Nope, it still looks the same! But, you can get there using a new domain name. I have some vague plans on what I’d like to do with the domain, but for now it just forwards to Britney Photography. Cool, huh?
I have a new domain coming up for portraits, too, that will launch at the same time my studio opens. More on that later!
I’m in a pretty bad mood right now, so this may come out as kind of a rant.
I first found my studio at the end of January, several months ago. I originally planned on an opening in the first week of May. Well, there were delays with the building codes and the city permits and a whole bunch of stuff that I, thankfully, didn’t have to deal with becaue it was my landlord’s job. The electrical still isn’t done, so my projector and sound system are both still here at home. Then, the furniture wasn’t going to be delivered until the second week of May (and then last week, and then today, and now some it won’t be ready till next week). The storage units were supposed to be installed today in three hours– well, the installers showed up an hour late and took way more time than I was told. Five hours later, I had to leave and will now have to reschedule them to finish the other half of the installation.
The opening scheduled for early May is so far gone now. I’m planning on third week of June now, so I have time to clean up and organize when all the furniture is there and the electrical finished and all the work men gone. We’ll see. Something else is bound to go wrong, right?
I had a wonderful day yesterday with Greg at Bumutay Studio shooting the wedding of Josh and Liz.
Liz and Josh are without a doubt, the most emotional couple I’ve photographed in a long time. I really liked seeing the emotion on their faces, and knowing exactly what they were thinking. There were so many great moments during the day! We did their wedding portraits before the ceremony and photographed their first look at each other. They had a highly emotional ketubah signing, and a beautiful ceremony were their friends and family spoke so many words of encouragement. And then they had a rocking reception with a truly great band and an energetic hora.
The following portraits were incredibly fun to photograph. Rather than take Liz and Josh outside into the hot sun before the guests even saw them, we decided to photograph in the Newport Beach Marriott, where the wedding and reception also took place. Last time I was at the hotel I was not very inspired by it, but the recent remodel has really created a lot of character! After the first look, we went over to a stylish lime green couch. I mean– lime green– I don’t get to see my favorite color in decor that often!
I love photographing in a bar!
Liz circling Josh during the ceremony
Some Hora excitement!
And Liz and the bridesmaids on stage with the band
No longer will I lose my keys! I bought these cute little key holders at Uncommon Goods. I’ve bought quite a few things from that website over the last five years. It’s great for gifts and, well, uncommon items. Check it out! (I’m in no way affiliated and will not profit from you visiting their website.)
I want to say a quick congrats to Cesar and Lupe on their marriage yesterday– and the highly exuberant party they threw afterwards! They were married at St. Paul’s Cathedral and their reception was at the LA River Center and Gardens, catered by Bamboo Catering. They had a ton of guests, and it really seemed as though most of them were partying all night long.
A couple portraits
I love how the kids carried Lupe’s train
First dance
The very pretty cake. Guests all night long went closer to inspect the sugar paste flowers to see if they were real!
Lupe arranged a surprise for Cesar– she hired part of the USC marching band to come to the reception! They marched right at the end of the toasts. Cesar was wiping away tears shortly after– he was so happy!
Not sure why, but I really like this image
The party just went on and on throughout the night, though this was fairly early. The dance floor was so packed I couldn’t even edge in and get some closer shots until much later!
The weather hasn’t been that great lately, so Carole and her mother, Pat, were a bit worried about the wedding day. Luckily, they couldn’t have been blessed with a day any better! Gorgeous clouds most of the day (Carole shares my love of clouds) and a good temperature.
Carole and Steve were married at The Chart House in Redondo Beach, and Carole got ready just up the street at the Crowne Plaza. We spend a lot of fun, laidback time together yesterday!
A few getting ready shots
And some ceremony images
Some portraits
The first image is mine, and the second was taken by Ines at the same moment
And the first dance
Anyone who runs a blog with comments will eventually be attacked by spammers. It’s inevitable. And in the past few days, they’ve decided my blog is their next target. I’ve had to delete several comments over the past few months, but since Friday I’ve had over 20 spam comments ranging from pharmacies to car insurance; strangely, they’ve all been on two posts out of the many on here!
I really don’t want to turn the comments feature off, because I love it when you comment! But I have to do something about it!
I’ve created a blacklist of words. From now on, any comments with certain words will be automatically deleted– I won’t even see them or have to moderate them.
So, if you intend to ask me about my insurance carrier via a comment (why?), it will be deleted. If you intend to ask if I want to buy Levitra– deleted. And the same goes for many of the common spam words.
Mike and Christy are seriously cool people. First, we did part of their engagement shoot at a bar. How great is that! Second, they’re just my kind of people– Christy hates wearing makeup and Mike makes fun of people when they trip. Yup, that’s me, too! And photographing people like me is so fun, because I feel like I’m just hanging out with them.
On to the photos! The first one is at Cook’s Corner, and the rest are at Rancho Las Lomas where they’re getting married later in the fall.
Richard and Victoria had a beautiful, butterfly-themed wedding at the Fullerton Arboretum. Victoria, an artist, had a very definite hand in the wedding; her favorite color was splashed throughout the day, including the ribbons on her dress. Ines and I were blessed with beautiful light throughout most of the day, which always makes me happy!
Richard’s children gave their new step-mom a Mother’s Day gift at the beginning of the day and Victoria was fighting so hard not to cry before the day even began!
The butterfly and purple theme even filtered down to the flower girl, Richard’s daughter!
The new family:
Their cake was fabulous!
There are some days where everything falls into place, and yesterday was absolutely one of them. Michael and Tanya are wonderful, caring people and their wedding really showed that. They’re also right in line with my style of shooting– for the majority of their portraits, I asked them to just walk on ahead and talk with each other and I captured those images. They also planned a sunset walk, which was just beautiful! The South Coast Botanical Gardens is one of the most picturesqe places in Southern California if anyone is still looking for a ceremony venue, by the way!
A few shots of the ceremony– Michael and his best men walked down the aisle, stopping and striking a pose a couple times!
A few infrared portraits just after the ceremony
A few images from the sunset session (the first shot here is my favorite from the day)
The first dance
And the party photos!
The sneak peek gallery with a ton of party photos and more portraits!
Well, I’ve got an inredibly busy weekend, so I really can’t write much more than this… the light went fast so we had a record 20 minute engagement session!
This is something I’m considering for a future project. In the meantime, I’m still working on the freedom project, still working with volunteers!
The image is collage of one of my favorite plants, papyrus, and my sister. I took this portrait of her last spring and play with this same image constantly; scattered across a few hard drives are several different versions of this image!
