About two weeks ago, my friend Kristi was celebrated her 18th birthday. She was no longer the little girl that I had come to know. She was now a woman and a beautiful one, as a matter of fact.

My family, (the Endique’s) have known her parents for so many years.  They’re really good family friends that I have grown up to know as uncle Ramon and aunty Amy.  When I found out Kristi was planning her party three weeks before the event, I offered my services to them and I was so thrilled when they decided to have me as their photographer.  I really do love this family.  They are one of the sweetest and kindest families you could ever know. Her brothers, Kevin and Michael, are wonderful too! They are so supportive to their little sister.  You could really feel the love they have for one another. I’m really happy to have been a part of it.

Kristi, Aunty Amy, Uncle Ramon, Kevin, and Michael: Thank you all for being so wonderful! Not only are you considered family friends to the Endiques, but you’ve always been: family. period.

Special thanks to Natasha of NTME Photography for helping me out that day! She took photos of Kristi getting ready for the event. THANK YOU TASHA! :)

Kristi waited in the ladies room before her grand entrance, so we decided to take some photos of her in there.  Who can make a ladies room a cool place to take photos??? Kristi can…

Kristi and her grand entrance :)

Aunty Amy worked really hard on every detail used for Kristi’s birthday. From the program below, to the giveaways, centerpieces, etc.. She wanted her daughter to have a memorable debut.

With her parents :)

Her BFFs

Make a wish…

Family portrait

To view more photos, please click on the play button below to play the slideshow.

So.. I realize that I start my blog posts with “So” as an introduction :oP but that’s just me… so I apologize to my all my English teachers for this bad habit of mine.

I just wanted to post about my experience with using the Radiopopper last night.  It was my very first time using it for my off-camera flash and it worked out beautifully! I loved the way my off camera flash gave my photos a little more pop and more depth and now I’m really hooked and I am definitely going to do a lot more practice time doing night shots!

I also had an on camera flash and because we were searching online on how to attach the Radiopopper on to our on camera flash, and we couldn’t find anything, I thought it would be helpful to someone else by sharing how we attached it.  It worked perfectly for us.

Below is how we placed the velcro:

And although it looks kinda funny, it served it’s purpose.

Here are a few teaser shots from last night’s event using our on and off-camera flashes:

The off-camera flash for this photo was right behind her and the on-camera flash was pointing straight up.

We took this picture inside a white tent.  The off camera flash was pointed straight up to the ceiling and my on camera flash was pointed to my left side.

I hope this helps someone! And if anyone else has a better way, please feel free to share it with me too :o)

Almost two years ago, I was fortunate to have been the photographer for Lauralee and Steve. Two complete strangers who found my website, interviewed me at their home, and decided that they wanted me to do their wedding photos. I’m still in awe because I didn’t have much experience then as a wedding photographer, but they believed in me and hired me. For that, I am grateful.  It was also during their wedding preparations that they had told me of an idea for table numbers that they had seen somewhere and Lauralee wanted to do the same thing for her wedding. These table number were photos of the couple doing funny poses and holding numbers up.  I thought it was a genius of an idea!!!

Fast forward to this past Wednesday evening. I told Kristi about the idea and she said that she would be up to it! So, here are a couple of shots of her table numbers that she had displayed this evening during her debutante party.  I wanted to share it with whoever might want to do the same thing.  I think it’s wayyyyy better than the usual boring table numbers… and sooo much cooler too! What do you think?

Here are my favorites! These poses were for table 2 and table 5

Table 15 pose was one of my favorites and we put the S.C.A.N. brethren in table 16 ;o)

Ryan’s idea was to get his music recording equipment for Table 17 pose and another favorite of mine is Number 21

I’ve been getting bored lately. The kind of boredom that makes me want to start changing things around and do new things.  So, Ryan and decided to finally invest in Radiopoppers and a new lens!

We finally got our Radiopoppers yesterday and as soon as we got home from choir practice, we started playing around with our flashes and so far, I love it! I’ve never tried a Pocketwizard, and I know they’re more popular, but Ryan told me that this was just as good and we would get more for our money. I trust Ryan’s decisions on a lot of our equipment because he takes A LOT of time to research anything we plan to get for our business. Plus, he’s the head of the household and I must obey ;o)

We also recently purchased a Nikon 85mm f/1.4 D AF lens. Oh my goodness gracious.  I LOVE how the pictures come out from this lens! I wish I had it earlier and I can’t believe I’ve worked without it for sooo long!  Thanks Conrad M. for convincing me to get it!  I can understand why one photographer had said, “It’s not the camera or the photographer; It’s the lens!” but I still believe it’s the Photographer, the Camera, and the Lens working properly to capture a great photo!

Well, that’s pretty much it for now.  Here are two shots of my recent purchases for es-sense ;o) to add to our bags.

I love the Beltran Family! This was like our 3rd photo session within the past 5 months and every time I see them, their family grows and grows, especially baby Elle! I can’t believe how much she has grown since the last time I saw her. She is a cutie pie and the family’s little princess.  This photo shoot was pretty much dedicated to taking photos of her, but of course I needed to take a few of the family.

