for their engagement photos, we headed down to san diego, shooting in places they stayed and visited when daniel proposed. we started at the Horton Grand in the gaslamp district of san diego. the bar area was deserted and the lone bottle of beer on the counter gave me a silly idea which they said worked pretty well, since they like the XX  :)

then it was off to a local shopping plaza.

this big chessboard made for some fun…

as we were walking to our next location, we ran into this little spot. missy loves to randomly antagonize daniel apparently… and he is no stranger to the wet willy. perfect.

onto something much nicer for daniel… cupcakes. yum.

a perfect time to rehearse the cake sharing for the wedding reception, right?

so we then headed to take our end of day photos at the actual spot daniel had proposed to missy. however… it was closed (!!!). so we drove up the coast just a titch and added more of the san diego coast to their memorable places list (see how i did that? silver lining achieved!).

if you follow my work you know how i feel about silhouettes…

i always have a great time with daniel (he was actually there for my first ever trip to india some years back) and missy is the perfect compliment to him. some people just match perfectly and these are two of those people. sounds cheesy, but i mean it. can’t wait for the wedding later this year, you two!

oh, this last photo is a little out of chronological order (which completely throws up the red flag on my OCD)… but i love this shot. plus, missy is as much of a movie fanatic as i am… so i figure she will enjoy this little homage to how some movies throw that tiny little bit at the end of the credits and you have to wait for it (ahem…avengers…ahem). hopefully y’all stuck around like the good viewers do. it also deserves to be the grand finale for how long they stood there waiting for a wave to splash properly   :)

long story short(er): we love betabrand. they are a great company founded and owned by the greatest guys you can meet. so when my brother’s birthday came around this year, he decided to go skimboarding at his local beach, fully decked out in betabrand’s disco clothing… when he had his hood on, it was pretty much head to toe disco! when we got to the sand i actually complained that there weren’t enough people there to see this event. so, here i am… making sure this is seen by more of you. make sure you leave even a little comment at the end to let him know you came, you saw, you guffawed at his own version of a big boy’s birthday wish coming true.   :)

changing under your towel: the coastal man’s version of women who take off or put on their bras under their shirts. a true craft.

bending it like beckham… or something…

i seem to want to give these a try almost every shoot nowadays. i kinda like this one:

“you’re getting all my crazy faces…” he said. then this happened:

“go big, then go home…” i told him.

and the day ended… well that portion of it. another birthday dinner was had before he was able to collapse (most likely) in bed from the day.

hope y’all enjoyed this little bit of levity and fun. not too late to wish him a happy birthday in the comments here… and remember, diso is not all betabrand does. so check them out too :)

bryan is a firefighter (i have a number of firefighter friends. that’s kind of funny. i wouldn’t mind having some fire-swallowing friends too. gotta get on that.) and was cracking me up while we were shooting the whole day. we started at a very different location for me, their local farmer’s market.

since they are getting married at the strawberry farms… we… well…

bucket list item… something i always wanted to do: learn to juggle.

these moments, and the one below, are what keep me interested in and loving this side of photography. people genuinely in love with one another. it really is a blessing that a lot of us wedding photographers may take for granted. especially if you just have weddings out your ears to shoot all year round. you may lose a little of just holding on to the fact that these are two people in love, allowing you into their innermost circle for one of the biggest events of their lives. i love that.

bryan & jamie: i had a great time finally meeting you and it was a blast spending the day with you both in LA. i’m thrilled for this summer and cannot wait to continue to document this most important time in your lives. thanks again for choosing me to be the one to do that!   :)

this is why i still keep at the ready and make those dumb little jokes here and there… i love this completely natural moment:

another fave:

models, i said!!!!!!

a lovely afternoon spent with such a loving and tenderhearted family. thank you all again for trooping through the day with me and making it fun! i wish you all the best with the birth of your newest family member and continued blessings to you all down life’s road!

usually i work with my client/subject to style the shoot (as far as hair, makeup and wardrobe go)… but this one was all on amanda. and, as you are about to see, she rocked it. let’s start…

some of these may as well be photos someone finds from when the salton sea was in its heyday way back when…

i hate/love how much things constantly change out there. some of my favorite things are just completely gone now, as the renovation of the area is underway. but, then there are places like this abandoned house that have collected some new art on the walls:

ok… i admit… you have seen this warehouse before with jessica & mike and even here with brenna, when she added some art of her own. that didn’t bug me because i knew amanda’s visit there would be different and original. so we did our best.

