6.27.2009

Its official - New Blog!

I am SUPER stoked to announce that my new blog is finally ready! After days of tweaking and re-tweaking, its finally done! You can now find my blog at:

www.hybridphotographyblog.com

Please make sure to update your bookmarks and RSS to the new address.

See you on the other side! :)

6.23.2009

Coming Soon: New Blog!

Hey everyone!

Just a quick update: I've been working hard behind the scenes on a brand new blog! I'm really excited, and its looking great so far. Should be up for release in just a few days.

Hope everyone's having a great week!

6.19.2009

Trevor and Darcy - La Valencia Wedding

Classic.

If I had to choose one word to describe Trevor and Darcy's wedding. classic would be it. The beautiful La Valencia, Darcy's pearls, the 50's music during the reception....all classic and beautiful.

Trevor and Darcy have known each other since second grade. Their wedding day was a perfect culmination of a long road to realizing they were perfect for each other. From the first sight, to the ceremony, to stealing themselves away after the ceremony and being in their own world, they couldn't keep their eyes off each other. You can just feel how deeply they love one another when you see them together.

I had a very, very hard time narrowing down images for this blog post, so it's going to be another really long post, plus a slideshow. :)



(I love pink shoes!)





I just love this first sight sequence...we went up to the top of the hotel to the Sky Lounge and had Darcy sort of sneak up on Trevor. I adore the way he looks at her when he sees her!









I can't possibly begin to tell you how excited I was when I saw this room:





We even ventured into the Whaling Bar for some fun shots!













These next two were what I was talking about when I said they stole themselves away after the ceremony. After 3 minutes or so of being lost in their own world, Trevor looks up and says "oh! I had no idea you were there!" lol :)











I totally love this shot my bother grabbed of the ceiling....he forgot it was a mirror and it ended up having a table reflection in it!





I don't know why I love this random dancing shot so much...






Believe it or not, there's TONS more in the slideshow below!

6.12.2009

Dan and Emily's Wedding - El Cajon

Last weekend, Dan and Emily finally tied the knot at Saint John's Lutheran Church in El Cajon....and by finally, I mean that they've been together 9+ years. It was a beautiful wedding celebration of a couple who has been together so long-and always known they were right for each other. Emily is my dad's cousin's daughter (follow that?) so it was extra special for me to be able to capture their special day and get to be behind the scenes with her.

Fair warning: I had a really hard time choosing images for this blog post, so it's kind of a monster post!

Lots of favorites from the wedding day:









Maddy takes the award for cutest flower girl...she's a total ham for the camera as you'll see later...



This was one of the getaway cars....my great uncle Howard's Studebaker. Sooooo awesome.











Emily's dad passed away 10 years ago so both her sisters walked her down the aisle. It was a really sweet moment!





I just love the look of anticipation on her face here as she's ready to kiss her husband for the first time!





Toldja Maddy was a ham ;)







Gorgeous much??



How cute is this shot of Emily and her mom?





This was the other getaway car





Emily got her girls customized flasks..how cool!











If you couldn't tell, Dan's sort of a cowboy, and Emily is actually a rodeo queen, so when I saw the horseshoe, I knew exactly where I was going to do the ring shot!



Congratulations Dan and Emily! Thank you for letting me share your day!

5.22.2009

Victoria's Senior Portraits - San Diego

I was so excited when I first met Victoria...she's one of those totally gorgeous girls that makes my job soooooo easy. We met up last week at Balboa Park to shoot her senior portraits, and as soon as I saw she'd brought TWO guitars, I was quite excited for the possibilities. I love props!

Here are a few favorites:





How pretty is she?!?!











FAVORITE!!! :)



Soooo cute!





This one totally reminds me of my warm film I used to use back in the day...delicious grainy warmth!





Thanks for being such fun Victoria, and congrats on your graduation! :)

5.21.2009

Things I've learned from being on crutches

Yep, I'm on crutches right now, and it really sucks! I've got a really bad case of patello-femoral pain syndrome, which is a fancy phrase for runner's knee, which basically means that my kneecap is tracking diagonally when I walk and run, instead of straight up and down. This rubs my knee's cartilage raw and in my case I think it's even bone rubbing on bone when I bend my knee. OUCH!

So I went to the doctor on Monday and have been on crutches ever since. My knee's feeling much better than it was, so I'm hopeful I can be off crutches tomorrow or Saturday. Good thing I don't have any weddings! :) (Not that that would stop me...I'd rather be dying of pain than miss a wedding!)

I've learned some things while being on crutches though, and I thought I'd share:

- Crutches are exhausting! I've been sleeping better these past few nights than I have in awhile, thanks to lugging my body weight around with my arms all day.

