Lighting Fun - More Photos!

Ok well I finally have a spare second to blog! The holiday craziness is definitely catching up to me so I haven't had much in the way of free time lately.

On Sunday Crissy and I brought our gear and husbands out to a park in LA to try out some new off camera lighting techniques. Having spent the morning poring over strobist and trying to memorize some rules of thumb, we pretty much just decided we'd try a bit of everything and see what happened. Trial and error if you will... we definitely learned a lot and we will definitely be heading out again to try out some more fun tricks. Here are a couple of my favorite shots from Sunday.

Marcus and Ben were both supposed to be our guinea pigs models but Ben preferred to be on the other side of the camera helping out with the equipment, so most of the shots we took were of Marcus. Thanks for being such a ham :)

After the sun went down at the park it got absolutely freezing cold, so we decided to move to a new location. We found some abandoned railroad tracks and old buildings... perfect for trying out complete blackness off-camera lighting. (which I must admit is trickier since you have no ambient fill light)

This is one of my favorites!

As we were walking back to the car we noticed a couple of "found light" opportunities, which is what the next two shots are. No flash/strobes here... just a tripod and whatever light was around.

Thanks Marcus & Ben for being such great sports... and Crissy... we MUST do this again soon!

Lighting Fun - Sneak Peak!

This afternoon Crissy and I got together with all of our gear and our wonderful husbands/models and headed out to experiment with some new off camera lighting tricks.
It's WAY past my bedtime and I have to be up early tomorrow so I can't post a lot right now... but I just had to put one shot up because I think it's hilarious. We did learn a lot and get some awesome and actually useful shots, but we had a lot of fun too :)

More to come soon...

Raquel & Eddie engaged!

On Saturday I met up with Raquel and Eddie for their engagement session in Encinitas. The first thing that Eddie wanted to do when we started taking photos was to climb up in a tree... so I knew it was going to be an interesting session! We started out ... well... up a tree, and then wandered around for a while before making our way over to the beach where we finished by waiting for the sunset. It was a great time and I absolutely cannot wait for their wedding this summer in Costa Rica!

Here are a couple of my favorites from their session.... starting with one from the tree :)

Eddie likes to surf so I couldn't resist a photo with this sign!

Sorry Eddie, had to post this one... I just love it!

When we got down to the beach the lighting was quite delightful.

This is one of my favorites!

Thanks Rocky & Eddie for coming out to the beach with me. I can't wait for July!

Bridget & David - NYC

Bridget is one of my oldest and bestest friends from junior high. She is also one of the most talented people I know. Seriously. She's amazing. Ben and I went to New York a couple of weeks ago to watch her star in her Broadway debut in Mark Twain's Is He Dead? If you live anywhere in or near New York get your butt to this show. It's hilarious. Seriously. And I'm not just saying that because she's my friend :)

While we were in New York we had planned on me doing a little mini session of Bridget and her boyfriend David. What we didn't think about when scheduling the time for the shoot was that daylight savings time would take the otherwise beautiful afternoon/early evening light and transform it into total blackness. Which is what there was when we met up to shoot. Oops.

Well we made the best of a somewhat bad situation and took a couple of shots outdoors before going up to David's place for a few more. Here are a few of my favorites.

David has a LOT of pez dispensers... so of course we had to have a shot with them.

And his blue dog paintings, which I love!

Thanks Bridget & David for having me over... you two are the best. And I'm not kidding about the play... go and see it. Now :)

Baby Ella

Baby Ella is one of the sweetest and most gorgeous babies I've ever seen! Ok I admit, I love babies... I've never met one I didn't like :) and Ella was no exception. She has absolutely gorgeous bright blue eyes which were so full of wonder. I was feeling quite black-and-white-ish while editing this session so there are a lot of those... I think they make her look extra cute :)

Look at that bow. This is ridiculously adorable!

Her mom kept trying to get her to take a teddy bear to pose with but she was much more partial to the comb... yum.

Momma and daughter, so sweet!

And then it was time for a quick snack break...

before dessert of dad's glasses. Yum!

Look at those gorgeous blue eyes! Such a beautiful baby.

Thank you Brooke & Chris for inviting me into your home to photograph your beautiful daughter, Ella is such a sweetie!

Sarah & Tony engaged!

I met up with Sarah and Tony yesterday in downtown Encinitas for their engagement session. Our plan was to walk from a coffee shop to the beach stopping along the way to take some photos, and ending up at the beach right at the "magic hour" before sunset when the light is best. I was planning on spending about an hour with these two but I was having such a great time with them (and they are so photogenic!) that our session lasted almost two hours, we definitely didn't stop shooting until we ran out of light!

Thanks Sarah and Tony for letting me drag you all around (even into the cold water with your bare feet). I had a great time with you two... here are a couple of my favorite images from the afternoon.

Matching vans... how cute!

This one is definitely a favorite!

Tony's in a band and he was talking about how easy it is to get band pictures taken because they just make "scary band face". I couldn't resist having them show me a little bit of the scary face, I think Tony pulls it off a little better. Sarah's just too sweet to look scary :)

When we got down to the beach the light was absolutely gorgeous. There was a ton of fog, which was actually making the light even softer and dreamier than usual. How cute are these two?

And the serious face...

Because of all the fog the sunset didn't quite turn brilliant shades of red or purple, but the yellowy orange was quite nice on its own.

While we were taking this shot....

someone randomly walked up with a bird and insisted that it get to be in one of the photos. So here it is. This is officially my first engagement photo featuring a bird.

And one more image... just for fun...

Thanks Sarah and Tony for being such good sports during your session. I had a great time and I can't wait to photograph your wedding in the spring!