Kayla von der Heide: Portraits.

There are some amazingly talented people in this world. Lucky me, I happen to know quite a few of them :) Kayla completely blew me away when she started writing and performing her own music. Really. She wrote a couple of songs and then they just kept coming and coming. And every one was better than the last. I remember her telling me that she was starting to take guitar lessons...within a few weeks she was writing her own lyrics and music. That kind of talent baffles me. I am so excited that she asked me to do her first artist portraits, and I'll hopefully be able to do them all over again when she gets signed by a huge record label in the future! Kayla, don't forget about me when you're all over the Billboard Top 100! :) To all of my blog readers, if you're interested in being one of those people who can say "oh I heard her music a long time ago before she was famous" check out her music page! "If I saw you again" is probably my favorite, but ALL of her songs are amazing. Check her out :)
Here are my faves...





Work it girl....










Oh, and I forgot to mention...she is probably one of the most down-to-earth girls you will EVER meet.

John&Sara: Palos Verdes Wedding.

Well, I figure before I jump into tomorow's wedding...I better get the blogpost up from last weekend's wedding. Weird how that works. How time seriously FLIES. This time last week I was getting ready for this wedding I am posting to you now, and suddenly I am in a hotel room in Friendsville, Maryland getting ready to shoot another gorgeous wedding tomorow. Everything in between is a blur. Who pressed fast forward??????
Anyways... last weekend my lovely second shooter, Shannon Morse and I had the pleasure of shooting John and Sara's stunning Palos Verdes wedding. And Oh boy...did we have fun. Sara is one of the coolest brides I have ever met. She is so happy and full of laughter and you just can't help but love her. Oh and John? Yeah, he's a pretty cool dude! I had so much fun working with the two of them and documenting all of their laughs and silliness. They are so full of life and it was so infectious, I couldn't help but want to put my camera down sometimes and join in on the fun as a guest!! (That's what Shannon is for, right?). Despite my temptation, I stuck with my camera all night and captured the images you see below :)





I have to give these little ones the award for 2nd cutest kiss of the day. The bride and groom took the title with their amazing fountain-side first kiss...but you have to admit...these two made for some tough competition :)


Here's that first kiss I was mentioning...


The lovely ladies...




Just too cute...


There's that laughter I was telling you about...








First Dance...


Father/Daughter...


Mother/Son...




It's not a reception until you get down with your bridesmaids on the dance floor!!


These garter toss action shots really just crack me up!




Shannon and I were feeling a bit lively and well...weird. I may need to arrange a whole blog post for the photos of us from that night! They are quite interesting....


The boy in the middle had some serious moves, he owned the dance floor all night!!


As a result....TOTAL CHICK MAGNET.


Oh what a beautiful day it was, congrats John and Sara....hope to see you 50 years from now just as lively and laughter-filled as you are today!

Paulina&Juan: Engagement.

Say hello to Paulina and Juan. These high school sweethearts have been going strong for ten years, and are finally tying the knot and I am so excited to be documenting that as well! I know that the amount of time they waited for this day(ten years!!!) is going to make it even more meaningful and it will be everything they dreamed of. Okay, so maybe to some of you it might seem like I'm putting alot of emphasis on 10 years, but to me that is a long time, it's half of my life!! So that amount of patience and devotion is so inspiring to me :) Spending the afternoon with these two, I would never have guessed they have been together longer than 10 months, because it is quite evident that the fire still burns just as strong as ever. Here's some of my favorites from their engagement session and be sure to check back next month for their wedding images! :)









Oh you two...






I do believe this photo brings out their highschool sweetheart-ness :)

Photographer get together :)

A couple of weeks ago, my good friend Edmund Prieto hosted an awesome get together for all of us local photographers to get together and hang out. It's a cool concept right? A bunch of camera geeks getting together to talk exposure, photoshop and megapixels...well I have to tell you, it was SO much cooler than that. In fact, the first half of the day had nothing to do with photography at all...we all put our cameras to the side and played some volleyball, ate some delicious food, and...had an egg toss. Which I lost...in the form of raw egg smashed in the palms of my hands. Yummy. But there were some pretty awesome prizes for the people who did win, and those prizes were a Shootsac(which I am already a proud owner of one!) and a [b] School Membership(which I desperately wanted to win, but looks like I'm either going to have to get better at catching eggs or fess up the monthly fee!). After all of the egg tossing, volleyball spiking, madness... we headed out to the dry lakebed for a GORGEOUS couple shoot. A big thanks to Johnny and Christin Mortimore for coming out to model for us! Also to Kaycee Marie for the amazing job she did on Christin's hair and makeup and OC Prop Girl for styling the session! The whole day was nothing short of amazing and it was awesome getting to see all of my old friends as well as meeting so many new ones! Who knew there was so much talent in our little desert! Anyway, here's a few of the images I captured from the lakebed shoot :)











It gets a little tricky when you've got 10+ photographers shooting the same subject!

Summer&Robert: Surprise Proposal.

Summer and I have been friends since Kindergarten. So as you can see, we go WAAAAAY back. It seems like knowing each other that long, we have been a part of almost every important event in each others lives...birthday parties, first days of school, first loves, graduations...we've been through it all. This is why I was thrilled when her boyfriend, Robert, approached me and asked me to play a big part in their engagement. Photographing the proposal. At first I thought he meant secret agent style...hiding behind dumpsters, blending in with crowds and using a long lens to try to document the whole thing in secret from a distance. When I realized he meant setting up a photoshoot and he would propose during it...my thrill went to a whole new level. I would have control over so many more elements and knew I would be able to make things go just the way he had wanted.
I first mentioned it to her by casually suggesting that her and Robert model for some "new methods" I wanted to test out. She had no suspicions whatsoever because this was not their first time in front of my lens, they were actually the first couple I ever photographed!! We set up a day and as it got nearer and nearer I got more and more anxious. I wanted everything to go perfect! On the day of, I called up my friend and fellow photographer Jessica Mariano for a few suggestions. She did an AMAZING job of styling this session, including making the hair piece Summer is wearing, helping me pick out the outfit and loaning me the awesome bench. Thanks Jessica!!! My explanation to Summer for all of the work I was putting into a "practice shoot"? It was because I wanted to use these photos for my website if they turned out good, so I had to go big...duh :P
We arrived at the dry lake bed at about 6:30 and I was so nervous, you would think I was the one asking her to marry me! After shooting at the dry lake bed for a group session with some awesome photogs a couple weeks back(blog post to come!) I knew it was the perfect fit for their style.

And now I will let the photos tell the rest of their exciting story :)...





One of the last photos taken of her with a bare ring finger!!


When I felt the time was right, I wanted to check to make sure Robert was ready. To buy some time, I sent her wayyyyyy out in the middle of the lake bed to take some "awesome" shots of her spinning around in the big empty space. I had her pretty convinced that these were going to be epic. Little did she know these are the shots I was getting lol....However it was just enough time to confirm that Robert was ready.


I set the moment up with a silly shot of him giving her a flower, just as me and Robert had planned...


To give him time to pull the ring out and place it on the flower I had her turn her back to him and act like she was dissing him...Ha! I believe my specific words were "now roll your eyes like pshhhh I don't want your flower" lol.


What a surprise it was when I told her to turn around and look down at the flower...


"Will you marry me?"
"YES!"
:)




She was so excited, and COMPLETELY surprised.




Can you see the excitement? :)


After the initial shock and excitement had passed, we grabbed a few more shots before heading out to go celebrate.






Congratulations guys, I am so excited for you! Can't wait to balance being a bridesmaid, helping plan out all the details AND doing some of the photography. It's going to be an adventure :)