Last year brought so much opportunity to meet many great kindred spirits in my industry that I am very thankful for. It also delivered lot’s of mistakes, triumphs and questions on where to go next. Long and sleepless nights. Most importantly it brought trust and love from the best clients I could ever ask for.

It’s also the year that I decided to stop reading as many blogs, specifically other photographers’ blogs. I really wanted to establish my style and have clear vision on what I want in my work. This was so liberating. A green light to do what I want, what I feel and not have a mental visual of someone else’s work or what everyone else is doing. I still have a long way to go in my style and vision, but it’s coming together… I can feel it.

A few of my favorite wedding moments in 2011.

To my clients who trusted me to capture one of the biggest days of their lives, thank you for allowing me to do what I love! I am so humbled, honored and grateful for you.

Looking forward to what this year will bring!

Emily and Darrell are so good together; it shines through their photos. Love that they smile and laugh together, always. Both very much about the important things in life, such as family and friends. Their bond just sparkles and I melt when I see their portraits. It screams love and romance! Can’t say enough about them, just beautiful people all around.

Can we talk about the dress? I am so in love with lace right now, like really obsessed. Emily’s dress is so beautiful, so perfectly fitting for her. Then Darrell had to step it up and wear the most fabulous black and white suite with a bow tie, pure awesomeness!

Special thanks to my shutter sister, Trude of Ellingsen Photography for being my second photographer for the day. Couldn’t have done it without you! A few favorites from their special day.

Best wishes to you both. Thank you for allowing me to capture your big day!

Ceremony: St Denis

Reception: Coco Palms

Make-Up: Erandy of Effortless Beauty

Here is the main reason. I don’t like the rush and pressure of gift giving. Highly dislike making people who don’t have the financial resources feel bad when they receive gifts. Yes, I know… it’s about giving and trust me. Ask anyone of my friend’s or family, I’m definitely a giver and not a taker, but all the shopping involved makes me want to go crazy. I love the festivities, the music, the food, the company and everything else. This is the time of year that I love spending extra time with Kris, friends and bonding.  Maybe it also has to do with the fact that somehow I am always busy during this time. All of my closest family and friends’ birthdays are during the last 3-4 months of the year.

Thanksgiving will remain my favorite holiday, but if Christmas could calm itself down on all the crazy shopping, I’ll consider it for first place next year, just maybe.  ;) A few things that I’m loving right now. Yes, a little foodie related. Because you’ve gotta it, so why not eat well during the holidays!

Absolutely loved Cupcake & Cashmere’s holiday gift guide here, that I had to share it.

You must check out Creature Comforts’ Gifted Magazine, super awesome and love that it includes holiday recipes.

Pie in a jar from All Jarred Up. Best invention ever if you ask me!

Black Hawaiin sea salt from Terrain. Recently read a great article in Sunset Magazine on different salts and how to pair them with food. Can’t wait to try in the future. Check out their gifts for the foodie, I’ll take one of each.

If you’re a chocolate lover like me, these are perfect for some good hot chocolate, gourmet style. Chocolate sticks from The Ticket Kitchen, with flavors like chili, mint and truffle you can’t go wrong. Kind of loving these salted caramel ones. Yum!

Then you need a good book or two for all these treats. 100 Unforgettable Dresses by Hal Rubenstein.

Hope this inspired you, or at least got you thinking of some good eats or gift ideas. I’ll just continue to be in denial and enjoy my She & Him Holiday cd in my office, working away and come out and play on 12/24.

1. EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey – Yes, the man can get a little crazy, but it’s because he is so passionate about what he does. This one is on it’s way.

2. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen – I’m a planner and organizer, but somehow with being new to all this business stuff… I don’t have a great workflow. Mostly because I don’t have a good system in place, everyone I’ve talked to swears by this book and I’m ready for some tips. Bring it!

3. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell – Am I the only one walking around with information overload? Love that his books will help me weed out only the info I need to keep. How to process the info I am taking in. Comes at a good time.

4. Linchpin by Seth Godin – At first it was hard to get into the book, but after the first 2 chapters it started to sink in and really enjoyed it. Plus, you just can’t go wrong with Seth Godin, really.

5. Social Media Marketing for Digital Photographers – Lawrence is briliiant at this stuff, he really hits the nail everytime. I love reading his blog and I always leave learning something that I can apply to my business. Recently attended a seminar of his and truly walked away with a focus I didn’t even know I possesed. And of course with inspiration and a to do list that will help my business.

