You may have been wondering where I’ve been.  I haven’t blogged for almost two months, I check facebook maybe once a week, and returning emails isn’t happening. I promise, it’s been for a really good reason.

I’d like to officially introduce you to our little foster daughter Emma. She just turned 1 month old on Wednesday.  We met her on New Year’s Day in the NICU at USC, and brought her home 1 week later. Our hope and prayer is that we’ll get to adopt her.  This is a long process so we would covet all your prayers.

Jeff’s Aunt Patty bought Eva the cutest purple tutu, and I remembered that I had a little tutu for Emma.  It hardly fits her, as she was only 5 lbs in these pictures.  But, we made it work and had fun doing it. As you can see Eva loves her so much. She can’t say baby, so she calls her “Dee Dee”.

Meet Emma.

I leave you with a few fun pictures of Eva.  We gave the dog a bath today, and she was so dirty I had to strip her down to her diaper and boots. I couldn’t resist.

Love works in mysterious ways, that’s for sure.  Our cousin Erin never thought by taking a job down in El Centro, California she would meet the love of her life, but she did.  It’s cute to hear them share their story.  One day Mario was in the break room while Erin was eating her lunch, and he instantly knew he had to talk to her. Of course Erin was checking him out at the same time.   After a few dates, they realized they were falling for each other quickly.  On October 11th, 2009 they were engaged. We are so excited for their upcoming wedding next year.

During the engagement session it was so sweet to hear Mario tell Erin how beautiful she looked, and how much he loved her.  The affection and verbal affirmation between the two of them is very touching.

I was so excited when I heard that my cousin and his family were moving to California.  You may not know this, but I lived in Pennsylvania for two years while I was finishing college. During those two years my dad’s cousin Ron graciously let me live with him and his son.  Growing up in California I always felt somewhat removed from my east coast family.  My dad grew up near Philadelphia and that’s where most of his family still lives. Those two years gave me a chance to reconnect with my dad’s side of the family. I loved the family dinners cousin Denise cooked and seeing everyone during that time.  When I heard my cousin Sal was moving out west, I was ecstatic.  It’s been fun to see them in the past few months and get to know his beautiful wife and children.

We decided to shoot in Seal Beach where they are living. Yes, east coast family, these pictures were taken this month and “YES” they are barefoot.  The temperature did start to drop as the sun went down to a cool 60 degrees. But, as you can see we had a good time.

As you can see, Tori loved modeling. I think I may hire her for my next shoot. She’s a natural.

I remember years ago, playing dress up with my friends, imagining what it would be like to be a woman.  One of my favorite things to do was to dig through my Mother’s closet, and hide in the bathroom, practicing with her make-up for what seemed like hours in my mind, which was actually only minutes because my brother would start knocking on the door annoying me.  Even to this day,  I love to get all dressed up and feel beautiful.  It doesn’t happen very often when I get to put on a pair of high heels, or sassy boots, dawn the bright red lips, and go out for a night on the town. But, when it does, I still feel like that little girl digging through my Mom’s closet, and trying on her make-up, excited to feel beautiful again.

Boudoir style photo shoots have always intrigued me.  I love how I feel when I’m all dressed up and love to captures a woman’s beauty.  The opportunity I was given was amazing.  My girlfriend’s sister owns the Ultra Lux Salon and Lounge in Redondo Beach.  You walk in and you immediately feel like you’ve stepped back in time. From the red and black wall paper, to the pink hair dryers, and old vintage prints, the owners Tricia and Deanna put their hearts and souls into this place.  They graciously opened up their second home to us, provided the girls with killer hair and make-up to make our photo shoot amazing.

A big thank you must go out to the Ultra Lux Salon and Lounge family, without you this wouldn’t have been possible. Thanks also must go to Ming, Alice and Noah, my fellow photographers for providing support and talent for this shoot.  A big thank you to Pin-up Girl Clothing for providing the outfits.

And I can’t forget our models Jennifer, Allison and Kaylie for rocking the shoot and giving us some beautiful images.

Jennifer is our first model. I grew up with her and her twin sister and have known them from Junior High.  Most of the pictures were too sizzling to post. But here are some of the tamer ones.

Allison is a good friend of Jennifer’s and had such a great look that I loved.

Kaylie has joined us before on some of the previous shoots. She’s a college student just wanting to break into modeling.  The girl transforms and can move her body so beautifully.  She’s definitely a favorite among my photog friends to capture.

I have to tell you, I’m getting pretty spoiled working with all these amazing models, make-up artists and photographers.  Every shoot, I learn something new.  This shoot was no different.  Through the help of a photog friend, I’ve just purchased some off camera lighting. It was so fun to play around, mess with my settings and try to get it just right.  If you don’t have any off camera lighting and are looking to purchase some items without spending a fortune, check out the “Cactus” trigger.  It’s only $30, and it worked great.

A Big Thank You:

Thank You Alicia and Rita for putting on this amazing shoot. You thought through every detail and made your vision come to life.

Rita Clifton

Alicia Salcedo

Kelli Benson

Make-up Artist:

Crystal Roberts

Crystal, you made everyone look so fierce.

