The three of us met at Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino because Annie and Robin wanted some photos made in the Chinese and Japanese gardens there. The gardens are a nod to their culture and their upcoming wedding, which will include many awesome surprises that I cannot wait to document.

Robin began making Annie giggle and smile immediately, which helped us all warm up really quickly! It was a challenge not to crack up the entire time, myself – it’s hard to look through a camera’s viewfinder when you’re doubled over with laughter! But, I managed and I think we got some lovely shots that are reflective of this amazing couple.

Here are a few of my favorites from the Huntington Gardens.

Robin kept striking intentionally cheesy poses and Annie would try to her best to act annoyed for a second, but ultimately all anyone could do is laugh.

Every once in a while I managed to get some serious ones in, though.

After we finished up at the gardens, we all loaded into one car and Robin drove us out to Malibu for some beachy goodness. Annie and Robin brought their dog, Tipper, along for the ride. As soon as he was let out of his little carrier, he hopped right up on my lap and I was instantly smitten.  When we got to Paradise Cove, I began snapping away and made sure to get some good ones of my new best friend – who got dressed up especially for me!

I couldn’t decide which I liked best out of these next two, so I picked them both! This is my blog, so I can do that sort of thing.

Annie and Robin, thank you so much for spending that marathon day with me! I wouldn’t want to be held hostage in a car headed to Malibu by anyone else. See you in September!

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Anyway, Heather and I have been friends on MySpace for years now. She found out about this little photography business of mine through that grand social networking site and hired me for an engagement session with her fiancè, Che. Heather and Che have not yet formally announced their engagement–only their closest friends and family know. As I understand it, they will be using their favorite photos from this session to tell the world. How exciting! I am truly honored.

I got to spend several hours with the couple at the Montage Resort in Laguna Beach. Wow, is that ever a beautiful stretch of oceanside. If you ever get a chance to spend any time at that resort, do. You will not regret it. It was a picture-perfect day and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. Heather loves the beach so she was in heaven. Che, on the other hand, admitted that he’s not a fan of getting dirty so the beach isn’t exactly his cup of tea. You’ll notice he kept his shoes on the whole time, thankyouverymuch. He did not complain even once, though, which told me how much he loved Heather.

I had the best time on this shoot and am seriously in love with so many images, I wish I could post them all. I’m not even done going through them all, but I just had to post a few favorites…I couldn’t continue keeping them to myself!

Heather and Che, thank you for being such a fun couple to work with. I had a blast! Enjoy…

One morning, though, a girl with dirty blond hair, golden eyes, flannel shirt and 8-hole Doc Martens motioned for me to sit next to her on the bus. Her name was Kim. She listened to Alternative music (remember when we called it that with a straight face?) and was cooler than I thought I could ever be. And we’ve been friends ever since. Kim has been my best friend for what now seems like forever. She’ll be the Maid of Honor at my wedding in July.

When she asked me to take photos of her and her boyfriend, Johnny, I was honored. Not only do I love taking photos of gorgeous couples, but I love hanging out with my Kimmy. Plus, Johnny compliments Kim perfectly so I was eager to celebrate them as a couple the best way I know how––through photos.

We headed down to the beach for a few hours to soak up some of that delicious sunlight I love so much. Kim and Johnny were happy to oblige when I yelled, “Okay, great…now totally make out!” from behind my camera. The most hilarious part of the day was that Kim had a very hard time keeping her eyes open. Every time she heard the shutter click, she’d blink. Roughly 60 percent of the images I took show her mid-blink. To make matters worse, many of the times she manged to keep her eyes open, Johnny would blink. It was a comedy of errors all day long. But in the end, we made a game out of it where I would tell Kim to close her eyes and then count down, “One…two…three…OPEN!” Her peepers would jump to alertness and I’d fire off as many shots as my camera could muster before she’d blink again.

Thank you, Kim and Johnny, for spending a day with me at the beach and for endulging in sushi with Chris and I. We had a fantastic day.