First post for 2010

I can't believe it's been since last August I posted any pictures. After taking a few months off from photography, I decided to start off the year by dusting the cobwebs off my camera and start shooting. And so I did. This time it was for Justine's senior photos. These are just sneak peeks and should have more to post in a few days.








Here's a couple with her man.

Lisa and Roberto are expecting...

I knew Lisa from my daughter's previous school. She was one of the 3 teachers that were pregnant around the same time....I'm convienced it was the water. :-) The soon-to-be parents are expecting their first baby girl in a couple weeks or so. As you can see, Lisa looks absolutely radiant and has that obvious glow about her.
Of course I had to throw in a few pictures of Buddy...cuz he's just sooo darn cute.
Enjoy Roberto/Lisa!!





beautiful mama

C family....

Maria approached me a few weeks ago about possibly doing family pictures for her in-law's anniversary coming up. She came up with the idea of getting her husband's siblings and their kids all together so that they can present a photo to his parents in a couple of weeks. I'm sure their parents are gonna love these.
Maria...I had such a blast working with you and your family. You guys made it easy and fun. Thanks and enjoy!!!!!!!!

more of A family...

last vacation...

we were in Oahu for our friends wedding as well as a little r&r...had an awesome time.


ocean shots were taken with circular polarizer, and wow, what a big difference in color...I didn't do too much with editing..just a few adjustments with exposure and added a touch of vignette.








this one I definitely touched up, or should I say touched down...desaturated.

sneak peeks for A family

I get this feeling their parents are gonna have their hands full when these two girls grow up...just a hunch. Not only are they beautiful and sweet, but so well behaved. Here are just a few...will have more to post early this week. Enjoy!

I had the pleasure to photograph this nice family last Saturday. It was a hot day, ran around sweating like I ran a marathon...but we had fun and definitely took some really good shots of them. Here are a few...enjoy!!

Sneak peek for S family

sneak peek for M family

Mom looks absolutely beautiful. She's due soon with their 2nd child. Congrats guys!



I really wanted to get some of these posted before father's day, but just couldn't do it...better late than never. Happy belated Father's day to all you amazing dads out there.

Sneak peeks for the E family...

I just love this one with the boys...don't they look like they should be in a Ralph Lauren catalogue?

sneak peek for M family

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L family...here are a few more

Gorgeous parents=beautiful kids...

I know this is pretty much the same shot as the first, however, I just love the look on the kids faces...don't they look like they're up to something?


what a little heartthrob!


My favorite, bc she's smiling, yay, finally got one, just loved how the wind caught her at the right time.

here are a few sneak peeks...

I had the pleasure to photograph this nice family with 2 cute little boys. I quickly browsed and edited a few to post, and I'm really excited to see which ones Mom/Dad chooses for me to edit cuz there are so many frameable ones. Enjoy!

Baby dos has a name...

Meet Izzy. Cute as a button. Mommy gave birth about a week ago to a healthy baby and heavy (just under 10 lbs) girl. Kat had a natural birth without any drugs, and recovering quite well. Way to go Kat!!!
Here are just a few...











Proud big sister.





Does that smile represent happiness or....gas, or both? :-)

More adorable pics...

Willow is another 1 yr old that I recently photographed.  It seems like lately all I've been taking pictures of are one year olds.  I actually like it cuz they are not quite mobile yet, and most are still furniture walking, so I'm not running around chasing after them and sweating like you wouldn't believe.  Luckily, her older sister is the same age as Anjali so they kept themselves occupied by playing together.   With no further ado, here they are:

lovely girls...

Got a couple sneak peeks of these 2 adorable girls for mom. I will post more after we get back from Vegas Tuesday.

Happy Mother's Day!

sneak peeks for the T family...

After having 2 boys, Alicia and Brian finally got their little girl. Meet Abby. She's turning the big ONE the end of this month. Mama wanted to get some pictures of their little girl before Abby moves out and gets married, you all know how quickly they grow.
Abby was in an awesome mood when I first got there, even saying 'cheese' before I pulled my camera out of my bag. It was great until half way thru the shoot and she decided enough was enough. I still managed to squeeze in a couple money shots though. :-) Hope you guys like them.
BTW, it was an evening shoot indoors and had to turn up the ISO, which translates to grainy pictures.
I converted most of these in B/W cuz mom LOVES B/W.