- To tie in with the above, crutches are an EXCELLENT arm workout! My triceps especially are feelin' the burn, but my whole upper arm's muscles are firm all day because I keep using them. I feel buff. haha

- It's okay to ask for help! After almost spilling several cups of water and tearing the towel bar from the wall trying to catch myself from falling, I've learned that its totally cool to ask for help carrying something when you're on crutches, and people don't mind helping you because they realize that crutches suck!

- You make lots of friends. Seriously, random people will come up to you and ask what happened, or tell you they totally sympathize with your knee injury (I got a brace from the doc so people can tell it's my knee) or just agree with you that crutches are lame.

- You learn to think if really creative ways to do things, like sitting on your butt and pulling yourself up or down stairs. Or carrying things in your mouth when there's no one around to help you. Or having all your bathroom stuff brought to the downstairs bathroom so you don't have to kill yourself going up to yours.

- Showering is infinitely harder!!! We have 2 types of showers in the house-one that's also a tub, and one that's strictly a shower, and I can't decide which one's better. The shower-only one has that handle in it that I can grab to steady myself once I'm in the shower, but it's REALLY hard to get over the little ledge to doors are one because it's wet and I can't jump in. The tub shower is easier to get in because I can sit and just swing my legs in, but there's nothing to grab onto once I'm in. Conundrum!


So, as I said, hopefully tomorrow or Saturday I will be off of crutches, though I'll still have to wear the brace for awhile all the time, and then just when I'm running. In the meantime I guess I'm relegated to the bike and the elliptical!

Biggest lesson learned: lift weights when you run otherwise your quads won't be as strong as they need to be when you run and your kneecap will track out of place.

5.11.2009

Rachael's Senior Portraits - San Diego

A couple weeks ago I had a great time photographing Rachael for her senior portraits. Cutting it kinda close ;) but we had fun!









And some buddy pics :)



4.11.2009

Trevor and Darcy - Naples, CA

Here's the e-session I've been promising!

Trevor and Darcy both grew up in Naples, CA (in Long Beach), which is probably the cutest little community I've ever seen in my life. There's little canals everywhere (like Venice!) and the houses are adorable and it's right on the water. So great! Trevor and Darcy are moving away after the wedding for Trevor's residency, so we really tried to make this session about capturing the neighborhood they both grew up in, as well as their relationship.

Darcy tried to tell me they weren't very photogenic, but in reality they needed almost no direction from me and just look at how cute they are!!!

Here's a few of my favorites:













This next one is my absolute favorite!!

















Not photogenic my butt! ;) Can't wait for your wedding you guys!!

4.08.2009

Miss Now Mrs.

Okay, okay, I know it's been awhile since my last blog post. I'll give myself a little slap on the wrist. *slap* There, all better, right? :)

This past weekend I had a really really awesome engagement session with on of my June couples, Trevor and Darcy. (Pictures coming soon!)

Darcy mentioned this fabulous site, missnowmrs.com and I knew I just had to pass it along because it looks so helpful. Having never been married myself, I can only guess at the huge amount of paperwork changing your name can amass, and Miss Now Mrs. is all about helping you out with that. You fill in all your information once, and it auto fills in all the forms you need in whichever state you're in, PLUS gives you instructions and addresses for each form. You can even order gift certificates if you know someone getting married that could use this service. (It's $29.95) According to the site, it saves the average bride over 13 hours of research and form filling. Pretty good deal, right?

Just thought I'd pass along a helpful tip. :)

3.20.2009

Photography as a career

I've got a confession to make: I've had a Live Journal for EIGHT YEARS. No seriously, I really have. I got it senior year in high school (well now that just makes me feel old) back when you still had to get an invite code to get one. Kinda like Gmail in the beginning. It was mainly to vent the frustrations of a high school senior, but I've actually mostly kept up with it through the years and now it's really fun to go back and venture into my past. I do it often when I'm feeling nostalgic. Or bored.

Today I was perusing in April of 2004 and I've pinpointed the exact day I decided to be a photographer.

April 29, 2004:

"On another note, we had our critique in photo today and everyone loved my pictures I put up. ^__^ It made me feel really good about my photography skills. I think I might want to explore this a little more. I don't know how viable it is for the future, but I really really love it, and I'm doing pretty well on my own without help from the teacher."

How neat to be able to go back and see the very day I decided to do what I do! It's been a long process, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

And because blog posts are no fun without pictures, here's MY senior picture; how I looked when I first made that journal. :) (apologies for the bad scan, I scanned it when I was like 19 lol)