I was delighted when my friend S asked me to take some photos of her and her daughter to send to her husband, who is currently deployed. S is due with baby #2 soon and wanted to send some maternity photos to the proud pappa! We met one afternoon at a park in Carlsbad and had some fun!
I can’t wait for Miss L to meet her new baby sister!
xoxo, Lauren
I know some of you saw my last post about volunteering with HeartsApart.org. Working with the organization has been awesome, so I’m really excited to share a few photos from a recent family session I did for HeartsApart. We started off in the studio before heading down to Oceanside Pier and beach for some fun!
Their son had a blast once we let him throw some sand around!
Thank you to this family for allowing me to spend some precious pre-deployment time with you! And thank you to HeartsApart.org for organizing these amazing photo sessions!
xoxo, Lauren
Check out this gorgeous wedding I shot with Aimee Westcott of Captured by Aimee up at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, CA! We drove up early, checked out the venue, then headed to Polly’s Pies for lunch (and pie, of course!) before heading back to the library to start our day.
I began by hanging out with Bryan and his groomsmen as they got dressed for the day.
Then I headed over to meet up with Aimee and the bride as she was getting ready.
What a gorgeous bride!
Sadaf and Bryan chose to see each other before the ceremony, so Aimee and I arranged a meeting for the two of them on the lawn behind the Library. Bryan was anxious to see his bride!
We also gathered the bridal party for a quick group shot before the ceremony started!
The beautiful ceremony took place on a lawn between the Library and the Museum buildings. The Mother of the Bride took her hand as she was walked down the aisle to meet her groom.
All of the details were carefully crafted by Sadaf, with the help of her sisters and friends! They were impeccable!
Congratulations, Sadaf and Bryan!
xoxo, Lauren
I set up a shoot with the Pacific Photographic Society to photograph the sunset at the Oceanside Pier a while back. It was originally scheduled for a few weeks ago, but we had to cancel last-minute because of poor weather. We rescheduled it for this weekend, and had a wonderful sunset that produced gorgeous photos!
I had just (that day!) picked up a Lensbaby Composer, so I decided it was a great time to test it out! I first shot the group photo with a wide angle lens, but then kept the Lensbaby on for the remainder of the evening. It was pretty fun! It will definitely take a little getting used to, but I was really happy with the results on my first try! What do you think?
The following shots were all taken using the f/11 aperture ring, but I varied the white balance settings and shutter speed to get some different effects. The first one was shot at 1/80s, the second at 1/20s, and the last one at 1.6s. Now I gotta get a neutral density filter to allow an even longer shutter speed! :)
I think the last one was my favorite!
xoxo, Lauren
There’s this thing happening on Facebook today called “Write HOPE on your hands for diabetes” in honor of March 1 being “Hope for a cure for Diabetes” day. The concept is simple:
Write HOPE on your hands, and show your support for someone you love with diabetes, then post the photos here and tell us WHO you’re writing Hope on your hands for.
Though my mom was promised a cure within ten years when I was diagnosed (in–*cough cough*–1988!), I learned on Saturday that a cure is really far away. Clay and I went to JDRF San Diego’s Family Day at the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology. It was really cool because we got to listen to a research update from Dr. Matthias von Herrath, M.D., who is currently working on JDRF-funded research to cure diabetes. Pretty rad! Anyway, though we’d all LOVE to have a cure right around the corner, he highlighted what’s going on now with research and why it’s so hard to find a dang cure. Basically, pancreases are fickle creatures with many jobs, and don’t care to be poked and prodded in the name of research. (I know, RUDE!)
So what does that have to do with today, “Hope for a cure for Diabetes” day?
Well, a lot. Just because there’s not a cure right around the corner, doesn’t mean there will never be a cure. True, I may not see a cure in my lifetime. But, what if we–you and me and everyone on the earth right now–were so successful in our quest for the cure that the next generation never saw Type 1 Diabetes, and it floated into the history books to stay? Now that would be awesome.
In the meantime, I’ll keep checking my bloodsugar, planning my meals, wearing my continuous glucose monitor, bolusing early, and exercising to stave off all the effects of poor diabetes management. But that never means I’ll loose
