Heidi Ryder Photography: The Blog » Southern California and Destination Wedding Photography

Well, we did it!  My team successfully completed Relay for Life, the 24-hour relay walk to promote finding a cure for cancer. I am home, showered, fed and (kind of) rested. It was a very long 24 hours, but it was inspirational and rewarding. I think I probably did the least amount of walking compared to the rest of my team, but I did my best to man our booth for most of the day.

If you’ve never been to a Relay for Life event before, the idea is to get friends and family to sponsor you before your walk, but also to set up a booth along the relay path with an additional fund raising effort. Our team’s booth had a Halloween theme. We were Team FIGHT FOR LIFE and our slogan was ‘Scaring Away Cancer.’ We sold pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and raffled off a free portrait session, courtesy of yours truly, with all proceeds benefiting the American Cancer Society.

I can’t wait to do this again next year. Chris and I have decided to share the Team Captain duty and we already have our team name, theme and fund raising ideas planned out. It’s gonna be great! Here are a few photos from this year.

First up, a group shot of Team FIGHT FOR LIFE!

The relay was kicked off with the Survivor walk. Cancer survivors walked a lap and the rest of us stood along the path and cheered them on. I didn’t expect it to be, but the moment proved to be very emotional and more than a few of us cried just watching these amazing people walk past us. To see them marching along, knowing the struggle they had been through,  reminded me of why we were there in the first place.

My sister-in-law, Heather, was on our team and is a cancer survivor. We were so happy, proud and thankful to see her among the survivors. As you can see, she was pretty excited, too.

The cool thing about the event is that it’s not just a bunch of people walking around in a big circle all day. There were bands playing from the very beginning until late into the night to keep us entertained. After the sun went down, I snuck over to the stage area halfway through one of my laps and snapped a few shots of one of the bands.

But my favorite part of the event by far was the luminaria that lined the path in the evening.

People were able to decorate luminarias in memory or honor of their loved ones and at dusk they were placed along the relay path. There was a special lap where everyone was given a candle and got to slowly walk the path together. The illuminated luminarias looked beautiful and it was really neat to read the dedications that people had written on some of them. I snapped a shot of some of the ones my team decorated, including the one I made in my cousin Amy’s memory.

A great big THANK YOU to everyone who sponsored me and my team on this walk. I’m looking forward to next year already!

Just a quick post to let you know that for the next 24 hours I will be walking against cancer as a part of Relay for Life. My team has raised over $1,800 in online and offline donations and we hope to make even more during the event. Our team is called FIGHT FOR LIFE and we’ll have a booth set up with some fundraising opportunities, one of which may be of interest to some of you!

Stop by our booth any time before 8am tomorrow morning (serious, any time – we’ll be up for 24 hours) and purchase raffle tickets to enter yourself in the drawing for a free portait session! The tickets are seriously super cheap so you can buy a ton of them to increase your odds, and all proceeds go towards the American Cancer Society.

If you aren’t in the area or can’t make it to the booth, I will also enter anyone into the drawing who donates $50 or more ONLINE in the next 24 hours. Go here to donate to our team and make sure that you put the word RAFFLE in the message box when you donate.

If you are in town, please stop by! The relay takes place at Robert Gross Park in Burbank, 2814 W Empire Ave. Hope to see you there!

I’ve never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur. In my mind entrepreneurs are men and women in business suits who do grand things with their time and money. They are Very Important People with ultra bright smiles and perfectly-coiffed hair.

Me? I spend my time taking pretty photos and hanging out with awesome people on their wedding day, then I sit in my office and edit those photographs by the light of the robot lamp on my desk and to the sounds of my iTunes playlist. Also, I’m often in my pajamas.

So, it’s a little surprising to me that a website for women entrepreneurs called Start Up Princess wanted to know about my business. I don’t wear business suits! My hair is usually a total mess! But, they didn’t care. And so it seems my idea of what an entrepreneur was is totally wrong (no surprise there) and I am in fact one!

All kidding aside, I have worked very hard to start this modest photography business of mine and to be recognized for it is very, very nice. I’ve received a lot of help and encouragement from my peers, friends and family and I’m hoping that someone who is thinking about starting their own business will read my interview and walk away with something that will encourage them to go for it!

You can read my interview here, and if you’re a woman entrepreneur I encourage you to poke around the rest of the site. There are some great articles and interviews to read and learn from!

