Archive for the ‘Fun and Personal’ Category
I love birthdays… the fun… the balloons… the food… the CAKE!!!! We have always (and will always) celebrated my son’s bday (even though I don’t really celebrate my own birthday… haha!). To us, his life is just worth treasuring moment by moment, year by year. When my son turned 1, we threw him a rather large bday party – with balloons, candy, decorations, tables, a taco guy, 80 invited guests, and a HUGE and FABULOUS cake. (boy that was stressfull and just a LOT of work!!!! haha!) When he turned 2 we did a smaller bday party for him – hamburgers and hotdogs, just immediate family, no decorations, no taco guy, but STILL a Fabulous Cake. (if you ask me, that was still a lot of clean up to do! lol!) This month my little man turned 3 years old… and we went even smaller - my mom and sisters, pizza, but STILL a Fabulous Cake. (this was my favorite one so far, no clean up except to throw the pizza box away!! haha!!).
Can you see the common denominator year by year … CAKE. As I have stated in my quirks page - I absolutely love sweet carbs, and cake is on the TOP of my list of weaknesses… lol! And even though I will pretty much eat ANY sweet carb that you put in front of me (yes. any. sweet. carb.) – I am super picky about cakes. I actually did a ton of research for my son’s previous bday cakes – His first bday cake was a 3 tiered designed cake with the theme being stripes and cupcakes. It was gorgeous!!! (like a wedding cake!!). This 2nd bday cake was a topsy turvy cake – with 2 layers carved out to look like a road with cars driving on it and fields of mountains and trees decorated the cake – ultra fabulous! This year I went much simpler – this year we had a Coldstone Creamery Strawberry Red Velvet Ice Cream Cake…. hmmmm. you know you want some 
. It was soooooooooooooo good. Next year we’ll probably do another sculpted cake, but we’ll definitely do a smaller ice cream cake again, just because we loved it.
So for his birthday, my son had his 3 favorite things: ice cream, cake, and pizza – he was in little boy heaven!
He wasn’t sure why everyone kept singing ‘happy birthday’ to him… he’s not old enough yet to realize what that means. At first he would tell us to not sing, but by the end of the day he was singing along and even prompting us to keep singing to him while he did his baby dance! I love my little guy.
It was a day filled with Ice Cream Cake and Little Kisses!!! LOVE you Jovanni!!!
Tags: California Wedding Photographer, Destination Wedding Photographer, Mexico Bodas, Mexico Photographer, Mexico Wedding Photographer, Orange County Wedding Photographer, Puerto Vallarta Wedding Photographer, Southern California Wedding Photographer, Temecula wedding photographer
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Alright… so I realize that I need to catch up (isn’t that my story like EVERY week… lol!). I’m working on so many projects at once (weddings, engagements, and even a hush-hush project that is under-way) – that I keep getting backed up.
So what have I been up to… I mean, besides weddings… lol! ??! Well… a little over a week ago was my son’s 3rd bday!!! yay!!! Those of you that know my little story about my family know how much I truly treasure birthdays. Life is so fragile and so unpredictable, that I have learned to just treasure every moment… so when my little man turned 3 last week I did what I hardly do: I took several DAYS off! yes… let’s all ghasp together!!!! I NEVER EVER EVER take days off (even when I’m not on the computer I’m doing something studio-related) – but I spent those days with my little guy… just enjoying his life. I love his life! 
I’m going to post more pictures today of several engagements and wedding(s), but I also wanna share my little guy… here’s a sneak peak of the pics i took on his BDAY!!
Tags: California Wedding, California Wedding Photographer, Destination Wedding Photographer, Guadalajara Wedding Photographer, Mexico Wedding Photographer, Puerto Vallarata Wedding Photographer, Southern California Wedding Photographer, Wedding Photogrpaher
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I remember my first day in Advanced Art Class in high school … the first thing the teacher wanted us to do is to stand up, introduce ourselves, and let everyone know where we were ‘displayed or showcased at’. Yeah…. where our art was hanging!!! I sat there suddenly sweating up a storm… I was so confused, embarrassed, and stressed out all at once. I didn’t know that ‘being displayed’ was a requirement!!! otherwise why would I have signed up!?!?! I was so upset at that moment with my councelor… who insisted I would truly love that class. So while these fabulous kids stood up and said what art galleries their works were being shown at … I sat there about to cry! I mean… insecurities and shyness have always been huge road blocks for me… but this was beyond just being shy! lol! So here was my turn… “my name is Aurora, I love art, I love to draw, and my pieces can be seen at (insert my mom’s address here) hanging on most of her walls”!!!! That’s all I could think of!! lol!!! I mean, they should consider themselves lucky that I didn’t say they were proudly being displayed on her fridge! HAHAHA!
