I love weddings more than I love chocolate, cute shoes, and ridiculous comedies (Harold & Kumar anyone?) combined, but engagement sessions definitely come in as a close second. There’s something about the process of growing comfortable in front of the camera that is so endearing. I love seeing couples open up as the session unfolds and seeing the unique pieces of their relationship emerge. He makes her laugh with a silly comment, she playfully touches his arm, they crinkle their noses and share a kiss – it’s always a little different and it’s always beautiful.

Elizabeth and Minho were no exception. They were fun, spontaneous, and so in love. We started at the amazing Korean Friendship Bell in San Pedro and drove along the coast in search of the perfect backdrops for their relationship. I was so excited by all the fun places we found to shoot that this post ended up being little lengthy. Okay, a lot lengthy. If you make it to the end, you should definitely get some kind of shiny Blog-Olympics type medal.

A huge thank you to Elizabeth and Minho for such a fun engagement shoot. I absolutely cannot wait until your wedding later this month!

Starting off at the Friendship Bell… could her bouquet be anymore exquisite?

The view was spectacular! I am definitely making a trip back soon with a picnic basket in tow!

We drove up the coast a couple miles and they introduced me to this perfect little location!

A bit more north to Hermosa Beach and the Hermosa pier, where they etched their names in the sand:

Back in December I shot an engagement session for my good friends Becca & Keiji. A couple months later Becca contacted me saying they wanted to do another shoot. Another shoot? Was the first not good enough? Were we missing shots?? As I wracked my mind for answers, she explained that they wanted this one to be a Japanese style shoot, complete with kimonos & montsukis!! How genius is that? Continuing with the Japanese theme, they decided to do the shoot in the Cal Poly Pomona Japanese garden, a garden that has special significance since (1) Keiji teaches landscape architecture at Cal Poly and (2) the garden was designed by his father (who has designed lots of other beautiful gardens all over Southern Cali). I loved the story behind the kimono Becca was wearing – it belonged to Keiji’s mother and was worn by her at her own wedding. And seriously, Becca was such a trooper in it – I’ve been stuffed into a kimono my fair share of times and let me tell you, as pretty as it is, it’s equally as painful. “Suffocating” and “rib-squishing” are also adjectives I like to use  :)

Certain parts of the garden looked just like it was fall!

We headed back to Keiji’s house after the shoot but the fun didn’t end there! Apparently an equally awesome garden surrounds the sides and back of his home. So of course we had to run around and grab some shots in there too…

A big thank you to Becca and Keiji for coming up with this fun idea and including me in it! And a ginormo thanks to Scott and his camera for tagging along this time too. Hopefully I can post some of his shots up here soon as well!

I was sitting at a burrito stand in Westwood when she called me with the news. “I’m engaged!!” she told me, her voice brimming with happiness and disbelief. After getting all the juicy details, I hung up and turned to Scott, my dining partner, and babbled excitedly about my friend Joyce who he had yet to meet – how we had been friends since junior high, how we shared laughter and heartbreak over bags of Hot Cheetoes throughout high school and college, and how she was now GETTING MARRIED! (She is actually the very first of our group of girlfriends to take the plunge.)

So of course I was ecstatic when she not only asked me to be a bridesmaid, but to do an engagement shoot for her and Yuki. Unfortunately they had a plans for 4 pm on the day we decided to shoot, which meant no pretty afternoon light. So we went for the next best thing: pretty morning light! Which is how we found ourselves at the Santa Monica pier at 7 am on a Saturday morning. Even though I am the antithesis of a morning person, I have to admit the conditions were great – the sun was out so it wasn’t too cold and the beach was not yet full of people. We even had time to drop by UCLA for some fun shots in the Sculpture Garden.

A big thank you to Joyce & Yuki for a wonderful shoot. I can’t wait for the wedding!!

* A couple of the above photos utilize Photoshop actions created and graciously shared by the Furious Photographers!