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Whittier Portrait Special: Plan ahead for the holidays!

2011-10-17T00:19:00.000-07:00

For a limited time, A Special Portrait Package is available at our studio in Uptown Whittier. This offer is available for family portraits, children's portraits, individual portraits, couple's portraits, pet portraits, and business portraits. You can choose our in-studio or our outdoor settings. Contact us for the package pricing.

This Special Portrait Package includes:
A 40-minute portrait session at our Whittier studio
An online gallery of 10 to 15 images
4 large digital images of your choice

* These large digital images can be printed up to 11x14 and are "print ready". We give you a copyright release form so you can use them for holiday cards and prints anywhere. The images are provided on a disk or emailed to you.

* Package fee includes up to four persons. Add $10 for each additional person.

We will also be offering 30% off all holiday cards, print, and product orders from these sessions.

Here are just a few ideas of what we can do at our studio:

Gift certificates are available.

Call us at 562-842-7146 or email us galvanphoto1[at]yahoo[dot]com to reserve your portrait session appointment.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Bored of Blogs!

2011-01-11T23:11:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know I've been neglecting this blog. Honestly, I got bored with blogs in general. Most wedding photographer blogs look the same to me. I see so many wedding photographers copying each other, no originality! I got bored of the same old stories they wrote too. So I just stopped reading wedding photographer blogs a couple of years ago. Right around that time I got hooked on Twitter and Facebook, I even tweeted updates during my labor and delivery of our second son LOL! I loved how quickly I can share something with the world with one quick post and go back to my very busy life. On this blog I had to set aside WAY more time to prepare all the content and code for each new post. I'd rather be taking new pictures or spending time with my little boys and that's exactly what I've been doing. I love being busy! I do have lots of new photography to share. I'll finally be uploading lots of new images to our website and our facebook page (I hope you "Like" our page). I also created a simple Posterous page which will be an easier place for me to share some photography. That's right PHOTOGRAPHY because I am a PHOTOGRAPHER not a writer of boring articles! Ha!

I must share a recent picture of our sons Miles Roman Galvan and Dexter Sonny Galvan. They are growing up so fast! Miles turned 5yrs old and started school (that was a huge life changer). Dexter (Sonny) just turned 2yrs old!

Follow my work in progress. I'll be adding lots of images:

facebook.com/pages/Galvan-Photography

www.galvanphoto.com

Rainy Day Wedding | Whittier | Maria & Steven

2010-03-08T16:01:00.000-08:00

We love rainy day weddings! It is so much fun to get creative and try something different!

Here is our favorite shot. It had stopped raining for a few minutes and the sky looked so cool! As soon as we finished this last shot it started pouring rain....perfect timing!

We also took a quick shot as they walked back to their car in the rain.

So you see, rain isn't a bad thing on your wedding day :-)

El Adobe De Capistrano | San Juan Capistrano | Jill & Steven

2010-03-03T01:04:00.000-08:00

Jill and Steven were so much fun to work with. Jill got ready at her parents' home in San Clemente and then had a beautiful wedding and reception at El Adobe De Capistrano. In the following pics you'll see great work from the following vendors:

Flowers: Tustin Florist (owner Henry Perez)
DJ: Vox DJs (DJ Roderick Gaerlan)
Venue: El Adobe De Capistrano
Make up Artist: Chris Ann Reuter
Wedding Dress: Nazzy's Bridal designs by Nazzy Nazari

Her Christian Louboutin shoes were awesome!

Check out the back of her dress!

She was just glowing in that light!

So cute!

Thank you Jill and Steven!

To see some of their engagement portraits click HERE

Taking a moment...

2009-11-25T22:27:00.000-08:00

Wow! This year flew by so quickly. This was such a crazy year learning to balance being parents of two wild boys and still getting work done. It is still a busy time for us but I just wanted to update our neglected blog and share a picture Roman took of Sonny and I the other day. We took a short break and walked from the studio to the park. This is the same park that I once stood in my wedding dress. That building in the background is where we had our wedding reception. On my wedding day I never imagined that one day we would be playing with our two beautiful sons in the same park and work together in our own photography studio just around the corner. It's moments like these that I am thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Orange County Engagement Portraits | Jill and Steven

2009-06-03T00:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a peek at a few of our favorites from Jill and Steven's engagement session!

Oh Boy!

2009-06-01T00:33:00.000-07:00

Our new little guy has been keeping us busy! Since I can't keep up with his demand to nurse every two hours I introduced baby food a little early. He was ready and is very interested in food! He would grab the spoon to shove it further into his mouth. He would grunt for more and wanted to eat it all up really fast.

Once he was finished with his food he went back to sucking his big toe!

He is a big boy and wearing clothes that are supposed to fit a one year old! The only problem I hope we can overcome is his eczema. You can see some of the rash it on his cheek. It requires constant care and it has flared up really bad with the heat. If any readers out there know any remedies, please let me know.

So now you can see what has been taking up so much of our time (especially blogging time). There are so many weddings and portraits I didn't post during the toughest months of my pregnancy but I'll be posting them all as I get the chance.
I posted two new weddings below:
Andrea & Erik's Wedding
Nasdy & Manny's Wedding
and there are many more posts to come. I'm looking forward to catching up.

Andrea and Erik's Wedding

2009-05-31T19:21:00.000-07:00

Andrea & Erik had their wedding ceremony at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Newport Beach and their reception at the University Club in the University of Irvine. It was a beautiful day! It also happened to be my birthday and they are a great couple to spend the day with. Roman and I had a blast with Andrea, Erik, and all their loved ones!

Andrea got ready at the Hilton Irvine.

I love her look here while they where putting on her veil...

Her expression was so cute when a gust of wind blew her veil off!

Immediately after that last shot I ran and picked up the veil before it got dirty or a car would run it over. Remember...I have cat-like reflexes LOL!