this one on the left is a rarity (which is not to say she doesn’t smile a lot…). it makes me smile… so i had to include it.

a completely different take for me on this little bit of tomtrickery i like to do with photos here and there:

after losing maybe 30 minutes of dwindling sunlight, all thanks to an overzealous policeman visit at the warehouse, we headed to our final location, salvation mountain.

we had some hilarious conversations with people there and a few people even snapped photos of amanda. y’all best recognize the power of this supermodel. shazaam! (or something)

as the sun was just starting to set, with an enormous moon overhead, one last wardrobe change was in order as we closed out the day:

i cannot wait for my next opportunity to work with this not only amazingly talented model, but overall extremely lovely person. stay tuned… we are already brainstorming   :)

after a few numbers by nicole, very few people left their spots on the floor as we awaited the headliners. with no photopit for us photographers, i also held my ground, dead center just up from the floor area. i don’t love staying in one place for a show because i think photos can start to get boring that way. however, i knew how much this band would fill the stage… so i stayed put, hoping for the best and planning to move later on during the night.

for the first song played that night from their forthcoming album (coming may 29), the band gathered on one side of the stage to play it “like we recorded it for the album, all together in one room”.

not too long into their set, and alexander came off the stage, meandered through the crowd, and settled on a perch pretty much directly in front of me.

even jade sat down on the stage, shaking people’s hands and sharing some words with their adoring fans:

during a track from his solo album entitled ‘truth’, alexander turned to jade for some memory-jogging of the lyrics:

oddly… i do not love bluegrass music. though a lot of the bands i love seem to play some here and there. but i do love me some banjo. when i see a band with a banjo, i light up a little inside. news at 11.

during the final two (and, arguably, most popular) songs of their set, people from the crowd just started jumping onto the stage to join the band. basically until even the band could barely be seen at all.

and alexander came off the stage and back to the perch he had been to before, to close the show out. it ended up, i inadvertently picked a pretty good place to stay for photos.

i was honored to be able to shoot this show for honest tune, the online magazine i sometimes shoot for. this all came together very quickly, for the band’s first show of their tour. trust me, if you can catch edward sharpe & the magnetic zeros in your area: do so. i’ve had the extreme pleasure of seeing them twice now and it really sounds cheesy, but it’s not just a concert… it’s an experience… one very much shared between band and audience.

we had a good amount of time to get to know each other before our shoot, as we did what is now becoming my very customary back and forth for shoots like this of helping my ‘client’ style themselves for the shoot. we also had a decent-sized drive to LA for the actual shoot, so i got a good feel for the multiple purposes for this day. lani expressed an interest in what we undertook with tara’s photoshoot. lani has somewhat recently undergone a transitional period in her life. and how do you say ‘blossom’, ‘bloom’, ‘evolve’ without being too cliché? well, whatever word works for you, that’s what lani has done… breaking through from some dark places, breaking out of what seems to have been a fairly claustrophobic and paralyzing cocoon to become the woman she was always meant to be and take flight anew, in a colorful world not only void of the darkness that had surrounded her, but a world that she is now adding amazing colors of her own to with her artwork. ** by the way, dear readers… that …to the left of this sentence? the words “her artwork”… that is a link. a link to lani’s art website. go there. i’ll link it again at the end of this post for those of you who are so invested in this blog post now and don’t want to derail the train of your mindset… but look for it again and go there after this so you can see her work. ok? ok. it’s a deal. as the indians said to kevin costner — loo-tentant — in dances with wolves: “it’s a good trade”. **

i know… there are a lot of words here so far and not any photos. am i a photographer or a writer? have i pulled the old bait and switch on you? no no… they’re coming. i promise. just some of these need a little set-up and back story. so you feel more informed. when i popquiz you on this stuff, you don’t want to be caught unaware, do you???

hair:  val hulme who works at legends ladera salon 949.218.7600
mua:  chelle volta who can be reached at volta.chelle@gmail.com

so we started the day at the old la zoo. a little hidden gem of a place that was perfect for some of what we wanted to do.

when people want to step out of the box, try things, humor my “hmmmm… maybe this would work?” ideas… it bedazzles my brain a little. lani made this tree hers!

