Saturday, December 31, 2011

Tamaya Wedding After the First Snow - Albuquerque Wedding Photographer

Sneak Peak of the Wedding of Jon and Camille at Tamaya

Albuquerque is such a pleasantly small world!  When Camille got engaged, she was referred to me by one of the first girlfriends I made when I moved here to NM.  We all went out to Happy Hour get to know each other and hit it off right away.  Then we found out that her fiance and my husband both have their doctorate degrees in the same very specific aspect of engineering. Excitedly, I skipped home to tell my husband and one of our friend's in the same field that was visiting us at the time. Much to my surprise, I discovered that Jon was actually our friend's roommate back in college hundreds of miles away.  It's so fun to uncover all the webs of connections when you meet new friends!  Jon and Camille are both AWESOME people and I hope that we are friend's and stay in touch for a long time!

The night before their wedding, I was so nervous about the weather because it was pouring down all day and into the night before the wedding, but we woke up to many blessings as the rain had stopped early in the morning, and the Sandia mountains were snow capped and glistening!  The snow on the mountains really made this Rio Grande landscape so beautiful and wildly romantic for these two new lovebirds. And with a little chill in the air, they had even more reason to snuggle up close together for their wedding pictures :)


After much debate, they decided that they wanted to do a "First Look" before the wedding. The woods were a perfect setting for them to share their romantic moment alone together (more of these photos soon!). This was taken just after Camille was such an elegant and poised bride!



The couple's little nieces were the cutest flowers girls!  And their little nephews were little hams (and very responsible ring bearers!)  I thought it was so cute that Camille wanted the flower girls to have their own bouquets instead of petals.  As she reminisced of weddings she was in when she was young, she said she always wanted to have a bouquet like the big girls.


Thursday, November 10, 2011

A High School Senior Close to my Heart - Albuquerque Senior Portrait Photographer

Kelli flew into Albuquerque from out of state for her Senior Portraits.  We had so much fun playing dress up and finding cool places to shoot.  She's not sure where she will be going to college yet, but probably somewhere close to home.  In the meantime, you'll find her at the gymnastics gym or on the soccer field.





Saturday, October 22, 2011

Destination Wedding in Albuquerque - Albuquerque Wedding Photographer

Tram and Soo Young came to Albuquerque to get married near some of their family.  The Bride's family is Vietnamese and the Groom's family is Korean. When I first met Tram and her sister, we bonded over comiserating about the lack of good Asian restaurants here in Albuquerque.  They pointed me to some great Korean restaurants both here in Albuquerque and back in LA. 



They are both from the city, so we did an urban bridal session before their wedding. Tram looked like a princess.  Two of her little nieces came to help hold her train and will be flower girls tomorrow at their wedding.






Monday, October 17, 2011

New Realtor Back In Town - Albuquerque Headshot Photographer

I have loved finding great new places to take headshots in Albuquerque.  I met Michael Ryan when he moved back to Albuquerque from Texas a few weeks ago.  As a 4th Generation Albuquerque native, Michael knew some great little accents in Old Town that made for some great headshots.


He's been in the Real Estate industry for 20+ years and loves what he does.  He says it's good to be back in NM with lots of his family here and is in awe of the beauty of it all- something he'd forgotten after being away for 27 years.


Friday, August 26, 2011

New Mexico's Top Model Competition, Albuquerque Fashion Photographer

New Mexico's Top Model Competition, Albuquerque, NM
Sponsored by: Hotel Andaluz, Club Ibiza, Roc Body Angels, and Ell Photography


One Th evening at One Up nightclub in downtown Albuquerque I started talking with a gentleman got to talking and discovered we both had a love for the fashion industry and wished that we had an Albuquerque Fashion Week!  Currently he hosts Wed nights at One Up, and throws an uber chic Film and Fashion Industry Night mixers for all the stars, directors, producers and fashionistas to get together and network.  For the Month of September, his company is holding a city wide model search.  With 3 individual and one finale competition, models can win runway and modeling classes, personal fitness packages, and a I donated the grand prize of an $800 modeling portfolio to launch their career.


