{ playing with light - Lindsay + Tyson }

So I'm sitting here cold, and hot, and cold, and hot... with a fever on Halloween. LAME! My dearest TV is boring me, my medicine is taking forever to kick in, my husband is out of town for business, and I needed something to distract me from my misery. Bring on my latest project! My husband may tsk-tsk me for 'working' when I'm sick, but honestly this shoot made me so happy that it doesn't feel like work at all.

Flashback to last week... I had the opportunity to go to my first big workshop with Amelia and Justin Lyon. I have followed their work for some time now, and have always had huge respect for their photography skill, creativeness, and business sense. I don't want to steal their style, but I believe that if you learn from the best, you will go places. And I want to go places! I learned an incredible amount, and I'm still trying to process all the great info they shared, but my first order of business was to master off camera flash. So here is my first attempt at using flash. I'd love to hear what you think... leave a comment if you want to share your thoughts.

PS: Lindsay, thanks so much for being so hot and being my model. Sorry I got sick and ruined out co-Halloween costume for the party tonight :-(

And Tyson, thank you for driving all the way down from Long Beach.... on a Friday night to pose for me... even though we didn't really even know each other. You're awesome!

Ok, ok this first one is natural light, but it's not somewhere I would've chosen to shoot a couple weeks ago because of the harsh light... cool shadow, huh?

That's right, Lindsay is going for a bit of liquid courage here... she and Tyson barely know each other, but here I am asking them to look like a couple. Thanks guys!

A little Wes Anderson inspired... just watched The Darjeeling Limited the other night.

Awe, she's so pretty... my bestie, Sarah did her make-up...

Ok, here's the flash... a bit harsh, but fun... right?

Do you like the left photo or the right? With a flash by their feet or not?

One of my favorites!

Another favorite...

Nice bangs, Tyson :-)

Damn, Lindsay...

{ I heart faces }

Hello everyone! I just thought I'd take a stab at the 'I heart faces' contest this week... the theme is crazy, silly faces. I'm sure I have other more nutty photos to enter, but the one I chose is a favorite of mine because Landen wasn't trying to make a silly face- he just did. It's such a subtle and sweet expression, don't you think?

As for those waiting for my weekly top 8... I, uh, haven't gotten to it yet (been soooo busy!) which basically makes the 'weekly' part of the title a fib. I think it'll have to be renamed. Maybe 'my top 8 of late' or '8 lately'....? I dunno.

{ miss mia }

Mia and I have been meaning to do a photo shoot for quite some time now... and we finally did it! I met her at her apartment in West LA and had so much fun discovering new places to shoot in her neighborhood. Isn't she beautiful? I have serious hair envy...

Oh, and her make-up was done by the fabulous Vanessa Caroline.

{ rafael alcala - photographer }

I met Rafael at a photogapher get together a few months ago and we got to talking about business and photography. He's a super talented photographer and I've already learned so much from just chatting with him. Well, he's revamping the look of his business and needed a new photo for his 'about me' section- and he asked me to take it! I was so excited (and a bit nervous to shoot another photographer), and it turned out to be lots of fun. I LOVE shooting in Downtown Fullerton- there are so many great textures and colors.

He took great photos of me, too- check them out www.raphotographer.com

He said he was nervous, but he's a natural in front of the camera.

This angle was his idea...cool, huh?

Hehe, just realized this one looks like a Becker pose and process. 

Thanks for the opportunity to work with you, Rafael!