Ending May with a BANG! May 29, 2009

Friday May 29th, 2009

Starting this afternoon we will be  pretty much out of the studio until Tuesday.

This weekend starts off for us this afternoon with a wedding rehearsal, Alexis and Ron’s Wedding Saturday, Brianne and AJ’s Wedding Sunday, and an Engagement session Monday. While we are at Sundays wedding, 2 of our assistants will be at the Deja Vu Lingerie Boutique in Vista for their Spring Fling Tent sale from 1-5 staffing our Shadow Boudoir booth. It’s a busy busy Shadowcatcher Weekend!

Stay tuned for a lot of new blogs!

New albums on the way! May 27, 2009

Wednesday May 27th.
Ok.. I just can’t keep these a secret any longer! The cat is coming out of the bag! A few weeks ago we met with our album rep because we were getting really bored with the same old traditional flush album covers that we were offering. We wanted something new, something fresh, contemporary and stylish… and wowza… did we ever find them!

Last week we sent in our order for our sample albums and can’t wait for them to get in! We did our sample album with the cover that is the top left image, this one seriously knocked me over when I saw it. The cover is the most elegant black satin and the little dots you see under the picture on the cover there….. Swarovski crystals! STUNNING! We did our matched parent album companion using the cover next to it with the bow… too cute!

The sample images above are just a few of the new designs we have available, these are just a few of my favorites.

So… beginning July first, all of our packages and pricing will be changing to incorporate these new album options. When coming up with our new packages, we were very careful to only raise the prices just enough to cover the cost of these new additions, we are feeling the pinch as well here  and totally understand! ;o)

As a special offer to our clients that have already booked their packages, we  will be happy to offer any of these album designs for a small upgrade fee to cover the cost.

Brittany and Tom say I do in a relaxed lounge style wedding by their pool May 25, 2009

Saturday May 23rd

We  had been looking forward to Brittany and Tom’s wedding for  a looooong time! Brittany is more than a bride to me… she is actually a really close friend and business acquaintance. So shooting her wedding had some real emotional pull for me. Finding that balance between friend and hired photographer took a little while to find ;o)

I met with up with Brittany, her mom and sisters and our hair and makeup diva Kelly at Swank, the salon Brittany and Kelly work at to get some shots of Brittany getting ready while Skip started at the house with Tom and his family.

After we got Ms. Britty into her dress we had some time to do some sort of Trash The Dress Style shots in the back alleys of Escondido. I love the yin yang feel of these… uber stylish bride in a slum setting… too fun!

The wedding was B-U-tiful! The ceremony and reception was held in Brittany and Tom’s backyard… poolside and had a really club/lounge feel to if. Brittanys Bouquet and the flower girls headband were done by our favorite floral genius, Bethany from Splendid Sentiments, the other floral designs and centerpieces were beautifully put together by Brittany and Kelly and their wedding coordinator Teresa.

Here are a few of our favs from the day…….

When I first walked into Swank and saw Brittany I tok one look and thought WOW, I am going to love working some black and white magic on all of the shots of her, she had a total vintage starlet look!

Here is our handslme groom… Tom!

Ok… is this the best place holder ever or what???  Skip and I were both waaaay to excited about this! We can be such nerds ;o)  Because there was no seating for the ceremony we asked Brittany and Tom if they could save a spot across the pool so we could get a great view of the ceremony. When we got there we see this awesome piece of slate with Shadowcatcher written on there… we feel so special! This puppy came home with us and is going in the studio!Thank you Teresa! We soooo love that!

Brittany and Tom…. CONGRATULATIONS… Love you both!

Moda Model Shoot Part 2 Skip May 25, 2009

We had a great time working with Kevin and the models from Moda!  We’d worked with Kevin and one of the models, Jessica, at Fashion Week Escondido a couple of weeks before, but this was the first time we’d met the other models, including cute little Samantha.  For a little kid, she’s really got it goin’ on!  Look for this girl to be on the cover of Teen in a few years, I’m tellin’ ya! 

While Heather concentrated on getting full length shots of the models, I pulled my favorite portrait lens, the Canon 135 f2L, out of my bag.  This lens is one of the most respected lenses by pro photographers for getting headshots.  With this lens, I can nail it every time, which is what it’s all about.  I may have been getting mostly tight shots, but, as you can see, I pulled my trusty 24-70L out of the bag to get some full shots of Kim, Janet and Jessica when Heather took a break.

Speaking of Jessica, she and Kami were really excited to get the chance to shoot with some wild, wild makeup.  They spent a lot of time and effort to get the look just right, and that effort shows!  Good job, ladies! 

It was a really fun evening, and a big “Thank You!” to Mo and Kevin for giving us their thoughts and insight, and the models of Moda for giving us the opportunity to put it into practice!

 

stepping up our game May 19, 2009

Monday May 19th

Earlier last month Skip and I had a great time shooting  Fashion Week Escondido. We had done fashion work in the past, but it had been awhile. Most of our work had been with Brides and Grooms for the last 5 years.

