A Tidal Wave of Love | Dionne & Adrian’s Amazing Wedding

Here are a few of my favorite {random top 32} images from their amazing Riverside wedding day. It was 99 degrees in Riverside, {it wasn’t an ugly hot.  just rather warm.} ….. But it didn’t phase anyone.  We drank plenty of fluids and had an amazing time.  Dionne’s and Adrian’s family are …. to put it bluntly …. are freak’n amazing people.  Both families collaborated big time to make their wedding day a smashing success.  I was moved and still am moved by the love that Dionne and Adrian share.  Rarely do I witness such love.  And rarer still do I witness both the bride’s and groom’s families working together so splendidly in harmony, selflessly and so hard for their kin.

They were referred to me by Emily and Nick Huges {who’s wedding I photographed in Newport Beach, aboard a yacht 8 years ago} and , by way of Earl and Lisa Averalo who’s super cool San Bernadino wedding I photographed 3 years ago.  Below….just after they saw each other for the first time on their wedding day.
I love the movement in these bride’s maids dresses.
Below Adrian’s dad watching during their sand ceremony.Dionne had a very cool pair of purple custom Made Converse high tops embroidered with their initials and wedding dates.  Rock on Dionne!jI always like trying something new when shooting.  There was a little patch of sunlight coming through the trees.  Normally I’d shy away from it.  But it think it is a nice happy planned accident.  Right place right time.Laughter during toasts.Dionne, spicing it up a bit with a feather hair piece and a few touchups before we head out for a sunset photo-shoot.Sunset in the Citrus Groves of Riverside’s California Citrus State Historical Park.  This is the pink elephant.  Not many citrus groves left in Southern California.  Let alone anywhere near Orange County.

I asked Dionne and Adrian to show me how they like touch or hold each other.  When they touch each others face like this it symbolfies their love for each other.Adrian is a Navy photojournalist stationed in Japan.  A few days after their wedding Dionne, with her 3 red suitcases, and her new husband borded a plane together and moved to Japan, where they will live for at least the next 3 years.

Below is a gallery of their wedding album that I just created for them.  Enjoy!

April and May are nothing short of crazy, stupid, busy for the studio.  We are creating magazine style kids, newborn, maternity and family portraits for allot of Orange County families between now and the end of May, 2012.

A Tidal Wave of Love

April closed with a hot, tidal wave of l0ve when we photographed Adrian and Dionne’s crazy in love wedding among the citrus groves in Riverside.  It was only 99 degrees for their outdoor wedding and they turned up the heat another 10 degrees with their passion.  What’s with the weather anyway.  Dang, 99 degrees that day.  Wasn’t uncomfortable though.  It was a dry 99, but still it isn’t even June yet!  I’ll definitely be posting some images from their amazing River side wedding day.  These two are so crazy in love.  It was a true honor to be in their presence.  Never have I witnessed family participation on this level to make their wedding day come together.  5 days after their wedding they headed off to Japan, where Adrian is stationed as a Navy photojournalist.  His a Nikon shooter but I still like him anyway.

Jacob’s Rock’n Bar Mitzvah

This past Saturday, Connie and I got up at the crack of dawn.  Okay maybe a bit before that.  I hit the shower at 5:30 am to start preparing for Jacob’s Bar Mitzvah.  Actually I prepared the night before, double checking all the gear, getting the lighting gear all set and visualizing a successful day.  Incredible young man, who can whale on the electric guitar. Wonderful, close, loving and supportive family. Super fun reception.  Showed up at the temple at 8am for family portraits.  Service started at 9:30 and then more family photographs at 4:30.  Everyone partied like a rock star from 6pm until……close to midnight.  Can’t wait to post some vignettes of Jacob’s big day.  I’m working on the images right now. And will post in the coming weeks.

