Where in the World is France?

Downtown San Diego Portrait ~ Nea and Family

Sara — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:39:21 +0000

Oh the beautiful Nea! I feel this need to tell you all about Nea. She is such a beautiful and strong woman. She is a mother, and a wife. I had such an amazing time on our shoot. I was so blessed by her beauty and her soft nature. She is one of those women who has no idea how beautiful she is.

Nea is the wife of Chad Morgan of Chad Morgan Photography in Colorado. Chad is an extremely talented photographer! So right about now you are thinking, so why did he hire you to take pictures of his wife. That of course was the first question that I asked him when he called. Chad’s most difficult subject has always been his beautiful wife because as we all know, when our significant other wants to take a picture of us we for some reason turn into this crazy, goofy. shy versions of ourselves. Nea needed a woman’s touch and she deserved a photoshoot all her own. So we started the Portrait Shoot in Downtown San Diego…

You have no idea how badly I wanted to cut my hair short again after this shoot. Her hair is freaking hot! I love it!

Nea is laughing here because there was some guy in his underwear calling out about how hot she was from a hotel across the street. I know, you thought it was because I was funny. I thanked the guy if that makes it any better.

So, I had to make one stipulation that when we were done with Nea’s shoot we would meet up for a couple pictures of the whole family. Since I know that is something that we photographers can not do ourselves. I fell in love with their daughter. She is totally a reflection of her parents. Beautiful, playful, and fun! ADORABLE!

Chad, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to capture your family. You are truly blessed!

San Diego Engagement Session- Mona and Chris

Sara — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:10:17 +0000

Mona and Chris are such an awesome couple. I was so excited to do this engagement shoot. We wanted to pull in some elements from each of them so we started at the Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla. You can not really shoot on the green but there were a couple places that were enough out of the way that they were okay with us shooting there. Chris is a big time golfer and I knew he would be right at home at his favorite golf course. Torrey Pines Golf Course made a great first stop on the engagement session!

The second stop was a fun hotel in La Jolla which seemed like the perfect place to accent Mona’s incredible dress. You guys have to hear the story behind this dress. The yellow dress that Mona is wearing was bought for her by her mother when she was 11. Her mom just knew that she would grow up to look beautiful in it. Okay, it fits perfectly and it was the one element of her engagement session that she knew she had to have. The dress of course was stunning!!!

When I first met Chris, all I could think was…Superman. He has all the striking features of what we women see as Superman. He also seemed to have the personality traits that I see Superman having. He is strong, confident, protective, and all with a gentle caring nature.

Okay, you can not get a better backdrop then La Jolla Cove. Pretty much the most beautiful place on earth. What you don’t see in this shot is a seal that had just swam by and jumped up on a nearby rock to bath in the sun. What a fun day.

Wait, you can see the seal in this shot, look right under her dress in the back. La Jolla Cove is a great place for engagement sessions. Sometimes I forget how beautiful it is down there.

So, another story I have to tell is about the bracelet made out of string that Mona has on her wrist. It is a wish bracelet. When you tie it on you make a wish and when it falls off is when you get your wish. I thought Chris was going to cut it off in the middle of the night but she still had it at the engagement and I actually like seeing it in the pictures. I can not wait to hear when her wish comes true. Then it will make for a really great story!

After hanging in La Jolla we headed to Downtown San Diego to the gaslamp district for some fun downtown shots. There are so many great shots from down there but I think my favorite has to the the one with the Gaslamp Quarter sign in it and Hard Rock Hotel in the background.

Thanks you two for adventuring all over town with me and making it such a fun shoot. I think of you as the Brazilian Bombshell and her own personal Superman. Thank you Torrey Pines Golf Course, La Jolla Cove and Downtown San Diego for the incredible backdrops for this engagement session

Mexico Wedding in Wine Country ~ Day 1

Sara — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 05:56:58 +0000

On my birthday weekend, this weekend, I am shooting a really fun wedding in Mexico. Everyone wants to know where in Mexico and since I have a hard time explaining that, here is a map:

The wedding is going to be at a Winery there called Casa Madero in Parras de la Fuente which is wine country here in Mexico. I did not even know there was wine country in Mexico until a couple months ago.

Since it is a destination wedding and I can have my second shooter come from anywhere, so sI decided to ask my good friend from Denver, Frances to come out. I planned the trip so that I would be able to relax and have some fun on my actual birthday which is the day after the wedding, October 11. So with all the flights booked and a basic idea of what is in store we start this weekend adventure.

I say adventure because for some reason I just knew that it was going to be an adventure and as you will be able to tell just from Day 1 of the trip, it looks like my hunch was correct!

So today was the traveling day which started out normal with cramming some work in, packing, and cleaning up the house before I left. Along with a call to AT&T to make sure that I would have some cell phone service is Mexico.

The only possible complication that we could have today was the Continental flight. Frances and I were meeting in Houston to take the only flight that goes from Houston to Torreon, Mexico a day. We both had about an hour layover which is totally doable but leaves no room for issues. Everything is running smoothly with my flight so as soon as I land I turn my phone on to find a message from Frances that their flight had been sitting on the runway in Denver for 45 minutes so they would be at least that late.

As I am walking to the gate all I can think is holy cow this is really far. There is no way she is going to make this. I approach the gate and very nicely alert them of the situation. At that moment they gave me 2 options which were:

1. Stay with her and get the first flight out in the morning which goes to Mexico and then to Torreon and gets us in around 2pm. However, the attendant strongly advises against this because of weather issues they are expecting tomorrow.

2. Get on the flight and pray that she makes it. If not I can at least get the rental car and plan situated for her arrival tomorrow and at least one of us will be there to shoot the wedding.

