May 21st, 2013:
Last Saturday, instead of putting on our fancy clothes for a wedding, Felicia and I headed to the banks of the Los Angeles River for The Great LA River Clean-up, an annual event now into its 24th year.
Felicia had helped organize a team from the yoga studio with our friend Sommer, and even baked 3 loaves of bread to share for breakfast (if you’re lucky you might be able to try her coconut chocolate bread some day), while I fortunately managed to stay out of the pungent-smelling water because I was the official site photographer. Hey, someone has to do the hard work, right?
The amount of trash was completely insane (now I see why volunteers pulled 23 TONS of trash last year), and the bulk of it were plastic bags and other one-use items such as plastic cups, and plastic water bottles. Thankfully Felicia is really good about making sure we bring reusable bags when we go grocery shopping — and she’s extra good at hollering at her husband to run across the parking lot to go get them when we’re in line and she realizes the reusable bags are still in the car.
Tips from Felicia:
- Paper not plastic: Ask for paper bags instead of plastic if you do forget, as paper bags can be more readily recycled, just like newspapers/magazines.
- Easy Access: Get a reusable bag that folds up really small (we love Envirosax for its double-stitched hems and ease of ‘rolling’) so it fits in your purse / car console and you’re not caught bag-less.
- Transfer: If you have reusable bags in the trunk, load your purchases into the shopping cart, wheel it to your car, then transfer the items into the reusable bags instead of using a whole bunch of plastic bags because your car is 50 feet away.
- Just say no: I purchased a wireless router at BestBuy yesterday. Do I need a bag for a well-packaged boxed item?
- Fewer is better: Some store clerks place toiletries and food items in all separate bags. Unless you’re buying rat poison, your bath gel isn’t going to contaminate your cereal. Consolidate, so you use fewer bags.
May 14th, 2013:
Kira & Adam first bonded over the movie 500 Days of Summer, so they requested a shoot that started at Angels’ Knoll, and then we wandered downtown Los Angeles until night fell. Of course, we had to point out the “pirate bar” in the vicinity that was featured in the movie (actually known as The Redwood Bar & Grill), so Kira & Adam got to enjoy some post-shoot beers that coincided with their choice of movie. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night!
May 1, 2013:
Varsha & Pranit have been living in Los Angeles for a while now, but their careers will soon take them to the Bay Area. Varsha contacted us a few weeks ago requesting a shoot that would coincide with their recent wedding anniversary, but also to remember their favorite places in Los Angeles. They showed up pretty Oscar-worthy, which is definitely a great homage to LA.
Even though it was a very early morning shoot, Varsha & Pranit were both in high spirits, and even Felicia, who is quite probably the most un-morning person I know, was quickly won over by their charm . Who needs coffee when you have awesome people to photograph?
We ended the shoot at “their” Coffee Bean in Culver City, where Felicia’s daily caffeine fix was sated.
Thanks for a wonderful shoot, Varsha & Pranit! We wish you every success in your move!
April 29th, 2013:
Tara is a wedding photographer from Canada who emailed me about 3 months ago to set up a session for her and partner, Ryan, during their vacation to California (seems like our Northern neighbors like vacationing in SoCal!). We set up their shoot at Balboa Park in San Diego and La Jolla Cove about 20 minutes away, enjoying the beautiful Southern Californian springtime weather. It was a great afternoon, and a wonderful chance for Felicia and I to hang out with a fellow photographer – we are always especially honored when other photographers decide to have us capture their memories!
April 24th, 2013:
Blog post by Felicia:
Last week we headed out to Claremont to photograph Matt & Amber’s baby girl Maddi for her first birthday. We first met Maddi Jo when she was barely a week old, and then saw her again at Katie & Clay’s wedding in October.
Time certainly flies when you watch a baby grow!
Maddi Jo was a super chill baby, and even sat through the post-shoot dinner as we grown-ups enjoyed tapas & sangria, and I placated her as necessary with (non-alcoholic) bits of fruit that came with the sangria.
Happy birthday, Maddi! May you grow up to be every bit as fabulous as your parents!
We were hoping she would start walking independently, but Maddi-Jo was very tentative and cautious.
This baby made “duck face” on demand. For real. It was endlessly entertaining (for Rob and I, at least).
This pint-sized rocking chair is a bit of a family heirloom: it was first used by Maddi’s great-grandmother and passed onto each generation. How amazing is that?!
Amber’s Mom baked this beautiful cake for her grand-daughter to smash and enjoy. However…..
…. They have one health-conscious baby there that said NO to sugary sweets, ha!
April 22, 2013:
Blog post by Felicia:
During Sarah & Jeff’s engagement session, Jeff seemed really interested in Raul & Zelena’s engagement session under the stars in Joshua Tree, and had an extended discussion with Rob about astro photography.
It so happened that, on their wedding day, we mentioned that we were headed out to Death Valley for Chris & Christina’s engagement shoot, and Sarah & Jeff had the option to make the long trek out to the hottest place on earth as well.
A few days later, I received an email in the affirmative, or, as Sarah puts it, “… more excited than a T-Rex with grabby arms“.
And so it was: at the end of a work day, Jeff & Sarah drove to Death Valley, and met us in the middle of the night dressed in their wedding day finery. We had an AMAZING time with these two, shooting under the star-filled sky until the sun came up and the dunes were besieged by a busload of Asian tourists who decided that Jeff & Sarah made good additions to their vacation snapshots.
Making the long, hot, dusty drive to/from Death Valley was completely worth it when we had an epic weekend of shooting with clients that completely represent why we love what we do.
Thank you, Sarah & Jeff, for being such troopers!
