‘Nuff said. It has been a fantastically busy summer with photo shoots, new websites and ventures, socializing, and my full time day job all balanced nicely into my compact little life. This summer’s been a fun ride.

For some reason I always pile way too much on my place and in order to do that, I gotta let some things go. Blogging has been one of those things. With the summer wrapping up shortly, my schedule will not be so hectic and I’m sure I’ll get around to posting the many shoots I’ve done this summer, including my very first weddings!!!

Sit tight.

In the meantime, add me as a friend on Facebook and check out some of my photos there. I’m not entirely lame – I still post some of my recent work for friends to see.

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Do you know a girl who has overcome so much to reach her goal of graduating? We’re looking for 5 spectacular girls who you think deserve to be pampered and photographed in a fashion inspired shoot! Deadline for nominations are June 15, 2010!

I’ve been working my butt off to finish a course for school called Managing Change. It’s as exciting as it sounds. I’m almost done though — the deadline to hand in my last project is TOMORROW. I’m way too excited about finally finishing that I haven’t even started working on it and it’s 8pm and I’m blogging instead. What a great student I am. I’m always up for finding a reason to celebrate and why not celebrate my course completion by blogging some of the engagement photographs I took on Valentine’s Day with this hot little couple? Makes sense to me.

This couple is the fabulous Mary and Derrick. I’ve known Mary for a few years through her sister who I work with. Remember the firecracker Persian I blogged about a few months ago? What she is to a firecracker, Mary is to dynamite. It doesn’t get more logical than that my friends. Fearless, fabulous and fashionable…she’s the girl you want to bring out with you when you go out because you’ll have that much more fun if you do. And her man Derrick is one of the best chefs around, not to mention a genuinely nice guy. Chef + nice guy = taken. Seriously, he used some weird ingredients in Pad Thai one night but it was scrump-donctious! I didn’t even know there was such a thing as preserved turnip or that it would be meant for eating.

Their destination wedding in Mexico this November is a little out of my reach unfortunately but I will be there to photograph the reception when they get back. I am so excited for their wedding! They are a fabulous couple and I am so happy for them. So here they are, frolicking around in Rocky Point in front of my camera.

I mentioned previously that Tanya knows a girl who knows a girl. Well, Kristy is one of the girls that Tanya knows. Can I say again how much I love referrals?

I actually did a couples shoot with Kristy and her boyfriend on Valentine’s day which I have yet to blog (I will soon! They have a cute story.) After that shoot she wanted to try a boudoir session, so in March we did. I just love the energy Kristy brought with her. She’s probably used to being the presence in the room because she’s stunning and incredibly TALL (compared to me anyway), and I don’t think there were any exceptions during our shoot. She rocked it! Kristy has a wicked smile and I didn’t want her to hide it too much during the shoot, and I’m glad she let me make her laugh for some of the shots.

Check out her dimples and try not to like this girl.

This girl is sassy. She’s fun. She is funny and she is giggly! I learned more about Tanya in 2 hours than I ever thought possible and I enjoyed every minute of our conversation. I’m sure I even said more than I meant to but I guess that just happens when you’re having fun. And no, I can’t repeat some of it. Tanya had me and my makeup artist, Chelsea laughing our butts off while she was getting dolled up and this continued throughout the shoot. She told me she never wears heels then she comes out from changing in these 4″ death traps with a feather boa on, looking fierce!

Tanya is the girl who knows the girl who knows a girl. She’s a connector, as Malcolm Gladwell would say. She referred many a client my way and I’m so thankful I’ve met so many wonderful people because of her. I hope we’ll work together again.

This shoot was actually done in January. I know right…I’m pathetic as far as getting posts done right away. In fact, I’ve got TONS of shoots to blog about so stay tuned!

Part of why I love taking people’s picture, and especially the boudoir variety, is the response I get when they see their photos. No matter what though, I always get a little nervous before each shoot and think, What if I screw it up? What if I make them feel awkward? What if they just don’t like me? What if what if what if. Irrational, maybe, but I’m a worrier! I need to feel like I nailed every single shoot, not only for my clients but for myself. Sometimes I look through the set after and wonder if I posed it differently or adjusted some setting on my camera if I could have made the picture that much better. Again with the worry.