Moving Our Studio

To top it off, we’ll be moving our studio from old town Tustin to a brand spanking new space in Sky Park Circle in Irvine.  The new space will be a bit larger.  About 1200 sq/ft. up from 1k.  Adding a dressing room and 2 more shooting areas instead of the one shooting area that we have in studio now.  We’ll be able to accomodate larger family groupings and have a few tricks up our sleeves for the new space.  I’m very excited about our new location.  Its a bit nearer the costal communities of Newport Beach, and Laguna Beach and much cooler temperature wise than Tustin.  It’ll be located on the corner of Main and Red Hill,  adjacent to John Wayne Airport.  We start design and construction work this week!

Due to the insane portrait schedule of the next month, coupled with getting the new studio space ready, there may not be that much time for blogging.  But when I have some spare time, I’ll try to share a few images with you.

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Sleeping Newborn Baby in a Basket

I still remember the first time I ever photographed a newborn baby.  It was a boy and I’d photographed his mommy and daddy’s wedding.  Alex was beautiful and naked and on the dining room table.  He let loose of an arched stream of warmth, that went from the table to the carpet.   He was no doubt a budding Olympian.   The second time I photographed a newborn baby, it was mom and dad’s first born.   Savanah was less than 2 weeks old and peed on daddy’s leg and then projectile vomited all over her mom.  It was something to behold.  Glad it wasn’t me.  I was unscathed both times.  And still, to this day, I remain unscathed from newborn baby’s bodily functions.  I’ve definitely cleaned up my share of baby pee.  But never had to do poop patrol in the studio.

Willow {below} was about as perfect as any newborn baby could be to photograph.  She remained in slumber land just about the whole time.  Started the session out by leaving mom a little present in her blanket.  Her mommy had to breast feed her once to induce the necessary lactate coma.  But she really was not fussy and just slept blissfuly though her photo-session.  Maybe it had something to do with the Sleepy Fairy Dust we sprinkled on her?  She was a tiny, moldable, bundle of love.  I really love the pink blanket that Willow’s Grandmother knitted for her.  Its the perfect color for her skin and the texture is lovely.

Kids Are Amazing – Their Range of Expressions and Things That They Say Are So Funny.

Little Chloe is so adorable, I don’t know how she contains herself and all her energy in her little body.  You can see by her many faces that she is extremely expressive both in her facial expressions and her vocal range.  I asked her if she has ever seen a princess and she told me yes….”Right behind you!”  Her mom was standing right behind me.  She definitely got extra brownie points from her mom and from me with that sweet and innocent exclaimation.  Mom did a great job with clothing selection for her children.  You’ll notice that Chloe’s and Madeline’s pink flower ties in nicely with the pink flowers on Chloe’s shirt and Madeline’s pink sweater.

All the images of Chloe above are photographed with my 50 1.2 at 1/1600 sec, ISO 500 at f1.6, to create some lovely bokeh while keeping her eyes tack sharp.

Bring Out the Best of Madeline’s Features

Madeline has the most gorgeous long, blond hair and amazing blue eyes.  I wanted to make sure that her portraits highlighted both of these features.  Keep in mind all the photography on this page is natural light.  In the children’s portraits of Madaline {above} the light is coming from the right left, except for the middle image.  In the middle portrait of her,  the light is coming almost directly opposite her face.  Madeline’s body is purposefully turned a bit away from the setting sun and then her face is turned slighting back towards the camera so that there is a bit of shadow on the right side of her face.  To highlight her hair and show of the shape of her face I asked her to move all her hair to one side of her face. Typically this is the side with less light.

How To Photograph Your Child and Get the True Color of Your Children’s Eyes

When light is hitting the iris {the colored part of the eye} it will illuminate the eye color of the iris will show all the eye color and depth.  In all three portraits, the light is soft, not bright and hard.  Soft light wraps around the face, makes the skin look soft and smooth and gives a smooth transition from highlights to shadow.  Essentially there are two elements.  1) I look  for Soft Directional Light on location.   Its how I photograph the majority of my portraits.    2)  Direction of Light:  Anytime your subject’s face is turned back towards the the light the iris will be illuminated.  It’s that simple. Experiment.  I’ve been creating children and family portraits for over 12 years, so I’m very used to finding soft, directional light on location like this.  And I know what the light will do and what it won’t do for me.  If you are looking to make gorgeous children’s portraits you need to start thinking more like a photographer and find gorgeous light.