Here’s a screen shot:

This particular blog post is all about firsts: My first maternity session, my first baby portrait session, and a baby’s first birthday.  You see, Noah was born a year ago, and a month before he joined the world, I shot my first maternity session with his mom and dad, Rama and Ario. A couple of months ago I received a phone call from Rama. When she told me she wanted some portraits of Noah to commemorate his first birthday, I couldn’t believe it had been a year already!  I was excited to meet the little baby that was in Rama’s belly and I knew I was in for an interesting session becuse if I know anything about 1 year olds, I know they are rambunctious, willful and get into everything! Noah was certainly no exception.

For fun, here’s a sweet shot of Rama and Ario from the maternity session taken last year:

And here is Noah! He was even more adorable than I expected and for the most part wanted nothing to do with me and my camera. Kids these days! It was definitely an experience chasing after him the entire time, but I think we really captured his personality in these photos.

Noah’s dad is very much into gardening and it’s obvious that Noah is taking after him. He was so interested in all of the plants in the yard. And dirt! This boy loves dirt! And sticks, and leaves and rocks, and anything else that crossed his path.

Noah has the best hair. It went from a mohawk, to a stylish mess and then back again. I’m pretty sure that babies with mohawks are my favorite kind of babies.

Ario is a doctor and Noah had some scrubs to match his daddy’s. Sooo adorable!

And of course mom couldn’t be left out of the dress-alike party!

When I first shot Rama’s maternity session, I had no idea I would be photographing her baby a year later. It was such a treat to meet Noah. Rama said she plans to give me a call every year, so I can’t wait to document this handsome little guy as he grows up! Thanks, Ario, Rama and Noah … see you next year!

The morning of Sue and Erwin’s wedding was overcast and gloomy with a significant chance of rain. I love rain more than I probably should, but even I know cold, wet weather will put a damper on an outdoor ceremony. So, as I drove to Costa Mesa, I had my fingers crossed in hopes we’d get a couple of dry hours. Guess my finger-crossing worked because not only did the clouds part just before the ceremony began, but the light was absolutely gorgeous for the rest of the day.

I was excited for Sue and Erwin’s wedding at Park Privé because it would be my first time shooting with Michael Norwood, a photographer whose work I admire tremendously. When Michael asked me to shoot this wedding with him, I knew it would be a beautiful event, but I had no idea Sue and Erwin would be as awesome as they were! From the first moment I met Sue, Erwin and their friends and family I knew Michael and I were in for a fun day. A great big thank you to Michael for inviting me along and to Sue and Erwin for allowing me to be a part of their tremendously fun day!

Sue and Erwin had a First Look before their ceremony with their best friends and parents present. It was a really special moment for the group to share together.

Speaking of best friends, allow me to introduce you to Sue and Erwin’s awesometastic wedding party. Oh, yes.

Kelley Gin of Picture Perfect Events helped pull all the details together and Squareroot Designs absolutely rocked the florals.

The evening ended with a beautiful movie made from the day’s video footage, courtesy of Digital Video Artistry.

Michael shot both film and digital at this wedding and posted his film shots the other day. Do yourself a favor and check them out!

Jessica and Nick are getting married next year in Rhode Island, which is where Jessica grew up. I thought it would be appropriate and fun to try and channel the ambiance of her hometown in their engagement photos, so we headed to the closest representation of a small East Coast harbor town that I could think of: Long Beach! Shoreline Park, to be exact. Turns out, the area was perfect.  When Jessica caught sight of the boats, bridges, seagulls and even the little lighthouse she became very excited. I can’t wait to see the real Rhode Island next year at their wedding!

Nick is actually a very good friend of my husband’s. They are ‘bruthas from another mutha’ in that seem to have identical taste in most things, finish each other’s sentences, and sometimes even look like each other. On more than one occasion people have pointed to them and asked, “Are you brothers?” Jessica and I have gotten to know each other over very girly activities like the Sex and the City movie premiere and New Kids on the Block concerts. That’s how we roll. I was honored and oh-so excited when these two asked me to photograph their wedding. It’s always lovely to share in such an important day with a lovely couple, but to be able to share the experience with friends is just more special than I can describe.

We started out under Queensway Bridge. The thing about this bridge is, I’ve wanted to shoot a couple under there ever since I saw a scene in the second season of Dexter (love that show) that took place under it. The moment I saw it I knew I needed to find that bridge, and I did! I just love the lines.

I call this next one “We Are So In Love Our Heads ‘Splode!”

These two made each other laugh during the entire shoot, which is always so fun to capture!

Nick and Jessica, I honestly cannot wait for your wedding! It’s gonna be a beautiful day for two beautiful people. Thank you for letting me be a part of it. <3