I get giddy when I hear back from my clients and they tell me good things (that I didn’t screw up, basically). It’s just confirmation of what I was trying to accomplish I suppose. I get so much personal fulfillment out of making my clients images that they’ll have forever, that they’ll cherish.

Kari’s email to me after she saw her photos literally made my week. At the risk of being incredibly tacky posting it, I just have to share because it really means a lot to have a client say such amazing things:

It’s late and I just got home from a girls night out and all I can say is WOW!!!! I am so impressed by your photographic ability!!! It is going to be tough to choose. Thanks so much for the day spent with you – you are definitely going places girl – you have the eye – you have the talent. I honestly cant say more than WOW!! Way better than I ever expected. Kudos to Chelsea as well for a FABULOUS job on the makeup!! I am so impressed with both of you. Thank you thank you thank you!!! You have captured everything I hoped you would.

See what I mean? The reciprocation of good feelings and warm hugs and soft fuzzies exists in boudoir photography. I love it!

As I start to feel better from this cold/flu/strep throat germ bonanza I’ve been coping with for the past 10 days, I thought I’d get back to my blog that I love dearly but have not given nearly enough attention to lately. What a better way to get rolling than with boudoir photos of this lovely lady, Miss A.

She brought her own makeup/hair artist and came with a plan. I love when clients bring images of what they like because I soak up the inspiration. It also helps align the client’s vision for the shoot along with mine. Literally, so we’re on the same page. She had pictures for what she wanted her hair to look like, her makeup to look like and some poses that she wanted to try out. She showed me images from Maxim magazine that inspired some ideas for the shoot and I have to say, I loved the idea. Seriously, how cute is the coffee cup/newspaper idea?!

And now what you’ve been waiting for…

Makeup by the lovely Jazmin Sanderson.

I usually don’t think twice about asking something like, “are those hair extensions?” Maybe I have no boundaries, but that’s just me. When a girl says no to that question I get a little bit envious because I wasn’t exactly blessed with thick, luxurious, shampoo-commercial-worthy hair. For the record, I wasn’t blessed with naturally long eyelashes either. In fact, they’re the opposite of long. I am the worlds biggest advocate for falsies but I still haven’t figured out an easy way to get those suckers on.

Christina rocked the long sexy hair, the boudoir eyes and the hawt little outfits. She came with many ideas and fired off poses like nobody’s business! I love it when I get a creative spirit in the room with me and the magic just flows from there. She had her hair shaking, her body twisting, all while keeping her face so pretty.

Yes…she’s a natural all the way.

When thinking of what to write about Charmaine, the first word that quickly came to mind was radiant. The second was charming and then I thought DUH, that’s plagiarism. When she walked into my place for her shoot she was a little nervous but nevertheless glowing. She was the perfect candidate to glam up with moulin rouge lips and romantic eyes…she has that face that can pull off something that dramatic. Maybe a little too dramatic because the first thing she said when she looked in the mirror was “HOLY CRAP!” We laughed and I explained the makeup doesn’t exactly translate the same way on camera.

One thing I noticed about her is that her smile shows how she’s really feeling – not a good poker face at all – but again, extremely charming. This girl has definitely lived up to her name.

Introducing the lovely Charmaine…

Part of being a photographer is having cool photographer friends. Like Sherry. She’s cute as a button, has a wicked shoe collection and best of all, laughs at my jokes. Now there’s two people, including myself.

We met through Twitter where I found her super sweet blog and I ended up gushing to her telling her how much I loved it. That’s how I make friends, you know. We arranged a meeting one afternoon for lunch and I dragged her to my favorite pho restaurant where we chatted about photography, school, how we got to where we are and how much chili oil I was putting in my soup.

Our day didn’t end at lunch of course! We headed out to Lafarge Lake where we swapped 50mm 1.4’s just for fun, crashed a tennis court party, and basked in the beautiful January sunshine while twirling, jumping and posing to our heart’s content. Check out Sherry’s shots of me here.

I love how she rocks the sequined ballet flats! She brought the Micki Mouse ears because she hearts Disneyland and we both put them on to get the exact same shot of each other.

Here’s my view of Sherry.