Open shade is your friend.  Open shade can be found under a tree, under and overhang or in the shadow of a building.  Combine that with the direction of the light and you’ve got a natural formula for portrait magic.  Your child’s face must either face the direction that the light is coming from or the light must be reflecting off surface {preferably a white surface} or bouncing off something that will allow the face to be lit naturally.  This will allow eyes to be illuminated so the eye color can be seen.  Sounds easier than it is, it takes some experimenting to get in the zone and create that magic for the perfect family portrait.  Below is a close up of Madeline employing the same available light technique as the three portraits above.  The direction of the setting sun is more frontal.  In this close up below you can more easily see her amazing blue her eyes.  You’ve gotta get light in your kids eyes.  No Light = Dull Eyes and No Color in the Iris.

{Below}  I asked Chloe if she’d marry me when she get’s older.  She just laughed.  Hahahahahah!  {Below}  Its obvious that Chloe and Madeline are best friends.Below:  Chloe doing her priate aka Captain Hook impression.

Clair and Brandon are expecting their first boy!

In less than four weeks Clair and Brandon will have their first son.  Scarlet and big sister Ava are very excited to meet their new baby brother.  If all goes according to plan, I may be meeting him before his sisters do and very excited about that.  I’ll be photographing the birthing.  I’m praying that its not when I’m in the middle of a family photography session.

This is Part 1 of a 3 part maternity photography shoot.  The 2nd part of Clair’s maternity photography session will be this Tuesday at a remote beach in Laguna.  We’ll be doing some gorgeous beach maternity portraits and a couple nudes too.  Clair is beautiful and brave. Part 3 will the at Hoag.

I have to give Clair major props for her wardrobe choice.  She brought an amazing amount of clothing choices to the studio and that was great because we could mix and match and chose flattering colors and textures for everyone.  Our shoot was long, about 4 hours.  Non-typical for a maternity session.  Typically maternity sessions are about 1-1.5 hours.  Clair never seemed to tire.   We fed her a banana, cocoanut water and she had some protein bars too.  After the shoot she was ready for Japanese food but then changed her mind and was craving a steak!

Scarlet and Ava are hysterical. They have so much personality. I photographed the girls a year ago for my Make-A-Wish Project. Scarlet would say to me: “No way Jose!” I thought it was the cutes thing. But her mom outlawed it now that she’s gotten a bit older, due to the fact that if she doesn’t want to do something she’ll tell her mom…”No way Jose!”
It was great to have the whole family involved in the maternity photo-session.  Its no secret that I love photographing children.  After a while Scarlet hit the nap wall and her Grandmother was there to take the girls home.  She fell asleep in the back set after about 5 minutes, which is a good thing considering she was having a mild meltdown at the studio.  Everyone gets cranky when they are tired.

Truth be told, I have a knit fetish. IMO knits always add a wonderful texturual quality to the maternity photo-session. And Clair’s open, pink sweater is the prefect feminine touch and down right gorgeous on her, especially when combined with her pink ruffled boy shorts. Props to Clair for her choice of great clothing accessories.

Grandmother and Grandfather magazine style family photo-shoot

A True Story

In our day to day lives its so easy to get caught up in the little details that really don’t matter in the bigger picture of life.  A few weeks ago, I was in the hospital for four days.  I was in terrible pain when I awoke on a Sunday morning.  Had trouble breathing.  Every time I inhaled it was very painful.  So much so that I couldn’t stand up.  Connie told me that if I didn’t go to the emergency room, she’d divorce me.  Hmmmm.  Okay.  So off to the emergency room we went.  After Xrays and a MRI doctors found a small blood clot and fluid on my left lung.  It wasn’t fun being in the hospital for four days, having blood drawn every four hours, vitals every four hours too, tons of wires hooked up to my chest and a heart monitor.  Don’t know about you, but if someone is waking me up every four hours to draw blood and take my blood pressure its near impossible to get a restful sleep.