Chatting with her girls before the ceremony begins.

Portrait time!

Platinum Weddings by Kerrie did an amazing job the entire day. Just look at what a beautiful job they did on the University Club!

The first dance...

The toast...

The University Club has great window light. I love the natural light and detail in this picture.

Not only did Andrea and Erik have a cake but they served apple pie too...both were delicious!

Andrea and Erik, thank you for a wonderful day!

Nasdy and Manny's Wedding

2009-05-31T19:20:00.000-07:00

Nasdy and Manny had a beautiful and intimate wedding at The Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon. It was such a joy to photograph them since they are so in love! We are so blessed to work with such amazing people such as Nasdy, Manny, and their family and friends.

I love this shot of Nasdy getting ready with her mom looking on.

Ceremony time!

A private little toast immediately after the ceremony.

Portrait time!

My angle:

Roman's angle:

Reception time!

Roman's angle:

My angle:

Nasdy and Manny were inseparable and having a great time!

They are too cute!

Thank you Nasdy and Manny! Congratulations!

The Engagement: Nasdy & Manny

2009-04-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun with Nasdy & Manny. We have so much in common with them. We can totally relate to the fact that they work together and run a business together. Their business is Latin Lingo Clothing and they sell some of coolest t-shirts! Pretty soon, they will be a husband and wife team working together! It takes a very special relationship to be able to spend every day working together ;-)

So these first few were shot at the Griffith Observatory. We played with all the cool lines and architecture...

Since they love our use of color we had to find some cool urban spots to deliver! So here you go :-)

Below is the one they will display at their wedding next week. What a great choice!

We can't wait for their wedding! It is going to be so cool!

Brooklin & Dan's Wedding in San Juan Capistrano & Dana Point

2009-03-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

Brooklin and Dan's wedding was so much fun. We were looking forward to their wedding ever since their awesome engagement session. They were blessed with such great weather last Saturday! It was a perfect day, gorgeous couple, great family and friends and a beautiful sunny day...what more could you ask for?

We started off at Brook's parent's home in Mission Viejo for some getting ready shots.

Check out her dress, shoes, & garter!

I love the detail and texture of her dress.

Since it was an evening wedding, they did a "first look" and portraits before the wedding ceremony. Smart thinking because they had some good light for their portraits!

Check out her beautiful bouquet! Cindy Babuscio Designs did an awesome job on the flowers.

They are just so cute together!

Brooklin is such a stunning woman! What a gorgeous bride!

This was such a great moment before her dad walked her down the aisle.

The kiss!

The reception was at the O.C. Sailing and Events Center in Dana Point. In The Now Weddings and Events did a great job transforming the place.

They had great details!

The looked so happy during their grand entrance.

A sweet moment during their first dance.

We really enjoyed working with our great friend Ron who was doing the video. Roman took a picture of us together at the end of evening :-)

Family of Four!

2009-02-24T00:53:00.000-08:00

We are getting the hang of being a family of four. Our new baby boy Dexter is known by his middle name of Sonny by the entire family. He is such a good baby. He rarely cries and he sleeps through the night already! Most of the work is getting Miles to be careful with the baby and to get them on a good/same schedule. They do love each other so much already. Miles is very affectionate towards his little brother and Sonny wants to be with Miles all the time. He smiles at Miles and always has his eyes on him to see what his big brother is up to. Here is a picture of them together...

Here are a few more photos of him at six weeks old. I normally don't leave these in color but I love the color of his hair and eyes.

This little guy is growing up so fast. He already weighs 12lbs. and wearing 3 to 6 month size clothes. He is trying to talk and is showing signs of teething already! I'm trying to hold on to every moment of "babyness." Even though my maternity leave is over and I am back to work, I am very thankful that I have my boys with me most of the time (except when we are shooting of course). Life is good :-)

Welcome Dexter Sonny Galvan

2009-01-08T05:14:00.000-08:00

We are excited to announce the birth of our son Dexter Sonny Galvan born 12/26/08 at 8pm. He weighs 8lbs 4.2oz and he is 21 inches long.

Look at him! We were so surprised to see this little guy with his light hair & light eyes. We were expecting another Miles with the dark eyes and dark hair like us. But this little guy really looks a lot like my grandmother and my great grandfather, he has their color hair and eyes. We are still trying to get used to it :-)

We had a quick and easy delivery which made up for that difficult pregnancy. Here is a shot of me & Miles in a rare "good moment" in my pregnancy.

Here is the holiday card we never got a chance to mail out :-(

Big brother Miles is very excited and insists on calling his little brother "Sonny" (hence the middle name).

Well I was the most miserable with the pregnancy from Thanksgiving through Christmas. I had weeks of contractions and no progress. So when I woke up the morning after Christmas with real painful contractions I was so excited for it to be the real thing.

The last time I'll see my belly like this. I was hooked up this way several times a week!

I have been hooked on my iPhone during all the time I spent in bed this pregnancy. I was putting my labor updates on Twitter! Since I am still in bed lots right now, I'm still glued to that phone!

This is me looking at Roman with my "I can do this" face. I was so scared to have a repeat of Miles's delivery which was so traumatic! I was emotional but I was ready and determined to get this baby out quickly and safely.

Within a few minutes of pushing, he was out safely! Amazing!

Roman (my labor coach and documentary photographer) cutting the chord and taking the picture at the same time! He is so talented!

The nurse took this picture of us together. I just love my Kaiser Baldwin Park "family" everyone there that took care of me is so great!

We called my mom to bring Miles right away. He was so excited to meet his little brother!

We show Miles lots of love so he knows that he's still our baby too.

Ready for his journey home from the hospital...wearing the outfit big brother Miles picked out for him :-)

Okay off my iPhone for now and back to sleep! We have a few weeks of sleepless nights, feeding every two hours, lots of diaper changes, and lots of adjusting to do. This is an exhausting but precious time and it goes so fast!

