Alessandra - 3 months!

I'm so glad that I decided to offer the Baby's First Year package to clients...it really is so awesome to be able to check back in with parents every 3 months to capture their baby on camera.  They just change and grow so much within that first year especially, it's such an honor to be able to help give the family these photo mementos of their child.  I have 3 clients on the package right now and little Alessandra below is one of them.

I just realized that I only blogged one photo from her newborn session...I must have just gotten sidetracked...I'm adding a few more of her newborn session photos at the end of this post. :)

This past weekend I trekked down to Orange County to meet with Alessandra's family for her 3 month pictures.  We got a nice variety of moods from this pretty girl...she smiled a bit, she quizzically stared a bit, and she even gave us the most adorable sad face ever...I know we don't typically like to see sad babies, but when they look this cute I think it's just as amazing as the smiley, happy faces! :) :)

And I just LOOOOVE this photo of Alessandra and Mom..I wish I had a photo just like this of me and one of my babies, it would definitely be huge and on my wall. :) :)

And as promised, here's some of those newborn shots from our first session :)

Picture A Day - June 12, 2011 (Terranea Resort - Palos Verdes, CA)

I feel silly even calling these posts "Picture A Day" posts considering they're more like "Picture a Month" posts...or even Bi-Monthly....but I guess I'm just being stubborn and determined to someday get back on track doing these daily, lol. :)

Since I've been back from Florida, June Gloom has been in full effect here in Southern California.  It really sucks.  I've seen nothing but gray fog and clouds all week and have been so bummed.  Then today, the sun decided to show itself and I was so excited that I headed straight to the closest beach there was....which isn't really much of a beach, it's like a sandy plot of land with a rocky beach at the water's edge....but it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL here and one of my favorite places to go.

"Here" is the Terranea Resort.  A little hidden treasure of the South Bay.  It's a new resort on the cliffs of Palos Verdes, CA that has public walking trails and a public beach at the bottom of the cliffs.  There's this amazing cave down there too that I've never ventured very far into.

Here's two pictures I snapped today while we were hanging out on the sand.  My son is growing up to be such a handsome little man. :) :)

My 2011 Florida Vacation!

Hello Blog World!

It's been awhile, but I have a good excuse this time...I was off celebrating turning 30 in the tropical paradise of Florida!!  I just got back two nights ago.  This was seriously the BEST vacation and birthday I've EVER had.

My son (Caydan) and I left Los Angeles for Florida for 3 weeks.  We stayed with a friend in Naples, FL for a few days, went boating and just had so much fun catching up and hanging out with her family.  Then we went to Orlando where my friend from L.A. flew in to hang out with us for 5 days...we explored Sarasota and Siesta Key (best beach EVER!!), Cocoa Beach, Downtown Orlando, and the Disney Wilderness Preserve.  Then after she left Caydan and I headed to Busch Gardens for the first time ever, explored the Kissimmee and Celebration area, then headed back to Naples again for a night with a stop in Siesta Key again along the way.  After Naples we went to Miami to stay with another friend who lives there and got to explore the South Beach area and catch up with my good friend. :)  THEN after all that, we headed back to Orlando where we gave up the rental car and hung out at Disneyworld for a week while I turned 30!  Absolutely AMAZING trip.

I couldn't begin to tell you all of the super fun things we did and saw...BUT I can show you.  I made this pretty awesome (if I do say so myself) slideshow from our photos and videos....it's a combination of 3 different cameras (horrible quality point and shoot, really neat underwater camera, and my big, fancy professional camera) with pics taken by both Caydan and myself.  Yes, my 5 year old son is becoming quite the photographer. :)

I urge you to check out the video, especially if you're thinking about visiting Florida - there's lots of fun stuff highlighted in it. :)  And it's got some great music to jam to while you're watching. :)

ALSO - if you are thinking about planning a Disney vacation (World, Land, Cruise, Adventures, etc.) I'm friends with an absolutely wonderful Disney travel agent who helped to book my trip and was so helpful.  Much better going through her than having to go directly through Disney like I did last year.  She did all the leg work for me and made sure I had everything I needed. :) :)  Here's her contact info:

Melissa SonnySingh - Disney Travel Agent

Email: melissa@everaftervacations.com
Phone: 919-332-5955

Let her know that you found her through my blog!

Here's my video!!  It's a little long, but super fun to watch. :) :)

And just to leave you with a picture, here's one from the Disney Wilderness Preserve near Kissimmee, FL.  We learned that those funky things growing out of the ground are called "knees"...well, technically a "Cypress Knee" but we just called them "knees" everytime we saw them. :)

P.S. There was an alligator hanging out here with us too!  He jumped in the water when we walked up and was just chilling in the water watching us from a distance...it was pretty creepy!

