rachel c. | orange county portrait photographer

this beautiful girl made my job soooo easy! thanks rachel, for letting me take your pictures for such a special occasion!





i love this next one because it reminds me of the secret garden. :)









and a big thanks to mckenzie for assisting. :)

natalie | orange county portrait photographer

i'm finally back from my inadvertent blogging break and this time i actually brought pictures! it's a miracle, right? well this is going to show you just how behind i really am... these pictures were taken when natalie (my amazing s-i-l) came to visit us. back in august. yikes!

we had such a blast with natalie here. she is a photographer too, and it was so much fun to go out shooting with her! needless to say, there was a lot of this going on:



and this...



i love this picture for the sun flare and natalie's determination to get that perfect shot! which you can see on her blog:

http://capturinglyricsandlife.blogspot.com/2010/08/california-day-2.html

we also had fun sightseeing! we went down to san diego, where i forced natalie to model for me...



isnt' she gorgeous?



she could definitely pursue a job as a mascara model.

the next day, i took natalie on a southern california beach tour!

first stop: laguna beach





best. gelato. ever.



i like lifegaurds.

what? they save lives.

second stop: newport beach





last stop: huntington beach









i have fond memories of sitting at the beach with natalie snapping shot after shot, trying to figure out how to get those "twinkle" lights. so much fun!

the next day we went to disneyland! i left my camera at home, but you can check out natalie's awesome pictures here:

http://capturinglyricsandlife.blogspot.com/2010/08/california-day-5.html

thanks for coming to see us natalie! come back soon!

cerissa | orange county senior photographer

sorry about the lack of updates lately... after a trip to utah to see family and a trip to the dentist to have my darn wisdom teeth removed, i'm a little behind. lots to come soon!

first up... senior pictures of this gorgeous girl. (you may recognize her from a previous post of three beautiful sisters.) needless to say, she made my job easy. here are a few of my favorites.




















thanks cerissa - i had such a blast hanging out with you and your mom! you are such a sweetheart. congrats on your upcoming graduation!

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.

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!

provo | orange county portrait photographer

our last day in utah was spent in provo visiting jeremy's fam. we had a great time catching up with them! and i had an especially good time with my beautiful s-i-l natalie. she just got a digital slr for christmas so we went out shooting together. she is a great photographer! (she took my awesome new profile picture! you can check out the other pictures she took of me on her blog. i love 'em!)













that evening, natalie was nice enough to drive us up the canyon so we could take pictures of the sunset. thanks natalie! i had such a great time!