 
I went down to help out on the registration night and took some digital "polaroids" of the contestants, then turned the floor over to them to do some creative freestyle shots.  This top image of Julia Gallegos is my favorite.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Rambunctious Rascals and Chocolate Fantasies - Albuquerque Family Photography


Back in March, a past client asked if I would donated a few gift certificates to the New Mexico Natural History Museum for their annual Chocolate Fantasy Gala and Fundraiser. I said, "Of course!" Gina was the lucky winner of not one, but two of them!  While her sister and her sister's kids were visiting New Mexico, she decided to redeem one in July for a summer family photo session.  (I can't wait to see them again in November or December to do a family portrait for their Christmas cards!)



I'm still new to Albuquerque and New Mexico, but it was about this time of year that the weather started getting REALLY weird!!!  At 6pm, the shoot started out really hot and we were all powdering to keep the shine off.  Within 30 minutes, the wind picked up and just about blew the umbrellas over!  Within another 15 minutes, it started raining... while it was still sunny... and then the lighting came.  Luckily we still got some great shots! We just couldn't incorporate the bubbles like we had hoped with all that wind.


Instead, I just let them play and got some really cute candids of Gina's kids and her niece and nephew rough-housing in the backyard.



A Whole Lotta Fun - Albuquerque Portrait Photographer

Turn your Albuquerque Photography Session into a Date!
I met Jim through a networking group and we immediately hit it off.  (It's hard not to get along great with Jim).  Last week he told me that the following day was his 20 year wedding anniversary with his wife, Rebecca, and he wanted to surprise her with a romantic couple's photo shoot.  They had been wanting to do a couple's portrait for a while now and had been looking for the right Albuquerque photographer.  We showed up at her work at the NM Business Weekly and she had no idea it was coming!!  She was so excited.

Here were some cute shots from around Downtown Albuquerque.  Jim was a hoot and kept us all laughing.  We all had a great time.








Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Orchard Unplugged - Albuquerque Senior Portraits and Family Photography



For Easter I donated 100 $100 gift certificates to local churches and community centers for their Easter Egg Hunt.  One church had a few left over, so they thanked their volunteers with these little gifts.  It was by that luck that I was blessed to meet the Orchard family.  They have three magnificent (and hip) children who each play a few instruments.  Their oldest son plays the electric guitar, classic guitar, electronic keyboard, and the viola.  I was impressed to say the least.  I'm sure all the high school girls swoon over him.  I also found out he is in a band and also plays in their church's awesome music program.  Here are just a few of my favorites from in their music studio and in their backyard.  I can't wait to do his Senior Portraits here in Albuquerque.







Thursday, April 21, 2011

A Spunky Bride and a Sketchy Bus Station - Albuquerque Wedding Photography and Bridal Sessions

Yesterday I attended a photo meet up where I met several photographers and Claudia, an aspiring model. We played around in the studio, then went down to the downtown Greyhound bus station for some urban shots.

Our posse of 5 consisted of three photographers, a beautiful model, and her bf of 5 years.  We shot at night to avoid leering eyes and any commotion we would cause, however Claudia still managed to attract several double takes by the rubber-necking drivers and cyclists.  Together we started walking together carrying all the gear.  One of the other photographers took a lot of behind the scenes photos and kept lookey-loos at bay.  When we arrived at the bus station, one of the security guards took interest and generously kept us safe from the interesting fellows of the night.


 As the night progressed, the security guard even started to help out.  We staged him in the shot interacting with our model, and then he even offered to hold a reflector for another shot.  It's amazing how everyone likes to get involved when you have a collaborative environment.





Monday, April 18, 2011

A Little Boy with an Amazing Heart - Albuquerque Family Photography

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege to shoot the American Heart Association's Heart and Soul Ball at Hotel Albuquerque. There I met 10 year old David Joseph. He stood up in front of hundreds of guests at the black tie affair and shared his story to help raise money for the American Heart Association. When he was 19 months old, he was diagnosed with a Coarctation of the Aorta. This is a very serious condition that, if undetected, can claim the life of a child through a stroke or aneurysm before that child reaches 7 years of age. When he was 4 1/2, he underwent anastomosis heart surgery to rebuild his heart. His story was incredibly compelling and everyone was impressed how his public speaking at age 10 was better than most adults.

Here are some photos of young David Joseph and his parents. He is also a very sweet young boy. Most of the time we got him to smile was talking about his brand new baby sister.










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