Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone has a great Christmas and a Happy New Years. Stay safe, see you all in the new year!

Barber Family Portraits

Today Sandy and I headed down to Hermosa Beach to do some family portraits of her sisters husbands family, the Barbers. The location was Valley Park, a great little spot in the middle of Hermosa. While we were there we took advantage and also did pregnancy portraits with Sandy's sister Lori, and her husband Tom. They are expecting a baby boy in April, very exciting!

We found this really cool tree and had to take a few shots of Sabrina and her mom Michelle

A couple portraits of Sabrina with the buttery 50mm 1.2 @ 1.2

The Barbers (from NY, down for xmas!)

A final shot of Sabrina before we left

I am off to bed to get ready for the holiday madness. I hope you all got your shopping done in time! Merry Xmas everyone.

Cheers

Ode to Sadie

I thought I would take a moment to blog about Sadie. Sadie is a Welsh Corgie and was born on January 17th, 2006. Before we got her I had no idea what a Corgie was, but my girlfriend had one as a child and has wanted to get another one ever since. So last year we decided to take the plunge and get this little furball. Let me tell you, these are the cutest little dogs I have ever seen! They are the perfect size and are very smart, plus they are great with kids. If you are thinking about getting a dog but don't know what kind, look no further!

Now Sadie is her legal name, but we rarely call her by that. Below is a list of the more common names we usually call her....and don't ask me where we came up with these or how!! Somehow they just evolved over the last year ;)

saders, sades, sadies, darth sader, darth sader potater, stinkers, stinky, fatty, da puppers, puppers, poopy butt, cow belly, stinky butt

....um yea, like I said, don't ask....

Here is a little collage documenting her almost 2-year-long existence:

Excited!

Today the man in brown showed up and delivered my brand spankin new Canon 85mm 1.2L II lens! My collection of prime lenses is now complete and I am very excited. Eventually I want to pick up the 90mm TS lens, but that is not a must have for me and who knows, maybe Santa will bring it for xmas ;). Check out this beast of a lens:

I can't wait to put this lens into action and see what it can really do. Be sure to check back to see photos taken with this bad boy. Oh yea, happy Monday everyone.

Day at the Beach

Sunday was a perfect day so we decided to head down to Manhattan Beach to do some family portraits for my girlfriends sister and her family. The Thompson's consist of Jon, Kristi, Kylie, and their newest addition, Emmy. I always enjoy shooting portraits down at the beach because the lighting is amazing and the sand acts as a huge reflector and gives off such a nice look. And I guess it helps when the family is as good looking as this family is! It near impossible to shoot a bad picture with such a great looking family.

Just the girls

Kylie loves her new little sister!

Jon, I am confident that the next one will be a boy....but for now you have 2 of the cutest girls I have ever seen!

Kylie LOVES tattoos, especially if they have anything to do with Disney.

...she also loves seashells!

Playing on the lifeguard tower

Playtime is over, time to go home...booo

New Glass

Last weekend I picked up a couple new toys for my arsenal. These bad boys are both awesome lenses and I can't wait to use them at a wedding! The 50mm 1.2 is replacing my trusty old 50mm 1.4, and is mostly used for detail shots and portraits. The buttery 1.2 aperture is so sweet and gives a look like no other lens can duplicate (except its cousin the 85mm 1.2). The 24mm 1.4 is am amazing wide angle lens, especially on the 5D. Most wide angles inherently have a large depth of field, so it is very hard to get background blur. This lens is definitely an exception. With a max aperture of 1.4, this baby can blur the background like no other wide angle can.