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Jarred and Valentina

Kaylie and Bryan

Kaylie

Valentina and Kaylie

What are the Uilleann Pipes you may ask?  When one thinks of bagpipes, you instantly have an image of a Scottish man, dressed in a kilt, playing the “Highland” bagpipes. But, what many people don’t know is that the Irish also have bagpipes.  The differences are quite distinct.  The Scottish play with their mouth, forcing air into a bag, and then pushing the air out with their arm. The Irish don’t use their mouths at all. Instead they have a separate bellows that forces air into the bag in which they press through the pipes. The sound is much more subtle than the Scottish bagpipes. The Scottish traditionally used them in times of war.  The Irish use them in times of song and drinking. But, don’t quote me on these facts.

My husband became obsessed with bagpipes after seeing a band from Australia called “Brother” play the Highland bagpipes. It was a great mix of rock and bagpipes. Looking to purchase his own set he stumbled upon the Uilleann Bagpipes. He soon found a club in Southern California that meets to play and learn about these beautiful instruments called the “Southern California Uilleann Pipers’ Club”.  

We had the privilege of attending an amazing concert held down in San Juan Capistrano of some very talented artists playing these amazing instruments.  The first was a man by the name of Ivan Goff. He’s originally from Dublin, but now living in New York.  The second guest was Kevin Rowsome.  To hear some tunes check out this website and enjoy the sounds of the Uilleann Bagpipes.

Patrick D’Arcy

Ivan Goff

Kevin Rowsome

Ivan and Kevin playing a few tunes together.

It didn’t take much thought this year to come up with the perfect costume for Eva.  Lately, she’s been into roaring like a lion.  Her Papa (my Dad) always growls to her on the telephone.  So every time she talks to him she says, “Papa…grrrr!”. She also calls Jeff’s dad “Papa”, but we know the difference when she says, “Papa..grrr” that she is referring to my dad.  It got me thinking about how cute she would look in a lion outfit, growling down the boulevard with her golden locks coming through the lion’s mane.

We had such a fun time with our friends and their son Lance. We met up at the Riviera Village in Redondo Beach where they block off an entire section of the road for families to walk up and down and collect candy from the store owners.  It was exhausting but fun. We ended the night at one of our favorite spots for dinner and a few brews at the “Redondo Beach Brewing Company”.

Here’s Lance as a “Swash-buckling Pirate”. I think he played the role pretty well.

As you can see from the picture on the right Eva is trying to lean in for a kiss.  But, Pirates don’t kiss…they have serious pirating to do.

They held hands for a few seconds just enough time for me to snap these few pictures.

Jeff and I moved into our neighborhood 8 1/2 years ago.  The day we moved in we knew we had good neighbors when we stopped by to ask for a good pizza place to order pizza for our moving crew that day. They not only gave us a great referral but clipped a few coupons as well and let us use their telephone.  We’ve been blessed to know this precious family.  We look out for each other in many ways, the kind of neighbors that you can call up and ask for an egg or cup of flour if you’re in a bind.  I was so excited when Krissy asked me to photograph her precious daughter Nohea.  I had photographed her son when he was the same age back in the film days when I was just starting out in photography.  We decided to get the whole family involved.  

It’s fun to get the parents away for a few minutes for some intimate photos.  

I leave you with my favorite from the day.

As you all know adoption holds a very special place in my heart.  Adopting our beautiful daughter was such a gift from God.  Our very close friends adopted a little boy the same year we did.  Our lives have been parallel in many ways, from marrying the same year, to our shared infertility struggles, and now as we both approach adopting a second child.

The adoption of their son was different then what we have experienced and what is normally experienced when adopting through the County. They’ve become good friends with the birth parents of their precious son, and have built a close relationship with them.  Much to their surprise, on a Sunday afternoon when the birth parents came for their monthly visit, they announced that they were expecting.  The birth parents had thought long and hard about this new baby, knowing that they are in a different place then where they were a few years back, but knew in their hearts they wanted to give this baby to Jen and Andy, and for little Lance to have his full biological sibling.

It’s amazing how things happen.  Neither one of us, 11 years ago when we married, thought we would have each adopted a child let alone a second one.  We are so incredibly happy for our dear friends, and can’t wait to welcome this precious baby into our hearts and lives.  By the way, IT’S A GIRL!  Lance prayed for a baby sister for over 1 year.  God hears the cries of his little ones, and HE does answer our prayers!

Jen’s sister-in-law Tina, threw such a beautiful baby shower.  I loved all the details and the location.

Here’s Tina and Jen, sharing a hug and kiss after Jen gave her a thank you gift.

Jen’s a hair stylist, so this gift was so perfect.

Here’s the family, Jen, Andy and Lance.

In the past few months, I’ve had so many opportunities to grow and stretch myself as a photographer. With the help of many photog friends, last night was no different.  I have to say, I was a little terrified walking into an actual studio for the first time.  Strobe lights, sensors, and back drops are foreign to me in the world of photography.  All of my experience thus far had been using natural light and the occasional external flash. Thanks to my good friend Ming that invited me to tag along, I learned about off camera lighting and how to adjust my camera settings to get the “shot”.

Here are some of my favorites from the day.

Model: Ali

Model: Valentina