Wow I can’t believe I haven’t blogged since July 23rd, this makes me a bit mad at myself but I have a really really good excuse… that I’ll talk about later… So much I could write about.  Most recently, we made it back home today from our camping trip to yosemite.  We arrived Sunday and left Friday,  5 days of clean air, fresh water, no t.v., facebook, internet, just us enjoying each other and our surroundings.  Jason and I and my sister and Albert… we had a great time, easy, relaxing, and fun… this time we didn’t have any bears break into our site which I was happy about, but I would have liked to see one in someone else’s campsite  Saw a few deer… the weather was perfect, waterfalls were all flowing still, swimming was like swimming in an ice chest and I’m not exaggerating.  We try to make it to yosemite every year, we missed last year but ever since some friends of ours invited us about 5 or 6 years ago, we love going back.  I didn’t even know if I would like it the first time but I fell in love with the whole experience.

This week I attended my third shootout, which I will blog about later, but that is where these photos were taken.  Those are my rings along with another attendees’… I really like these and they tie into my topic of discussion.  Tomorrow will be my first official 2nd shooting experience!  Teale is the photographer and I will be her 2nd.  The wedding is somewhere in Blaboa Park so it should be beautiful.

Am I nervous?? No, more excited and ready to shoot!!  I feel really good about it, it is the first 2nd shooting wedding of 4 I have coming up!  Not to mention that I booked my very own wedding!!! Yes, I know I didn’t share it but it will take place in about 4 weeks!  Im super excited and am hoping that I am going to learn a lot and gain a ton of experience, I know I am.  So much has happened in such a short time, I just got my camera in January, I didn’t think I’d book a wedding 6 months later but I am not going to shy away from it, I welcome the challenge and am going to throw myself in there!  Don’t worry I have an excellent 2nd shooter lined up for myself  I’ll tell you about him later.

Also in recent news I just bought a 40D… Should be on it’s way to me now…I was going back and fourth with the 5D and since I am sooo indecisive I took the advice of a FB friend which was that it will make a great backup eventually and it is only 1/2 the cost of the 5D, which makes a lot of sense for me right now.  It does a lot that my xsi can’t quite do and I won’t feel ridiculous at my upcoming weddings shooting with the same camera as everyone attending  Feeling good, getting more interest in portrait sessions and I plan on just doing what I’m doing,  This is all fun for me!

This little dude is Diego.  Diego was a pleasure to shoot, he was very happy to pose for me and say cheese on his mommy’s command.  We decided to shoot by the pool and he was psyched about swimming, and didn’t want to get out of the pool.  We shot a few more photos of him playing and feeding himself like a big boy.  The more I shoot kids the more I want one too:) They are so loving and cute, and they say the funniest things!

These two love birds are Peter and Olivera, Teale is shooting their wedding that is approaching soon.  I was lucky to come along and 2nd shoot their engagement session at the beautiful Torrey Pines Beach.  These two were clearly in love, having a great time with eachother, cracking jokes and making us laugh.  This was the first time I had been to Torrey Pines and I fell in love with the place, it is beautiful!! I can’t wait to go back there!  To Peter and Olivera if I don’t get to see you again, I wish you a perfect wedding day and marriage!

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Meet Sophia!  I posted photos of her when she was in her mommys’belly.  She is now 4 months and super cute, she didn’t stop smiling and was a complete joy to take pictures of!  Here is a picture of Ruth and her big brother Robert.  These two have always had a special bond and now they share it with Sophia.

Sophia is blessed with two great parents, here she is with her daddy…

Uncle Robert and little Sophia Marie…She is too cute!

Yesturday was the 4th of July.  Since we got Lima we tend to stay home because he hates the fireworks, he trembles, and follows us through the house.  Another reason we tend to stay home is because our neighbors behind us really go all out and put on an AMAZING show,  that we can watch perfectly from our backyard.  We started off at a friends barbeque and then came home to watch our neighbors show and make sure our dogs were okay.  The dogs survived, they made it through, and all in all it was another great holiday!

I just made this graduation cake last week and posted some of the pics on facebook, I thought I would post the rest of them.  Making a cake like this is a lot of work- It looks so quick and easy and fun on t.v. but when you do every single thing by yourself, it is quite a process.  I am not really into the actual baking process so much, I try, people seem to like the way they taste, but I like the decorating process, If I could have someone hand over the cake just covered in plain fondant, that would be great!  But this is not the case so first I baked 6 layers of cakes, 3 ten inchers and 3 six inchers.  Then I filled them with fresh strawberries and chocolate mouse filling.