Anyways… everyone got a big laugh… and moved on, but the rest of that semester I somehow felt not so great. Everyone talked about being in this gallery or that gallery. I couldn’t even figure out how the heck someone got into one of those local galleries.
So now 13 years later … I want to stand up and say: ”Hi, my name is Aurora, I’m a photographer, and I’m published!!!” LOL!!! Then in my little fantasy all of you stand up and cheer for me, even though it’s really not that biggie! haha!!
I feel so blessed and honored to be a part of the latest issue of the latest issues of Bodas USA Magazine!!!
Thank you for publishing my article as well as some of my images!!! YAY!!!! The article starts on page 31, and my images are on page 35 > Warning… the magazine is in Spanish, but trust me, the article isn’t half bad! lol!
This was one of the images featured in Bodas USA La Revista
Tags: Big Bear Wedding Photogrpahy, Bodas USA Magazine, Bodas USA Publication, Bodas USA Wedding Article, Destination Wedding Photographer, Southern California Wedding Photographer, trash the dress photographer, Trash the Dress Session, wedding photographer
Posted in Fun and Personal, Woop-woop – oh so fab! |
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So every weekend I shoot my fabulous clients… we laugh, we have fun, and we create beautiful images together – and I LOVE it. I shoot for them… to create capture beautiful memories for them. I know that my images will forever be a part of their lives – and that is an incredible and amazing thing! But you know… I love love love to shoot just for me every once in a while too . To shoot just for the creativity… just to see where an image might take me… to see things from a different perspective. It’s great to shoot without having to think… lol!
Last month I was honored to be a part of a fantabulous Alice in Wonderland inspired photoshoot that my great friend Elizabeth Luna organized (yes…fantabulous is what the cool kids are saying these days… lol!). I met some amazing photographers, beautiful models, and best of all I had a fabulous time – what more could one ask for!! Thank you everyone for making the day so fantastic, so fabulous, and so much fun!!!
Organized and Lead: Elizabeth Luna
Event Design, Coordination and Florals – Amador Events
Linens – BBJlinen.com
Rentals – persianoevents.com
Stationary Design – Lou Liebau + lou@scratchandsniff.com
Make Up Artist: Crystal Roberts
Hair Stylist: Jessica Hale
Hair accessories: Rachel Larraine
Gowns: Elyse Reuben
Guest Speaker: Ming Chien (Off Camera Lighting)
Thank you to all the awesome Leaders!
Harmony Ayala Ruiz
Rita Clifton
Duc Duong
Alicia Salcedo
I had the hardest time picking images to post… so this will be long – but if you’ve visited my blog before you know I always post tons of images – I just can’t bring myself to pick only a few pictures… lol!
Tags: California Photographer, California Wedding, California Wedding Photographer, Destination Wedding, Destination Wedding Photographer, High style wedding photography, Mexico Wedding Photographer, Murrieta Wedding Photographer, Orange County Wedding Photographer, San Diego Wedding Photographer, Southern California Wedding Photographer, Temecula wedding photographer
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So this past week I was completely swamped and overwhelmed with work (that’s the last time I overbook myself in one month alone! LOL!)… I had a Sassy budoir session, a super cute engagement session, and 2 weddings (yes. two weddings!), and an amazing Alice in wonderland themed photoshoot – all in a 2-week time period. I know. what was I thinking?!? So needless to say I’ve had a ton of images to process in one week! haha! So… after a whole week of no sleeping, I finally finished! YAY!!!!!! let’s all do a happy dance together!
so in the next few days I’ll be sharing some great images with you… but in the mean time – I have had this song stuck in my head for like 2 weeks straight! No joke! I wake up signing it and all day long it plays in my head. now let’s all do a happy dance and sing together!! LOL!
