The Ring

I love this stuff! To me this is a true Christmas story! Years ago...if I dare say 20+, when I lived in Illinois, I found a class ring in a park. I never thought I'd actually be able to find it's owner, but always kept the ring in my jewelry box. Earlier this week I spotted the ring and for some reason pulled it out. I asked my husband, Mike, who has been finding a lot of old friends and classmates lately on Facebook, to try to find the owner of the ring. Of course we had the name of the school and the year, but her name was inscribed on the inside as well. He found who he thought was the owner of the ring and dropped her a line through Facebook. He told her that we had the ring and that if she would call me and give a good description, we'd be happy to return it to her. Well, she called yesterday, and through her excitement and tears described in perfect detail this long lost treasure. She graduated in 1983 and the ring had been stolen from her in her Junior year of High School!! Today, I'm sending out the ring, and she will have it by Christmas. Though you might think the gift is all hers, it's really a gift to me too for finally being able to reunite this ring with it's long lost owner.

Giving Back II

Anthony's Daddy is deployed right now, and will be for a while. Anthony is 15 months old and has a lot of energy. I'll be sending some photos from this shoot to his Dad, which I'm sure will be a welcome holiday treat! It's my very small way of giving back to our military members who sacrifice so much.

Happy Holidays!

I'm a bad blogger! Hopefully I will find a little more time in the next month or so to post more often. Things slow down a little this time of year, so I won't have many excuses! This post isn't about my bad blogging habits though. It's about this special time of year that is the holidays. It's a time to enjoy family and great friends. It's a time to remember all of the things that we are thankful for...and even though our country seems to be struggling financially, I know that a good majority of us have many, many things to be thankful for. So here's to celebrating the good things in life, our families, and friends. May the season be filled with magical times for you and yours.

Alex's Newborn Photos

Baby Alex is a new addition to the family of my great friends, Staci and Dan. One thing about photographing newborns is that you must do the shoot on their time. With a little patience and some help from the new Mommy and Daddy we ended up with some fantastic shots of this precious little guy. Even Pete the dog was on board with making sure everything went smoothly.

On Stage with Jack Johnson

Recently, I was invited by my great friend, Kathie, to join her onstage with Jack Johnson. It was such a fun way to catch the show. Jack Johnson is an amazing singer, songwriter, and musician from Hawaii and does a great job of spreading the message of conservation, global change, and just plain living right. Gotta love him! To find out more about him, click here to visit his site. Pro cameras and flash are not allowed on stage, so, I snapped a few with my little pocket camera:) Thanks Kathie!

The Krause Family

Mike and ReJana Krause are two fabulous photographers from Dallas, Texas. They came to San Diego and arranged for me to do some photos of them and their beautiful little girl, Gracie. We has such a blast! We covered just about all of Sea Port Village where Gracie seemed to make friends every time she turned around. Then we all rode the merry-go-round. As you can see, this was thrilling for Gracie and almost like an extreme sport for me. Trying to keep your balance and take photos facing backwards on a merry-go-round is a real challenge. My great husband Mike, who was shooting with me that day, was kind enough to put his camera down gracefully help me keep my balance. HA! After our shoot we all enjoyed an awesome sushi lunch at RA! Check Mike and ReJana out at Blu Door Studios

Ellen Degeneres Rocks!

I'm sure you've heard that Aloha airlines went under at the beginning of April. We had our tickets booked on Aloha for Sarah and Charlie's wedding in Maui. When we heard about the closing, we re-booked our tickets immediately on another airline. I always give myself cushion on the front side of a wedding trip to avoid unexpected problems with travel. Glad I did! I was still able to purchase tickets for the original days of scheduled travel. Sarah and Charlie, however, were not as lucky. They had her tickets booked on ATA, who also declared bankruptcy just a few days after Aloha. They were left stranded at the airport, Sarah with her wedding dress in hand. Several news stations interviewed them. They were the hot news "destination wedding bride and groom stranded at LAX". The GREAT news is that Ellen DeGeneres got wind of this and bought them new tickets. They were able to get to Maui just a few days behind schedule, but in plenty of time for the wedding. Her family arrived the day before the wedding and ended up paying astronomical prices for tickets. Several guests lost out and were not able to come at all. The wedding went on as scheduled, just with fewer guests than expected. It was a fabulous day, but my heart went out to the bride and groom, as I know it was not exactly the dream trip they had planned! I've always loved Ellen Degeneres, and now I do even that much more!! Thanks Ellen!

Frank Sinatra Estate Wedding Published!

Back to blogging! Here we go... It's great to have the blog back up so we can share what we've been up to lately. The wedding that we photographed at the Frank Sinatra Estate in beautiful Palm Springs was recently published in Destination I DO magazine! This is a fantastic and classy publication that we are so proud to be a part of! The Sinatra Estate was just featured on ABC's The Bachlorette. It's a perfect location for a destination wedding. To inquire about having your destination wedding at the Sinatra Estate, visit Beau Monde Villas. In addition to the Sinatra Estate, Beau Monde Villas offers an extensive listing of luxury property rentals with locations worldwide. Pick up a copy of the magazine at your local book store and check out the Sinatra Estate Wedding and many other fabulous featured locations!

Destination: Mexico

Brenda and Albert were married in Mexico at the beautiful Quinta Puesta del Sol. Their destination wedding was an amazing celebration of love, family, and friendship. The setting was very romantic and the views of the ocean and the Coronado islands spectacular. The evening ended with a very colorful fireworks display that was a complete surprise to the bride! Congratulations Brenda and Albert!!

Giving Back

Some of the most rewarding things I've done in my career are the things that I do from my heart. As the old saying goes...the best things in life are free! Being that the holidays are upon us, I'm inspired to write about these things. A little over a year ago, I added my name to the list of photographers that can be contacted through OP Love. OP Love is simply a group of photographers that donate their time and talent to photograph military families at no cost. Sessions are generally either a homecoming when a parent or loved one is returning from deployment, or a family photo session. For the family sessions, their is usually one family member (parent) that is deployed. We, the photographers, photograph the families and send a small photo album to the deployed troop. I did 2 of these sessions this year. The first one was for the father of 3 young girls, one of which was a newborn, who was deployed. So, I photographed his 3 girls and send the album off. His wife didn't tell him ahead of time that it was coming, so it was a nice surprise to him to see his girls. Below are a few shots and the "Thank You" email that I received from this very deserving member of our military: Teri,

Good afternoon, well here where I am. As you may know my name is XXXXXXX. I am out here in XXXXX, IRAQ. I have been since January of 2008. My wife Vanessa and 3 girls (Ariana, Alayna, Andrea) are still back home in San Diego, CA. You did a photo shoot for my family in my absence and I wanted to write you to tell you THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! I did receive the photo Album/CD of the shoot and they are absolutely perfect! We have never really had anyone take professional photos of our little family and to have these here while I am in Iraq is amazing! You make this Marine’s life worth something more with these beautiful pictures to remind me of what we are fighting for and also what I have to look forward to when I finally get home! I cannot thank you enough for what you did and for all that you continue to do for us out here fighting this ongoing war. I hope that in the future your business continues to thrive, expand and stays very successful. Again thank you, thank you for these pictures of my beautiful family. I will cherish them forever thanks to you and your company. As we say out here in the Marines to express motivation and approval “OOHRAH MA’AM”!!

SEMPER FIDELIS “Always Faithful”