Happy New Year!

     I can't begin to tell you what an incredible year I have had.  I can't imagine how this next one will be even better but that is the plan ;)  Thank you all for your support your encouragement and for always being there and making beautiful comments about my work.  I appreciate every one of you.  I am going to take a few days off to spend with my beautiful family and will be right back at it Jan 9th with my first shoot of the year.

     Tonight I wish you a SAFE and WILD New Years Eve. Tomorrow I wish for you the start of a wonderful year filled with love, laughter, good health, success, and peace.  May you be surrounded by loving family and good friends and may all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions.  Happy New Year!!!!!!

Christian Scott Pappas

     Christian Pappas is a 13-year old boy who was just diagnosed with bone cancer. He will begin 10 long months of intense chemotherapy this September and will be in and out of UCLA for most of the year. He is not allowed to go to school and will miss all of his 8th grade year.  Christian Pappas has had more than his share of health issues. When he was seven years old, he fell off a trampoline and broke his arm just days before first grade. When he was ten, he had surgery for a benign, yet mysterious, 5 inch tumor in his sinus cavity and missed the last day of school. When he was twelve, he broke his ankle and growth plate and was in a full leg cast for 3 months, once again missing the end of his school year. Around his thirteenth birthday, his eye started watering and an MRI showed yet another new, mysterious tumor. Christian begged to postpone the surgery until school was out and had a very intense surgery on June 30th of this year.
     This second tumor was even more mysterious and complicated than the first. Top pathologists from The Mayo Clinic, Stanford, and Einstein all evaluated it closely. They concluded that this tumor contained aggressive, cancerous cells and that it was an osteosarcoma, extremely rare in the head area. Osteosarcoma is bone cancer.
     Christian is a straight A honors student who loves school. He is a club soccer player who runs a 5:53 mile. He is a friendly, funny, and kind kid and has always had a positive outlook on life. He has an eleven year old sister, Nicole, who is about to begin middle school and he had promised to look out for her.
Christian's bravery throughout all of his struggles and challenges in life is inspirational. Everyone who has been touched by Christian knows what a special young man he is. We ask that any friends and family take a minute to send Christian an email at Christian_Pappas_Fund@hotmail.com and give him words of encouragement through these tough times.
     Additionally, Julianne Pappas, Christian’s mother, is a 7th grade teacher at La Paz Intermediate School and a single mom. She is distraught and will be missing much (if not all) of this school year to be by Christian's side. She will be facing tremendous financial hardship this year. If you would like to make a donation to the Pappas family, please contact me and I will direct you to the right place. Christian and his family have a long, painful road ahead of them and any support is greatly appreciated.

Danny & Michelle

Sometime in October I decided that I would not take on any work the week of December 20th so that I can enjoy the holiday season with my girls.  Well, as I often do, I went back on my word.  How could I say no to Michelle when she contacted me asking if I could photograph her and her husband while he was home on leave.  He is in the Army and they had been apart for sometime and he would only be home for two weeks.   No brainer I think I could sacrifice 2 hours tops when they are sacrificing so much for us.  Well of course we get a nasty rain storm the day we're supposed to do our shoot but luckily Michelle was such a trooper and braved the rain.  There were some dry moments and some really really wet moments but all in all it was a fun experience and we ended up with some fun photos.  If you just can't get enough click on the title ;)

Pete & Ada are engaged!

YAY Pete & Ada are engaged!!!!  Well, here is my last E session of the year.  This was such a great time and the weather was perfect.  It was a record high for December and if I remember correctly it hit 91 in some cities.  Good ol So Cal weather.  I've known Pete for a few years now, he is a good friend of my brother in laws (and now a fishing buddy of my husbands) but I had not really talked to Ada.  I believe we met twice before the shoot.  She is such a nice girl and Pete seems so happy.  I love when good people find each other.  So this is part one of their E session.  Pete owns a boat so we are going to do part 2 on the boat sometime in Jan.  Can't wait for that one either!  Here are a few of my faves from their shoot.  If these aren't enough for you click on the title!  

Mirror Image

I snapped this image during a family session and knew the minute I took it it would make an amazing black and white.  It was actually the first image I edited in this series because I knew it was my favorite.   A friend of mine pointed out that it looks like she's holding herself as a child and I thought that was a really cool concept.  It's a mirror image.  They really do look like the same person and their body language is the same.  Well, I hope you love it just as much as I do!