April 18th, 2013:
Blog post by Felicia:
Sarah & Jeff are some of the loveliest, kindest people we’ve ever met. From the very first email we received from them, to our initial consultation, those were just the beginning of all the “awwwww….” moments we would experience with these two. Their engagement session at Balboa Park in San Diego helped us truly appreciate how freakin’ adorable they are. Seriously.
Needless to say, we were very much looking forward to their wedding on the Queen Mary, and guess what? They were AWESOME! Or…. if you’re familiar with the T-Rex meme, Jeff & Sarah were UNSTOPPABLE!!! (Sorry, inside joke)
Congratulations, Sarah & Jeff. We are so happy for you, and are so glad that you found us!
Ringbearer did what he was told: walk to the end of the aisle. But… he also flung the shell containing the rings. Thank goodness for decoy rings….
It was windy.
Jeff & Sarah are both chemists, and when getting ready, she told me that there was a surprise for me. We had talked about chemistry-related wedding ideas during their engagement shoot, and here it was: Elements of the periodic table for table numbers, and test tubes for escort cards!
April 16th, 2013:
(Yes, that IS the Milky Way!)
Blog post by Felicia:
Chris & Christina contacted us right before we left for our trip to the Philippines, so our interactions with them had been solely through phone and email. Chris & Christina had initially planned for a beach shoot, but then, several weeks ago, we got an email from them asking for the “omakase of photography” instead.
Now, if you’ve been to omakase sushi, it means that you allow the chef to decide what to serve you. Or, as Wikipedia explains, “… a Japanese phrase that means “I’ll leave it to you” (from Japanese makasu (任す, “to entrust”)
I don’t really know how to put into the words the elation, honor, and excitement that Rob and I felt when that email appeared in our inbox. Trust is the best gift anyone can give to us, and Chris & Christina essentially gave us free reign and full artistic liberty. They even showed up in Death Valley with what looked like the wardrobe department of a small movie production, so that we could pick what we wanted them to wear. How much more awesome can these people get?!
[Brides- and grooms-to-be out there: once you've done your research, completed consultations and selected your photographer (or any other wedding vendor, for that matter), trust them to do what they do best: it takes the stress off of you, and off of them!]
So anyway, despite the additional time and cost investment to take us up on an astro photography shoot, Chris & Christina gave us a hearty YES. Bear in mind, they’ve never met us before, but they made the long drive out to Death Valley and headed out into the vast nothingness of the desert in the middle of the night with us.
Thank you, Chris & Christina, for representing why we love what we do.
As the sun rose and the stars faded from sight, we headed to the ghost town of Rhyolite in Nevada. I don’t know how these two remain looking so fabulous despite barely getting any sleep the night before.
Chris demonstrates his version of Le Tigre.
April 11th, 2013:
Close to 20 years ago I started high school as a plump little freshman and within a few months I had joined the drama club and auditioned to be in the spring musical Annie…. and no, to your (and my own) dismay I wasn’t given the title role. I was cast as a street urchin (and about 5 other parts) and during that time, I first met Michelle. We became friends over the next few years, ran amok as you should in High School, went to prom together, and even spent our first year at college in the same general ed classes. Eventually I went into the university theater program full time to get my B.A. and Michelle made her way up to Chico, CA for the next few years.
We fell out of touch for a number of years until the advent of Facebook, when we started “liking” each other’s posts. A few months ago Michelle hit me up and to check which dates we still had available for her summer wedding, then went venue hunting to find a location on one of the dates we still were available. Felicia and I are thrilled and humbled when clients put photography first, then hunt for a venue: a huge reversal in the wedding industry.
Anyhow, everything worked out, and all is set for their wedding in July. For their engagement session, Los Angeles traffic on a Friday afternoon necessitated a change of plans, so we ended up at Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks after Felicia did some lightning fast research on her iPhone. But the impromptu change was just fine: we had way too much fun saying wildly inappropriate things that cannot be retold even on this blog, laughed a lot, and had a wonderful time photographing there. Wildwood Regional Park turned out to be a really cool venue to shoot at, minus the fact that Michelle was eaten alive by mosquitoes as soon as the sun set.
Thanks guys for a super fun shoot!
April 9th, 2013:
Blog post by Felicia:
Children grow up incredibly quickly, so Rob and I make it a point to spend time with our nieces for their birthdays, sharing an experience instead of giving a physical gift. This year was no exception when we celebrated Madalyn’s 11th birthday.
Madalyn is quite the little gymnast, competing even in the Nationals for the past few years, so we’ve taken her to a couple of Cirque du Soleil shows, which she enjoyed immensely. This year, we decided to give her the REAL Cirque experience, and signed her up for a private Aerial Silks / Trapeze class at Cirque School Los Angeles, where Cirque du Soleil alumni and other professionals teach classes.
We had the entire space to ourselves, and Uncle Robbie joined Madalyn as the wonderful instructor Lauren put them through their paces. When she looked at Rob, who was unglamorously contorting himself like a trapped manatee, then at Madalyn who lithely twirled and spun, she said matter-of-factly, “You’re gonna hurt tomorrow. Her? Not so much,”
I laughed and was not-so-secretly glad that I volunteered to photograph this endeavor instead.
(And Lauren was right. Rob was hurting everywhere the next day. He said even his groin was tired.)
To be fair, I think Rob did pretty good. But he should keep his day job and not run away to join the circus.
Thankfully, despite the physical exertions, Madalyn was completely stoked and declared the experience to be “even better than watching Cirque du Soleil!!”. She’s now been asking repeatedly if she can take weekly classes here. Wow….
Happy birthday, Madalyn! We love you so much!