Happy New Year! Thank you all for the well wishes, wonderful emails, and phone calls. You have all been so great!

See you soon!

Miles' Favorite Things

2008-11-19T21:58:00.000-08:00

Miles loves to watch Yo Gabba Gabba. I love how Yo Gabba Gabba comes up with cool stuff using Ska & Reggae that Miles loves to dance too (and that Roman & I can enjoy too)! We can tell that Miles has the same taste as us in music which is nice. I guess ska and reggae is in his blood since that has been our favorite music since we were kids.

One of his favorite songs is "Banana" from The Aggrolites which is a cool band because they sound like real jamaican ska. Here is the video clip:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=23374386

This is another one of his favorites called "Pick It Up" it is so cute because if you ever listened to The Specials or Prince Buster you will recognize where they got the idea for this clip:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=45902245

Here is a random picture of Miles taken with my iPhone. He's loved everything pirate since he was a little baby. Roman and I have so much Halloween stuff, skulls, and pirate stuff all over the house that I guess it was only natural :-)

What a great moment!

2008-11-08T22:23:00.000-08:00

I voted early in the day and was so hopeful that Obama would be our next president. We went out to get our free Ben and Jerry's ice cream which was being given between 5 and 8pm. Then Miles spent time playing in the mall play area with a bunch of kids. All of us parents were glued to our iPhones (watching the returns for sure, I know I was). I was so excited to experience the moment I had been waiting for that I saved a screen capture of it on my iPhone!

Roman and I took Miles and hurried home so we wouldn't miss Obama's speech. It was so great! It was a night we will never forget!

Update 11/3/08

2008-11-03T22:06:00.000-08:00

Halloween was fun. Since we have been so busy, we just took Miles trick or treating in Monrovia. They have the coolest Victorian and Craftsman homes there. We seriously want to buy a historical home there someday. These home owners really do an awesome job decorating for Halloween! Just take a look at one of our favorite Victorian homes...

Miles looked so cute in his vampire Bat costume! He was so excited to spread his bat wings for anyone who would give him candy :-) Yes, that's me and can you tell I'm 32weeks pregnant in this picture?

You can see my 32 week belly better in this picture taken the next day while shooting Natalie & Jerry's awesome wedding at the Castle Green in Pasadena.

Natalie & Jerry's Engagement Portraits | Los Angeles Portrait Photographer

2008-10-31T01:21:00.000-07:00

I know I am jumping around again and posting things out of order but this e-session was so timely for Halloween!
We are so looking forward to Natalie and Jerry's wedding this weekend! They are so much fun and they are going to have such a unique wedding. We are so excited that they chose this awesome image to display at their wedding. It is always fun to see the older folks reactions :-) Being Halloween weekend it is totally perfect and it also reflects their fun personalities.

Here are a few more of our favorites...

Check out the funky plant car we found!

They are just too cute together!

Can't wait for the wedding!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T00:40:00.000-07:00

This is our favorite holiday! We are so glad Miles is a "groovy ghoulie" like us and shares in our excitement for Halloween. He was a Pirate last year and this year he will be a Vampire Bat. I'll make sure to post a picture of him in his costume. Roman is a master pumpkin carver and you can see two of his creations below....

Wow has this year been crazy! Time just flew by so unbelievably fast. I still have a whole summer's worth of awesome weddings and portraits to share here. It's great to be busy and all but when you add a pregnancy that has to be monitored several times a week on top of all of that it becomes a little stressful. We are hanging in there and still working like crazy both behind the camera and on the computer. Holiday portraits are in full swing and still doing weddings all the way through the end of November. We will take maternity leave mid-December through early February and we are looking forward to resting and nesting :-) We will still be handling the phone calls, emails, booking new wedding clients, and doing portrait sessions but on a more limited basis during that time. So don't hesitate to contact us :-)

We will keep you all posted!

A Catholic wedding, an Indian wedding, and the Governator?

2008-10-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

Pranav and Tamara's wedding was such a fun wedding to shoot! They had us start bright and early in Santa Monica at 7am, the Catholic Ceremony was at Saint Monica's Church at 9am, then we shot the Indian Ceremony at a private estate in Malibu, and we spent the rest of the evening shooting there until about 9pm. Yes, it was a long day, the most images we have ever shot, and so exciting! This is a super long post so hang on :-) I am so excited to finally share these images with you all!

Tamara getting ready at 7am! She looks great for not being a morning person :-)

Roman was photographing Pranav in his room...

Tamara checking to see if she could catch a glimpse of Pranav.

Tamara was checking the weather. It was a rainy morning. She looked amazing in this window light.

Catholic Ceremony time...

The rain clouds broke away for the rest of the day. They were so lucky!

Nice moment during portrait time at Santa Monica Beach...

This was so funny! Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife Maria Shriver were taking their morning walk and stopped to congratulate the couple. We asked if they would take a picture with the couple and the "Governator" did! Maria was too shy to be photographed though...they were both a little bedhead :-) Don't Tamara and Pranav look a little surprised, it was a quick and funny moment!

Luncheon reception at the private estate in Malibu. This was the fastest I have ever seen a bride throw the bouquet...but I still captured the moment with my catlike reflexes LOL!

The Baraat looked like so much fun! Roman covered that while I covered Tamara getting ready for the Indian Ceremony.

Tamara looked so beautiful! I loved all the details and color!

Hindu Ceremony time!

Portrait Time Round 2

They wanted to recreate a shot that looked vintage. So here you go...

Partying Bollywood style!

What an awesome day!

Pregnancy - 27 weeks - Big Mama!

