Carynn jump in…

My favorite part of last night: how much my husband’s music brings people together! I never get to see these girls, so it was fab to be with them for the evening. Plus, whenever there’s like 200 high-schoolers singing along with your love’s songs at the top of their lungs… it’s going to be a good night.

My favorite part of the above picture: my long hair! In case I hadn’t yet blogged [but I do believe I've mentioned it], I’m growing my hair out. Long. Like a mermaid. And seeing this made me realize that I’m half way there! Yippeeeee! My goal is to get it long by September. And anything I can’t grow I’ll add on with the help of Jessica or Paris. Though I must admit, I’m leaning towards Paris in this case. Is that scary, or what??

All in all, a late night with good friends is always a good time!

and each time he plays with his band, AVNER, he and the guitar player, Todd, make some sort of video-mercial to go with it.

This one takes the cake.

I know. It makes no sense. But hey, it got ME to go!

Special thanks to Photoshop and the Totally Rad Actions for this post!

I know I’m not great at editing photos, but in Karin and Forrest’s blog, I mentioned those pictures I took of them running through the sparklers, with the flash off. Well, I took some time to play with them, and here’s what I ended up with. It’s pretty impressive!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

FAB, right?? So, what were once throw-away photos, have now become some of my favorite from the day! It’s pretty amazing, and I’m so thankful that my camera, even “sans” flash, caught these great moments!

Are you understanding more what you’re paying for when it comes to wedding photography?? Wedding photographers, at least most of the photo-journalists that I work with, are masters at editing! They create GORGEOUS images from pictures that start out great, but not amazing. It is an art form. It is life expressed. It amazes me daily! Some of my favorite photographers that display their superb editing skills every time we work together:

Boutwell Studio [creators of the Totally Rad Actions]

Atrero Photography

Michael Norwood

Jason Q. Tran

The list goes on, but these four popped to the top of my head. Creating texture and rich color is such a huge thing when it comes to wedding photos! Take the time to shop around for the right photography style [and personality that comes with it] carefully when it comes to your wedding photos!