The First Look...

This past weekend, my friends Steve & Melissa got married!

If you remember, back in April, I shot their engagement photos (my first ones EVER!).  At that point, it seemed like ages till their actual wedding date!  (A long, grueling 9 month wait!).

Their big day finally came and I was happy to be on hand to document it all. Here's a first little glimpse of what went down. As you can see, Melissa made a stunning bride, and Steve... well, he was sufficiently stunned :)

Congratulations again, Mr. & Mrs Gabriel*, and thank you for letting me be a part of your special day! :)
I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for you guys next!

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*Yeah... not gonna lie. It's a bit weird calling you guys that.  Mr. & Mrs. Gabriel are Steve's parents!
** I can't post this without mentioning it.... take a look folks!  NO MORE ORANGE CARPET!!!!
(If you've visited Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Ontario at all in the past 35 years, you know how exciting that is!)

Super Heroes & Bubbles

Once again, I find myself wondering just where the time has gone.

Thankfully, for once I'm not talking about the eons that pass between my usual blogposts -- I'm just talking about time in general.

For example, I can't believe that a year has gone by since this session with Richie, Allison, Jackson, and Ella, but here we are again, a whole year older and so very grown up :)

Last year, we set out for Oak Glenn, but weather forced us to stay a bit closer to home than we intended. This year, however, we had a perfectly sunny morning in late fall and ample time to explore the newly restored firehouse in Upland. 





Jackson, aka Jackson Boy! - giving me his best super hero pose:

Why Hello There, 2012!

So, 2012 snuck up on me.

Here I am, in the middle of the second week of a brand new year, trying to figure out just where the last four months went. I seriously have no idea.

Thankfully, I have ample proof of my whirlwindish adventures behind the lens.

Starting with....

The Elliotts!

Back in October, I had a ball with my friends, James & Michelle, their rambunctious little mob of adorable blond babies, and James' parents and sister - who were visiting from Australia. We spent an afternoon wandering around Down Town Riverside near the old YMCA building, taking pictures.

These are some of my favorite shots of the day :)

Something New...

I think I've said before that I'm really not so very experienced with formal portrait photography and that, as a result, I'm not altogether comfortable with it.

With that in mind, you can imagine how very anxious I was when my friends Sargon & Benyta asked about doing a session of maternity photos.

Nonetheless, we gave it a go.

And just in time too... their little prince, Maroeil was born a week and a half later!

(As a result of his arrival, mom and dad have yet to see any of these pictures. This is like a world premier. Oooooooh. Fancy.)

(Ok. Maybe more like a sneak peek. Either way, you get the gist.)

A Little Asside....

You know.... I'm not sure I ever made this public before.

But if you're interested, this is where all my photos used to go to live.

(Actually... I kinda completely forgot it exists. Does anyone else have that trouble? There are just too many little nooks and crannies involved with this whole internet thing and after a decade and a half of using it, I've started forgetting where I've stowed all the old stuff. Bleh.)

Less of a Case of Falling...

... more of a case of diving. Off the wagon, that is. The blogging wagon. (What other wagon could I be talking about? Hmmm?)

Anyhow.

*sigh*

Just as I was getting the hang of doing something resembling regular(ish) blog posts, everything exploded in busy-ness. You would think by now that history would have taught me the proper lesson: when you keep loading your schedule up, eventually, something gets left undone (in high school, it was math homework. And history. And really just homework in general).(Wait. How did I manage to graduate again?). Now, it's blog posts and other projects (please, no one ask if I know how to sew yet. I'm supposed to be learning...)

In a way, you could just say I took the summer off (nicely overlooking the part where this little break was never intended).

But ok. I'll cease rambling and proceed with the first step of catching up ('cause when I say "busy", you should actually be reading: "Leah had a lot of adventures, took a million photos, and hasn't quite had the time to sit down and think about any of it")

So rewinding back to June... June, as we all know, is a month punctuated by two major milestone celebrations: Graduations & Weddings. A lot of young friends graduated this year, including this lovely lady: Jessie.

Here's a little peek at her senior photos which we took during a super whirlwind of a romp through Knott's Berry Farm - one of her favorite places :)





















For the record... that ride made me sick. :(
(Seriously. I was so dizzy at the end of it! It's much worse than it appeared at first! Just look at the little girl in the background! She has a look of sheer terror! I'm not quite sure why Jessie's smiling. I was screaming, while clicking away {I'm soo good at multi-tasking} )

But ok. Onward and Upward. The last thing you should know about this day has to do with this little man, who was possibly the most adorable kid I saw there:



His backpack is bigger than he is :)

That sort of thing just makes me happy.

Stay tuned next time as we time machine forward to...yesterday! (And then zoom back to June so I can continue this catching up business. We still have a wedding {or two} to revisit).


Till then.

Jess & Jaime - Engaged!

There's been a great deal of debate over the years about the value of social networking. I'm of two minds about it. While I can't deny my appreciation for anything that allows for maintaining easy connections to people I would otherwise easily lose track of, the reality is that facebook can be a time-suck and can seriously impede the productivity of my day (something I'll be working on in the future, you can bet!)

Anyhow, whatever your opinions regarding facebook and the less popular myspace, I find it refreshing to see that some good can come of it. Like this: Jess & Jaime. Six years ago, with the helpful aid of a social networking site, Jess & Jamie met. Today, they're getting ready to say "I do."

That's pretty cool, no matter how you shake it.

Last weekend, we went over to my Alma Mater, Chaffey High School for an engagement session. If you're from the general Ontario area, you undoubtedly know at least one couple who has stood on the steps to Gardner Spring Auditorium for their engagement or wedding photos (why not?! That building is about as Amazing as anything made by the hands of men and grace of God can be).