2008-10-02T00:36:00.000-07:00

I know it is about time I give an update on my pregnancy. This picture is the latest snapshot of my belly taken with my iPhone. I need to get my maternity portraits taken very soon! I have to say it feels like just yesterday it was April and the beginning of my pregnancy and now its October!?! Where did the time go? Even though we are still super swamped we took a few hours off last week to take Miles to L.A. County Fair. We have all been dealing with his Asthma (all new to us) and he was feeling better that day. So as you can see we didn't want him run around much and kept him in the stroller just to be on the safe side :-)

I am still on my quest to catch up on everything during this crazy pregnancy (including this blog). I am still blogging weddings and portraits from May and June! I have a entire summer's worth of amazing images to share here. Next post I will share will be Pranav and Tamara's amazing wedding that was on Memorial Day weekend. That post will be huge...we even had a celebrity appearance!

Brook & Dan - Engagement Session

2008-09-21T21:41:00.000-07:00

We are so excited for Brook and Dan's wedding. They were referred to us by Ryan and Amy. We met them for the first time at Ryan and Amy's wedding. They are such a fun and cool couple. They are very photogenic too! We love that they trusted us in finding urban locations that totally fit their style. Their wedding is going to be a blast!

10 Year Anniversary!

2008-09-05T15:54:00.000-07:00

Roman and I have been married ten years today! We've known each other since we were 5 years old because we lived around the corner from each other. I remember him as the the "show-off" in Kindergarden and the bratty boy who sat in the desk behind me in grades 1, 2, and 3. As we got older we became best friends and then fell in love at the age of 13! We have been together ever since. We were together 11 years before we got married! Most of that time was spent with finishing junior high, high school, college, and starting our photography business together. We enjoyed seven years being married, traveling and having fun together before we decided to have kids. Having Miles definitely changed things but life is still fun. We are excited to have another baby on the way too. It is so amazing having our own family now!

Okay I have some funny pictures to share but they are all scans of really bad prints...like this one that Roman's mom took of us with her 110 camera on Valentines Day in 2nd grade!

This was in a photobooth at the L.A. County Fair when we were 16yrs old.

On our way to Senior Prom...

Roman's 19th birthday. His mom was still using her crappy 110 camera and she liked to have him hold a sign with his age up

This was the funniest moment at our wedding. Roman surprised me by putting on these silly glasses with headlights on them and when he went under my wedding dress to remove the garter with his teeth, my whole dress lit up like a lamp! He was still holding my midnight blue garter in his teeth in this picture. It was hilarious!

Here we are with Miles in a photobooth at WPPI 2007. We just love the way Miles looked in these! He was still a baby...he grew up too fast!

Next year we'll have a new picture of us as a family of four :-)

Monique & Scott's Wedding

2008-09-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

Monique and Scott got married in a beautiful ceremony at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Santa Monica. They had an awesome outdoor reception at the California Yacht Club in Marina Del Rey.

I just loved the detail of her dress and bouquet.

Monique's little nephew was the ring boy. He is a gorgeous little guy!

Monique and Scott decided to see each other before the ceremony to do portraits. That was a smart decision since the rest of the day was such a whirlwind!

We just loved the vibrant colors!

Roman did a great job capturing the kiss during the ceremony in available light with his 80-200 2.8 VR lens at 3200 ISO. We have been Nikon shooters since the age of 15 and we are loving the latest Nikon technology!

Then we made a quick ten minute stop at Santa Monica Beach for a few more portraits.

We get fun couples with cool cake toppers! My favorite detail at the reception was the cake! Well it is always our favorite detail, we love to take pretty pictures of them and enjoy a slice at the end of the day ;-)

They had belly dancers to celebrate Monique's Egyptian heritage. This is the third wedding we have shot with belly dancers as entertainment but this was first time we have seen the father of the bride get up and dance with them! He stole the show!

Rosa, Erica, & Isabel | Pasadena Portrait Photographer

2008-09-02T23:53:00.000-07:00

Rosa and her fiancé Victor are a wonderful couple getting married later this month. They wanted to hire us to shoot their wedding but we are shooting Liz & Andy's wedding that day (you will see that wonderful couple's e-session later in the week). Well, since Rosa is a fan of our work she hired us to shoot some portraits of her with the girls she described as "my two bestest cousins who are going to be my Maids of Honor."

We did portraits of them at some of our favorite spots in downtown Los Angeles. We had a great time with these girls!

Rosa and Victor, we wish you all the best on your wedding day!

Here is Rosa being hugged by her cousins (and Maids of Honor) Isabel and Erica :-)

Amy & Ryan's Wedding

2008-08-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

I met some very special people during the years that I worked in the Cypress College photography department. I had the pleasure of working with Ron and got know him and his family well. His wife Nancy works in the Careers department and that's where Amy worked too. As Nancy and Ron got to know Amy they grew very fond of her and they would always tell me that she would be the perfect daughter. See Ron and Nancy only have two son's and when Amy started dating their son Ryan they were so excited. Ron would tell me how careful he and Nancy wanted to be to make sure not put any pressure on Amy and Ryan's relationship and just hoped it would blossom.

Well they got their wish! When Ryan proposed to Amy last Christmas. Ron let me know right away. He was so excited that Amy was going to be family.

Roman and I were honored to photograph Amy and Ryan's wedding. We knew it would be so much fun, full of wonderful people, lots happiness, and lots of emotion.

The time we spent getting to know Amy and Ryan this past year has been fun too. You can see how awesome they were in their engagement session! Watching those two together you can tell they really have something special together. They are just perfect for each other and it is obvious that they make each other very happy.

Okay now here are some of our favorite images from the day...

Amy being the beautiful, free spirited, hippie woman that she is, chose to play John Lennon's "Love" when she made her entrance. Here she is with her lovely mom who was also the officiant of the marriage ceremony:

Ron and Nancy were so happy the moment Ryan and Amy were officially announced husband and wife:

I love this moment! As a matter of fact, I wish I could blog this entire wedding because there are sooo many pictures that just ooze happiness, love and excitement!

