Last February I was attending my very first photography convention, WPPI in Las Vegas. I was enjoying the trade show & after parties so much to the point that I wanted to have some more fun so I decided to crash a “workshop after party” at Rouge inside the MGM Grand. Little did I know at the time it was hosted by Scarlett Lillian.

We briefly talked with each other, and later on that night I added her on facebook. It wasn’t until this recently when I noticed she twittered something about her faith & responded. This opened up the door for the two of us to start communicating via email. In these emails were stories of our commonly shared faith in Jesus Christ, favorite music… we both love Jeremy Camp and dare I say N*Sync! Through our long emails, which stretched past 5 paragraphs every-time, our fingers grew tired from typing and this led to video chat for weeks followed by texting throughout the day.

After all of our communication, Scarlett informed me that she was making a trip to Nor-Cal to shoot a wedding and she was coming to San Diego to shoot an engagement session! What started with just hanging out as friends then turned into a few fun “date nights” followed by a few amazing shoots around San Diego & Orange County. Through our time together, we realized we had so much more in common!

Our trip first started when I picked Scarlett up from the airport. The amazing thing about our relationship is we have Christ as our center. The very first thing we did was worship Jesus at church together. The last thing we did before she went home that next Sunday was worship Jesus together. I knew that our connection to each other was something more than personal love could ever control and it’s a feeling between two people that can only be felt when you have Jesus in the middle of “everything”. As we heard the words of “From The Inside Out” being played, we opened our eyes, looked at each other and with tears running down both of our faces we knew that it was God’s love that brought us to be together.

I was lucky enough to take a few portraits of Scarlett during her visit to San Diego. I am so excited to have the opportunity to share them with you!

If you are one of my dedicated blog readers, “The Alfano Family” is something you have seen on my blog previously. A few months back, I photographed The Alfano Family in Balboa Park. Recently, I got an email from the fathers brother telling me that his family, also named “The Alfano’s” would love to team up with me for a really fun “Coronado style” family portrait session. Let me point out that “Coronado Style” is a popular & fun beach portrait style where the families always wear white shirts & blue jeans. I am a fan of this style and it was exciting for me that they wanted the “Coronado Style” added to their session.

One thing I always look for in my surroundings during a shoot is shooting in a small space and creating it to look much larger than it really is. During our session I found a random brick wall in the park and we decided to use it for some shots. Don’t you just have to love random brick walls in your shooting space? Yes, Please!!

Tom Alfano & his amazing wife Rose have one daughter, Maddie. They made our session so much fun and it makes me smile even writing about them because they were one my faviorate family sessions to date! They allowed me to try new shooting techniques that worked perfectly and Maddie kept running around and making funny faces into my lens and eventually I bursted out in laughter and that opened up a large bucket of fun for the rest of our session!

Thank You to the Alfano Family. I had so much fun with you & I cannot wait to hang out with you again sometime!!

A few months ago I was contacted by my home church, The Rock Church of San Diego. They asked if I would be interested in donating a family portrait session to their Miles Ahead benefit concert featuring one of my favorite bands, Delirious?. The family session was part of the VIP-Pre Show silent auction which will help send a crusade to the Philippines in 2010.

Miles Ahead was started by pastor Miles McPherson through their mission of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ around the world. Last year they organized an amazing crusade to Jamaica that changed the lives of hundreds and impacted their city with pure love that will continue to stay their for years.

The event was a huge success & my phone rang a week later with a call from The Pelling Family! As I got to know the family via phone I couldn’t wait for this session because not only would it give back to an amazing organization but it was going to bless this family with some amazing images! Our session began in Encinitas, right near their home. If I were to describe the pelling family in 3 words, they would be: energetic, humble and loving. The energetic totally describes their two little daughters. Humble & loving are the exact words for the entire family! They are one of the nicest families I have ever met and our friendship will be continuing!

Thank You to The Rock Church for giving me this incredible oppurtunity. I loved being involved with this benefit event & by looking at these images. I will have to say that everybody won! Thank You so much to the Pelling family! I had so much fun on our session & I can’t wait to see you all again soon!!

You may remember the surprise marriage proposal that I photographed of Laura & Chris a few weeks back in Coronado. If you haven’t seen that post yet, click here.

I have known Laura for a little over 1 year as we both have served with the youth ministry at church together. Through our friendship I kept hearing stories of her amazing boyfriend and his stories of his journey with the Navy overseas. Recently, I was informed that Chris was scheduled to return to San Diego and be reunited with Laura. After getting the chance to be with the two of them one night at church I knew that not only are they truly meant for each-other but they put Jesus first in their relationship which I find to be very romantic & amazing that they put Christ first, before each-other.

Laura & Chris love camping, hiking, diving… okay so they LOVE nature! They expressed to me their desire to shoot around some nature in Coronado. Only a Coronado local like myself would know where the tiny bit of nature in Coronado is at one of the small local parks overlooking the San Diego bay.

Our session started in the park, continued onto the rocks near the shore and completed in Little Italy downtown where they love sharing their dates on the weekends. This session couldn’t of been planned any better because the amazing, Scarlett Lillian was in town with me and she came along to rock this shoot with me! If you haven’t seen her work before, your missing out!

