The Fire Knife

Meet Talani the fire knife dancer from the Island of Samoa, and Island Inspirations. He came to perform his native ceremonial dance as part of my Dancers in Motion series. Here's a few teasers from our photo shoot (done in my backyard!)

Kids do not try this at home!






Tags: Polynesian Dancer, Samoa Fire Knife, Hawaiian, cultural portraiture, strobist, artistic photography

dino wuv

From: Uneetee
Fors: US$16.99

shades

From: Funkrush
For: £20.00

e-session All Over the Place

So I met up with Monica and Tony for their engagement photo session. I've been totally excited about this because they are such an awesome couple and they wanted multiple locations for their e-session. We began in New York City:




Then we traveled all the way to an old mining town in Hot Springs, South Dakota. We found one of the historic trains that passed through this ghost town over a hundred years ago...



And we even ended up doing a quick photo shoot in one of the old missionary towns in Mexico, called San Miguel. Every building had so much character. I love traveling!



HAHAHA ok so we didn't really travel all over the place. I'm such a big fat liar. We snuck around in the back lots of Universal Studio where we ended up using the set from War of the Worlds. I'll add a few more images later so stay tuned. Fun times!

Tags: Monica and Tony's engagement photo shoot in the Universal Studios back lot, War of the Worlds set, New York, Mexico, trains, props, sets, romantic portraiture, artistic photography

flying kiks

For: $56.68ish
From: Kikstyo

e-session Historic Los Angeles

Linda and Kevin, like I do, enjoy historic buildings with distinct architecture. We wanted to visit as many old structures in the Downtown Los Angeles as we could, but I knew that would have taken weeks exploring the old neighborhood. We did manage to get inside the majestic Million Dollar Theater, the Bradbury Building, and then Los Angeles City Hall. Here are just a tiny few of my favorite images from their Los Angeles engagement session:

I love that vintage dress!







Naturally I wanted to do most of these in grainy black and white, but I couldn't resist throwing in at least one brilliant color!

Tags: Kevin and Linda's engagement photo session in Downtown Los Angeles featuring pictures from the Million Dollar Theater, The Bradbury Building, and City Hall, Los Angeles wedding photography

marmoosh will you do the fandango

Froms: Skuzzy
Fors: US$9.99 SALE

shameless self promotion

Where: shirt.woot
How much: US$15

8-bit aargh

Froms: Threadless
Fors: US$20

j3 @ dbh

From: Design By Humans
Fors: US$19

farm family

Awesome collection of photo tees without a hint of irony.
(I'm sure it's in there somewhere...)
From: AerWear
For: US$9.95

"Impromptu"

As in last minute planning and wondering around for locations. Karey, John (her intern), and I set out to do an impromptu bridal photo shoot with one of my fabulous couples Corinna and Cris. The real purpose of this shoot was to practice some of the things we learned from the Anti-Workshop in Vegas. We ended up at one of my favorite places to shoot - Oldtown Pomona. As usual I had a blast exploring this area and found some new and different spots. Afterwards we ended up climbing a mountain just off the side of the freeway! Check out my favs:


Corinna and Cris are complete hams! They're fans of America's Next Top Model, so we teased them about that, and tried to get them competing against each other. And the pic below was so fun to do - the owner of the salon saw us shooting outside and invited us in to shoot inside! Awesome times.










I saw the colorful mustard fields dotting the mountains from the freeway so we looked for access - Corinna ended up climbing over a fence in her wedding dress and climbed up the hillside!






Tags: Shooting with Greg Bumatay, bridal photo session, romantic photography, Old Town Pomona, hills of Diamond Bar, artistic photographs