In the last few months I recently discovered some great business podcasts. And I’m completely addicted. It’s the perfect way to get some learning on while trying to fall asleep (I’m a light sleeper!) or for the nights where I’m too exhausted to read before bed.

Top 3 Right Now

The Accidental Creative

EntreLeadership

Unofficial Linchpin

Recently downloaded, The Tower and enjoyed it. The act of creating and giving concept here really resonated with me. It’s a quick read and although talks about life in general, can really be applied to business principles for those in business doing what they love and helping others along the way.

Will be back with a holiday gift guide and another reading edition.

Many times during the wedding day, timing is off, things run late or are hectic and the bride and groom don’t get quality time for their portraits as they would have liked to. The solution? Rock the Dress photo session.

Manny and Denise were married in August, you can see their wedding photos here. I really loved this little park in Malibu, so quite and it feels as if you are far, far away from any city life. And I love any woodsy feel with a little touch of water or canyon views. Yes!

Only Manny could rock a pink tie. Denise, one word comes to mind. Gorgeous!

Then we headed to the nearest beach nearby. Totally not in the plans, until Denise suggested it. We ran to the car, raced to PCH… might have even jaywalked (Can you picture it? Bride crossing the road on PCH) to catch just a little bit of light at the beach.

Denise and Manny, I love how much you laugh together and your connection. I think it’s time to retire this pretty dress. Thanks for the good times!

I couldn’t think of a better photo of us than this one to post. As far as I know, this is the first real good photo we have together. Why I can’t find a photo of us in 1st grade when we first met, I don’t know… let’s blame our parents for that one.  ;)

To think that since college we have been saying we will grow old together, wow! Where does the time go? As soon as I started writing this I realized that I wanted to document our story, because really, it’s a great one.

Funny how vivid I can remember our first meet. You started the 1st grade a few days later and the teacher asked me to show you around campus, the girls bathroom etc. You were super shy (ha, that’s funny) and we instantly became friends. You had your straight hair braided and wore a blue sweater with an elephant stitching in the front. We were and are as different as black & white. However, we share a sense of humor that no one clearly understands and connecting on a deep emotional level has kept us strong and together.

Summer 1992, End of 6th Grade

In the summer of 1992, we solidified our friendship by making this BFF membership card, yeah… we were so ahead of the game Costco. We laminated it old school style by taping it all around. Apparently, it was also cool to wear headbands and panda earrings. You were super awesome if you had an identity bracelet just incase you got lost. Yay for the 90′s.

Top 10 Favorite Moments

Summer of 92, running around in the backyard with the sprinklers on in our undies. Scandalous!

Crank calling Mr. Peter and thinking he seriously was able to put us in jail like he threatened to… OMG! I’m still scared.

Getting kicked out in the 3rd grade by Mrs. Spears because we were laughing too hard, then again in 6th grade. And we got academic awards… dang we were good.

Singing & karaoke at the top of our lungs.

Making a funy, yet very dramatic video in the summer of 93 because we were bored. Your poor brother and sister starred as criminals and we were the law. The judge and police officer. Judge Judy has nothing on us. Where is that video?

Thinking that oil pastels were rad and secretly saving the best ones in our tortilla bags to take home. And our sticker collection.

Sleep overs that made our parents cringe. Only because our laughter was so loud it kept up the whole block. Even your temporary guest Juana who we tortured that one summer.

You making fun of me for dancing with the “golden noogie” and flinging me around like a rag doll. I still don’t think that’s funny, but I get a kick out of your laughter from it.

Meeting your little man, Ubaldo for the first time.

Play dates and lunch with you and Ubaldo.

Socorro, thank you for 26 wonderful years of friendship and sisterhood. You have given me one of the greatest gifts in life, unconditional love and friendship. Yes, I realize how cheesy and loverish this post is and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Love you!

That is what happened here. Over the weekend I had a little conversation with Kris about the business and where it’s headed. I’ve slowly been working on an extensive to do list for next year’s business plan. A lot of thinking now for doing later, or early next year. Nothing deep, but by the end of our conversation I had told him that I was going to RUN WITH IT! Keep running and not look back. Because that is how my business got started, so why stop now?

Love that my bride, Denise knows how to have fun and is smart enough to wear Uggs to move a lot more quickly during our shoot.  ;) Photo was taken as she was running to our location and we jokingly said she looked like a runaway bride.

It’s nice to stop, reflect and be able to express thoughts in a photograph I created. Cheers to that my friends!

