danny + mel {engaged}

I think this was my favorite shoot to date.  Great locations, great lighting (right before sunset one day and then early, early morning the next), great outfits (nice job, Melanie!), and beautiful faces.  We did these mostly on Sunday evening and I couldn't believe how empty the streets were!  It felt like we had the whole downtown to ourselves, which meant I wasn't afraid of getting run over while I stood in the middle of the road.

Did I mention that this is my brother?  I'm so excited to have a new sister in the family!  Congratulations you two (oh, and it's about TIME!....did I just write that out loud?).  Love you guys!

in love

How much do you love this?  {we passed this wall and couldn't resist the cheese} I'm not even kidding when I say that I love EVERY SINGLE ONE of the shots from this engagement session.  Mel has been waiting so patiently; they're coming soon, I promise!

erika + john {wed}

At the end of June I had the incredible opportunity to fly down to Riverside, CA to shoot this wedding.  Incredible because of three reasons:  One, Erika is an artist, and I've known her a long, long time, so I felt I knew what she'd like, and I knew she trusted my vision.  {I had a pretty good vision in my mind of how I wanted the images to turn out, even before I began shooting, and am really happy with the results.}  Two, it was the most UNstressed I've ever been about a shoot.  Seriously.  Her family is so fun and the day was so casual.  Three, Erika and John are a gorgeous couple, which made my job a lot easier!  Four, I got to sneak away from my family for a weekend, which was fun, and also drive up to Bakersfield for two days to see my brother and his family.  And Five, I got to make the long drive home with my bestest Lis, and even though her kids were with us, it almost felt like a road trip.  Okay, so that was five reasons.

It was really hard to narrow down which pictures to post on the blog, so there are a ton.  I couldn't help it.

Congratulations Erika and John!  Thanks for letting me share the day with you!

a whole lotta people

An extended family shoot from a couple of weekends ago.  Seven adults.  Eleven kids.  One dog.  And a couple of wandering horses.  It could have been completely crazy, but it actually wasn't (thank heavens!).

Here are some of my favorite shots.

i {heart} faces : celebrating teens

check out this week's other entries here:

jess + spencer

I've known Jess since she was twelve and pining over a boy we'll call John.  Lucky for her, she found Spencer.  Lucky for him, too.  And now she's a [very good] mama.  It was so fun hanging out for these few hours--it needs to happen more!

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