Ceremony: St. Martha Catholic Church
Reception: Green Gables Estate
DJ: Music & More
Florals: Love & Blossoms

They both got ready at Michael’s parents’ house, just rooms apart from one another.

They wanted to have a moment before the ceremony to hold hands without actually seeing each other – so sweet!

We then headed off for the ceremony! This was Katie’s family church and the ceremony was very touching.

One of my favorite shots to get on a wedding day :)

Their reception was at Green Gables Estate in San Marcos. I’ve shot here before when it was Old Richland Schoolhouse, and the venue is wonderful! They’ve added some more features since I last shot here, and it was so fun to wander around the grounds with Katie + Michael.

Congratulations, Katie + Michael!

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Samantha was so sweet – she even sang her favorite song, “Itsy Bitsy Spider” to me! :)

Love these sweet daddy/daughter moments :)

Little Jude was so patient through the shoot – he slept most of the time! And yes, his parents are Beatles fans :)

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I really loved the venue and wished I had brought my wide-angle lens to get some room shots. The event was held in the middle of the room, surrounded by classic cars. I can’t imagine this wouldn’t be a guy-approved reception venue! :)

There were lots of vendors with food and table set-ups. Erin at Events Taylor Made runs a coordinating and rental business. Back when I was a bride, I think the only options I found for renting reception decor were limited to linens and chairs. There were entire table set-ups that could be rented! I was very impressed with these. Although some of them were very pretty, as a classic rock fan, I loved the ingenuity of their rock-n-roll themed table best!

This tablescape was gorgeous – I feel like it would be perfect for a beach themed wedding!

This table actually had rock-n-roll themed magazine pages lining the top. Plates were clear with a vinyl album as the placement. Cool!

I LOVED  Memory Lane Events’ table. It looked so clean and modern! There’s a reason I’m not in event planning – I’d never think of anything as cool as using nuts and bolts as decor!

Yummy eats from Love At First Bite!

Far and away, though, the coolest thing I saw there was this car cake by Amazing Cake Creations! Wow!

I’m really glad I attended. As wedding professionals, we spend so much time focusing on our clients (as we rightly should) that sometimes we don’t connect enough with people in the same industry. It was a great time, hope I can make the next one!

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I recently purchased 2 Canon 600EX-RT flashes and was poring (I just accidentally wrote that as boring, and IT IS) through the manual to try to figure it out. I went to my best friend Google to try to interpret and I read several articles that stated you can only use the flashes in ETTL mode on cameras made before 2012. Which would definitely mean my current main camera body, the Canon 7D.

I was CRUSHED. Buying any piece of camera equipment is a huge deal to me. The way I typically use my flashes is my on-camera flash is ETTL, and my off-camera flash is in manual mode. I set up the off-camera flash at the reception, somewhere at the edge of the dance floor, and I put it in manual because I use it to backlight people dancing. That extra pop of light makes my images look two-dimensional instead of flat. Unfortunately when using ETTL, the off-camera flash would be blasting at full power, which is too strong to accomplish the backlit effect.

Fortunately, one of my photographer friends kept me from breathing in a bag and let me know you CAN control the second flash – you just have to do it through your camera menu.

First, you need to link your flashes. Turn both of them on, and make sure one is mounted on your camera.

• Press the zig-zig button on the left side until Master displays on the flash you want as master flash. Make sure it says AUTO above C.Fn on the screen. This screen will be green.
• Press the zig-zag button on the unit you want as the Slave unit until the Slave screen appears.  Again, make sure AUTO appears above C.Fn on the screen. This screen will be orange.
• Press the 4th button at the top (below MENU 1) until the MENU 3 screen appears. Press ID and make up whatever 4 number combination you want, then hit the back button. Do the same on your slave unit.
• Once you complete these steps, your flashes should be linked. You will know because the LINK light above the screen on both flashes will be green.

Now, here is how you change the flash output on the slave unit:

• Push the Menu button on your camera. Under the first camera settings screen, scroll down to Flash control, and select.
• Scroll down to External flash func. setting, and select. (Note you can only do this if your master flash is on your camera, and both flashes are turned on. Otherwise you’ll get an error message.)
• Select Flash mode and change to Manual flash. Under Flash output, select your desired output.
• Note that if you look at your slave unit after making this change, you won’t see any change. Once you take a picture, the screen will reflect your settings.

