art weekend - los angeles | orange county photographer

last weekend i celebrated my birthday by attending the mini art weekend in los angeles. it was nice to finally get some formal instruction and i'm looking forward to using what i learned to improve my photography.

on friday, i took the photo 101 all day crash course. my favorite part was the demo at the end, when we got to practice what we learned. the model didn't show up, so nicole (the teacher) was kind enough to take on the job...



saturday morning i took the photoshop 101 class, where i learned some great things. especially all the keyboard shortcuts, which are going to save me so much time in the editing process. here are a few examples of what we learned in class (all photos courtesy of nicole's classes, edited by me)...

how to change a shirt color:


how to make custom black and whites:


how to switch a face:


the second class i took on saturday was commercial photography. this is when i learned that commercial photography would be fun, but it's probably not for me. but you never know...

and the final class i took was studio lighting. in this class, nicole taught us how to set up studio lights and how to use to them. and this time, our model showed up! she was awesome. here are my favorites from the class...







and here is nicole, working her magic. (you can see the results on her blog here.)

all in all, it was a good weekend. (however, i am disappointed that i didn't win one of the giveaways.)

for more info on nicole's classes, check out their website here.

asher, braedon, and maya | orange county child photographer

this is the second time i've taken pictures of my two favorite boys (here's the first) and they were still just as challenging! it's a good thing they are so cute because they don't hold still for more than two seconds and it was driving me crazy! but i sure do love those boys to pieces.

maya is one of the boys' friends. but as you'll see... i think it could be more than that. :)











tammy, the boys' mom, wanted to get a group picture and this was the best one we got... they really do not hold still. silly boys.

mariah and megan | orange county portrait photographer

this is my good friend becky's sister-in-law mariah and her friend megan. they came down last week for a special shopping trip so we met up at a random park for a quick photo shoot. i had such a great time and i love how the pictures turned out! thanks for being such great models!











and of course we can't forget about cute kevin! poor little guy wasn't feeling good that day. but he is still adorable!

orange county corporate photography

Jeremy's friend and colleague needed some profile pictures for their new website and I was asked to take them. I was grateful for the opportunity to do something a little different and I had a great time. It will be exciting to see my pictures on a full fledged website if they decide to use them! Thanks Steve!

ella and maggie | orange county child photographer

i had such a great time with these two beautiful little girls! and talk about one fun playdate... complete with sidewalk chalk, a tea party and dress up! makes me wish i was three again. :)

thank you natalie, for letting me come over and join the fun!

now... get ready. because a serious amount of adorable is about to come your way. :)
























told ya! and in my wonderful husband's words, (who was looking over my shoulder as i was downloading the pictures) "that was too easy." and he was right. pretty girls make pretty pictures!

and on a completely unrelated topic... ella's family has a chicken coop in their backyard!



isn't that just the coolest?

the g family | orange county family photographer

i was so thrilled when this family emailed me about taking their family pictures. (a first for me!) and i had such a great time with them. thanks g family! and thanks to becky for being my assistant. i couldn't have done it without you!