What a cutie patootie!








What a beautiful mama!




Poor thing, I think she's had enough at this point.


Grandpa and Grandma joined in on a few shots.

soon to be nurses...

Almost a year ago, I was in their shoes, trying to finish up a nursing program. It was a very demanding and difficult thing I had to go through for 2 whole years. Juggling school work, clinicals, and family was exhausting. And wow, what a relief it was to finally walk that stage to get my diploma and to pass my boards. So, I know what these guys are going through. Liza approached me a few weeks ago and asked me to take their class photo. I was excited and honored to do it. Here are a couple...thought that the first one would be appropriate to post.

my baby bubba...

Today we headed down to Old Poway Park for an early shoot, and Anjali & I got there with plenty of time before my scheduled appt that I decided take a few shots of her. All these times I've been taking pictures of other kids, I don't think I've ever taken pictures of my daughter on a railroad track. I just think it's so cool. I brought an extra outfit for her to play in, plus she demanded that she wears a dress if she was going to have her pictures taken...that's my little bargainer.










By the way, here's that dress she wanted to wear. We found a spot with a little puddle of water, and of course guess what she does next...jumps into it. Good thing that dress wasn't expensive.




Anjali has never been the type of kid that will sit there and smile for the camera, so when I see that she's in a good mood to pose I really take advantage of it. Well, here is one where she was pretending to be a dancing princess, go figure...a princess.

Orange County Muscle competition

Drove up to Anaheim this past weekend to support my brother in law in a muscle contest and to hang out with my sisters. I was blown away...now I really want to start working out. Here's a couple I snapped...

here comes a 3rd one...

Here are some teasers...more to come in a few days.


Can anyone guess the sex of the baby? Look for the little hint...let me know when you find it!

Boudior session

Okay...I've been debating whether or not I should post some and I've finally made the decision to go ahead and post. So here I go...

But before I do, I want to let everyone know that I've gotten FULL permission from my client to post some of these photos. And if anyone should get offended by the content...please please scroll really fast to the next post :-) 

Well, this is Sarah and she is a wife of 10 years and a mother of 3 kids (set of twins and 7 yr old).   She approached me a few weeks ago wanting to do this for herself and husband.  My first thought was  'what a great idea.'  I couldn't pass it up, definitely wanted to add this into my portfolio.   So, I studied different angles and poses, and I wanted to use natural lighting as oppose to using strobe light. They all turned out great.

Sarah looks amazing for having 3 kids and I'm so grateful that she gave me a chance to do this. We had an awesome time, giggled and joked around.  She was such a trooper.  Thanks Sarah!

Well, here they are:

Let me start off with this one...

here's a few teaser...

Here's a few more...

I thought this photo was so cute, loved the way Sienna and her little elephant looked at me.


Big sister and little sister



Here's a little something from Saturday's shoot over at Leo Carillo Ranch Park.
Carol, whose name I can't forget, wanted some family pictures done, and what better timing it is when you have grandma and great grandma that's 96 yrs old visiting from out of town.
Carol and her husband have 2 beautiful kids, a 3 yr old and 21 yr step daughter.
We had a great time during our shoot especially because there were tons of peacocks roaming around the park that kept us entertained.

here's a few from today, Easter Sunday over at the McBrides...

I really like this photo, especially in b/w, but Dave/Mason turned out blurry.




The next Martha...what a nice spread!



Seriously, how cute is this! Skateboarding in her spring dress, and she's pretty darn good on that board, I was quite impressed.

Marisa took this one of Jake and Paige, I just love it.

Paige and Anjali trying to show me their dancing skills.

Husband took this one, not bad.
Cheers! Hope you all had a Happy Easter like we did!

Ethan's 5th bday party

Happy Easter!

Karis turns big 3...pool partay!!

Grandma Joan and karis


Trying my sun flare skilz, needs a little work but pretty decent overall.