Motherhood

Earlier this year Farrah contacted me to do their family photos.  After doing her family photos she had me do some of her precious little boy for his first birthday party and then came the family Christmas photos.  Well, the day we picked for Christmas photos turned out to be FREEEEEZING and they got caught up in some traffic so we basically had 20 freezing minutes to do the shoot in the daylight.  It turns out you can take one of your favorite images of all time along with 49 more keeper images in 20 minutes.  Good to know ;)  Probably not something I will want to do more of, but if need be I know it's possible.  Posed family pictures are always nice but it's the in between candid shots that show the true essence of the family.  Farrah being a first time mommy is obviously in love with her baby (not that we are not in love after the first child, it's just a little more hectic).  Well, while setting up a shot Farrah looked at me and I snapped it and it is one of my favorite photos ever.  I am a mom myself so this one really resinates with me.  I relate to everything she is portraying in this photo.  When thinking of a caption to post on facebook under this one it struck me how strong the image is.  My first thought was protector.  Then I thought pride and it snowballed from there.  I finally stopped at about 7 or 8 words to describe it but there were so many more I could have just gone on and on about it.  I decided to post the photo on its own outside of the album and the response to the image has been wonderful.  I wont post what everyone said about this image ( you can look on facebook to read those) but I will post what Farrah wrote under it.  I love when my clients get it.  This is why I photograph everything and don't limit myself to just weddings.  I believe to be a great wedding photographer I need to be a great everything photographer.  Someone once said to me that they did not want to be known as a portrait photographer (as they are mainly second shooting) and I get that but I think that not doing certain shoots in fear of being labeled only disables you as a photographer.   I believe that my experience with all kinds of situations strengthens my ability as a wedding photographer.  If you think of what a wedding is made up of you will see that it takes all kinds of photography to get it right.  Family photography, portrait photography, product photography, fashion photography, and so on.   That is how I personally feel.  Not to mention the most important reason of all I just LOVE photographing.  Doesn't matter what it is.  Ok enough about all that.  Here is the image and what the client wrote about it right underneath it.  I hope you love it and to see more from this session just click on the title.  

"Susan!!! I'm in awe!  Our family is so blessed to have met you.  My heart smiles leaps and bounds looking at all the photos.  The memories you have captured will be treasured all our lives.  Your passion for your photos effortlessly show in your work.  You exude such ease and genuineness that it's only natural for me (and others) to mirror your aura.  I hope you're not tired of hearing how fantastic you are because it's true!  Funny how the non-setup shots more often than not turn out to be the best, huh?  This definitely isn't our last shoot together, so until next time....

THANK YOU!!!"

The S Family

 This was a freeeeeeezing cold day but you can't tell by looking at the photos.  The kids were amazing.  Little boy was sick and threw up during our shoot but kept on smiling for photos.  Such the little troopers and such a beautiful family.    

The M Family

This is the second time I have photographed the Maglintes as a family ( I photographed baby alone for his one year photos) and both times Farrah has come dressed looking like a beautiful fairy or goddess.  I just love it.  She is a true beauty and the look fits her perfectly.  We literally had 20 minutes for this session because they got stuck in traffic and we lost daylight but we did awesome and ended up with about 50 keeper images.  Here are a few I personally loved.  There is one of Farrah and baby that I ADORE so I'm going to save that for the next blog entry.  As always to see more click on the title ;)

The Blackwells

Unconventional shoots are so much fun.  Especially when they are Christmas family session.  This is one I did last week down by the river.  I just love the matching shirts ;)

 

The Spittlers

Good friends, my camera, & my girls assisting = one fun session!  I just love photographing friends & the Spittlers are really really good friends of ours.  It brings me such joy to see my friends happy within their families and to photograph it is something I can't describe.  It's such a great feeling!  Thanks guys it was fun and I love you very much!!!!
click on the title for more photos from this session.

The Cummings Family

This is my friend Joe and his beautiful family.  Joe and I went to middle & high school together but lost touch after that.  Sometime last year we reconnected on good ol facebook and because he and his wife share an account I have had the pleasure of getting to know her as well.  They live in Arizona but were heading to Disneyland for a few days so Stacey wanted to fit a shoot in there.  I'm so glad she did because it was a pleasure to finally meet her in person and of course to meet the beautiful kids!   Thank you guys for allowing me to photograph your beautiful family!!!!  Stacey it was such a pleasure getting to meet you in person.  Next time we'll have to hang out.  Oh and the girls were giggling when they saw Payson.  They thought he looked just like Justin Bieber lol!  

As always to see more from this session click on the title!