Mike Posner – Cooler Than Me -
you got designer shades,
just to hide your face and
you wear them around like,
you’re cooler than me.
and you never say hey,
or remember my name.
its probably cuz, you think you’re cooler than me.
And here’s my little guy strutting his stuff beeing ‘cooler than me’ …
Tags: California Wedding Photographer, child photographer, children photography, children portraits, Destination Wedding Photographer, lifestyle photographer, wedding photographer
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Last weekend was a little busy for me… even though I didn’t shoot a wedding… well – I guess it wasn’t super busy, but boy did I feel like I was all over the place! LOL!
Saturday morning I drove down to Laguna Beach for an early morning engagment/family photo session… then, since I was in OC (LOVE OC, by the way!! ), I did a consult with a super cute couple. They were so much fun, so incredibly sweet, and I can tell they’re super romantic! (he proposed on a hot air balloon!! can it get more romantic than that!?!?!). Anyways… I had a blast chatting with them for a while. I hope to hear back from them …
Then Sunday came – and I think this is why I think I’ve been super busy – this is the day my migraine began! ugh! I hate migraines. I’ve sufferend from migraines for almost 10 years now. Funny fact – my migraines began around the time I started dating my hubby! LOL! – I always tell him I’m allergic to him! haha! Anywhoooo…. back to my current migraine… you know what’s worse than anything – having a migraine while your toddler decides that it’s fun to turn the lights on and off while your niece decides to play with the volume of the TV! LOL!!! – I laugh now…. but I was not laughing then (I admit, I was in the corner of the room under all the pillows and blankets I could find… sitting in the fetal position while shedding a tear of pain! LOL! – yeah… I’m a bit of a drama queen!)
Sooooo…. I’m behind on my post processing… but my goal is to catch up this week (keeping my fingers crossed here! ).
So for now…. I have a teaser image from the wedding I shot 2 weeks ago.
Indian Hills Golf Course Wedding - a few clouds didn't stop this super fun couple from having a blast!
Tags: client consultations, Engagement Sessions with Style, Indian Hills Riverside, Indian Hills Wedding, Laguna Beach engagement session, Orange County Photographer, photography consultations, Riverside Wedding
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So this week I know I haven’t really posted much…and here I was finally starting to do good… did anyone notice I had 3 posts last week?!?! I was on fire!!! LOL!!!
This week I was a little hesitant to post, since I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve… I really didn’t want to bring anyone down. Writing has always been great therapy for me, so please forgive the sad undertones of this post. I promise I’ll immediately post the pics from last week’s awesome engagement session .
It all started because of a doggie. A sweet, adorable, lovable dalmatian. A dear friend of mine, Tracie, asked me to capture the amazing relationship that she has between her and her doggie… who has cancer and isn’t doing so well. Yeah… I took out some tissues as soon as I found out her sweet friend was so sick! I was nervous about doing the shoot since I knew how important these images would be, but I was so honored to be able to capture those images for her.
Well… earlier this week, Tracy had to cancel our pet session… AJ (her doggie) isn’t doing so well anymore and she didn’t want to put him through it. I was so sad for her…. I know how much AJ means to her. I understood how she felt, she wanted to remember him how he was when he was truly himself… happy, lovable, and healthy. I completely agreed with her. And this is when I started pouring back into my own memories of my sweet angel. I started going through the THOUSANDS (yes… over 3000 actually) of pictures that I took of my sweet little Josue.
I love looking at his sweet face and remembering the moments when I shot that particular image… I treasure my memories of him more than anything! I love how a simple picture can bring back soooo many memories… and even though I get terribly sad (and angry too) that I don’t get to see him grow – seeing his pictures and remembering those happy moments truly bring me peace. I can’t explain it…
The essence of photography, of capturing a moment and a feeling forever – it’s so amazing! This is the reason why I love capturing so many moments for so many amazing people … it’s truly the reason why photography is so incredibly important to me. I always feel so honored to be a part of so many lives… of sharing in so many memories. I hope that when my clients look at their images, their hearts are filled with love, happiness, and they get taken back to that moment of sheer joy! I hope their hearts swell like my heart swells when I see my sweet boy’s face!
