Khari and Nicole's Wedding

May I now introduce the newlyweds Khari and Nicole Hairiston-El. Nicole has been a friend to me and my family for years ever since I was about 10 years old. When she offered to me to shoot her wedding I was honored and ecstatic to be chosen as the photographer. Here are some of my favorite shots from their big day. Weddings are never easy, to me, they are one of the most stressful fields in photography, but regardless all the stress and effort put in can produce beautiful results.

Ice Breaker

This is Brian Combs I have had the pleasure of meeting Brian through school. He is a writing student at LongBeach City College. We got to work together on two assignments where he was the writer and I was the photographer that was portraying his stories through my photographs. Right off the bat we got along very well and working with him was easy. The communication was great and his ideas were expressed fluently. These are the shots from when I first met him. We were giving an icebreaker assignment where I photograph some portraits and he writes a little bio on me. Just to get a little comfortable to know each here are some of the portraits I took.

Andrew turns 1

 This is Andrew I had the pleasure of doing some newborn shots for him when he was first born. This time I got to go to his first birthday and take pictures of his party. His parents I met through softball. It was a small party very laid back and simple just close family. I took images of key moments like when Andrew stuck his face in his cake or when he was splashing in the pool with his parents and friends. I also got to do a little minnie session with Andrew after his presents. I just followed him around and let him do his thing. He ate some cake played in some flowers just being a kid.

Welcome Baby Xavier

The first of many for baby Xavier. A newborn shoot isn't the easiest of shoots but it has many endless possibilities. What fabrics are you going to use? What props are you going to use? Will the parents let you have creative freedom or will your creativity be limited to parents wishes. Like "No I want the clothes on" or "Why do you have to take off the diaper?" My mentor, Erica Adams, gave me a good tool to counter those phrases to persuade the willing. She was explaining to me that when people tell her that, her answer is "Your baby will be dressed for the rest of its life. Any other time that someone is naked isn't as beautiful and innocent." I was thankful that Kathy, Xavier's mother, was letting me get rid of the diaper. The images wouldn't have been as nice with diaper on, I think.

Maternity 101

This is Kathy and Javier. Kathy is a friend of mine that was almost at her full term with baby Xavier. I asked if I could practice taking maternity shots on her because I have never done them before. So we set out for an ocean side seen. I was shooting later in the day trying to capture the golden sunlight. Each session I shoot I try and make them personal to the subjects, so that when they look at their images they don't see what that theirs are similar or just like other people. I try to build a relationship with them. In this case the relationship was built already at work and through a previous shoot of Kathy and her dog Chapo. So when I gave direction is was followed easily and was comfortable for the subject she already kinda knew the routine.