As I lay in the hospital bed, day after day…. everything that was seemingly important, washed away.  I didn’t care about what bills were due, that my car needed a tune up, about the new camera I wanted, remodling our home, that trip that I really wanted to take with my wife.  None of the day to day trivial stuff mattered at all.  What mattered to me was who I loved.  My beautiful with Connie, our kids, my family and my close friends.  Since leaving the hospital I have a fresher, gentler outlook on life and am not sweating the small stuff like I used too.  I know it will all fall in place perfectly.  It always does.  I’m grateful to have an amazing, loving wife, my sister Dr. Jill who came to look after me too and my father and close friends who would give me a pint of blood and a spare tire if I needed it.  Don’t sweat the small stuff.  Instead, just work on your bucket list and start crossing off the stuff that you’d like to do.  Give your family an extra hug and kisses and tell them that you love them a few extra times each day.

 Senior Portraits

When a client commission’s me to photograph their senior parent’s family portraits I approach their photo-session with enthusiasm and respect.  Both sets of my grandparents have passed away long ago and I have very few photographs of them.  I do have some quick snaps that I took of them more than 30 years ago with my Kodak Instamatic camera.  Remember those square flash cubes?  How I wish I had beautiful portraits of my grandparents.   Memories fade, but when I look back at these snap shots, it takes me right back to that that time in my life.

Tracy {their daughter} picked a great time to celebrate her parent’s relationship and and her relationship to her parents with the gift of a magazine style family portrait session.  You have to make time for something like this.  As human beings, we tend to procrastinate celebrating and recording some of the most precious moments and people in our lives.  Its these moments in time  that we’d really like to perserve for ourselves and our families for generations.  The thought process goes something like this:  ”I’ll get around to it someday.” or “When I lose fifteen pounds, then I’ll be ready to have our family portrait taken.”

But what if you could be photographed look like a million bucks without losing a single pound?  What if you looked as though you’ve lost those fifteen pounds?  What if I could show you, with a few corrections in your posture and body position to look thinner and the most beautiful that you’ve ever looked in a photograph?   With a little direction, in seconds, I could show you:  How to stand comfortably and look slimmer, where to place your hands {that’s one of the most common questions:  “What should I do with my hands?”}, the prefect tilt of your head, and the perfect placement our studio lights so that only your best features are highlighted, all the while making sure that you are comfortable, relaxed, happy, and having a laugh while doing it.  And, I guarantee you’ll get the best portraits that you’ve ever had of yourself.  That’s what everyone tell me after they view their family portraits.  Yep, that’s what I do every day at my studio.  We make sure that you look your best.

“Photos for a lifetime!  We will cherish the photos of my parents forever. I am so glad we did it. You are a true professional.”

  ~ Tracy Foye | Anaheim

p.s.  What would it mean to you to have a gorgeous wall portrait of your children, your parents or grandparents to hang in your apartment or home?  Can you put a price on the value of your family portrait, your parent’s or grandparents portrait if something were to suddenly happen to someone in your family?  I know that sounds harsh but, but consider this…

My very close friend Trevor, recently lost his mom.  A few days after his mother passed away we were sitting in his family home and reminiscing about his childhood and his mother, going over photographs from his childhood.  I watched his face and body language change as we viewed some of his family photographs.  It was as if he was transported back to a different time as I watched a smile come over his face.

Had a blast with the Raglin’s.  What a great, fun family to photograph.  When I met everyone and said high, William the little toe head, was very outspoken and Oliva was very shy, clinging to mommy’s leg.  So,  made sure to pay allot of attention to Oliva and she started warming up to me and the idea of a fun family portrait.  I can always tell how much the kids are loved by their parents by  how well adjusted they are.  Oliva and William are, happy, silly, light hearted, laughing throughout their family photo-session and they both had a blast.

Telling  Secrets

We were all walking from one location to another for more family groupings and I asked the twins to sit on the stairs and tell each other a secret and photographed their reactions from about 40 feet away with a telephoto lens.  

How To Create Great Close Up Portraits of Your Children

I love creating close up portraits of kid’s faces.  It’s important to keep them engaged in playtime during your photographic process.  So I sing, tell them a story or just act totally goofy to keep them engaged so that they forget the process of being photographed which lets their personality come out and play. Nothing trumps natural expression.

