Imagine you're about to walk down the aisle.

You've spend countless hours making sure everything goes as planned. You hired your dream photographer, your make-up and hair are on point. You're about the marry to person of your dreams.

And then as you start to walk, you're looking into the crowd of people you've hand selected to be part of your big day only to see the backsides of their mobile devices while they take snap shots of you.

Your eyes search to make eye contact with your soon to be life partner, but your aunt is standing in the middle of aisle to get a better glimpse of you as your uncle is calling out your name to look over to him so he can take a photo of you on his big fancy camera.

And all you could think of is:

WHAT. IS. HAPPENING.

The voice in my head kept hoping it would be over soon, but she just kept piercing her sharp elbows on my back and calves. The feeling of twenty knives cutting right through my body as I asked perhaps I should tell her to be more gentle with me. But I said nothing.

I laid there with my face down the hole as my massage therapist kneaded my muscles like she was kneading a stubborn dough to make into a loaf of bread. I contemplated telling her to stop or go easy on me.

My muscles were tense. My body kept fighting the "pain", and I refused to lose control. Stubborn and afraid that it would hurt too much-- that it would feel uncomfortable. Refused to let go until I realized...

I was only fighting one thing:

​Myself.

Summer time is the number one time of the year when people decide to get married. Most people are willing to to stay out later, plan their vacation times, and for the ones with kids, this is the time of year the kids are out of school. 

But what about engagements? I went to visit Auntie Google to check, and I guessed correctly. The most popular date for people to get engaged is on Valentine's Day (however, there are 364 other days in the year that people all over the world get engaged). 
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And seeing as there are so many times in the year that people pop the question, that just means that there that many opportunities to plan an engagement session.

Planning your engagement session is super important, but also shouldn't be stressful. So to make your experience of going through your session as smooth as possible, I wanted to give you a few tips on what you can bring to your engagement session.

You're going to thank me later. Trust.

​If ever there's a time that a tiny little human can pull at your heart strings, this little one will do the trick!
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Sixth-month-old Dominic (better known as Nico) came into this early morning session with a little grumpy look in his eyes. I mean, it Saturday at 7:30 in the morning and he was outisde in the bright morning light. Who could blame him?

After a little warming up and lots of efforts from his parents alongside of me (and I do mean A LOT), he finally gave in to all the silly noises that we were making and gave us tons of smiles. 

We first started out with his cute little Jurassic Park themed arrangements with toys, dinosaurs blanket and cutest Jurassic Park onesie and well, I can't even...

An overcast summer day calls for humidity and beautifully lit up photos during this family portrait session with awesome humans and their little munchkins.

Our session took place in Brand Park Community in Mission Hills, Ca. where the garden is beautiful and the space carries so much history as it sits right across the street from the historic San Fernando Mission. It is one of my newest favorite hidden gems of the San Fernando Valley.

Hanging up photos in your living room, home office, or even your kitchen to bring life and character into the space. 
I've mentioned this before, but there's also something to be said about having photographs printed and tangible in your hands; The feel of the paper, the lustre finish, the way the colors pop! Magical. 

Since I've had the pleasure of photographing the coolest clients, I thought to put together a how-to guide on creating your own photo gallery to put up in your home or office space.