Overall, our shoot was incredible! Laura & Chris are an amazing couple and I’m honored to have been a part of their journey!

PS- Let me point out that Laura & Chris rocked this session & they kept me laughing the entire time! A few of their images below may point that out!

It was that time again to meet up with 50 amazing photographers, 6 hot models & all the rock-star group leaders. Are you not following me? It’s time for the SoCal Photog Shootout! It’s been quite the experience with this wonderful group from when I attended my first Photog Shootout with Jasmine Star in July. In September, I took part in organizing the very first San Diego Photo GTG sponsored by Photog Shootout which brought out 30 inspiring photographers. This month I was so stoked when I was asked to teach a group of photographers with Scarlett Lillian!

The shootout’s theme was “Trash the Dress”! The shootout took place at the beautiful Bella Collina Golf Course in San Clemente. Imagine all our models wearing high end wedding dresses while they were getting trashed with paint, fake blood, cake, water and dirt! The group that Scarlett Lillian & I organized was the “cake fight”. Our two models are actually engaged which made it so much more fun! I loved telling them to throw away that “want” to throw cake at each other now so that they won’t do it on their wedding day!!

I wanted to give a huge shout out to the amazing work from the brilliant makeup & hair designs from Kacee Geoffroy. If you are a bride looking for a makeup artist or a photographer in need of makeup for your shoot, you need to contact her! She is incredible!! Thank You to our “experts” Sara France & Joe Photo. Another special shout goes to Hanssie Trainor & Matthew Saville for doing an amazing job planning this event! Thanks Guys!!

Joe Photo was so great with teaching our group how to creatively pose your brides. I secretly snagged this shot of him!

The lovely, Scarlett Lillian rocked out her “fabulous & glamorous” style to our models!

These next few shots are from our “cake fight” group!

You might remember Laura & Chris being on my blog a few weeks ago when I was blessed with the opportunity to photograph them the night when chris proposed to Laura. I will share more of their story when I post all the images in the full blog post but I wanted to end this week on a high note with giving everyone a little teaser from our amazing engagement session that we had in Coronado last week!

A few months ago, The Rock Church contacted me asking if I would be interested in donating a family portrait session as a donation for their silent auction during the recent Delirious? Concert. The Pelling Family Session is a result of the silent auction. This family session had to of been one of my favorite shoots to date and the rest of the images will be showcased in an upcoming blog post. I really wanted everyone to see a Teaser from our great shoot!

Last week, I had the amazing opportunity to be a group leader for the SoCal Photog Shootout. I will explain more about it in an upcoming blog post but I couldn’t stand it anymore and I needed to show off one of my favorite images as a Teaser! I hope you enjoy this shot as much as I do & be on the lookout for an upcoming full blog post with all the images!

One of my main reasons for visiting Seattle last month was to share the joy of welcoming my newest niece Norah.   She is the third child from my amazing sister Alison and her great husband Jason, who incidentally just celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary. “The Brown Family shoot” had to be one of my favorites during my time up North!

Our shoot took place at none other than Newcastle Beach Park right outside of Renton. You may remember one of my other family sessions (Kennedy Family) took place at this park. I love everything it has to offer- the view of Lake Washington, the tall trees, a “secret forest” and the great playground setup! If you are ever on the Eastside of Seattle, this is one park you have to visit!

There was something really fun and special about our family session. I think it has to do with my two nephews who didn’t want to play along with me – and thus, kept me on my toes!  They know I am their uncle and that they could mess around with my usual family shooting style.  To tell you the truth, this made it so much more fun!  In general, I love running after the kids during a shoot because it brings out my inner-child…and, I get a great workout chasing really fast kids!

This family session was the last one in a string of shoots I conducted during my stay in Seattle this past September. I can’t wait to travel up North again, and continue shooting in their amazing city! Hopefully sometime next spring!!

You can never forget about including grandma into your portrait sessions!!

Happy 8th Wedding Anniversary to Alison & Jason! You two are great together and you sure have raised 3 wonderful children!

All of us photographers usually attend or host workshops throughout the year. Scarlett Lillian & I along with The Bui Brothers, Bobby Earle & Kylie Banks are  all speaking on the 2010 Photog Retreat to The Bahamas! If you are a photographer that is either starting out or your a long-time vetran, we all need a vacation that gives us a lot of rest along with the time to build our craft stronger through all the amazing lessons we will all learn!

One thing that stands out at me is the opportunity to shoot models in the Bahamas!! I am so excited that Photog Retreat picked me to organize the very first shootout in Nassau, Bahamas! Be ready to expect some exotic models paired up with one of the top exotic locations in the world with one on one shooting instruction from the speakers!

I think this cruise is right at the perfect time because it’s right after the 2009 wedding season & its a few months before the next wedding season in 2010 begins! I would love to tell everyone to attend this cruise and not to miss out on the amazing learning & growth opportunity that is standing in front of you!

Check out this awesome video that Scarlett Lillian & I made that gives you a little more information about the cruise!