My First Bar Mitzvah

Feb 16th I had the honor of photographing a Bar Mitzvah for the first time in my career. When I met with Josh's mother last October she brought me sample photos from her first son's Bar Mitzvah and asked if I had photographed one before. I told her no, and she went over everything that would be expected and asked me to come up with a custom package for her. I came home went over how many hours I'd be needed, what she wanted album wise etc etc... I was very very nervous naturally, I had never done one before and this is a huge deal in a child's life! Mom emailed me back saying she would take the offer I had given her and signed the contract.

Even up to the day of the event I was nervous, but the day went off with out a hitch... All accept the fact that I was STARVING when I arrived at the Synagogue, silly me worried about being late left my house AN HOUR before I needed to be there (just to be safe) and only stopped to get a coffee on my way... When I knew that I wanted Chick-fil-a! Mom had offered to let me stay for the whole ceremony since I had never seen one before. But, my hungry behind had to go get some food as soon as the formals were done.

I have a release for the photos from the bar mitzvah but I'm only going to post one up here... it's my fav from the day and I feel it's the most powerful and speaks mountains about the Jewish tradition....

Trip to the Jacksonville Zoo w/the Family....

Well most of the family anyway. My brother Josh, Grandmother, Wes and I went out to the Zoo last Saturday. I have some photos of animals but figured it would be more fun to post up the photos of my brother and the family...

Wes, Josh and Grandma with the map... LOL


Joshie Squashie and Granniema!!!!


Yes, yes I'm a huge dork!! My grandmother was complaining that you couldn't see my smile, so I figured you can see all my teeth this way....


My poor brother.... this one is far more normal... :D


Wes and Granniema....


Josh showing everyone his resemblance to the monkey's


Side profile shot... these were really hard to get! I was laughing so hard!!!!


This is by far my fav photo!!!!! I love it, it's so freaking cute


This one is for the ladies... Josh has many fans, most all of my clients think he's cute, and he is he's quite the looker! So I made him take a photo of just him so I could show it off and so some of my clients will stop telling him that he's got to let his sister take some photos of him... lol


This is my other Fav of the day.... I was super impressed with myself for getting this photo through the glass!


And this last one is for my Mother, this is her fav animal, so I just had to get a good photo for her.

Downtown Bride

I met Amanda a little over two months ago. She had emailed me about her wedding in March to see if I was available, which I was for her date, and we met shortly after to go over contract details and things of that nature for the wedding. Along with the wedding she scheduled Bridal Photos. Tara w/NFC Makeup Design did her makeup and tagged along with me for her bridal shoot. Tara coming along turned out to be a total God send because I had forgotten all my CF cards at my house!!!! The night before Amanda's Bridal Photos I had shot a Bar Mitzvah with no assistant so I had to make sure I had EVERYTHING in case something went wrong. I transfered all my cards that I typically carry from my shootsac to my large Canon bag and went on about my day, well that night I forgot to transfer everything back! So!!!! we get downtown, to the landing where they were showing the Daytona 500 of all things. The landing is typically rather dead on Sundays but we show up and there is live music and only 5 million people all over the place, so here's Amanda in her dress, me with out my cards and Tara running to her place to get me a CF card, while I call my darling husband who is better to me than he should be to get in my bag and meet me downtown with additional cards.

If I were this bride I would be A. worried that my photographer is flake and can't remember a vital piece of her arsenal to do bridal photos what the heck is she going to forget for my wedding day. B. pissed that I'm here in my dress and have to wait half an hour to start shooting while everyone and their uncle's sister come up to me and ask me if I'm getting married today, when is the wedding, congratulations, you look beautiful etc etc etc.... (ok ok so all the compliments wouldn't be THAT horrible) But, Amanda was jammin to the music and just said it's no big deal... I couldn't believe it. She even went shopping in the landing to purchase a cool pair of sunglasses!!!! This girl was a trooper! Simply amazing!!!!

here are some of my fav photos of her during our day downtown.... (there are like 22 or so, just a warning, you might be scrolling forever.....)

She's also got a KILLER surprise planned for her wedding. I can't mention it here cause she might sent people here to view her photos and I don't want to ruin her surprise but let me just tell you I think I'm one of the most excited people in on the secret!!!!

The Ever Faithful

Hands down my best client. I've blogged about her before. Priscilla, or Cilla... I posted photos of her and the band she's a member of a few months back (for u and i). She's awesome! This is our 6th photo shoot together I believe, and she was telling Tara of NFC Makeup Design that she's sure to hire me for her wedding and children shoots when those come along. It's been 6 months or so I suppose since we did a solo shoot together of just her... and here were some of her favs from this past shoot...

There are many more in her folder on my myspace page!!

During our shoot Cilla told me that her band just got hooked up with this tour, the band is For You and I, click the link and listen to Priscilla sing!!!!

Young and In Love

Anyone that's on my MySpace friends list knows I held a contest for couples in late January. The contest winners would be featured here on my blog, and he point of the contest was to find a couple with a great love story. I didn't judge the contestants in fear of being bias so I had three friends do the judging. The winners of the contest were China and Jacob.

