dear becky,

you will die.

sneak peek for nicole

i think the only people who really care about family pictures are the moms. it seems as though the dads are always present against their will. i had one dad once who was being forced to miss out on some sort of sporting event and was listening to it with headphones. when were about to take the picture, he'd slip them off and smile, then put them back on again as soon as i was done.

kids seem to take it the hardest. something about being dressed up and forced to stand next to other family members brings out a streak of stubborn. i think savannah, cole and creed were really good sports. at the end you could see cole's smile was getting more and more forced and i could see his little eyes drifting off to a nearby set of swings more and more. poor kid! who cares about holding still and looking happy when there are swings to swing on? all we had to do was remind him that there was a treat afterwards and he started beaming again. and creed! what a content little baby he is! he just did whatever he had to do, sat where he was placed. when mike and nicole took their couple pictures, he just sat nicely, picking up a leaf every now and then.

the scenery was just gorgeous. of course, the place we originally were going to shoot at requires a permit (a $175.00 permit, mind you) so we hopped in the car and drove around a bit. these were shot at malibu lake and i loved mike's idea (and nicole's willingness!) to get down on the dock for the best scenery.

we had such a fun time and aren't they such beautiful people? that little savannah with her dark hair and her dark eyes is just to die for. when she smiles, she's the sweetest thing you've ever seen and when she's serious, her dark eyes just seem to glow.

tori and adrien {married!}

dancing at her wedding

the rings

funny how i spent an entire day with these two, photographing them, taling with them, laughing with them and at the end of the day, i came home and realized that i am probably not going to talk to them again. and here i was, at their most special day, spending more time with them than anyone else. isn't that strange?

so, tori and adrien, we may not speak again, but i wish you all the best. life can be tough and i hope you stay true to one another, i hope you can stay honest and kind. and i hope it's still fun years later (and i don't mean 2, i mean 15).

cheers to you!

thoughts on wedding photography

1. being the wedding photographer is, in some ways, like being a member of the wedding party. you spend an awful lot of time with all of the family, with the bride and groom, with the wedding party and you develop these relationships and inside jokes. by the end of the night, i felt like tori and adrien were friends and i sincerely wished them well. it was only when i got home that i realized that i'd only met them earlier that day and that i really had no idea what they were up to next.

2. spending the entire day shooting a wedding made me remember back to the days when we were first dating and when we first married. it made me feel nostalgic and romantic. i wished to hug ryan a million times and, if taking pictures didn't require two hands, i'm pretty sure i would have texted him all day long. so, when he called to ask when seth usually goes down for a nap, i was so pleased. even if all we talked about was the baby. i also realized how little of my wedding i actually remember. also, how unimportant it was in the grand scheme of things. which, at the time, was not how i felt.

3. i left my house at 9:30 (in the morning) to make it in time. i had a bit of a break between portraits and the reception and arrived home at 10:30 (at night). that's about 11 hours of work. on a saturday. then there has been, of course, the uploading, sorting, editing, communicating, etc. conclusion: weddings take an incredible amount of work. they are exhausting.

4. as assistant, not only did i shoot pictures, but i helped lug all of the equipment. leila jones, the woman i was shooting with, had two large bags, a smaller bag, a monopod, a tripod and a reflector kit. that is a lot of stuff. a lot of expensive stuff. plus i had my bag and charla, the second shooter, had a bag of her own. i was in awe of the equipment. and i got to use it, too. that was awesome.

you know, wedding photographers are expensive. but the work is hard! there's a lot of it, plus the other people that are hired to come along. there's editing and sorting and driving and the equipment to pay for. if you want good pictures for your wedding day, then you need to pay for a good photographer. i understand that now, having shot a wedding, better than i ever did.

conclusion: i'd love to do more. i enjoyed every bit of it. but maybe not every weekend. like i said, the work day is a bit intensive and so is the week afterwards. but watching two people commit themselves to one another for all time and eternity? what an honor. totally worth it.

pictures to come!

i'll tell you this much, shooting weddings is intense. and wonderful. and hard. and exhausting. i am so glad i did it. i could feel myself stretching as a photographer, it was like a crash course in photography. my mentor, leila jones, invited me to come along and assist as she and charla blue were shooting. such a good experience, to stand together and swap ideas and tips and tricks (mostly those two and i listened and asked questions). i didn't shoot a lot, but i certainly shot enough. enough to stop at a best buy on my way to the reception and purchase another memory card!

and then i unhinged my jaw and swallowed her whole which is unfortunate, because we were going to go to the zoo the next day.

seventeen magazine online

"get a sneak peak at an la fashion show with jerell scott!"

since i'm standing beside my work and not pointing out where the flaws reside, i'm simply going to write that this is paige and she is a singer. one day, she'l be famous. and, i really, really enjoyed spending some of my saturday morning with her. she is funny, relaxed and confident. also patient. because i took these three weeks ago and she had to wait that long.

thoughts on excuses, excuses, excuses!

when a session is over, i wrap everything up with a thank you card and a delivery of some sorts to the person i took pictures of. i should probably stop this. because the entire time i'm talking to them, i'm struggling to keep myself from ripping my work apart.

it's ridiculous how hard it is. the words are shouting themselves in my head, "TOO LITTLE LIGHT! MY EXPOSURE WAS BAD! PEOPLE KEPT WALKING INTO THE FRAME! THE EDIT IS HORRIBLE!"

my friend heather pointed out that i should act like i'm good. i should act like i know what i'm doing. especially since i do know. at least, i know more than she does.

the thought caused me to pause. SHE'S RIGHT. this photography thing? this is what i do. and it's not perfect. i'm still learning. but i know more than she does. and that's why i'm doing it. so i vowed then to stop making excuses. if i was going to do this photography thing, i was going to stand next to my work. without pointing out how out of focus it is.

introducing. . .a baby cat

he's new and he's mine and i am so distracted by him!