Ryan's mom Nancy is quite the party animal...

and Ryan's younger brother Andy is a pirate!

All the guys wore their Converse Chuck Taylors:

I love the way these two look at each other...

and make each other laugh!

The Brownstone Cafe at Villa Del Sol is a great place for a wedding!

I love this moment between Amy and her father:

This reception was so much fun since Ryan and Amy's friends and family know how to party!

Miles is 3!

2008-07-31T00:01:00.000-07:00

Our son Miles will be 3 years old today. We will be spending the day with him today doing fun stuff that I'll post later. No party...we haven't thrown him a party since his first birthday. I think next year we will all be ready to maybe do that again...it is just so much work, during busy season, and he didn't dig it much.

I can still remember this moment when Roman and I first got to see him in the NICU and I took this picture.

I cant believe he was ever this little!

He has grown so much!

Happy Birthday Miles! We love you!

First earthquake for little Miles

2008-07-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

We were all in the living room when the earthquake hit. Since I felt the first vibrations under my barefeet I quickly announced the earthquake and moved Miles into the doorway with Roman. We talked Miles through the whole thing. He still got a little nervous but he didn't cry. I still couldn't help getting an adrenaline rush and of course that rattled the baby in my belly a little bit. Glad that it wasn't a big earthquake. I know what a big earthquake is! The 1987 Whittier quake was huge and my house was in the epicenter. The morning that earthquake hit I was still asleep and I thought a plane had crashed in my backyard. The jolt & shaking was so strong and it was so loud, way stronger than today! The Whittier Narows fault is still very close to the house that we own now so I really hope this quake doesn't wake up this fault! I am just so glad I am used to these earthquakes and that Miles handled it as well as he did.

Is it obvious yet?

2008-07-13T21:14:00.000-07:00

We've been busy shooting as usual and this is a shot of me from today's shoot. Do you notice anything different about me?

We are expecting our second child on Dec. 25, 2008! I have waited four months to share our great news. We are so excited! We planned to have this baby during the holidays since it is the only time it won't conflict with any weddings we have booked. I was expecting to have a bigger belly by now but I actually had a yucky 1st trimester and lost weight. I had 24hr morning sickness and some crazy heartburn, which was new to me. So glad the sickness is gone now and I got the heartburn under control now. I am a spicy food addict and I miss it so much. I used to tease my friends who couldn't eat the hot stuff I ate...well I guess it's payback time. I have sympathy for you guys now :-) Well, I finally gained one pound this week and finally have a little belly to show off. This is so weird and nothing like the last pregnancy!

Now that I am feeling better I have a lot of catching up to do! There are so many images I have to share here. I never stopped shooting even when I was sick. The cool thing was that shooting is so important to me that I was able to "turn off the sickness" to shoot. I am so excited and will keep you all posted! Lots of cool images are on the way!

What's Happening?

2008-05-15T23:27:00.000-07:00

Oh I knew was going to have a hard time keeping this journal current once the busy season kicked in! So many wonderful things are happening right now. There are so many photo shoots that went straight to the clients but I never made time to share them here. Sorry! Between all the maternity sessions, baby sessions, engagement sessions, weddings, and tons of album designs, who would have time left to blog? I think I am just going to do a huge website update and I'll announce it here so you guys can see all the new images. I really want to make time to post Amy & Ryan's May 10th wedding here, there gallery is already online but I want to share a few favorites publicly here. Their wedding was so special! I'll be sharing more in the next day or so. Can you believe I almost forgot that it is my birthday tomorrow? That's how busy I am! LOL

I will leave you with a beautiful preemie foot from a recent shoot :-)

Behind the Image - The Subway Shot

2008-04-23T00:36:00.000-07:00

Shot on May 28, 2007

These "Behind The Image" posts feature an image of ours that has a story behind it. Well, all images have a story behind them but these images I'll be featuring are the ones we get asked about the most from clients as well as other photographers. I'd have to say our image that gets lots of buzz is The Subway shot of Paula & Bach. Paula & Bach came from Indonesia to get married here in Southern California. They asked us if we could do portraits of them all over Downtown LA since they really liked our work that we have shot in downtown over the years. After shooting Union Station, Disney Concert Hall, and some street scenes, it was time to wrap up. But before we let them go we asked them if we could take them underground to the metro for a few shots. It literally was 4 quick shots. See it was a holiday weekend and it was nice and dead downtown, so there were hardly any trains running. So when we heard the screeching of a train coming close we ran so fast to shoot it. It was so funny to see Paula and Bach running, me running behind Paula holding the train of her dress, and Roman running while adjusting the settings on his camera. There was no chance for set up or a re-shoot just a "one shot Charlie" as Roman and I call it LOL. Out of the four shots this was my favorite because it catches them before they kissed and Roman used the perfect exposure to catch the windows and metro logo. His timing is always amazing, I love that about him!

See Roman and I had this shot in mind because we had done the original fine-art subway shot years ago in New York.
Shot on November 11, 2001
We were there visiting New York two months after 9/11 and documenting fine-art shots of the city. We only had an Olympus C-3000 digital point and shoot camera, but we got some pretty cool work on the manual setting. So this shot was of two complete strangers as this train was pulling in for a stop. As soon as I shot it I told Roman someday we need to do this with a wedding couple! This shot wasn't as good because my train was so blurred that you almost can't tell what it is and it was done with a point and shoot camera :-) But the shot did become a good reference point and concept for the shot with Paula & Bach!

*Edited to Add* To answer your question Sammie...yes, Paula's gown is a 2-piece and designed by her. She is an up-and-coming bridal gown designer. Her company is still starting up so I don't have a company name or website for you yet but I can put you in touch with her. Last time she was in town again she had us shoot a model in two of her other creations for her catalog, which you can see below...

I Love My Gorilla!

