::October 31st::

I share my birthday with the biggest candy day of the year... yup, you guessed it: Halloween! I see some pretty crazy stuff on my birthday since lots of people dress up in extreme costumes. When I was a kid I often had costume birthday parties. As a kid I have been a bunny, a princess, a pilot (my dad is a pilot), a clown, a vampire, a cowgirl, an 80s prom queen, and most recently a Fanta Girl. It is so much fun, but sometimes I just want to have a birthday without all of the Halloween excitement. I know it sounds weird, but if you have your birthday on a holiday you probably understand. Well, this birthday was one of my favorites. My boyfriend, Brandon, planned out a very special, "non-Halloween" day for us. I have a couple of photos from a few of the highlights. He bought me beautiful roses, took me to the Huntington Library tea room for lunch and a walk though the gardens, took me shopping, took me out to a delicious Italian restaurant (Il Fornaio), and ended the evening with a cozy, relaxing fire in the fireplace. Thank you so much for all the effort you took to plan my birthday!!! I loved it! I also received birthday wishes thoughout the day from emails, voicemails, texts, and phone calls from friends and family and I felt very loved and appreciated. Thank you to all of you who helped make me feel so special on my birthday!

:: Happy Birthday Ally! ::

I just wanted to post this FUN photo to give Ally a shout out! Ally (the one in the front of the room) second shoots with me for a lot of weddings and does and AMAZING job! She has such creative ideas and is great with the couples. It was her birthday several weeks ago and when she arrived home (after shooting a wedding with me) she found her friends (and a lot of balloons) had overtaken her room! So... belated Happy Birthday Ally and keep up the good work!

Birath Family Photos

Recently Brandon's family was in town so I took their family portraits. We had a great time, the weather was beautiful, and our Pasadena location was gorgeous for photos! Enjoy a few of my favorites from our time together.

Sequoia National Park

As promised, here are some more photos from my camping trip to Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon.

Our tent was in the middle of all the gorgeous scenery.

The park rangers were very serious about storing ALL food in these bear-safe boxes. The idea of a visit from bears kindof scared me, but as you can tell we weren't eaten by bears. :)

"General Sherman is a famous Sequoia Tree in the park. It has the biggest diameter in the whole park. The next photo of Brandon standing on the tile circle shows the actual diameter of General Sherman. It was so impressive and awe inspiring for me to see.

Hume Lake was the perfect place to stop and picnic on our drive over to Kings Canyon ("The Little Yosemite"). There is actually a summer camp at this lake where I was a camp counselor a few years ago. It was so fun to see it again.

Some surprise visitors... should I become a wildlife photographer? No, I don't think so either. :)

This meadow in Kings Canyon was one of my favorite places of the whole trip.

I highly encourage anyone to visit these beautiful locations. I hope that it is as refreshing and renewing for you as it was for me. Enjoy!

Georgia with Brandon

I went to Brandon's hometown in Georgia and went fishing for my first time ever! In the first photo we are all ready to hop in the pickup truck and head to the pond. It was a gorgeous place and all you could hear was bull frogs and crickets for miles and miles. I loved it! The little country store was on the road back home and I had to stop and take a few photos. I will post more photos soon.