Check out real reviews from real customers:  Here

Photographing Baby’s First Year

Lily is hysterical!  She kept me laughing throughout her 1 year baby birthday photo-shoot celebration.  Mom had some cute outfits picked out for her.  And after seeing her cute pink hat, I knew that she needed to be photographed in her white and pink ruffled bottoms with no shirt on an just her floppy pink sun hat.  You can tell she is having a great time and laughing allot.  Lilly is just about walking and stands well with a little bit of help of mommy and daddy.  She hung in there really well for about 15 – 20 minutes.  Every 1 year old baby reacts differently.   It depends on when baby has had her nap.  When she ate and on what the weather is like that day.   Babies are a fickled bunch of human beings and their needs are very basic.  Mommy and daddy’s love, warmth, food, hugs, kisses, milk, breast feeding, pooping and peeing and sleep.  At ages 1 to 2 they are starting to sense and  asserting their independence as a human being that can crawl and walk, touch and grab stuff, and don’t like to be held back from their natural tendencies to explore the world around them.    When held back or physically tired, it is very easy for babies to get frustrated and cry. 

Teaching  Your Baby Sign Language so you both can Communicate

Because hand eye coordination develops sooner than the acquisition of verbal skills I’ve seen lots of mom’s and dad’s teach their little ones sign language.  Teaching you baby sign language is great for  basic needs such as:  hungry, milk, more, thank you, mom etc. And can be as complex as signing for animal types, potty and asking for the keys to the car {just kidding ’bout the keys…she’ll have to wait till she’s 18 for those.}  Here a really cute animated chart for baby sign language.   And some other resources to learn more about baby signing.

When Baby Get’s Frustrated

They cry. Its the only way they have to communicate their frustration or lack of happiness, of state of being.  I know this can be frustrating at times, but remember that, as a mommy or daddy you  are not doing anything wrong.  It is the normal course of events for you baby.  Your not a bad mommy or daddy.  Motherhood is a dichotomy of the most rewarding and at times a frustrating experience and one of the hardest jobs ever.  ”It’s crazy to love something so much and still get frustrated so much sometimes. He wakes up all happy and smiley and as the day goes on, he gets fussy. I know he’s not hungry and he doesn’t have a dirty diaper and nothing is hurting him. He is so exhausted and he fights sleep like crazy and it makes me crazy!”  ~ a loving mom.  

Magazine Style Kids Photo-Session with 3 year old Killian and Grandpa Ernie

Grandpa Drives His Corvette Really Fast!

Had a wonderful Grandpa and Me two generations session this morning with some lovely clients.  Ernie’s daughter Tracy had purchased a gift certificat for her mother and father as a Xmas present.  What a wonderful gift for the grandparents.  So it either and early or a last Xmas present.  Ernie is a lovely gentleman, married to his lovely wife of forty years.  After being a dentist for forty years, he’s retired now and enjoy a life of leisure.  Expect when he goes 160 mph in his 05′ grey Corvette {when no one else is in the car with him}.  When Killian arrived he was super shy and a bit bratty.  Can I say that?  Well his mom called him a stinker so I guess I can.  But we soon became fast friends and have plans to go fishing next week.

A Relaxed, Fun and Enjoyable Family Photography Experience

Killian is adorable and and has an enchanting laugh.  My approach to magazine style children and  family portraiture is always and easy going and relaxed,  filled with impromptu pauses to chat, tell jokes and learn more about my clients.  All the while taking great care to give direction and  make sure that Ernie and Killian were completely relaxed and having fun so that they’d both look great.  Something that may not be noticeable at all is the subtle and calculated use of a flattering light source.  This is accomplished with a 4′x6′ Larson soft box wich provides a soft  light source akin to window light and provides beautiful skin tones.  My ability to put people at ease, my ability to make it a fun and enjoyable family photography experience and my ability to deliver the results that my clients want put me at the top of the list for magazine style children and family photography for my Orange County, Los Angeles and South County clients.

p.s. Check out they Foye’s Senior family photo-shoot.