Aunt Emily and Drake, birthday girl's little bro.

Tom and Heather...

Tom and Heather were referred to me by a previous client, Melissa. They were married at Torrey Pines a few years back. So, they wanted photos taken after marriage and 2 kids later at the same spot where they got married. Sweet couple and two beautiful kids, can't get any nicer than that.












whatta a cutie patootie!

This kid is going to be a ladies man, I can tell. Check out his million dollar smile.

Palomar mountain

Here's a cool day off. Cruise up to Palomar Mountain and eat at the only restaurant up there which happens to be all vegetarian. Who ever heard of chipotle Boca tacos!? Well, it's pretty darn delicious. While up there, I took a few action shots of hubby on his moto. First time taking action shots, still have plenty of room for improvement. Shot with 5D and 70-200 F2.8.

Fit 2B Mom

Here's just a sneak peek from today's session. Tashia asked me a few weeks ago to take photos of her and other moms for her business. I'll have more to post later...to be continued.

Here are some that I quickly picked. I wanted to keep it as natural as possible but just umped up the saturation and gave it more warmth.
Tashia is starting her business and she needed a photographer to take action photos for her website. She's energetic, fun, and very knowledgeable about fitness and health. As a home personal trainer, focusing on "moms", Tashia will commute to your home and help you get back into shape. Knowing that spare time is limited between naps of a newborn, she can make it easy by visiting moms in their homes and training them there instead of going to a gym. I will post her link as soon as I get it for anyone out there that's interested.


Tashia and her 2 year old daughter.

Post family...baby Dos

Harrison and Grace

Before our shoot, Anjali handed Harrison an Easter egg filled with chocolate, so he went and showed his appreciation for her generosity by giving her a big hug.

our little yogini

We headed out for Vegas to visit my sister/bro-in-law this past weekend. Here are just a few shots while Anjali took a yoga class and a few with auntie:





I couldn't help but convince my sister to let me take photos of her. She doesn't even know how beautiful she is plus she's Anjali's biggest spoiler.



Ben & Olivia at Palazzo casino watching Anjali goof around.

Barbeque @ casa de McBrides...

Our friends decided to move west to Leucadia and had us over for bbq yesterday. In their backyard, they have this tool shed that was probably built decades ago, and it's so perfect for that vintage look.   Here are just a few photos...

Mason is probably the most coordinated kid I know...he started riding his bike without training wheels at the age of 3... so you can imagine how nerve racking it is for  mom.

Well, little over a week ago he fractured his collar bone, mom/dad are not sure if it was from a bike fall or bed fall that night, but this poor guy has to wear this sling for a month.  But I have a feeling the sling is not going to keep him from doing what he likes to do.  

I photographed this adorable little girl last October, and she's just as cute in front of the camera as she was then.  

I love the look of concentration in her face as she's trying to stick out 2 fingers to represent her age.  

The McBride's backyard is full of fruit trees, and they were kind enough to let their guests pick some oranges to take home. 

This is Mrs. Kat, the hot pregnant mama and is Anjali & Mason's preschool teacher, and she's reaping the benefits of those trees, drinking her OJ.  Doesn't she look like she should be advertising for Tropicana?!.  Anyways, Mrs. Kat's 'baby dos' is due early May and I will be taking her belly pictures this weekend, so when you get a chance check them out here!

unexpected vacation...

I don't usually blog about my husband, but this time I will :-). A week ago he went thru a minor surgery for appendicitis, and thought he was going back to work after a week. Well, come to find out, he's not! Doc wants him to stay home for a whole month. He's perfectly fine now, but just can't lift anything over 10 lbs. He is tickled pink that he doesn't have to work and that he gets to play. So, we celebrated by going to Ruby's in Oceanside pier for breakfast, and snapped a few pics...thought I'd share them. Anjali and I are stoked that we get to play hookie with him, yay!!

pre and post...

I thought that this would be a great idea to post pre/post pictures for those that are interested. I kinda borrowed this idea from a few photog blogs that I follow (bobbyearle's blog, megan's blog ).  I'll try to do this often as I could.  

SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera) 5D MKII  85mm  F2.0 1/200th sec. ISO 100


Pulled straight into photoshop: Oh Snap 65%, Pro Retouch Vignette & blur 35%

Totallyradactions:  Super old skool 65%, grandma's tap shoes 70%, pro touch, and Vignette & blur 35%

Pulled directly to photoshop: quadtoned, vignette & blur, pro touch, some yin/yang.

Merry Christmas...

Okay...so I'm a little late.  I started this photog gig pretty much towards the end of 2008, and been fortunate enough to meet and to photograph many families.  I stayed busy during the holidays and I just couldn't get around to do our family photos.  Now that I have more time, we decided to put up our background, lighting, tripod, and clicked away.  And so here they are.  

I have learned that it's not that easy, and it's soooo worth it to just hire a photographer to do all the work.  I'm kinda surprised that my face didn't turn out as shiny (must be the makeup) cuz I was sweating, running back and forth.   Happy holidays to everyone!!

testing img size

Just testing out different types of black and white.

Photoshopping...

Been really sick the past few days, so I'm left to play around with photoshop, and I'm slowly learning how to do collages.   So, I will be posting a few images that I've been working on.

C family

Can you say cutie patootie!  

I photographed this family last month, so I'm a little behind on posting the rest of the pictures. They were out here visiting from Texas,  and they wanted to get some pics taken at their special place Torrey Pines park/beach.  I was more than happy to do it.  Here are just a few:

Niece turned 12

My niece turned 12 years old last week and we celebrated it by having brunch this past Sunday.  I can't believe she's 12 already.  I remembered a few years ago when I moved in  with my brother and his family so I can save money while going to school and they were just barely toddlers then.  Now, look at them...they're practically teenagers.  Well, here are just a few shots of her and Anjali goofing around.

My little athlete.

Baby F

This is my neighbor and she was my first prego photo session I did back in mid November 08.  They finally had their second child, baby F.  And boy, he looks a lot like his older brother.  As you can see from above,  proud papa and mama are blessed to have 2 handsome boys.  Congrats!!

The S family

The T family sneak peek..

Sneak peek for J family..

This little guy turned one this week.  Happy birthday little man!!

Dad wanted to get a few shots of grandma putting on birthday boy's shoe...I'd say it turned out quite precious.  

The B family

The S family..some of my faves.

Sneak peek for B family

The C clan

The P sisters

Gray is definitely his color!

Sneak peek for W family

Five year-old triplets...and they're absolutely adorable. 

Sneak peek for R family

The new addition to this family...she's 3 weeks old.  Baby and mommy are doing well.  Mom looks fabulous.  Congrats guys!

Just the girls.

They should be on a cover of a Ralph Lauren catalogue.

Some of my faves from this shoot....

The B family

Family

Anjali's cousins.

She jumped right in during the shoot, and started posing...couldn't help but to take a few.

More cousins...

and more cousins...and oh yeah...she's got 2 more cousins that couldn't make it down.  

The T family

Defense attorney at your service...

Sneak peek from today's....

I love it....isn't she such a 3 year old???

Random pictures from last weekend....

Seriously...this has to be the best, healthiest, purest chocolate I've ever eaten.  Thanks Karnam!!!

She's got the bluest eyes I've ever photographed....very stunning.

One of my favorites...click on it to expand to appreciate.  

Mr. Personality...love this dog (Buddy)

 Nice smile.

Above is the frightened look.

Below is the nervous smile.

Sneak peek...

Mom wanted to see what the red looks like...I love it...very festive.

Sunday's session...

We ended up doing 2 shoots...one at the beach and the other by my neighborhood.  They turned out pretty good.  Sweet family.  

Gorgeous waves today....

Check out the water...setting was 1/5000th of a second at F 2.8...pretty cool.  You can see every drop.  Click on it to expand and you'll see what I'm talking about.  

Sneak peek...

Sneak peek...

This handsome boy is also turning ONE.  He was really funny.  At the end of the shoot, we sat him down by himself and all he wanted to do was laugh.  So, I got tons of pictures just like the one above, smiling away.

Love this one.

Happy 1st birthday Little Man

I had to get this one. 

