Dylan and Devyn turn 4 | Rancho Palos Verdes Family Photographer

I met the fabulously spunky Tardio-Sides Family at South Coast Botanic Gardens on a Sunday morning. Dylan and Devin are twins and turning four next week! We ran around the gardens together, where they showed me their best dinosaur impersonations and blew bubbles until we collapsed in exhaustion. Little Sol was such a trooper... she didn't mind the loud ruckus we made on e bit!

Can you say ROOOOOAR?!?

WPPI On the Road | LAX Marriott

I was very fortunate to attend WPPI On the Road at LAX Marriott last week! Boy, did time go by in a flash! It was a jam-packed two days full of great tips, clever techniques, and information about the latest developments in the photography industry. On the second day, everyone was invited to bring their cameras to take photos at the hands-on workshops. My first hands-on workshop was with Roberto Valenzuela, who is the author of one of my favorite photography books, "Picture Perfect Practice". I carry his posing and location charts as a reference on every shoot!

We moved constantly throughout his demonstration, looking for the best light and backgrounds near the hotel lobby. He discussed the importance of getting rid of distractions and junk in the background. In this location, we zoomed in enough just to capture the pattern in the background.

 

The beam on the left serves as a counter for our model so that the composition feels balanced.

Next on the agenda was Yervant's workshop. He had a fun-loving attitude and shared many personal anecdotes; I thought it was hilarious how he evaded permits and emphasized not letting "anyone control me".

His approach toward posing was simple: let people move around how they like for a bit and then tell them to freeze. As long as you incorporate triangles and geometry, the pose will look relaxed and genuine. No more stiff poses!

Yervant described how he takes photos to the next level. In the one below, he talked about how he would extend the background in post-production to make it more dramatic.

 

The last workshop of the day was with Jerry Ghionis, who can create something magical out of thin air! I love how his techniques don't always require lots of gear or assistants. For something fancy, we created clamshell lighting using two Ice Lights in a busy conference hall corridor:

 

Outdoors with a silver reflector and sunlight as the rim light:

 

Demonstrating how much more contrasty light is in the camera than to the naked eye:

 



Melissa, Jerry's charismatic wife and workshop assistant, held up a wirelessly tethered iPad to show photographs immediately after Jerry took them. What a useful tool for a busy workshop!

Yes sir, you can get really great lighting in an ugly parking light next to a MAC truck without a reflector!

 

Jerry demonstrating his posing principles with Khan.  

 

Kap + Sun-hee | Fullerton Family Photography (Ted Craig Regional Park)

After hearing so many hilarious stories of spunky little Kap, I was eager to meet him and see for myself if they were all true! He and his lovely mama met me during a particularly beautiful Sunday morning at the expansive and gorgeous Craig Park. At first, he was mad to have been woken from a light slumber but soon warmed up as soon as we broke out the bubbles. What red blooded child doesn't love bubbles anyway? In celebration of Kids' Day, we also had him wave his koi kite but he was more interested in the ducks and ducklings nearby.

 

 

 

 

Nick, Manoly + Evie | Redondo Beach Family Photographer

Unfortunately, the first time we met up wasn't under the best of circumstances; little Evie was suffering from a cold and it was a rare drizzly and dready day in the South Bay. A few weeks later she was back to her bubbly self and we spent a wonderful morning at Wilderness Park! She enjoyed watching the fat koi swim in the pond and riding on top of her daddy's shoulders. We also had a great time munching on our letter prop as a late morning snack!

Elijah's turns 1 - Cake smash | Redondo Beach Baby Photography

I had a great time capturing Elijah's cake smash commemorating his first birthday! It's too bad this is only cute when you're a baby; otherwise, I would have joined him on the action too. :-)

Tammy turns one year younger | Pasadena Portrait Photography

I'd been toying with the idea of making a photo collage for a while, so when my dear cousin Tammy told me he loved the idea as much as I did, we made plans to create one of our own in celebration of her birthday. I just love the repetition and leading lines created by her hands!

Lately, I've been obsessed with making floral crowns! After going over a few tutorials, some simple and others unnecessarily complicated, I decided to try my hand at it and now I'm hooked. I made several for Tammy and my favorite one is the one below, made of baby breath and beige wax flowers:

Just make sure you buy a lot of flowers beforehand! If you're in the South Bay and can't be bothered with driving to downtown LA's flower mart like me, I highly recommend Boulevard Wholesale Florist (http://www.boulevardflst.com/) for a vast selection of flowers at reasonable prices.