Let me introduce my sweet boy… my angel… this is my little Josue – this is the smile that melts my heart
Tags: lifestyle photography, portrait photographer, power of a photograph
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Today was like Christmas in February again… I got a much expected visit from the oh so fab Lisa (my FedEx delivery gal). I received the last item that I needed to finally complete my new 2010 photo presentation!! YAY!!! I had never been so happy to receive a box of tissue… Let’s all do a happy dance together . Speaking of happy dances, Jovanni (my 2 year old son) loves it when mommy does her happy dances, he even joins me – we’re quite a sight!! LOL!
As I mentioned in a previous post, my photo presentation/packaging had always been basic black boxes with black tissue. Now that I am working on re-vamping the studio ‘look’, I also decided ro re-vamp my packing. It’s very simple and elegant, I think… but I think it really suits my look of modern romance.
You can see here my new CD sleeves along with the cute little stickers that I designed! Oh so Fab!! LOL!
Tags: Inland Empire photography, Laguna Beach wedding photographer, palm springs wedding, photography presentation, photograpy packaging, Portrait Photography, Senior portrait sessions, wedding photography
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Friday felt just like Christmas to me…. I came home to find a bunch of neatly arranged boxes outside my front door! (you gotta admit we all love to get visits from UPS or FedEx … even if they were all things that we purchased ourselves, so technically they are not ‘gifts’… but it’s awesome to finally receive what you ordered online!). Have you ever waited for something so anxiously that once the delivery guy/gal comes by to drop it off, you just want to jump up and down, give them a big hug, a big kiss, and a big cookie!!! That was me on Friday
Well… among the packages that were delivered to my front door on Friday, was my bran-spankn’ new totally fab new lens: the Canon 50mm 1.2!!!! This deserved a happy dance with an extra dose of happy!!!! LOL!!!! I have been soooo excited about this lens… I couldn’t wait to see the buttery goodness that makes this lens ‘oh so absolutely fab’ - and to make things even more fun, I got it just in time for my Saturday wedding!
So I know I don’t usually post sneak-peaks… but why not start now? Right? So here’s a little sneak peak of the buttery goodness that IS the 50 1.2! J
This lens definitely deserves a ‘woop-wooop… OH SO FAB!!!’
Jill… your wedding rocked, and you looked amazing (wind and all!!! LOL!!!). I’ll make sure to blog the rest of the wedding in a few weeks too. (check out that buttery background…. LOVE my new lens!!!)
Jill looked absolutely fab even though the winds were insane!!
Tags: cathedral city wedding photographer, Desert Princess wedding photography, palm springs wedding, Palm Springs Wedding Photographer, photography lens, prime lenses
Posted in Fun and Personal, Uncategorized, Weddings with Style, Woop-woop – oh so fab! |
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Yippeee… I’m about to make my first woop-woop Oh So Fab post… yay!!!! (doing a happy dance for myself now!! hey… If I don’t cheer myself on, who will?!?! )
For the past few months I have been revamping my entire studio presentation … basically to make everything ‘puuuurrrrty’ for my clients J. My presentation for the past 5 years has been elegant black boxes, black tissue, and black CD sleeves… which I still think is a very elegant look – but a little too basic for my taste I think (and definitely NOT a reflection of my personality AT ALL!!! LOL!!!)
I really want my clients to know how important they are to me, and I always believe that cute little special touches are really what it’s always about. I mean… don’t you always love receiving a little gift in a cute little box!?! Opening up the box is half the experience… right?!?!
So now that I revamped my site with some new, more elegant and rich color combos, (the browns, mochas, lattes, and pinks) – I thought I would try to find some nice CD sleeves. I needed something creative and artsy… so I knew Etsy was the place to go (gotta LOVE LOVE LOVE etsy!!!).
I was so excited to have found Meg from Megasmiles!!! She rocks!!!!
Check out my super elegant and chocolaty-rich CD sleeves that she made for me!!! I almost did a cartwheel when I opened up her package this week!!! (of course, then I remembered I’m totally uncoordinated and would definitely break something… my back at the very least… if I actually did a cartwheel!! LOL!!! So I just jumped up and down instead!! Haha!)
Love ya’ Megasmiles!!!
New CD Sleeves for my awesome clients!!!
Tags: couture wedding photography, custom designed wedding photography sleeves, los angeles wedding photographer, modern romance wedding photography, Palm Springs Wedding Photographer, riverside wedding photographer, wedding photography cd, wedding photography images
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