Iva is the friend of many past brides I’ve worked with, so I was beyond excited when she emailed me to tell me it was her turn next! I was even more excited when I met with her and her fiance Aaron, and they informed me that they wanted to do their engagement photos at Umami. As in the mindblowingly awesome burger place. The one where I always order the Manly Burger, and if my dining companion happens to be a dude, the server always tries to give it to him and I’m all, NO EXCUSE ME THAT MANLY BURGER BELONGS TO ME. That place.

There are a few Umami Burgers in LA (I’m working on the next one being built in my living room), but we ended up doing it at the super cute spacious location in Los Feliz. I loved the upbeat Japanese writing on the walls, and the kokeshi dolls, and the pretty light (first blog post of the year and I’m already talking about pretty light! it’s happening!), and most of all that Iva and Aaron chose a location that was unique and full of memories for them.

Afterwards we headed up to the Griffith Observatory which is always a lovely backdrop for photos. Excited for their wedding later this month, which will be my first one for 2012!

Love that little things like a sweet headband & bouquet of sunflowers can add so much to the feel of a shoot. As sometimes happens, I unfortunately wasn’t available on Emily & Evans’ wedding date, but was so happy to still be able to work with them for their engagement shoot! I really adore sessions that have a soft & pretty vibe like this one :) We frolicked around Griffith Park before ending up at the observatory… I never get tired of shooting there!

I’ve shot at Griffith Park/the observatory a bunch of times, but I feel like every shoot comes out so differently from the last. It’s such a versatile location… influenced by the light, the weather, the time of day, what little nook we happened to stumble across that time, and of course, the couple. I love that the same spot can photograph differently, just depending on who is in the frame :)

The first thing I noticed (and loved!) about Nisha & Woody is how relaxed and chill they are – they go with the flow and made walking around the observatory with them & making pictures so much fun and a total breeze. I’m overjoyed that Shirley of Fresh Events matched us up and am so excited to work with them again soon for the wedding!