Archive for the ‘portrait’ Category

I met Rachel through my good friend Lisa (check out Lisa’s pregnancy photos here). They were roommates in college back in New Jersey and decided to move out together to California and start a new life here on the west coast. They both met and married men they met while living in Belmont Shores, and both had babies this year.  I love stories like this between best friends.  Rachel and Mark have a beautiful 5 month old little girl. She’s so sweet, and has the perfect chubby legs…I just wanted to eat them!  This is such a beautiful couple, inside and out.  I’m so thankful for their friendship and wish them many blessings on their new journey as parents.

I love this one.  So sweet!

Many years ago I met the Lee family through mutual friends. At that time they only had their oldest daughter.  We’ve recently reconnected and I was so excited when they contacted me to do their family photos. They just adopted a little boy from Korea, and as I was taking their photos I found myself getting extremely emotional as I watched this family interact with each other, as they’ve opened up their hearts, and souls to this little one. His sisters are already protective of him and Mom and Dad are beaming with love for him.  I believe this family is fulfilling one of the greatest callings we have as we are mandated in scripture to care for widows and orphans. I praise God for families like the Lee family that are willing to move forward, open their home, their hearts and souls to care for this precious child.

I can distinctly remember my senior prom back in 1992.  The style of dresses back then were right about knee length, and I like Abrea wore a cream dress. I need to dig up some old photos and post a few. My hair was down to the middle of my back and I wore it up. It took the poor hairstylist over 2 hours to curl and pin my hair.  Looking back at my photo, I have no idea why I had her pin it up like that. I guess it was the style, like the spiral perms, and shoes dyed to match your dress (YIKES!).

Sweet Abrea left her hairstylist in tears as she said it was a beauty pageant hairdo gone wrong!  She immediately rushed home, called over her Auntie to do some quick work.  Abrea’s Mom had asked me to come over to snap a few pictures before she left.  You’ll remember Abrea from her senior shoot last year.  Her Auntie made her hair look awesome, and no one would have known that it had been a disaster just an hour before.

One of the best parts of the day was getting to carpool up with KrisDMauga and her assistant Amanda.  I felt free!  Free to have an adult conversation without the constant interruption.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my girls, but I also love GIRL time.This was only the second time I had met KrisD but from the moment I met her at her home I felt at ease.  She’s a fellow photog, and does amazing work. Check out her post from the day, you’ll love it. We ended the day sharing a bottle of wine, and sharing stories from the shoot.  I can’t wait to take these girl up on our night out at George’s soon!

I mentioned in my previous post that I raffled off a free boudoir session. Well, Claire won it, and believe me Steven is super excited.  Their wedding isn’t until next year,  but I’m so excited to do this for them, and I know Claire will have fun with it.

Meet Claire and Steven:

I loved the teasing, whispers and laughter that they shared between them.

Meet Nichole and Casey:

Nichole’s eyes were stunning as you can see…and they are so sweet and kind to each other. I loved their chemistry.

Look at those eyes…beautiful.

Meet Julia and Tom:

They were easy going, and carefree. We shared a few drinks after the shoot.  Julia’s a fashion designer and starting her business.  She looked stunning.

Many years ago, when I was attending college in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania I met Carla. Coming from California, I felt a little out of place in Northeastern, PA…but when I met Carla and found out she too was from Cali we instantly had a connection. Cleaning houses was one of the many jobs I had during those two years, and I had always looked forward to going over to Carla’s home.  The first 30 minutes to 1 hour we spent talking over 1 or 2 cups of hot tea.  She would share with me the challenges of raising teenage girls, and I shared with her about my family, school, and new found love. I’d finally look at the time, and knew I had to get started, but never wanted to stop chatting with her.  We always had the best conversations and built a special friendship through those two years.

It was the summer before my senior year of college that I met Jeff.  He flew out with me before I started school to get a feeling of where I lived before we endured 1 long year of long distance. He had one year left of his Master’s and it was probably a good thing we were long distance through our last years of school. :)

On October 31st, 1997 I got the biggest surprise of my life.  I was cleaning one of the upstairs bathrooms, yellow gloves on and all when Carla called for me quickly. As I approached the top of the stairs I saw Jeff at the front door. I honestly almost passed out, sat down at the top of the stairs because I felt so dizzy and immediately put my head down to my knees. I thought I was dreaming.  He had called Carla the week before to arrange everything.  I had no idea what would come next.

Carla immediately told me to get out of there, that I was free to go. We rushed to my house so I could change clothes and we were headed to the most beautiful State park which we had visited together back in August.  This is where he proposed.  He sang me a song that he had wrote, got down on one knee, and took out a shiny rock!  I was shocked. We had only dated about 4 months, but I already knew in my heart that I wanted to marry him. As he patiently awaited my answer, I finally said “YES” with a big hug and kiss. He had hoped I would be a crier, but I honestly was still in shock from the surprise at Carla’s house to the proposal. I was so excited!

Well, Carla moved back to California about 6 years ago. It’s been fun to have her close by, although we don’t get to see each other enough.  I had the privilege of seeing her oldest daughter married a few years back, and visited her in Del Mar. She’s now a licensed “Life Coach” and is starting her business. She contacted me needing some head shots, and I was excited to help her out. I can’t share with you all the details of her business venture, but it’s going to be GOOD.  Contact her at cbeachcoaching@aol.com if you are in need of a Life Coach. She’s fantastic.

Today I realized I’ve come a really long way.  Ten years ago, Jeff and I wanted to start a family.  We struggled with infertility for 8 years.  Each new friend that was pregnant made my heart ache.  The emotions of feeling happy for my friend, but at the same time feeling so incredibly sad that we weren’t able to have our own was overwhelming at times. If you’ve been there, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  And if  you haven’t, you can imagine the pain I felt.  Infertility is a loss, and  you walk through a very real grieving process.  Anger, depression, sadness, and emptiness were just a few of the emotions I felt throughout those 8 years.

I remember the day so clearly in 2006 when God began to take the pain away, and I shed my very last tear over not being able to get pregnant. “Enough is enough…I’m so tired of crying over this Lord, please take this pain away and heal my heart.”  It was only a few months later that we started down the long road towards foster/adoption and began a new journey.  Looking back I wouldn’t change my journey, my very own story for anything.  I realize that it was difficult, overwhelming and at times unbearable, but without these struggles I wouldn’t be the woman I am today, and we wouldn’t have the children that God has so graciously blessed us with.

Pregnancy photos make me smile.  Although I’ve never been pregnant  myself, I love how a woman carrying a child in her womb glows and smiles knowing that soon she will hold her child tenderly in her arms.  It’s a beautiful moment in time, that goes so fast.  One of my best friends came down to visit this weekend.  She recently moved up to the Bay area, and I’ve missed her so much. She was my co-worker for over 6 years, and a friend that walked beside me in my journey of infertility and adoption.  She’s the sweetest person you’ll ever meet, and will be such a loving mother.  I’m so happy for Lisa and her husband and can’t wait to meet her little man.

Meet our friend Chris. I call him my husband’s brother from another mother. They are best buds, and not only have been mistaken for one another, but love to write, record and play music together.  We are so blessed by his friendship. He needed some pictures, and I desperately needed to get out and get behind the camera. It’s been since early December, and OHHHH how I’ve missed it!  We only had 45 minutes, but had fun on our mini shoot.