Two Quick Plugs!

Shameless I know....but that's what this social media stuff is all about right?  Networking, sharing, exploring, learning, and business.  :)

Don't have time to blog much right now even though I have a ton of stuff to blog about before I leave for my 3 week Florida vacay in 2 days (!!), but I'm already way behind schedule getting out the door today....so just wanted to say:

1) Haven't done a plug for my own Facebook Fan Page for awhile - so pretty please with a marshmallow on top (waaay better than a cherry!) can you go become a fan of my Avery James Photography page??  I post WAAAY more stuff on there than I do on my blog. :)

2) If you liked the iNMAAKOi pics I posted recently - go become a fan of their page as well here (click on link) and also check out the ego-boosting blog post they did about our photo shoot here. :)

And that's all for today - I'll probably be absent from the blog world till I get back from Florida - but when I come back I'll be able to finish up my San Francisco vacation blog posts, have some Florida vacay posts, more pics from the last 4 or 5 shoots I haven't finished posting about yet, and 3 more Baby's First Year package shoots that will be happening over the next month or so after I get back.  Lots of fun stuff in store!!  

And if you're a fan of my AJP page on FB then you'll see the post notifications when they go up! ::hint hint!:: :) :) :)

Happy May-June everyone!! :)

OH!  I need a picture to post with this blog entry....what to put...uhmmm, lemme look through my folders.....

::a few minutes later::

Oh that's right!  I also took pictures at my friend's son's Taekwondo birthday party recently, so I need to blog about that one too!  Here's a pic from the party, pretty awesome little boy he is. :) 

Jeff and Angela Expecting 3!

This past Saturday I had the honor of photographing this extremely sweet couple, who are expecting not only one baby, but 3!!  Triplets, wow!  How absolutely exciting for them.  They're moving to the mountains in a few weeks, so they wanted to capture this special moment in their lives down at the beach before they leave.  It was pretty chilly outside and very overcast, but they were such good sports about bearing the cold and looking beautiful/handsome through it all. :)

Here's a sneak peek of their photoshoot.  Best wishes to you Jeff and Angela!! :) :)

iNMAAKOi Clothing

A very dear friend of mine and her boyfriend are starting a t-shirt company together called iNMAAKOi.  What does that mean, you say??  'I Need Money And All Kinds Of It'...yea, don't we all??  Something relatable, catchy name...and the positive vibe behind it is more than just hustling to make money - it's about working hard, starting businesses, being creative and motivated, determination, and intelligently driven.

Being the friend with the giant camera, I offered to do the product shots for her tees.  I'm really interested in building my portfolio in this direction though, so this was helping me just as much as her.  I've recently decided that my passion is much more in the realm of photographing adults, and in a creative sense.  Fashion allows a photographer to explore themselves artistically and really develop a 'style'.  I'm still working on narrowing down my style, but for now I'm trying out different looks and feels in my photography to see what I like the most.

So I grabbed a few good-looking friends to be models for the tees (2 of which are working models if you're looking for some talent of your own - the blonde (Maggie Silva) and the dark-skinned stud :) (Christopher Williams)).  Super kind of them to help out and we really appreciated their beautiful/handsome faces and bods being a part of this. :)

Here's a few shots that I've gone through so far.  Haven't had a chance to go through everything yet, but wanted to share a little taste of the shoot. :)

Oh - and become a fan of iNMAAKOi on Facebook: iNMAAKOi

Blog site here: iNMAAKOi Blog

Website coming soon (which will showcase all these pics too!)

BTW - would LOVE your feedback on any and everything about this shoot - good or bad.  I really want to develop myself more in this area and need the constructive criticism to move forward.  So I welcome it all (but preferably written in a respectful way,  I don't want to cry, lol).

Dina and Family

As if spending a sunny, 80' Southern California day at Venice Beach with my son and some friends all afternoon wasn't good enough, I had the opportunity to spend the second half of this gorgeous day yesterday with this fabulous family below in Manhattan Beach.  :)

Yes, the beach was packed with people, and yes it was a bit intimidating at first for the family to have all these onlookers, but the view under the pier was so gorgeous that they couldn't resist...so they pushed on through and I think they did an awesome job. :) :)

In addition to their family photos, they brought their nephew along who will be graduating from Palos Verdes High this year, and was recently accepted to USC to play baseball!  How absolutely exciting for them all!  So we got some graduation announcement photos of him as well as some pics symbolizing his huge baseball accomplishments. :)

Here's a little sneak peek at the shoot....have a great week everyone! :)