So these last 6 months I’ve shot tons of weddings (both locally and destination weddings)… tons of engagements (also locally and for destination)… my beautiful sister got married (and I was her photographer, of course)… my son turned 4 and is talking a ton (not sure if that’s a good thing or not, since now I don’t know what ‘peace and quiet’ feels like anymore!)… and one of my images was featured in a post in the fabulous wedding blog Chez-Wedd – http://chezwedd.com/trash-the-dress-session/  (I love all the wedding ideas and weddings that they feature!! – check them out!!!)

So … let’s begin my challenge of trying to get caught up… in the mean time – an image from my sister’s fabulous wedding…

I worked and worked until I seriously dropped!! LOL!!! And in October I took a much needed break… which I’ve kind of still been on ever since… hahahaha!  Well.. not really – but kind of.

I’ve been asked to shoot some weddings abroad recently (international wedding photographer, anyone? lol!) – so since I was going to be shooting a wedding in Guanajuato, Mexico in November – I decided to take a break from October until my November wedding.  I took my laptop, my hard drives, and my cameras to Mexico and here I am… relaxing and working .   I have been finally focusing on post production of all of the weddings I was so far behind on (trust me… that kept me busy for months!!!!!!).   I’ve shot some engagement sessions out here and I’ll be posting those fabulous images in the next few months (after I catch up on posting all the weddings that I fell so far behind on! LOL!).  I have a few weddings coming up here in Guadalajara… then I’m back in California in March, then back in Jalisco (Mexico) for a few more weddings … and it turns out that 2011 is looking like a year that I’ll be doing a lot of traveling all over!! YAY!!!!!  Just thinking about the whirlwind that the year is about to bring is a little scary… but exciting.  

In the mean time, I’m still enjoying my break, still breathing in, still trying to catch up..  still trying to take in the calm before the storm! hahaha! 

So, while I can… I’m going to try to finally catch up on posting all of the fabulous weddings that I did from August ’till October

In the mean time… I leave you with this image… this was the view from my hotel room when I shot the wedding in Guanajuato, Mexico in November: 

 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!!!

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!!

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

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!

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’ …

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!

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

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!