During Fashion Week, we hooked up with a really great modeling agency in San Diego, Moda. Kevin one of the instructors from Moda called me last week and we had a great chat about working more together. Models always need pictures, and one thing we really wanted to do was to be able to work with trained models and an instructor to get a better feel for posing. Since all of our Wedding and Boudoir clients have no experience at modeling, we thought it would be great to up our posing game by working with a pro. We always come up with great poses but wanted to see if we could learn a little more to help make those poses really rock. We also asked Kevin to critique  our instruction of the poses we were asking the models for, just to be sure we were giving clear easy to follow directions.. he said we did great!

We had  a great time last night working with 7 of the students from the agency and finished up with a bang working with Kami and Jessica. These two worked for hours on their makeup and had some really fun ideas on what they wanted to do.

So… we were kind of in class all last night….. how do you think we did????

Here are a few of my favorites from what I shot, Skip will be posting his later……

 

Jenni &Bobby’s amazing wedding day! May 18, 2009

Saturday May 16th, Paradise Gardens

Today we were at Paradise Gardens for Jenni and Bobby’s wedding. I honestly can’t say enough wonderful things about these two. From the moment you meet them you just know they are perfect for eachother and also are two people that you would be honored to have as a part of your life. Since they booked with us, we had the opportunity to do their engagement session, I had a special little session with Jenni, and together we attended their rehearsal dinner, getting closer and closet with every session we did. By the wedding we were super hooked on these guys!

Needless to say, the day was AH-MAZING! Tearfull and full of laughs, just like a wedding should be ;o)

Here are a few of our favorite moments of the day……

Before the wedding Jenni & Bobby kind of saw eachother on oposite sides of a door, and exchanged their wedding gifts to eachother. Jenni got an awesome pair of Oaklies, along with a backpack full of essentials for their honeymoon cruise, and……

Bobby got a hot little book of images from Jennis Boudoir session with me, there was one happy groom!

A special one for Jenni from someone who so feels it too.

Click on the image above for the “Flood Dance” ;o)

A HUGE thanks to Jenni and Bobby and all of their families for making us all feel so welcome.. you all rock!

A fun one…. May 11, 2009

from Brianne and AJ’s session Saturday.

 

What old TV show does this  make you think of??????

Shelbi and Mike Tie the knot… wooooo! May 11, 2009

Friday May 8th, 2009

This was a wedding that Skip and I had been looking forward to for a loooooong time! Shelbi and Mike very quickly became very close to our hearts, and we couldn’t wait to see them say their magical “I Do’s”!

Their wedding was up in Newport Beach and Shelbi and Mike were so amazing, they got us a beautiful room at the hotel so that we could spend the night up there. We drove up to Newport early Friday so that we could get settled into our room and then spend some time checking out the venue so we had a good idea where we wanted to go for pictures. Ok… so now we are truly very spoiled photographers… having our own room there was just the best ever! Our room was about 100 yards from the ceremony site and it was soooooo convenient to have someplace so close to safely stash lighting and things in between each part of the day.Not to mention how totally amazing it was to just pack up after the reception and walk back to a comfy bed! Thank you so much you two…. we are feelin soooo pampered!

Here are a few of our favorites from the day…..

Shelbi & Mike….. we knew you two would be a happily ever after… love you guys!

 

Next week…… Jenni and Bobby, another ah-mazing couple at Paradise Gardens! Stay Tuned!

ashlea and james’ E-session May 5, 2009

Monday May 4th

This evening Skip and I got to head down to the gaslamp for Ashlea and James’ engagement session. We hadn’t done a session in the gaslamp area for a long time and were really happy to be heading back down there… everywhere you go there are the best backgrounds!

We started out across from the convention center and ended up in Seaport Village for the sunset and also so we could get some of the Navy ships in the background. Ashlea and James both are stationed on the Nimitz and also met there.. which made it the perfect background for a romantic sunset session.

Here are a few of our favorites from their session……

Terra and Mitch’s wedding day teasers! May 4, 2009

Saturday May 2nd, 2009

Skip and I were really excited about getting to this wedding. We did Terra and Mitch’s engagement session a few months ago, and knew then that this was going to be one memorable wedding… and we were sooo right! Terra and Mitch are two of the best people, ever! I know that I say this a lot, but honestly, we are so lucky, Shadowcatcher brides and grooms are seriously the best! Today was also the first day for our new assistant Veronica, and we couldn’t have a better location or couple to start showing her how we do what we do ;o)

Terra and Mitch had a great color combo for their wedding, tangerine, lime green and fuchsia… I loved the way these colors popped! These two met at the Poway rodeo and brought a lot of the country western theme to the wedding. I LOVED Terra in her cowboy boots after the ceremony.. toooo cute! Mitch’s mom is a florist, so all of the flowers were done be her.. and they were beautiful!

It was a great wedding… we sooo love our jobs ;0)

Here are a few of our faves….

Veronica and I started up at the Spa at Los Willows for Terra’s getting ready session.

Our handsome groom as his bride is about to walk down the aisle