we shifted gears in a major way when we climbed some hills and made our way under and through some fences for the next part of the shoot. and these shots below are so lani, to me. a joyful spirit, to say the least.

lani is a huuuuuge star wars fan. huge. at some point during our many preparation conversations, lani asked me if she could bring a light saber to the shoot. if you know me, you know i am a huge nerd or geek for all things star wars. you also know that my start in photography was almost solely based on tongue-in-cheek and goofy photos of myself. so, that side of me lit up when she mentioned the light saber. then i settled myself down for a bit… paused… mulled it over… and said: “really?” haha. i was pretty skeptical. i didn’t want this to become a completely silly shoot that just anyone could have done for her on their little point-and-shoot camera. wanting to try the challenge, i agreed. and, thusly, i give you jedi lani:

in researching photos of this location, we both were in love with the thought of these big open spaces with graffiti all over the walls. perfect for her and what we were looking to do. so we kept walking around and looking for these big rooms that we had seen. and then it hit us. we never saw people in those areas. nothing ever to show the scale of the space. and we also realized all of those photos may have even been taken with fisheye lenses. well, we got lani in there anyway. so, here you go folks. now there is something on the internet to show the scale of that (tiny) space. you’re welcome.

we went to a different staircase to explore the ‘dark side’ of lani’s life force. without any necessary or unnecessary build-up, i now give you sith jedi lani:

i’m used to working organically… and though i like to plan out as much as possible before a shoot, i still take a lot of things as they come during the shoot. including unplanned location changes. we left the zoo and headed downtown basically as the sun set and as some rain started to fall. so, we found ourselves headed for the urban lights at lacma.

do you know me? another bit of insight: i love hair in motion. love it. i don’t make everyone do it. almost everyone. and i can see the skepticism in some people’s eyes before we try it. but i like to think most of my subjects become fans afterward as well. i love the extra kick her necklace gave to these.

to complete the day of shooting, lani changed into this amazing dress. it was the perfect dress for where we were and any frustration of not being able to shoot the entire time at the old zoo was completely removed.

i love that last photo above. that was the last frame of the day and i saw it on my camera and announced “oh yeah, we’re done” without hesitation.

lani… i have loved hearing your story. you are an inspiration with your art, as well as with how you live life. i hope you continue to inspire so many others as i see you doing pretty much daily. i cannot wait for us to shoot again (yes… y’all read that right… there are a few shoots being talked about already…).

make sure you all head off to her site and check out her work… www.laniwoods.com. go there.

in the meantime, you can cast a vote here… should lani remain a good jedi, using the force for the benefit of others and to fight against the ill-will of the empire? or should she turn to the dark side and use the force to crush the rebellion??

we went through the whole process together. picking out outfits. matching it up with accessories. deciding on a location. i actually love this part of it. even tara told me i should create my own stylist company. hmmmmm…

once it was all coordinated, we met up to start at one of our two chosen locations… and so began tara’s photographic journey… a journey from being a little nervous with the first photo into a nearly immediate evolution into greatness. and we were on our way…

as the sun was just about going behind nearby mountains, we got some perfect light in this area before we abandoned this location for the next. i could have shot here the rest of the day, easily. good problem to have… another good problem: the wind. that day was extremely windy in some areas but we seemed to hit a dead spot. until we moved into this area and the wind was just the perfect amount to create some glorious motion with tara’s hair.

one final wardrobe change and we were off…

then it was a literal race against time as we watched the sun getting closer and closer to setting as we drove to the beach. we got there just in time, went down what seemed like 1000 steps from PCH and jumped right into it.

tara nailed the hair motion shots. and she nailed them quickly, thank goodness… as the sun was setting faster than i could shoot.

i said a lot already about this session. i hope the photos also said a lot about it. i have been almost too blessed recently with having sessions that have really meant a lot to me, for what they have meant to my subjects. that’s just kind of rare… but has been really common for me right now. so, to tara: thank you again and again for trusting me with such a transformational day. i am better for having been a part of it and very fortunate to now call you friend, as well. i hope this only acts as another springboard for the greatness in your life.

another great day of shooting with a truly lovely girl, inside and out. thanks, again, alexa for teaming up with me for some great photos and good fun! and who knows what your hair will look like next time  ;)