George & Martha are married!

I had a fantastic time photographing the wedding of George & Martha last weekend.  I have known George since I was young because our moms are good friends.  We were raised in the same church and circle of friends so this wedding was lots of fun for me.  It was supposed to rain all day but luckily it stopped long enough for us to get great photos of Martha who was such a stunning bride!  Here are just a few of my favorite photos.  Click on the title to see more photos from this wedding.  

Marissa's Senior Portraits

I LOOOVE the fact that senior portraits have changed.  Gone are the days where you have this beautiful full of life teen sitting in a studio in front of a boring blue or grey background with a fake cheesy smile hating every minute of their session.  I love that we are getting out into the beautiful world taking pictures that showcase not only their beauty but their personality and sense of style.   Here is a gorgeous senior I had the pleasure of photographing last week.  As always, to see more click on the title!   

Such a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving, I sure did!!!!!!  On Wednesday night at about 8:30, while my husband, my girls, and I are laying on blankets in front of the fireplace all cozy and warm I get a phone call from my brother.  "Hey Suz will you Mark and the girls come over to moms?"  "uh why? it's 8:30 at night and it's cold and we're cozy"  "Just come over as a favor to me, don't ask questions"  "well, you can ask Mark"  So I hand Mark the phone and George convinces him to head over.  As soon as Mark hangs up he says to me "they're pregnant"  and I immediately think the same thing.  So we get the girls dressed for the horrible cold outside and we head over.  I am so impatient that I can't bear the 7 minute drive to my parents not knowing for sure what it could be so I call my mom and she has no clue.  So I then call my sister and neither does she.  UGGHHH I can't wait!  So we get there and I walk in saying "someone better be pregnant or have won the lottery around here"  Note: Do NOT surprise me I hate them (unless I don't know I'm being surprised)  lol I'm such a control freak I know.   So George in his strait no emotion face is just standing by the table and Julie is walking down the stairs with a little christmas box in her hands.  HA it's a pregnancy test (gross I don't know why I thought that) or a winning lottery ticket.  So George gives a little speech that I can hardly remember because I was trying to solve the puzzle before he revealed it and then Julie hands the box to my dad.  He opens it and WALA we're right Ultrasound pictures!!!!!!  We're so smart.  So I quickly take a look at the ultrasound picts because I've seen a million and they all look the same and I notice something and say "hey what is that, another baby?" nobody answers so I don't give it another thought.  So I just walk away and congratulate George & Julie.  And then I don't remember who told us to look closer but when I did it said something like "we're twins"  OMGOSH!!!!!!!  Talk about excitement I can't remember anything after that but think I started jumping up and down.  I wanted twins soooooo badly when I was pregnant and didn't get them so this was super duper extra exciting for me!   So on June 12th (or close) of this new year  I will become an auntie to TWINS!!!!!!!!  Oh my camera will be working some major overtime.  So that's how my Thanksgiving went how was yours?  

Candace

Beautiful girls!  Last weekend I had the pleasure of photographing these four beauties.  It was lots of fun and a little messy (we had to walk thru this yucky field) but worth it because I just love how these photos turned out.   A while back I met Candice on Facebook (that sounds so funny) she is actually a childhood friend of my husbands but like most people do they lost touch after school.  Luckily, Facebook is good at reuniting old friends ;)  Candace asked me to do these months ago so it was fun to finally meet her in person!  As always, click the title to see more! 

Beauties! 

I love these types of moments

Trouble!  

This little munchkin actually really reminds me of my Alexa.

and the teenager ;)  I know she had better things to do like texting and playing video games but she was such a great sport!  

A whole lot of picture taking!

Whew this is one crazy month!  I had a shoot on Thursday, 3 on Friday, 1 on Saturday, & 1 today so be on the look out for lots of photos!  Gotta run todays shoot is in one hour ;) And girls don't wait to book your Valentine Boudoirs we do them in Jan and last year I booked up so let me know and I'll save you a spot!  Ciao & happy Sunday!

One is FUN!

Boy is one fun!  These were done for Bris first birthday party.  His mommy is so great with little details, hopefully she takes lots of pictures of his first party...sounds like it's going to be a good one ;)  

Happy Birthday little guy!

The Juraseks!

Yup it's that time of year!  Lots and lots of Christmas sessions.  Here are the Juraseks.  I love that Tracy brought her own plywood and spray paint lol.  You can't tell by this photo but this was one of the COLDEST days yet.  It was freezing and super windy.  Her little girl hated the wind and was afraid a tornado was going to hit the desert so she was NOT having the photo session but we still got some great photos and even managed to get a smile or two out of her ;)  To see more from this shoot click on the title ;)

George & Martha are getting married!

George & Martha are getting married!  Next weekend as a matter of fact and I can't wait to capture every special moment of it.  Here are some of their engagement photos.  To see more click on the title!

The Match book launch event.

I love to photograph.  It just makes me happy so I enjoy everything I do and every event wether it is a family shoot, a wedding, baptisms, golf tournaments, etc etc they are all special to me BUT I have to admit that the work I have done for Donate Life Hollywood is soooo emotionally rewarding.  I first photographed their VIP person of the year cocktail party & film festival gala back in June and that was a blast (I'll blog about that later since I never did) but a couple of weeks ago I had the absolute honor of photographing the L.A. launch of The Match.  For those of you who have not heard this story you are missing out.  Susan Whitman Helfgot, the author of the book, is the widow of Joseph Helfgot.  Joseph was a heart patient who after two years gets his heart transplant but unknown to anyone suffers a brain hemorage during the surgery and never awakens.  Ironically his heart transplant was successful.  His wife is then asked to donate his face to James Maki who lost half of his own face in a terrible accident. I am not finished reading the book yet but so far I just love it and I really feel like I knew Joseph and he was my friend.  It was such an honor to meet his wonderful widow and to photograph this special event for her.  I really recommend this book.  Although the story is a heavy one it is not written that way.  It's actually the opposite.  I believe that you will enjoy this book as much as I am enjoying it thus far.  Well enough talking here are some of the photos from that night.  If you want to see more pictures from this evening  just click on the title of this post.  

The Lowerys

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing Gigi & Noah. This is the third year I have photographed them for their Christmas cards & it is just so neat to see how they have grown. I'm honored that James & Evette want me to do this for them. Thank you guys!!  Here are a few of my faves! 

Tiffany's head shots

Some time ago Tiffany contacted me about doing her head shots.  After setting it all up she asked me about clothing.  Well, I have become friends with Nicole who owns Indulgence Boutique and have had the opportunity to photograph for her personally and professionally quite a few times over the last few years.  She has such an amazing sense of style and just comes up with outfits I would have never thought of putting together (and I'm a pretty creative person) so back to the point when Tiffany was asking me about outfits I thought Nicole would love to style her for this and I could trade  some photos for her site for her styling services so that is how this session looks so great.  Thanks so much to Nicole for styling and to Tiffany for trusting me with her head shots!  Hope you love them.  To see more click on the name and it will take you to my facebook fan page.  There is also a link to Indulgence Boutique on the right side of this page.  

Mellinas Baptism

I just love photographing baptisms (it must be the mommy in me)and lately I've had the opportunity to shoot quite a few of them.  For those of you who have never been to a Greek Orthodox Baptism they

are the equivalent of a wedding.  This one is the baptism of little Miss Melina.  Such a beautiful baby girl.