Above is when I drizzled the chocolate ganache over the strawberries.  Then I stack all of the layers and try to make them even so the cake ends up straight.

The next step is to “dirty ice” the cake, a layer of frosting that doesn’t have to be perfect because its going to be covered, but it should be smooth.

I cut out fondant pieces that I had to color blue and yellow, the school colors.  Coloring the fondant is probably my least favorite part.  This was probably taken at around 1 or 2 a.m.

The next morning I covered the cakes in fondant, this part always scares me a little because it could go really wrong, luckily it went well, there were a few little cracks but I was satisfied.

And here is the cake finished.  By this time I kinda hated the cake a little- I was just sick of it and wanted to finish.  I did like it, I was happy with it but there were some parts I wasn’t happy with and ran into some small issues but that is to be expected.

The “M” is for Montebello High School, Justice is the graduate, class of 2010!!!  His football number is #76, and they are the oilers- thus the derick…spewing oil

This was probably my most worked on cake yet.  A few hours after I took this picture this cake was ripped to shreds and devoured….I was ready to let it get eaten anyway

Haha check out this picture- this was Jasons birthday 4 years ago, BEFORE I started to decorate cakes- this is what they used to look like The tiny woman in the nighty- was to distract from the cake I think

Hello again! Since my last post we celebrated my husbands birthday by going out to the Commonwealth, one of our favorite spots with our friends…. I got him some great gifts, he is so easy for me to shop for, his favorite gift I think was the full tilt. swivel, slide t.v. mount- its already up and it’s awesome, now he feels like hes in a sports bar- thats what he said  His man cave is pretty complete now…. Also celebrated Fathers day, my dad unfortunately wasn’t feeling too hot, he got bit by what he thinks was a spider in his sleep and didn’t tend to it, so now he is healing, it turned into an emergency visit, Dr.s had to cut a whole in him to drain the fluid out of the 3.5 wound and stuck gauze in it….OUCH!!! I hate spiders and this is a fear of mine- So Dad is okay and hopefully making a speedy recovery!!

This weekend I am making a cake to feed 100 people at a high school graduation party! So I am baking today, just finished the two 10 inch rounds and three 6 inchers- I am undecided with either doing two 8 inch or another layer of 10… I want it to be pretty big, I have alot of decorations to put on it…. I love decorating, once the cakes are filled and stacked and then covered in fondant, then the fun begins…. I think I am going to attempt to fill with chocolate ganache, Cake boss inspired me- it looks soooo good when they do it on t.v…

Saturday I am just working and preparing for Sunday, I’m shooting an engagement session with Teale! Monday I am doing make up for the models of the socal shootout and also going to shoot after!! So I am busy with things I love to do- I will post about them later!  And I almost forgot Tuesday I have a meeting and hopefully I will be reporting some very exciting news!!! Cross your fingers and toes everything goes great!!

These beauties are my new photog friends!  Aren’t they cute, all blondes….they are all super nice and I look forward to getting to know them better over the summer while we soak up all of  Teales’ professional knowledge.  Teale is so sweet to pass on what she knows as a professional in the wedding industry, unlike so many pro’s who help you only for profit, Teale does it because she truly enjoys helping others.  On this day we photographed each other to remind ourselves how uncomfortable being photographed can be and to practice giving direction and making the person your photographing feel good and have a good time.  I learn best in hands on situations so I plan on learning alot in the next three months, I will be able to 2nd shoot an engagement and two weddings along with other shoots.  It isn’t easy to come by this kind of learning opportunity, I am glad to drive to San Diego for this, it is a beautiful place and I am having fun!  In other news I am happy to announce that while I have been going back and fourth with investing in the mark ii I made the decision to instead buy myself a flash and the Tamron 28-75mm since I cannot afford the canon 24-70mm right now….This way I have a great all around lens, the 580 ex ii flash, my primes, and for now the 450D will do just fine……for now  Hopefully after this summer I will be adding the full frame to my list !!

My favorite flower….The Orchid.  So many different varieties- all beautiful.  What I love most about orchids are that they live long….months and months….right now they are all blooming.  Another thing I love is that they bloom again year after year! I get a little excited when I see my orchids growing little buds, then opening! What other plants, this pretty, do that??? I love this time of year because everything is in full bloom and its just prettier that way  This is my first photo collage I made since I finally got photoshop- I was lucky-!  I’ve used it before, I took a class in college, but I am going to have to brush up on my skills.  I got the whole creative suite!!  AND lightroom!!! Do you know how much I needed these?  2 more things to check off my list!! check check