2008-04-23T00:01:00.000-07:00

Since falling in love with Roman at the age of 13, I have lovingly teased him about being like a gorilla. Even at that young age he was very manly looking, with big broad shoulders, and was the envy of other boys who wished they could grow some facial hair like he could (NOT the dorky mustache like Pedro of Napoleon Dynamite though) LOL. He's pretty used to the gorilla, ape, and monkey references from me, Miles, and my mother-in-law, which we all use as terms of endearment. To show you how accurate we are about our description of Roman check out his favorite pants...

Shot with iPhone at 2008-04-23

Francisca and Hector's Wedding - April 5, 2008

2008-04-13T02:22:00.000-07:00

Francis and Hector are both so sweet and soft spoken. They are a perfect match. Being around them and their wonderful family and friends you can feel the love and emotion they share. Though it was a cloudy day, it did not rain and it was a beautiful day even without the sunshine. It was also Roman's birthday that day which made the day extra special for us. Happy Birthday Roman! We would like to thank one of our wonderful brides Ana for referring us to Francis and Hector, it was so nice seeing you and Jose at the wedding! We also must mention that the staff of Gourmet Gourmet Catering did an awesome job with the food, cake, lighting, flowers, and decor. They handled all the details of the reception so well!

Congratulations Francis and Hector! We enjoyed being a part of your day. Check out some of our favorites...

Michelle & Joseph - Hyatt Regency Long Beach - March 15, 2008

2008-03-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

Michelle and Joseph's wedding at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach was so much fun! It was a cold and extremely windy day. That was the strongest and coldest wind we have experienced at a wedding in the 14 years we have been shooting weddings! It made for some funny and memorable moments.

You can see how entertained I was by the crazy wind. I couldn't help but laugh at people's reactions to the wind. My hands kinda froze in this position around the camera because it was so cold!

Michelle and Joseph were so amazing! They totally laughed about the wind. They come from such amazing families. Everyone was just such a joy to be around. It was so cool to see Joseph's dad again too. He owned a shop Photographer's Space in Whittier that Roman and I used to frequent in our film days when we were photography students at Rio Hondo College. He was always so nice and helpful to us whenever we stopped by his shop. We love it when people we respect in the photo industry trust us as their photographers!

Here are a few of our favorites from the wedding...

I'm Back!

2008-03-30T16:16:00.000-07:00

What a crazy couple of weeks. We shot a wedding on March 15th, and then headed straight to WPPI the next day. We did things a little different this year though...we stayed in Bullhead City at my mother-in-law's house. My sister-in-law Lisa (a.k.a. Aunt Stinky to Miles) also lives out there. We figured we could spend the week through Easter there since they were on spring break that week. Miles has a grandma and Aunt to babysit him there and cousins to play with too. You know what that means! I had a whole week to get lots of post production work done on my Mac Book Pro. It was so nice to finish so much work in one week.

We even got a chance to accept the invitations to two amazing parties at WPPI. Vegas was only an hour and a half away from where we were staying so we drove to WPPI on Monday and attended the Blu Shindig at this amazing mansion called the Parisian Palace. It was St. Patricks Day and the photo booth went a little wacky and turned us into Asian Leprechauns LOL!

Then on Tuesday night we attended Becker's party which was awesome. It was so cool to see the best of the industry, in-person at both parties...we feel so honored to be a part of that!
For this photo booth we showed our vampire side since it was almost 2am (our favorite time of the day)! This first shot is how we normally look if we happen to venture out before noon ;-)

So the rest of the week was family time and (mostly work for me since I'm sorta a workaholic). Roman and I ended up catching some bad colds on Easter and we just got over them finally!

We came right back to a busy schedule at the studio this week and I finally had some time today to catch up on this journal. We shot lots of portrait sessions in the studio before we went out of town so I'll be posting some of those images soon too.

Last but not least , I have an update on my abuelita!

Commercial Photography Class

2008-03-12T01:10:00.000-07:00

I used to teach photography at Cypress College with my good friend Michael Lanoue. Michael also teaches a Commercial Photography class at Santa Ana College. He brought his class to visit our studio last Tuesday night. They were a great group of students! We went over wedding photography, portrait photography, infrared photography, and even did a lighting demo with them. It was so much fun to teach a class again! I had taken a break from teaching photography after we had Miles and even though it has only been two years I realized how much I miss it. I think once Miles starts school, I may have time to teach again :-)

We managed to take a few snapshots that evening....

Miles had to be there since my mom hasn't been able to babysit him on the weekdays due to the "grandma situation." You can see he was playing with his cars and dropping Goldfish crumbs everywhere. He was so excited to see so many people at "my studio" (as he calls it).

I know I look like a big dork in this picture but its the only one that was taken of me LOL! You can totally tell who Miles get his crazy hair from!

Here's Roman speaking to the group. Check out bratty little Miles ripping more keys off my old iBook over there off to the right.

Here is one of the shots from the lighting demo. Miles fell in love with Ally and followed her around most of the night. He was more than happy to pose with her. Later, Miles said that Ally "had hair like Cinderella"...he is referring to her blonde hair, he loves blondes!

Save The Date!

2008-03-11T22:37:00.000-07:00

Natalie and Jerry are so cute! Check out what we received last week. We are looking forward to their e-session next month and their wedding at the Castle Green this November. The last time we shot at the Castle Green was when we still used film, so it has been a while! We can't wait!

Update

2008-03-08T23:49:00.000-08:00

WOW! Things have been just non-stop since the holidays. I have been adding some of the recent shoots from last week but I have tons more to add below these posts. I still have to share about a very special photography class that spent an evening at our studio on Tuesday. I am catching up slowly, I just wasn't expecting to be so busy during what is usually the slow quarter. I also updated my grandma's post. I'll keep you all posted. So feel free to look around, you may find something new you haven't seen yet :-)
Thanks for stopping by!

