I have to give a shout out to my amazing husband who 2nd shot this wedding for me. He is super proficient behind the lens and has shot a ton of film in his lifetime.  It was a blast having him by my side as my shooting partner to capture different perspectives. Thanks babe!
Venue: Hotel de Anza (Amazing place to check out if you’re in the San Jose area)

Florist: Array of Flowers (Note the amazing floral touches…these guys know their petals)

Music: 8 Track Massacre (Ok…these guys are THE wedding band. They rocked the house. Look them up. Follow them. Become a groupie. They’re that good.)

Enter the love…

Q: So why didn’t you straighten them in Photoshop Jo?

A: Because I was lazy.

All images are SOOC (straight out of the camera) with zero editing so you can truly see how the different white balance settings can affect the colors in your image. One day I will attempt to do this with skin if I can ever get my one and two year old models to sit still long enough to change settings. Maybe in about 5 years.

All the images below are shot with a Canon 16-35mm wide angle lens at 16mm with the camera secured on a tripod.

All settings:

F10
1/30
ISO 100

And to close out this post, one of my little wispy, pigtailed, baby girl against the setting sun of our favorite beach. Happy shooting!

Love that little “Cheerio” mouth!

Awww…



I adore the goofy giggle here.

1. Keeping the dress clean was a big time priority to the bride.

2. The skies were actually that confused. It was glorious, with menacing clouds and sun fighting for real estate in the sky. No fake skies here folks.

3. Random fact. It costs the same amount to dry clean a clean dress as it does a dress that’s swam in the sea.  Be brave brides…be brave!

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Favorite activity #1…eating. I let her help me make her birthday cupcakes.

Baxo honored the exact time of her birth one year ago. 11:41 a.m. One of the two best minutes in all of my life.
Favorite activity #2…bath time!
I think this may be one of my favorite pictures of my babies taken thus far.
Or maybe this one. I don’t even care that it’s awkardly tilted or that I chopped E’s fingers or that he has to wear a privacy patch.
Favorite activity #3…balloons! She’s a tad excited. I didn’t actually achieve the look  I was going for. Next time, twice the amount.

Love her!

Chunka chunka burnin’ love. She’s got her winter coat ready.
The only time back rolls are completely adorable.

Party time!

Happy first birthday baby Blu!

Now that I am completely off task, what I came here to share today was an experience I had attempting to get fall photos of my family. I was getting insanely jealous of all the photos I’ve been taking for other families and kids and was desperate to get some of my own family…with ME in them. Being behind the camera all the time is awesome. Except for the fact that there are NO pictures of me with my own family. I really don’t want the kids to look at our family albums in the years to come and wonder “where was mom”? I know us mothers cringe at having photos taken of ourselves as we never feel we look quite as beautiful, skinny, young, yadda yadda yadda as we should. I gave up caring how imperfect I was long ago, but golly I want to be in some pictures with my husband and kids! As a photographer, I long for the days when I can fly to West Virginia and have someone like Lisa Lucky shoot my family photos, but for now, I relied on my self timer and tripod to try to catch some memories that included the 4 of us (sorry Dodger, maybe next time).

Herein lies some problems. My remote chose not to work consistently so I was stuck with having to set the self timer and RUN to meet the rest of the clan in the hopes that for 1/250th of a second we could all be “photographable”. That’s my new word. Setting the camera manually means that if I got all my settings perfect and miraculously made it to where my family was positioned, the image would be perfect. Click click yes! Ahhhh…..no. You can’t believe how fast a toddler can fly off the handle into meltdown mode or how quickly an 11 month old can rip her hat off her head revealing bed head pigtails or how my husband can move just a few inches throwing off the focus. Back to the tripod. Again and again. And again. I don’t care if my kids don’t look at the camera as long as I am capturing a memorable moment. What does bother me is when my toddler has rebelliously buried his face in his vest and looks like the headless horseman. To end my rambling, here’s what I got. Not near the vision I had in mind but with my precocious little ones…I know well enough to go with the flow and hope for miracles. If you are a mom with a camera and are never in any pics…go take some NOW! Set the timer and run! You’ll be glad you did. Happy holidays everyone!

My family- 2011

And for your viewing pleasure…some outtakes. Shot in RAW and completely unedited and out of focus so don’t judge.

The image below was featured on the Clickinmoms’ page and is one of my favorite pieces for many different reasons. The serenity and solitude portrayed in this image is a calming reminder to slow down and enjoy the little moments in between. I love how he is all but alone with the birds on a virtually “humanless” stretch of beach. If I were to give this one a title, I would call it “He Who Walks With Birds”. A full blog post from this day coming soon. Be sure to be on the lookout for the sequel to this image titled, “He Who Chases Birds and Honestly Thinks He Can Catch Them but Melts Down Because They are Too Fast”. A 24×36 canvas of this one is currently en route to my bare wall home and I couldn’t be more excited.

Processed with Clickinmoms’ Paparazzi Preset. Come check out their amazing presets here.

This image was featured on the Lemonade and Lenses page for their theme {sunflare}. Ahhh…who doesn’t love a heavy dose of hazy sunflare to make an image magical? With a gorgeous bride and a beautiful palomino horse (ok can’t forget the handsome groom dude too), this image was just beauty in itself. Add a little (ok, a lot) of that glowing ball of gas and a fairytale was created.

The image below was announced to be the winner of an Unconventional Light Contest through CM. They paired with the ever amazing and pocketbook sucking camera store Adorama for a wonderful prize and I was thrilled to be the lucky recipient. I will forever remember it as the first “award” I’ve ever received for photography. I quote “award” because I truly feel that I receive an award every time I give someone a beautiful image of themselves or their family. Making people happy with my art is truly the most amazing gift I’ve ever received and I hope to keep on giving the gift and receiving the “award” for many years to come.
A little about this image. When the contest was announced, the photo had to be taken within the time frame the contest ran. It could not be an old image which I personally appreciate as it gives the contestants something to focus on. This shot was not a “set up” but rather a lucky catch during just the right time of day. The light streaming in through the blinds and reflecting off the breakfast nook wall with parts of his backlit hair had me running for my camera. I liked him in the lower 3rd left corner of the frame as it gave the power of the light a chance to dominate the composition and provided just the right amount of depth. Thank you CM and Adorama for choosing my image!

Thank YOU all for your continued support on my journey…you keep me going and striving to become better.