Dear Elle:  In case you read this when you’re all grown up, the following shots were your mom’s idea :o)

So early Sunday morning, as Ryan and I drove to church to perform our duties as choir members, we saw a shooting star! I was half awake/half asleep still, but when I saw the shooting star, that got me so excited! I was just amazed because even though it was just for a second, it was beautiful! That was the very first time I saw a shooting star and to share it with my husband made it even more special… and I don’t want to forget it.

I guess I was suppose to make a wish or something, but I didn’t.  Why wish for things that I already have?  I have what’s most important and that is my faith, my family, and my life. Really, there is nothing more that I want more than those 3 things. God has given me everything I need and for that I am thankful.

Since photos make blog posts more interesting, here’s a teaser for the Beltran family.

I’ve known her since she was born. My family have been close friends with her mom and dad since I was young. Now we’re all grown up and Kristi is turning 18 this Friday! Everything about Kristi is beautiful. Her smile, her personality, and most especially her faith. I’m so glad I’ll be there to celebrate her birthday with her, her family and friends and at the same time, I will get to document her special day.

I want to thank my cousin-in-law, Tasha, for coming along on Sunday as well as helping us out this Friday! It was a lot of fun on Sunday learning ideas from each other!

Here are of my favorites from the session:

To view more photos, please play the slideshow below.

Music Title: Symphony

Artist: Marie Digby

I’m way to excited to wait till the evening to post up a photo from yesterday’s portrait session with my friend Kristi, so I’m just going to post one picture up.  More to come tonight! I promise!

We took their engagement photos a week ago, and now we’re posting their wedding photos!

Rochelle and Erman tied the knot on Friday, February 19, 2010 and it was truly one of my favorite weddings that I have attended. Before anything else, I just wanted to say a special big THANK YOU to Michael Fletcher for coming out and helping me and Ryan that day. He’s totally awesome and we really enjoyed working with him.  He’s based in Riverside, CA, but drove all the way to Moorpark, CA to help us out and I really appreciate it a lot!

Now to Rochelle and Erman: First of all, CONGRATULATIONS! Thank you so much for having us! You two took me to one crazy emotional roller coaster of a wedding! I’m so happy for the both of you! You guys are so perfect for one another! When I see Rochelle, I can see only Erman by her side, and when I see Erman, I can only see Rochelle. Praise be unto God for bringing you both together! Your family and friends are so much fun! We’re really glad we got to spend time with all of you!

Without further delay, here are my favorites from the day.

Michael took this shot of Rochelle’s bouquet. The pink roses and or orchid on the bouquet was in remembrance of her grandmothers.

The bride :o)

The dress.

Rochelle meeting Erman for their first look.

I love working with Krystle Mae Eveza of Bloomeria Floral Designs. She always does a BEAUTIFUL job!

The shot is blurry, but I like it :o)

A couple more detail shots.

The following day, they had a second reception at Rochelle’s parent’s house. We took some fun shots on the street :o)

Shanae and Jona are so awesome! They were up for some fun shots with Erman and Rochelle :o)

Wanna see more? Click on the play button below for their slideshow!

Ryan and I had a really great weekend and I wanted to document our past Saturday getaway so that I’ll remember what we did.

We drove down to San Diego on Friday and stayed at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel and had a night out eating dinner at an Italian Restaurant and watching the movie, “Dear John”. We went to bed late and I told myself I wouldn’t wake up till at least 8AM, but woke up early (around 6:30 A.M.) because I wanted to work out.  Yes my friends, I woke up early on a Saturday morning to work out! I’m proud that I have been working out! :o)

I went to the fitness center and did 30 minutes on the treadmill and another 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. Ryan did his mile on the treadmill and then he decided to go swimming after telling me he wasn’t going to go because we had left his goggles at home. But I know him all to well. I didn’t push him to go swimming because I knew he was going to go swim. Even after he kept on insisting that he wouldn’t, I was right because he did.

Afterwards, we ate our breakfast buffet at the hotel’s restaurant and I had two mini waffles, two sausages, two bacons, toast, and orange juice.  I really don’t know how much calories that was and I feel a little bit bad that I didn’t log it on my iphone’s Sparkpeople app, but I didn’t care.. I wanted to enjoy our day and start it off with a good breakfast.

It’s a good thing we had a big breakfast because from there, we were non-stop with two photo sessions. We had another session with the Beltran Family, this time focusing mostly on baby Elle.  Then, we went straight to Balboa Park where we met up with Charlene and Adrian and had so much fun!  I enjoyed our dinner with them at Islands Restaurant and I want to thank Adrian for treating us out that night.  It was so much fun and I loved hanging out with the two of them! I enjoy getting to know people :)

We left for home (Long Beach) afterwards and all I remember is falling asleep while Ryan drove back.  I was so tired that I pretty much crashed on my bed when we got home and I went to sleep because we had worship service the next day and we were performing.

Our getaway was short, but I really enjoyed every minute of it. I love spending these kinds of days with Ryan and we plan to spend more days like it, this year! It really is important, as a couple, to keep “dating” even though we’re busier than ever.

Here is a picture that Adrian took of us before going to dinner with them at Islands Restaurant :o) – THANK YOU ADRIAN!!

I also wanted to make note that after this picture was taken, Ryan and I saw dolphins swimming and jumping out of the water!! That was the first time I saw Dolphins doing that in the ocean! It made me happy and excited because I LOVE DOLPHINS!! :o)