We’ve been busy with this new arrival…Here’s a sneak peek at her birth announcement card…Thanks to Susan Bang Photography for the lovely photos! (http://susanbang.blogspot.com/2011/12/welcome-talea-grace.html) It’s hard to shoot your own baby in postpartum recovery with two young kids running around (seriously, I need to clean my house twice a day to cap the chaos and it is still messy!)…Get another photographer to do it for you!
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Social Investment Photography | Antigua, West Indies | Orange County Wedding and Portrait Photographer
I know I’ve been absent for a while, but I’ve been busy getting the last few photo albums done for a client (and nesting at 4am!) before this baby pops. I actually went to the ER last night and, while the OB thought I could walk around and accelerate labor enough to have the baby that night, this little girl isn’t quite ripe enough yet (36 weeks), so my other option was to go home and rest to see whether the contractions would dissipate. I’m at home working, so you can guess that the latter option worked out for the time being!
Here are a few sneak peeks from this client’s project. The aim of the photo project was to show the heart and soul of this elementary school, whose population is made of poor children from the neighborhood, in order to raise some needed funds for their educational materials and for a capital/building project. Having shot portraits around the world, I realize that each culture is different and people react to cameras in different ways, so I wasn’t sure what to expect in this country. But these kids LOVED the camera and you can see how much the school cares for them through their interactions with their teachers and staff. You show love and love is reflected back – it totally shows in their eyes!
Junebug Weddings | Orange County Portrait and Wedding Photographer
Below is one of a few of my images from a Mexico destination wedding that was published recently in Junebug Weddings. This is one of my favorite images from the ceremony, which was conducted by a shaman. It was very smoky, as you can see. I was still in my first trimester of my pregnancy at the time and alternated between shooting with my right hand and breathing through my left hand as a filter. Yes, multi-tasking has its rewards…
Mission San Juan Capistrano Wedding Photography | Orange County Portrait and Wedding Photographer
Here are a couple of sneak peeks from a session at the Mission San Juan Capistrano. More to come later! The Mission has been shot so many times, but I’ve always envisioned it almost as a movie set, with lots of beauty and drama (er, the good kind!) that can be pulled out of it. The Mission is truly a character on its own. I love using lights to highlight that…it’s as if I’m taking a portrait of three subjects instead of two. Funny enough, I tend to turn to film directors for inspiration, such as Wong Kar-Wai and Sophia Ford Coppola. My latest obsession has been Brandon Flowers’ Only the Young music video, shot by Sophie Muller. Every frame, every angle has so much drama and it’s so gorgeous…definitely inspiring. That’s actually the new frontier for me this coming year – to shoot my first full-length music video! Wait, not a video of me singing though – a squeaky wheel seriously sounds better than me singing – but to be behind the camera.
Anyway…
Here’s Sneak Peek #1: There was direct overhead sun and it was blazing hot! Kudos to the bride to be for braving it in her gorgeous Monique Lhuillier gown. Kudos to my hubby for stopping by unexpectedly (he works nearby) to see if I needed a milkshake (I’m pregnant).
Sneak Peek #2: The arches and walls have such historical beauty. I wanted to enhance that and to envelop the bride and groom to be in a bath of golden light.
Desert Shoot Preview | Orange County Portrait and Wedding Photographer
I’ve just entered month six of my pregnancy and I’m still shooting, but I’ve obviously been a bit slower to throw up blog posts! Really the pregnancy isn’t slowing me down as much as having a 22-month-old girl who, in the summer heat, has become an ardent NON-potty-trained nudist. You can imagine the possibilities. Yesterday, she threw off her pants and diaper and, within ten seconds, left a poopy trail on the deck…which made me laugh insanely (uh, maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones?) and horrified my hubby. I got the better end of the stick – watching Sarina take her post-poop bubble bath while the hubby scrubbed the deck clean.
Anyway, here is an image from the beautiful SoCal desert…
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Bridal Portraits | Orange County Wedding and Portrait Photographer
Just got back from a long weekend shooting in gorgeous San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. It’s not the easiest city to get to, but it’s definitely worth the trip. Here are a couple preview images showing the local scenery. I was thinking, I really love Encore sessions – when a bride puts on her wedding gown again (hello, we pay enough for them!) and gets prettied up to have more portraits taken. Like for a one-year anniversary. Wouldn’t that be a great gift? Any Encore brides out there? (I’d be up for an Encore session of my own, but after having two kids and being pregnant now, I can tell you for a FACT that I won’t fit in my size 2 wedding gown anymore! Hmm, that’s all the more reason to do Encore sessions sooner than later!)
Btw, you’ll see that my header is changing to Orange County – we’re moving by the end of summer!
The neighborhood boys’ first glimpse of the bride…Totally candid reaction. Totally boy!
The gorgeous San Miguel sunsets give Cali sunsets a serious run for their money. Love that golden bath of light! I could eat that light!
Ballerina in the Woods Portraits | San Diego Wedding and Portrait Photographer
Here is a selection of a few more images from the ballerina in the woods portrait session. I had walked through these woods several times and was happy to have found a perfect ballerina to climb onto dead tree limbs and dance into the creek. The timing for this session was so critical; I knew exactly how I wanted the creek to be lit by the sun, which happens only during a 15-minute slot each day. And on a very sunny day. Of course, my already lacking math skills were confounded by daylight savings time (argh!), but we managed to get it right. This is one of my favorite sessions so far. More on my FB page: www.facebook.com/PeichiWaitePhotography.
Returned. After quite an absence. | San Diego Wedding and Portrait Photographer
Life has been crazy busy – chasing after a toddler who believes she owns (and can single-handedly wreck) the whole world around her, part-time home-schooling a preschooler who started reading early and needs encouragement and support beyond what his regular class can offer, pursuing art projects that I’ve wanted to do for a really long time, and returning to surfing and body boarding in the ocean. And there’s more news too, but I’ll share that when the time is right ; ). Thanks readers for hanging in there and checking in even when I haven’t blogged for close to three months. I’ll try to do better.
Here’s a recent image from a few days ago. The light was stunning.
Merry Christmas from Our Family to You! | Lego Photography | San Diego Wedding and Portrait Photographer
We went through two different Christmas portraits and didn’t feel they quite fit our family. So Dan built this replica of our family and we feel it’s perfect!
So Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from our family to yours!
Love, Peichi, Dan, Mateo + Sarina