Another quick tip is sometimes I only want my off-camera flash firing, possibly for formals or for a different lighting effect on the dance floor. Obviously you need to keep your master flash on to send the message to the slave unit to fire. To turn off the master flash, while still keeping the unit on, make sure you are on the master flash screen (you can hit the zig-zag button to get there – note if you do this, the flashes will become unlinked until the proper screen comes up, and then they will light green again). Push the button under MENU 1 until MENU 2 displays. On the far left side, you will see mini flash images, one with lines coming out as though the flash is firing, and one without. Hit the button once – you will see the lines on the master flash display will disappear, which means it won’t fire until you change the setting.

That’s it! Hopefully I’ve saved someone from a panic attack. Happy flashing! Er…you know what I mean.

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Here’s a picture of us, I must have been almost 2, and my mom was pregnant with my younger brother.

I have the pleasure of working with a number of families every year and it is always such a joy to capture the connection between a mother and her child. Happy Mother’s Day!

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This week I am re-reading a favorite book of mine, The Book Thief. Such a beautifully written and sad story. I don’t really think people re-read books like I do. Certain books, like Memoirs of a Geisha or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, I read at least yearly. I also loved I Am The Messenger by the same author, Markus Zusak. It’s a great read if you’re looking to pick up a new book!

My self-administered French torture lessons continue. Look at these amazing new phrases I have in my repertoire!

Je ne comprends pas le français. (I do not understand French.)

Je comprends un peu le français. (I understand a little French.)

I’m going places, folks! Practically fluent!

If you live in southern California and looked at the sky last Friday, it was absolutely gorgeous! I saw it out my window and ran upstairs, grabbed my camera, grabbed my flip flops, and flew out the door to get to the roadside to take a picture. Anyone that saw me running through our complex probably thought I was crazy. Anything for the shot!

This week my husband told me, “I like how you do things weird,” and it was a compliment. LOL. The reason he said this was I’d just received a large order of loose leaf tea from The Republic of Tea. My Teavana Perfect Teamaker is always on the counter as I make 5-6 cups a day. He was commenting on the fact that I rarely use bagged tea and I also make popcorn on the stovetop instead of the microwave. Some might call it weird; I call it old school.

These Ryan Gosling gifs are KILLING. ME. Seriously, I was laughing so hard I was in tears. See more here.

I love the internet. So much.

Lastly, this week I signed up for the Cliff Mautner Lighting and Skillset Bootcamp in October. This is how I feel about it right now.

It’s never too early for Christmas gifs! Happy Friday!

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I laughed until I had tears at 17 problems you haven’t had since the 90s.

I have tried, and failed, to fully pick up on French through the years. My husband and I are talking about taking a trip to Italy and France in 2014, which has renewed my desire and determination. I have some CDs I listen to in my car, and a coursebook. It is SLOW GOING, friends. And tiring. For my mouth. Those French sure do a lot of puckering. Also, they demand too many sounds in one word. How am I supposed to do that throaty thing AND roll the r in one word?

Today I am wearing a Magic of Ministry t-shirt and drinking out of my Hedwig mug, as you’ll be able to see on my Instagram. I acquired both at the Harry Potter studio tour in Leavesden. I saw last week the royal family walked through the tour, and Harry was actually on the Weasley home set! Which they did not allow me to do. Hrmph.

Have I ever mentioned I do not have much of a sweet tooth? While my husband is getting Twizzlers at the movies, I get a nice big artery-clogging bag of salty, buttery popcorn. Yet every so often I get this urge for sweets, which struck me at Walgreens this week where I could buy 2 bags of Hershey’s Almond Kisses for $6. Almost an entire bag is gone. I don’t know how that’s possible. I’m pretty sure someone broke into our condo, ate a bunch of chocolate, and left without taking anything else. That’s what I’m going with, anyway.

Lastly – my FREE Mother’s Day contest to win a portrait session + images + a canvas ends on Sunday! If you haven’t already entered, what are you waiting for??? Here’s the link: Mother’s Day Contest!

Happy Friday!

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