Ryan and Amy's engagement session

2008-03-07T23:54:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun with Ryan and Amy! They are so just so funny, down to earth, and so comfortable with each other ;-) I think they get a kick out of us being like this old married couple always picking on each other....well as long as we can make them laugh, it's looks good in the pictures! We started off in the studio and then just picked a few cool spots outside...

It was such a beautiful spring day and LOOK! it's that time of year again...we found those little yellow flowers again!

Thanks for a great shoot guys! Your wedding is going to be so much fun!

The Barnes Family | Ladera Ranch Portrait Photographer

2008-03-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

The Barnes family came to our studio all the way from Ladera Ranch! They were such a fun family to shoot. Getting a toddler and a dog to both look happy at the same time in photo can be tricky :-) Those two were so happy to let loose at the park after the studio session! Here are some favorites...

This shot is so funny because it documents the chaos that comes along with raising a toddler :-)

Francisca and Hector's engagement session

2008-03-07T18:11:00.000-08:00

It is so nice to be able to do studio portraits for our couples, especially when the weather is yucky outside. We still ventured out after the studio portraits just to give them some variety....

They are such a sweet couple! When they arrived they said they were nervous, but they sure didn't look nervous :-) They are naturals in front of the camera and we look forward to their wedding next month.

The areas surrounding our studio make for some cool backdrops.

The dark dramatic sky was an excellent backdrop for this shot!

Shelley and Josh - Greenside Cafe, Anaheim 2/22/08

2008-03-02T00:07:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Shelley and Josh! They were blessed with no rain after all, even though it did rain all day in surrounding areas. It was a little cold but still a beautiful day. This was an intimate evening wedding at the Greenside Cafe.

They sure had an awesome wedding cake!

True Chargers fans...they had their roses dyed blue!

I love this shot, with a little bit of motion blur during the first dance.

Josh looked so cool smoking his cigar.

Yvette & Danny | Maternity and Pregnancy Portraits | Whittier | Los Angeles

2008-02-26T23:48:00.000-08:00

I was so excited to photograph Yvette and Danny for the third time. We had so much fun shooting their engagement and wedding (you can see some of our favorite images on our website). This shoot was just as fun for me because I could feel their love and excitement for that little baby in her belly. I can't wait to meet and photograph their little baby who is expected to arrive mid March. They are going to be the coolest parents I know :-)

Praying for my Abuelita

2008-02-25T23:24:00.000-08:00

It has been a crazy couple of weeks. My grandmother ("Abuelita" as I call her in spanish) had a heart attack a couple of weeks ago and had emergency triple bypass heart surgery. At first she was not doing well and her chances of surviving were slim, but then over the weekend she was finally well enough to breath on her own without the help of a respirator. We all know she is very happy to have that breathing tube out so she can talk to all her visitors. She still has to spend a few more weeks in the hospital but at least it looks like she may be on the road to recovery. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and well wishes...I believe it makes a difference. Here is the most recent picture I have of her at my cousin Robert and Devana's wedding.

Edited to Add: My abuelita has had her ups and down. She had water in her lungs for the second time last week, which is dangerous. But I guess she is well enough to come home tomorrow. It feels a little rushed to me since she still can't get out of bed, but I guess that's how the Kaiser on Sunset Blvd. handles things (they were the ones who dropped a patient off on skid row in their hospital gown).
Well the good thing is that she will be at home and lots closer for me to be with her. We are hoping for the best in this long recovery process.
3/11/08:
So bummed! She had water in the lungs again and they didn't let her come home. We are just waiting and praying for the best for her.
3/30/08 Update: She is finally home and happy to be there. Now I just have to get over my cold so I can go visit her! She still has a long recovery ahead of her but I think since she is happy at home she may recover sooner.

Gomez Amplification

2008-02-10T23:11:00.000-08:00

We have been working on a project for Gomez Amplification. Dario Gomez, the owner of the company, is great to work with. Dario has great ideas and has a great eye for choosing locations that worked so well for the shoot. You can tell that Dario pays attention to detail just by looking at how well-made his amps are. The coolest thing about Gomez Amps is that look just like original 60's amps but they are new and custom built by Gomez Amplification. One of our images from the shoot (featuring Scott Detweiler) was featured in their ad in the March 2008 edition of Vintage Guitar Magazine (you can see it above). Here are some more of our favorite images from this project...

Alegria's Baptism

2008-02-03T23:03:00.000-08:00

Alegria means happiness in Spanish and this beautiful baby girl brings so much happiness to her family. Her baptism was held at St. Denis Catholic Church in Diamond Bar and the reception was at Coco Palm Restaurant. Her parents did a wonderful job on this party and all the details were just so pretty. They had strolling musicians to entertain the adults and a clown to entertain the kids. I had been looking forward to meeting Alegria ever since I photographed her mom's maternity portraits. She is a gorgeous little girl, just look at her face!

mmm...

2008-02-01T22:19:00.000-08:00

It is February 1st...do you know what that means? Pie month at Marie Calendars! All pies $5.99! Go ahead laugh at me, its okay. One thing you must know about us is that we are "foodies"...we love finding great places to eat and great deals on good food. So you will see me share some great food finds here. Don't worry, I stay healthy, I just burn it off chasing around my wild 2yr old son all day long!

Since we are on the topic of sweets...here is a picture of my favorite cupcakes from Sprinkles. These were a thank you gift from our wonderful clients Paula & Bach. Thank you! We love our clients!

