I Heart North Carolina.....

Loving it here so far! Had a nice day full of walking on trails and visited this sweet raptor center. Had a great thanksgiving dinner last night with my brother and his wife and a bunch of their cool friends. My brother made such a DELICIOUS dinner! Pictures from thanks giving and the raptor center coming soon! In the mean time.........like i said before went to the North Carolina Raptor Center and met this amazing creature.........

Rockin Thanksgiving North Carolina Style!!!

Ok so its been forever now since ive posted but here i am still alive, Jen and I are in North Carolina visiting my brother Danny and his wife Marcy. We havent done Thanksgiving yet, were actually doing that tomorrow after church with a bunch of Danny's friends. Its been a lot of fun catching up with Danny and seeing some of the area close to his house.........HOLY COW!!! This place is freaking awesome!! So many lakes and trees and cool looking parks!! Unfortunately we missed the peak of the fall colors and are here at the tail end of it but there still some leaves here and there that provide some nice color. It seriously amazes me how once you leave California everything seems to really geared towards maintaining community, just the amount of big parks and walking trails out here are a testament to that. I just always see people talking with their neighbors and walking with each other, unlike California were everything and everyone seems so distant and lonely..........i think if we hadn't bought a house we would move here in a heart beat! Went on a cool walk at this park today, super fun just walking and talking and taking pictures along the way..........i guess to summarize.......I LOVE THIS PLACE!! Heres a few pics from today.

Shauna the Magnificent...

So Shauna and my wife have been BFF's since well forever, ever since Jen and I started dating Shauna was there. Shauna is how can i put this? Well shes crazy, but not like crazy in a bad im coming to kill you crazy. Its a good kind of crazy, the person who is full of boundless energy, is up for doing anything, loves life and is always looking for the next adventure, doing crazy whacky things just for the sheer joy of it not taking into account that you might look like a total fool.......all those things are pretty much rolled into one package called Shauna Salerno. But you know, i must say that despite her incredible love for life its not what makes her such a great woman. You will never meet a more dedicated and Godly woman, if youre a person in need Shauna is the person there giving you all her time to help or just to listen. youre a person who is shy or doesnt make friends easily? Shauna is the one that there reaching out to you, introducing you to everyone she knows, her ability to reach out and makes friends with just about anyone seriously astounds me. If there is anyone that i think embodies the Lords ability for caring and reaching out to those who are hurting or outcast its Shauna. Needless to say i have a great admiration for how she is with people. My wife and i are quite prod of her right now because after years of hard work and schooling Shauna is now Graduating from Biola University and her being the 1st member of her family to graduate from college this is quite an achievement. With being close to graduation she wanted to send out invitations for it but of course you need some sweet photos to go a long with it as well........and that were i came in. My wife Shauna and myself hung out all day together and had a photo shoot in the afternoon with some incredible skies i might add. It as incredible fun and we got to do some photos with her and jen (those are coming soon) as well that were a lot of fun to do. All in all it was a great day! Were proud of you Shauna!

















this is a concept that i have always liked but have in no way mastered.....i will keep trying.

The Amazing Makenna.......

How incredible was this shoot?!?! On a scale of 1-10 it was about a billion+1! Seriously Makenna? A-MA-ZING! She seriously did soooo incredibly well. Super relaxed, laid back, very natural in front of the camera. She made my job so incredibly easy for me and it allowed me to do my job in a much more relaxed state of mind. Not only that but putting up with me and my weird ideas is always a challenge im sure, but she did very well. As you will see, yes these were shot at the Bonsall Bridge. While im not a big fan of using a location more than like 4-5 times (i get really bored really quickly) i was still up to the challenge of trying to pull something new from the location. So i played around with multiple strobes, using different lenses, really just pushing the limits of what i know and what my equipment can do. All in all it was a great afternoon, lots of fun, many things learned and more importantly we came away with some sweet photos. Really thankful that the weather held, i was worried that it was going to rain before we got to shoot. Makenna you did awesome thanks for being such a good sport, heres a few of my favorites. Enjoy!













P.S.
Senior portraits are my new favorite thing to shoot i think, really fun and i can be creative with them.

Back in the water....

Well i went to the beach yesterday afternoon to take some sunset photos......but this time from the water! Shooting in the water is a whole different animal and so many different variables to take into account int a matter of seconds it get pretty hectic. All in all it was very enjoyable and i got to take a nice little sunset swim with my lovely wife once i was done. Im not a big fan of this set of photos but i post them anyway so those of you out there that are discouraged with your photography can see that even those of us who do it for a living have crappy days. Will i try again? You better believe that i will!! You cant just give up you have to keep trying until it becomes second nature and you get it right.

Sunsets galore!!

The last few weeks have had some sweet sunsets along the coast, making places like carlsbad our own little slice of heaven. While im not really one to shoot sunsets i relented as i had not been out for a while and it gave me a chance to shoot some stuff that i could submit to the magazine. All in all it was really fun and such a great feeling getting back out there and hearing that shutter click. There are a lot of verticals but there is a reason, mostly because i was shooting for magazine content and when youre trying to get a cover it has to be a vertical. So here we go! Hope you enjoy!