I had made pumpkin soup in the past… about 3-4 years ago, but didn’t like the flavor too much and I realize it lacked many things. Mostly other flavors and just the right amount of consistency. What I love about cooking is that like everything else in life, with every day  practice, the more I cook, the more I learn. Therefore, I feel like I can pretty much cook anything and don’t need much guidance or an actual recipe to follow. My best recipes are always the ones that I don’t follow or follow for basic guidance and then make my own version. This is very much like that. I encourage you to be confident and explore if you’re new to cooking, it will pay off.

Recently, as I talk more and more to my past brides and current brides the one thing that seems to be  a constant that we bond on and love is food and nutrition. And I love that, I guess it’s the whole… you attract what you put out there. I kid you not, I’ve had hour long conversations about food and nutrition with many of them and so I’m sharing more about my recipes and the way Kris and I embrace a healthy lifestyle. Because that is what you said you would love to hear about the most, I will do my best to put it out there.

Some of the best responses as of yet have been “You cook every single day?” and “You and Kris look so young and great, it must be all those veggies you eat.” and I answered “Yes except on Saturdays and thank you, thank you!”.

I’ve got some fall/winter salads coming, a one’s day view of our meals in a day and much more.

My inspiration for this recipe came from this pumpkin soup recipe from Simply Recipes, love her stuff.

Ingredients

1 cup of fresh or canned pumpkin puree (I used a can of organic pumpkin puree)

2 stalks of celery, chopped

4 carrots, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped,

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbs of butter

3 cups of vegetable broth

1 cup of cream

1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg

Salt & pepper to taste (I used 1/4 teaspoon of salt & a dash of pepper)

Smoked paprika and fresh sage to garnish (can also do roasted pumpkin seeds or a dollop of creme fraiche)

Directions

Chop the celery carrot, onion and garlic. Add the chopped carrot, onion and celery to a medium sized pot on high heat along with the butter and sauté for about 8 minutes or until the carrots …. add garlic and stir for a minute. Now add pumpking puree, vegetable broth, bay leaf, nutmeg, salt & pepper and simmer on a low temperature for 15 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Blend to your liking, I always like mine very smooth. Add cream and stir. Garnish with sage and smoked paprika. Enjoy!

I have also found that in other bigger meet-ups and groups it is hard to build true and honest relationships with other photographers. Not to mention the clicky nature that comes with big groups like that. The photography community in SoCal is pretty friendly, but I have also had a few bad experiences on a few occasions from so called “leaders” and people wanting to “help”. There’s always a few rotten apples in a bunch. I believe in Karma, so that’s all I’ll say about that. And so I’ve reached out to those that have responded and mutually want my company as much as I want theirs. So I would like to think that I’m building something here, something very much intimate and powerful.

Yesterday I met up with four other photographers to work on marketing and business plans for next year. Wow, talk about brainstorming and fierceness. I’m still thinking about a lot that was discussed and simmering on it. My business plan and goals are half way there. Much more to do and I’m grateful that I have a few more meetings lined up with the shutter sister and Melissa in the near future as well.

My friend Ami via the awesome iPhone

Today I am grateful for the community that surrounds me and the great friends I’ve made on this journey. I am super excited for next year!

I’ve been cooking up some of my favorite soups since last month, so thought I’d share some of my favorites. Last week while making this dinner for a dear friend who just recently had surgery, I made a mental note that this one is a keeper. It’s a little bit heartier than I’m used to, but it’s a little different and so I like it.

Most people probably recognize this soup from Olive Garden, never tried it (not the biggest fan of chain restaraunts), but I hear it’s pretty good. Typically, zuppa toscana is made with some cream. I tried it this way first, but we didn’t like it that way. I love cream-based soups, like clam chowder, but in this case it’s just cream with broth and not thick like we’re used to.

As always, I looked for inspiration, but I am not good at following recipes, so these are approximate measurements. Experiment and create to your liking.

Adapted and inspired by these lovely recipes. Pioneer Woman’s Kale, Potato and Sausage Recipe. This Zuppa Toscana recipe from Allrecipes. And this one.

Ingredients

• 2-3 bunches of kale, rinsed, chop to medium sized bites
• 12 whole red potatos, sliced thin… about 1/4 inch
• 1/2 whole onion, chopped
• 1 pound Italian sausage, sweet or mild
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 5-6 cups low sodium chicken broth or stock
• Fresh or dried oregano
• Salt & pepper to taste