I do not like the sound of either of these options but I opt for option 2.

On the plane I am frantic. Making sure everyone on the plane (including the groom’s sister who is in the seat across from me) that are also on the plane know that we are waiting for the photographer and she is running. They shut the door but at the same time they continue to load luggage so I am still holding out hope. It is rare that they reopen the door but I knew she could do it. She calls and says she is at the gate and they are letting her on, HORRAY!!!! So they reopen the door and on steps 3 men and no Frances. She goes to close the door again and I start SCREAMING wait, she did not get on. Immediately, Frances calls crying hysterically! They would not let her on the plane with her camera bag, they were insisting on checking her camera bag. On top of that Continental is now refusing to pay for anything because she technically made the flight. Even though they did not give her half a second to repack the bag or sort it out with me. Time she would have had if the flight had not been delayed. Then I loose connection and they insist that I turn my phone off.

Right about now you are either reading this and you are a photographer thinking, of course she would not let them check her bag or you are not a photographer thinking just check the bag already. Here are a couple things to consider. They would not give her a fragile sticker. They would not take any responsibility for the contents of the bag and they wanted to treat it like all the other luggage which we all know would have meant a lot of money in damages and possibly the loss of the gear all together. This is when I get fired up!

Come on people, you can move some luggage around in the plane to make room for a bag. I would not give up my bag either. Luckily, the flight attendant had put me in the exit row so that my bag would fit under the seat and I am sure I could have got her bag under the seat as well. This is what happens when people can not take 1 minute to think outside the box and come up with a way to make it work. Was the answer really to leave her in Houston, refuse to pay for a room for her to stay the night and give her a ton of grief for not wanting to let you throw her 20k worth of fragile camera gear around?

After sending rances 5 text messages telling her that it will be okay and she can get on the first flight tomorrow and just to get a room and I will cover it we start to taxi. The flight attendant who had been so eagerly trying to help and hold out hope that Frances would make it on drops down in the seat next to me and starts to cry. She felt so bad that she had not tried harder or done something more. It was so sweet to see that someone else was actually as bummed as I was. So here I am, on the flight to mexico without Frances, worried sick about her and hoping she finds a place to sleep tonight.

Continental Airlines, you need to train your people to be better at working with people and understanding their needs. It is a valuable lesson that we can all learn in being creative in our approach to solving problems and working with people. She carried the bag on the 1st plane. There is no reason that she would expect to check the bag now. There is room on this flight for her and her bag and you failed us today. It is hard to judge a company by one experience but it is also hard not to. Continental failed us today and made a situation that could have been a victory into a failure.

And so starts the adventure that will be the wedding in Mexico on my birthday weekend! Life is always an adventure. That is what I love about it.

Cabo San Lucas Riu Palace Wedding ~ Amy and Jimmy

Sara — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:50:40 +0000

For Amy and Jimmy’s Wedding we went Down to Cabo San Lucas. You may have seen the Day After Shoot also called a Trash the Dress Shoot in this case.

I have to tell you how awesome the Riu Palace Hotel in Cabo is for weddings and wedding photography. Not only is it an all inclusive resort. They also have an infinity pool which is awesome and it looks right out to lovers beach and the tip of Cabo.

This was my first time to photograph a wedding in Cabo and my first time to Cabo all together so I was pretty excited. Because the Riu Palace is an all inclusive resort you could not even enter the property if you were not a guest so it made it a very different experience than a lot of places in Cabo or even Mexico. The location was a very relaxing environment where everything was taken care of which made it a great location for a wedding.

For the rehersal dinner we all packed into these vans that dropped us off at the pier where we loaded on to a boat for the rehersal dinner cruise. The cruise was beautiful and the food was great. It was a really nice way to have an intimate dinner with all your friends and family.

Amy and Jimmy decided that they wanted to see each other before the wedding ceremony so that they could take a ton of great pictures with their friends and family and really enjoy the time immediately following the ceremony. It was a flawless schedule and one that really allowed us to get a lot of great images on their wedding day. They had also decided to do a day after shoot so we knew we would have plenty of time with the couple on that day which really allowed us to stay focused on their family and friends all day.

Amy and Jimmy have so many amazing friends that there was no way they could have less than 11 bridesmaids and groomsmen on each side. After meeting each and every one of them I have to agree that a large wedding party was totally the way to go for them. I could not imagine being without any single one of these amazing people either. Each of them was truly special to the couple and you could see it.

The couple had a Greek Orthodox Wedding Ceremony and Jimmy’s cousin preformed the ceremony. It is the first time I have ever seen a greek orthodox ceremony preformed outside of a church and it was so cool! What an incredibly beautiful, traditional, and meaningful ceremony this was for them and their whole family and to have it in such a beautiful outdoor location just added to it. LOVE IT!

LOVE the infinity pool at the Rui Palace in Cabo!

This has to be one of the funniest wedding party shots I have ever done. All thanks to the enthusiasm of the group! Even the flower girl is into it! Can you tell they know what is coming?

Hands down the Rui Palace is one of my favorite new hot spots to get married. If you decide to get married there, just promise that you will take us with you! I would be a wedding photographer in Cabo San Lucus anytime. It is beautiful and warm and absolutely an incredible location for a wedding.

You can also check out the complete slideshow of their wedding:

Puerto Rico, Destination Wedding ~ Day After Shoot

Sara — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:00:55 +0000

The day after shoot for this couple was so much fun. We started out at the Hotel Convento again which is always beautiful and then wandered into the streets of Old San Juan to take some shots on the incredible cobble stone streets.