The Big "one"

Earlier from today....

Mini version of Daryl Hannah???

Some of my faves from today...

Sneak peek

Beach day in November...crazy!

She's got dad's lips. 

Anjali calls her "The Pretty big girl."

Sneak peek from today's

While out on a stroll this morning...

I found trash that someone left behind.
I found miniture eggplants on trees.

I couldn't help but appreciate colors.

 

Sneak peek

Guess who's turning ONE this week???

B/W

Anjali chasing Mason with a bucket full of water.

Hold on tight Anj!!!

Just a few seconds before this was taken, he dipped his face in the fountain and discovered that he loved it. 

Face of Infantino Baby Carrier

Some of you may recognize her...this little girl has been on the cover of Infantino Carrier. She has also worked for  Gymboree clothing company, modeling some of their lines.  

Surf

My hubby is trying...
this is what it's supposed to look like. 

Family portraits

I really enjoyed taking pictures of this beautiful family.  This was taken in Fallbrook...nice location with plenty of shade.  There was  a bridge and a white picket fence which I took advantage of and got tons of pics.  

This was my first taking pictures of animals, and boy, were they well-behaved.  I've never been around that many dogs that listened as well as they did.  

Hope you all enjoy these pictures.  

Second prego shoot

One of my faves...skin glowing and gorgeous belly.



I also LOVE this one.  




Every family should have one of these pics.   Priceless!!

The "S" girls

My faves are the ones with the sunflowers.  I love how the green from their vest turned out along with the brown blanket...they gave it a nice contrast.

My first prego shoot

I think belly shots are just ABSOLUTELY beautiful.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture.  

Sometimes sun spots can be a bad thing in photography but I really like how this one finished the photo.

Today's shoot

Here are a few of my faves.  What  a good looking kid!!!  He's turning 3 this weekend and mama wanted some pics of her baby.  Wouldn't he be the perfect GAP model???  

Love the curls!!!!!

The M boyz

This was my second shoot yesterday at Jack's pond.  Mom and I wanted to use the red barn, and I think they turned out great.  Big brother M is getting really good at these photo shoots as you can tell.  And little bro M has the bluest eyes so shooting close ups are always fun to do.  Mommy M hope you like these.  Enjoy!!!!!! 

Adorable little girl

  !


Love this B/W with slight antique tone.  
Where's my belly button??? 

This is her sad look.  How adorable is that???
This is her happy/ surprise look.  And below is her I'll-smile-for-the-camera look.

New but old pics

Slightly different version of the previous one but with softer skin and a touch of antique B/W.

I really like this version of B/W...kinda different with a touch of sephia.



Here are just a few pics that I've been working on thru photoshop...just trying different layer masks.

Beach pics

Moto pics

Here are some moto pics I took of our neighbor's bike.  Plus...I've been playing around with Photoshop...really fun.

Surf at Ponto's

Surf at Ponto's

Birthday girl

Here are some photos of my friend Mel (birthday girl) and her kids from today.   I love the B&W below with all the kids.   

Love this one too!
I think one of the twins had other plans.
Guess who looks out of place???

Grandma is leaving

My first wedding

Okay...so today...I've had the privelege to shoot my FIRST wedding ever thanks to these two beautiful people.  I was soooo nervous, but the moment I saw the bride and groom...I knew this is my calling.  This was a great first time experience, and their family made me feel so welcomed.  Thank you.  I hope you enjoy the pictures.  Congrats to you guys!!!!!!!!!

Family portraits

Here is a sneak peek of the photo shoot I did today...will add more as soon as I finish.

Enjoy!!!

Family pics

Grandparents with their grandkids.  


I just LOVE this one.  

Baby pics

Here are some of my favorite baby pics from today's shoot.  

 

From earlier this year

These were taken at Mason's 3rd birthday party at a Padres game from this last spring.  I thought I'd post some just cuz their soooo cute.  

More pics from early this year

Anjali with her auntie who loves to spoil her.  
Miller at 5 months....but looks more like a 9 month old.  
Anjali learning how to swim.

Please keep your eyes on the road!!!