San Diego is full of small trails and hidden valleys in its neighborhoods - just perfect for walking with your dog and feeling like you don't live in a major city. Sometimes, if you're ridiculously lucky, you also have a cool cat that goes on said walk with you. No big deal, just a couple in love. Going on a walk with their Bernese Mountain dog Monty. And, their cat named Bellatrix.
Quick, someone call Disney!
Caitlin and Piotr are getting married tomorrow and I am thrilled to be a part of the journey. I don't blog very often, but couldn't pass on the opportunity to share these amazing photos with the world. I feel doubly lucky that the two of them are down to earth and cool humans - I couldn't be more excited for them and I can't wait to celebrate with them tomorrow!
Without further ado, I hope you enjoy my favorite engagement photos that I've had the joy to create. We laughed, climbed trees, chased Trixy, Monty chased us, and we created magic. It was so much fun. Many thanks to Caitlin, Piotr, and of course their crazy amazing pets.
Every once in a while, I have the opportunity to photograph and create something special. This was one of those times.
Jean Guerrero is an award winning KPBS Fronteras journalist, who has been covering border issues for most of her career from both the Mexico and US side of the border. While border issues have certainly taken center stage in recent years, for Jean, the border is both literally and figuratively interwoven with her family and her identity. When Jean reached out early this year looking for headshots for her upcoming book (CRUX: A Cross-Border Memoir), I was thrilled. The memoir is a years long labor of love that chronicles her journey to understanding her father - she'd spent the better part of her twenties writing and rewriting it, and it was finally being published. So, it felt important to create portraits that would do justice to her work - to say the least.
After some thought, the obvious choice for location was the US/Mex beach border, considering her relationship with the border and its role throughout the memoir. The results are some of my favorite portraits I've taken to date - while we focused on headshots, I also knew I wanted to create portraits that resonated with Jean and her writing.
Don't forget to pick up her book, available as of this week, here: CRUX: A Cross-Border Memoir
These two are officially parents to baby boy Grayson and I'm so excited for them! I have a lot of client turned friends who I love seeing every year, but Amy and Damon were friends first which made it even more special.
Amy is a fellow photographer, whom I've had the pleasure of getting to know these last few years as our businesses have grown and challenged us. She has been a wonderful resource for me when I only have the camera to talk to! I can only hope that she feels the same. So, when it came to it, I jumped at the chance to create these images for her and Damon. It was to celebrate our friendship, to celebrate them as a couple, and to celebrate their new family. It really reminded me how important it is to document your life and share your joy with the people around you - a department where I've been lacking as life gets busy.
Earlier this year, I had the honor of being asked to photograph a fellow photographer's wedding. I was (and am still!) so flattered! Well, their wedding is around the corner and I couldn't be more excited to celebrate along side their friends and family. So, it feels like the perfect time to share their stunning engagement photos from Sunset Cliffs. It's packed with incredible landscapes, with some scary adventure in the middle.
Though Sunset Cliffs is known for it's beautiful cliff and ocean vistas, this time we had the good fortune of an extreme low tide. This gave us a unique opportunity to hike to a very private beach and photograph in some amazing surreal backdrops - practically all on our own! The whole place felt like it was out of a fantasy novel, with undisturbed sands, green oversized rocks, and a calm ocean.
Having said that, a word of caution to the adventurous - those typically water covered rocks are quite slippery without the proper shoe gear. Though I thought I was careful, I still managed to slip off a rock and barely escaped without cracking my head on one. My camera and a couple lenses weren't as lucky, but in the end I am grateful for not being airlifted out.
Now that it's been some months, I am happy to say that all is well and I am particularly proud of this shoot - I worked through the scary bit, shot in manual focus just in case, and Marisa and Scott were a dream to work with.
I hope you enjoy the images we created together as much as I do. Also, don't wear Toms on slippery rocks.
Baby Dean is so incredibly lucky and so incredibly loved.
Miracle babies like Dean don't always have the easiest time arriving but they always bring such joy and happiness with them. He was welcomed by his doting parents and as well as grandparents - they flew across the Atlantic and even knitted the most adorable outfits. The love and devotion for Dean came through in every frame and it was difficult to narrow it down without going completely overboard.
I've known Michelle for a few years now, having photographed her (and her furry baby!) a few times before. The four legged furry baby may now have some competition for attention, but he's not going anywhere anytime soon. It has been such a privilege to get to call her my friend and not only a client. I am beyond happy to have had the chance to document this new chapter in her life and get to know her family and new normal. We started our photographic journey on the beach, but have continued on to the nursery which may not have the same views but certainly has more magic.
We captured some amazing moments, from Dean's budding Arsenal fandom (he's a quick study) to tears of joy. I hope you love looking through these photos as much as I loved capturing them.