Kristen and Adam – Ocean Beach San Diego Wedding

Posted October 21, 2011 In Weddings

Oh. My! I’m really excited to show you these images from a recent wedding I photographed at Ocean View Villas!

Kristen met Adam shortly after she moved to San Diego from New York. On the first night they met, she tricked Adam into giving her his phone number by losing her phone and asking Adam to call it for her. Of course she committed his number to her phone’s memory, and, well, that’s when their story began. They have been inseparable since then and you could really see the love between them when they were joined as husband and wife!

We started off the afternoon with a first look before heading into the nearby neighborhood for some portrait time.

I loved that instead of bouquets, the bridesmaids carried these cheery, yellow parasols! We had a lot of fun playing around with them. :)

Kristen and Adam did something really fun for their vows! Instead of writing their own vows, Kristen wrote the vows for Adam to read to her, and Adam wrote Kristen’s vows! It ended up being very emotional with some hilarity thrown in there!

This little guy was following me around with his camera all afternoon! I didn’t mind, though–he was cute as a button!

Thank you, Kristen and Adam, for allowing me to be a part of your special day! Congratulations!

xoxo,
Lauren

My Hero is Home!

Posted October 18, 2011 In Military, Personal

Finally! My hubby is back from Afghanistan! Yesterday was a very emotional day and I am so happy that he’s back in my arms, safe and sound.

A few months ago, I started coordinating with our family and friends to send out fabric squares for them to sign and return to my amazing big sister, Kay, to make this quilt! I didn’t see any of the squares until I received the finished quilt in the mail, and I was SO ecstatic with how it turned out! I had the idea to make the quilt to hang on the garage door, but Kay had the idea to have everyone send in their sentiments. I was blown away. I hung it up in the afternoon so I could take some photos to send to everyone who contributed!

Then I spent the next several hours putting some finishing touches on the house, baking a pecan pie (which took twice as long as it should have–guess that happens when you forget to turn the oven on!), and working on some photo edits before my in-laws met up at our house to drive to the parade deck. We arrived at the parade deck in the San Mateo area of Camp Pendleton at about 10:30pm. The Marines and Sailors flew into March Air Force Base then rode buses to Camp Pendleton, arriving at San Mateo at about 11:30pm. At that point, they took about an hour to return their weapons to the armory before they marched over to the parade deck and were released!

At this point, my friend Stephanie of stephanieZphotography ordered me to drop my camera so I could give my hubby a big fat hug when they were released. I obliged!

It was SUCH a great night!

Huge thanks to my big sister, Kay, for the amazing quilt, and to all of our family and friends for supporting us over the past several months! And to Stephanie for capturing our reunion! Check out her facebook page if you want to see some of what she captured!

xoxo,
Lauren

Tarza – Old Poway Park

Posted October 12, 2011 In Portraits

Tarza and I emailed for a couple of months before we were able to find a time to meet up to get some images for her modeling portfolio. Finally, we spent some time at Old Poway Park one afternoon and got some amazing shots! It was a really fun afternoon!

Tarza brought a traditional Kurdish outfit to use for a handful of shots. It was beautiful!

Thank you, Tarza, for allowing me to photograph you!

xoxo,
Lauren

San Diego Shooting Group 06 – Del Mar

Posted October 04, 2011 In Portraits, San Diego Shooting Group

If you haven’t heard, I have taken over the reigns as the organizer for the Facebook-based San Diego Shooting Group. We’re a group of photographers that get together every other month to learn a little about photography, photograph a model or two, and have a lot of fun! I somehow convinced Shari of Shari Barnes Photography to join me as co-organizer of the group, and I’m so glad she’s on board!

For our last get-together, we met up at Powerhouse Park in Del Mar. I spoke about using one speedlight to enhance portrait work while Shari demonstrated the use of one studio strobe. We split up for most of the shoot, then came together at the end. Since I was helping others take photographs, I typically don’t really use my camera at all. However, this evening, I took advantage of the modeling light on Shari’s B-800 while some of the group members were photographing Lena. These were taken after the sun went down, and it was DARK out there! I mean really dark! I couldn’t even see my own hands! (Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration! But just a little bit!) To combat the darkness, I bumped up my ISO and captured the following.

Pretty neat, huh? :)

Ok, time out! Skip ahead if you don’t want to nerd out about high ISO settings! All three of these shots were taken using my 50mm f/1.8 lens. The first two were taken at f/1.8 and 1/60sec. That last one was taken at 1/250sec and f/2.0! How, you ask? Well, for the first two, I was shooting at ISO 1600. For the last one, I bumped it up even higher. Anyone want to guess what ISO I had my camera set to? I’ll give you a couple of days to think about it, then reveal the answer here!

The San Diego Shooting Group is having its next event on Sunday, October 16 at a winery in Temecula! If you are interested in joining us, please find us on Facebook here! And, if you’d like a ticket to our next event, they will be going on sale this Thursday (10/6) promptly at 7:00 pm Pacific time at http://sdsg07.eventbrite.com/. I hope to see you there!

xoxo,
Lauren

p.s. Don’t forget to leave your ISO guess in the comments below! :)

 

*UPDATE – October 9, 2011*

Robby’s math wins this round! He’s correct: I shot the third shot at ISO 6400. This was my first opportunity to see how far I could bump the ISO, and I was interested to see how it would turn out. :) Great job, Robby!


HeartsApart.org

Posted October 01, 2011 In Military, Portraits

A few months ago, I came across HeartsApart.org, a relatively new organization that matches deploying military members with photographers to capture images of them and their families. The organization then takes several of the images and prints them on a unique waterproof card that the service member can keep in his pocket while deployed. How cool is that??

As soon as I heard about HeartsApart.org, I knew I wanted to get involved. As a Marine spouse, I would’ve loved to have been able to give one of those cards (filled with gorgeous photographs of me of course!) to my husband to take to Afghanistan. I applied to be an affiliated photographer right away. You can imagine how excited I was when I found out that my application had been approved!

I have been able to do two photography sessions for HeartsApart.org so far, and hope to continue to work with them in the future! Here are just a handful of my favorite shots from those two sessions.

Here is a little more information about HeartsApart.org from their website:

HeartsApart.org was created to keep families connected while our military men and women are serving abroad. Through the efforts of our community’s finest photographers, HeartsApart.org provides our soon to be deployed servicemen and women with pictures of their spouses and children. The photographs are printed on waterproof and durable bi-folded cards, which fit securely in their uniform pocket. HeartsApart.org believes that our military personnel deserve and need the memory of their families to carry them through the difficult times that lie ahead.

Founded in North Carolina, home to Pope AFB, Seymour Johnson AFB, Fort Bragg, Camp Lejeune, MCAS Cherry Point and MCAS New River, we have begun our volunteer efforts in our own backyard but hope to organize and mobilize photographers across the country.

The goal of HeartsApart.org is simple. As long as servicemen and women are in harm’s way and separated from their families, we will be taking pictures. There is no end to the project – just a commitment to continue to serve our Armed Forces while they continue to serve us.

If you or your spouse are preparing for an upcoming deployment and would like to be blessed with gorgeous photographs to help ease the separation, please contact the Project Director at [email protected].

Happy Autumn, everyone!

xoxo,
Lauren

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