While their story is sweet, I think their photos say so much more about the love between them.

My friend Rachel left this comment on one of their photos:
" They're a great example of what it looks like to be young and in love!!! :)"

And I agree! Their photo shoot was fun and light, took us less than an hour to get close to 200 great shots. I had such a hard time choosing my favs to display on both myspace and here in the blog. So with out further ado, here is a slide show of their photos (music is really cheesy, but it was the only "song" that was free and fit the length of the show, lol)

A lot of people requested to know what their story was, so I'm simply going to copy paste what China sent me as their entry for the contest....

"I have been fighting kidney issues my whole life, my mom abandoned me when I turned 16 and I was in a verbally and emotionally abusive relationship for almost a year when I first moved to Jacksonville for college. I was at rock bottom and was crying everyday, I had no place live once I ran from my ex, and I was sleeping on a different friends couch every night. Over the summer of 2006 I was supposed to move into a house with 3 other girls, it was perfect, finally my chance to get out! I saved every cent I had to pay the security deposit and a week before we were supposed to move in one of the girls fell through with her plans to move in and we lost the house and our money. It was horrible, just something else to get me down. Luckily the dorms could fit me in to a room and at the last minute, after moving house to house, a friend helped me move into the dorms. On move in day I ran into this girl who was my neighbor my freshman year and she asked if I was interested in going to a bbq the next day for a friend’s 20th birthday. I said yes, even though I had no intentions of going. I wasn't up for it. I wasn't ready to meet new people. I still had so many insecurities and didn’t think I could handle it. The next day at the time she said she would she came knocking on my door and I didn't answer. OF COURSE my roommate was coming home right at the same time and opened the door. I was forced to go. While there, the day only got worse. A few girls that had sent me in the wrong direction years past were there. Everyone who was there had known each other since middle school and did not need a new person in their group, and felt like an outcast, I was about to leave when all of the sudden I ran into him. Jacob. He said to me, "where are you running off to? I love your tattoos" and it went from there. I thought he was younger than he was and a little immature, but he was cute. We ended spending the whole day together and He ended up asking for my number and we went out to dinner the next day. He has never and I repeat never had a serious relationship. Yea I know. Not only not serious, but his last girlfriend was in 6th grade NO JOKE!. I loved him from the beginning. Things weren’t going well for more than 2 dates when my past came back to haunt me. One of his friends got ear of a rumor that had circled around from my ex and all his friends were against us being together and he slowly backed off. I felt like I was never going to get over my past! A few weeks later the same girl invited me to dinner and Jacob was there. He asked me to go for a walk on the beach and that’s where he unloaded how bad he felt and asked for me to forgive him. We took it slow, went on dates and to a few parties together and on September 24th, his 20th birthday, after everyone sang him happy birthday he jumped up on a chair and said "OK listen! You know what I really want for my birthday? For China to be my girlfriend" I could have died. I cried, like a little girl, and we've been together ever since. He treats me like a princess. It’s funny because now almost a year and a half later all his friends have accepted us. We just moved in together on our 1 year anniversary and now every issue that has come my way I don’t have to battle it alone and that is why I know I am so lucky to have him and even after all this time we still laugh and play and love more than we knew was possible. He never knew what he was getting into when we first started, but the important part is even now, knowing what he’s gotten into, he is still here. He has brought my mom and I back to a good place and even though I thought I had been though it all he has taught me so many things and has given me a reason to wake up and smile each and every day. He has saved my life."

My Tangled Web

Yesterday I attended and photographed a family wedding. In all honesty I didn't want to do it, my cousin (groom) hasn't exactly done right by me in the past year. I had this Honda that my uncle purchased for me, very very dear to my heart seeing how we lost him not even a year after the purchase, I decided to sell it to my dear cousin who was just getting to driving age. Well, long story short (and my family would kill me for airing dirty laundry) 6 months or so later I get the car back in very very very bad shape. So yesterday while I shoot his wedding Wes worked on "the Honda" cause I intend to use it as a work car. (better on gas than the stang) sooo when I got done with the wedding I went to my grandmothers house where he was working on the car.... and this was the scene....



Now I name this post my tangled web because the guy under the car is my highschool boyfriend and ex-Fiancé, the center in red would be my hubby, and the guy on the right is my brother!!! Talk about your strange situations!!!

My Husband The Model....

That's right ladies... My husband is a model! well he's my model, but that's not the point. This issue of the Beaches Magazine will feature a photo of my hubby golfing on the beach.... Yes I know you don't golf on the beach, you don't practice golfing on the beach, but that's part of the appeal it'll get people picking up the magazine cause it's not something you ever see.

The day we went out was perhaps the windiest day of the year so we were lucky to get any shots... Jennifer the editor and owner of the Magazine has chosen this photo as the cover photo for the Beaches Magazine



ain't he cute!

My Pancakes Love Me!!!

This morning I decided to make pancakes for breakfast, and when I flipped my second pancake there was a heart in the center!!! Not a perfect heart but a heart all the same. So, I had to take a picture! Check it out!!!!



Do you see it??? Isn't that crazy!!!!!