Here is a picture of our son Miles goofing around in some silly $5 cowboy boots that we bought for a laugh. This is the little guy we chase around all day. The best part about being self employed is having the ability to spend lots of time with our son. We do send him to grandma's house when we work at the studio though :-)

Danielle & Paul - Crystal Marquis

2008-01-17T01:31:00.000-08:00

Danielle & Paul were married on January 12th and the weather was so beautiful compared to last week. They were so happy that last week's terrible storm was done and over with. We loved the winter theme they had. Danielle had a beautiful bouquet of gardenias which smelled so lovely! When Roman and I got married, I had a bouquet with gardenias in it and we had the same midnight blue color scheme as theirs, so there was a sight and smell that brought back memories of our wedding day :-)
The reception was at the Crystal Marquis which is walking distance from our studio in Uptown Whittier. We love working there because this 1922 art deco Ballroom totally fits our style and the events are coordinated so well there. We are so lucky that our neighbors have such an awesome venue and we are happy to shoot there often.

Mike & Erica- Yorba Linda

2008-01-09T22:21:00.000-08:00

Our first wedding of the year happened on Jan. 5, 2008. We had a major storm with flash flood warnings and we were prepared for rain. Luckily on Saturday it was just very cold and cloudy but didn't rain. We made use of the dark dramatic sky as a backdrop for some cool portraits. Check out some of our favorites of the day....

Happy New Year!

2008-01-04T00:32:00.000-08:00

Wow 2007 was such an amazing year and 2008 looks like its going to be even better. We will continue to do only a limited number of weddings per year so that Roman and I give our clients that personal attention we are known for. This year we would like to keep it around 24 weddings, especially because we also have a busy portrait studio.

Now that I have made this journal public I will be be updating it at least one a week. I have so much to share and just have to find the time to share it. I am so excited for all the new work I'll be posting here and our new website that will be online by the end of the month.

In other news...we were just published in a new magazine Bodas USA La Revista a new spanish language brides magazine catering to their culture and their language. Congrats to Jessica and Danny for their wedding images being selected, and to Yesenia Guevara of Exquisite Wedding Planners for being featured in the article. Thanks Yesenia you are great to work with!

Photography Legend - Herman Leonard

2007-12-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

Tonight we met Herman Leonard for the second time. He is a legendary photographer who is most famous for photographing the Jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and the list goes on and on! He was was signing copies of his new book Jazz, Giants, and Journeys at Samy's Camera in Hollywood. He wrote a nice message in the book to our son Miles. Below is pic of Roman, Herman Leonard and myself after he signed our book.

Herman Leonard has been such an inspiration for many reasons: he is a great photographer who still shooting at the age of 83, and he also loves Jazz and its birthplace New Orleans. The first time we met him was on one of our annual trips to New Orleans. We were in town for an exhibit featuring our New Orleans cemetery photography and we were walking down Bourbon Street and there was Herman Leonard walking by us! We stopped and said hello and he was so surprised to be recognized by a couple of photographers from L.A. and he was so nice! It was the highlight of our trip!

Sadly since Katrina, he lost his studio in New Orleans to the flooding and relocated his studio to L.A. There is a great documentary on this story called Saving Jazz. His work is amazing and he is a master of off camera lighting. He has heavily influenced our work over the years. We just love him and feel so fortunate to have met him twice!

The Future Is Unwritten - Joe Strummer

2007-07-02T01:36:00.000-07:00

Wow - it has our busiest summer ever. We were so grateful to have June 30th off not only because we actually got one Saturday off (which rarely happens) but also because it fell on the screening of this movie at the Los Angeles Film Festival. This film has only been shown in England and Sundance Film Festival. We were so excited to be among the limited number of people who got to see it. Tickets sold out, lucky we bought ours early.
This film about Joe Strummer was so inspirational. He is a legend and was a genius thoughout his life. Roman and I are such big fans of The Clash and Joe Strummer. You should see our music collection :-) I loved seeing how this film covered his roots and influences. It was cool to learn about his childhood and the choices he made pursuing his musical career. It just confirms for us that we are on the right path, doing what we love with our photography, enjoying life, and letting nothing get in the way of that.

Yvette & Daniel - Engagement Session

2007-05-14T13:06:00.000-07:00

Yvette and Danny have such style! Yvette has so many plans for her vintage/50's style wedding next month. We are so excited to shoot their wedding! Here are some of our favorites. We are so glad to have a studio next to so many cool urban backdrops. The last shot was taken at the movie theatre they had their first date at. Isn't that cute!?!

Elizabeth & Gabriel's Engagement Session

2007-05-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth & Gabriel are such a cute couple. You can tell they have lots of fun together. We had so much fun getting shots of them. We are looking forward to their wedding in June. Here are a few of our favorites...

Carolina & Miguel - Engagement Session

2007-05-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

Carolina & Miguel are the 7-7-7 couple. They had their session at the high school they attended together. Miguel also took Carolina back to visit the campus so he could propose to her there (aw so sweet!) So it was a very meaningful place for them.
We found this cool hill full of yellow flowers just down the street from the school. Then we made one final stop at this cool building with mosaic walls. It wa such a fun shoot!

Linda with Snicker & Halo | Pet Portrait Photographer | Whittier

2007-05-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun with Linda and her two dogs. Halo and Snicker were so well behaved! They were excellent in the studio. They got excited when we took a walk to the park and it was fun to get a few shots of them enjoying the sunshine.

Cynthia & Mario - Malibou Lake Mountain Club

2007-05-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

Cynthia & Mario's wedding was on a rainy day on April 22 at Malibou Lake Mountain Club. We were prepared for lots of rain but it stayed cloudy and misty and no heavy rain. It was great. I loved the soft light we had all day. Cynthia and Mario had a great wedding. Here are a few of our favorites. You can tell that there are two perspectives of the same moments. That is the cool thing about hiring us is that you get to see two points of view.

Nancy & Johan - Los Serranos Country Club

2007-05-01T13:02:00.000-07:00

Nancy and Johan's wedding was in Chino Hills at the Los Serranos Country Club. It started off as a nice spring day and then in the afternoon the clouds rolled in and it got very cold. Roman and I never worry about the weather. We have lots of years of experience with weddings in all types of weather and we are always prepared for rain. The dark cloudy sky ended up making a cool backdrop. We always love something different...