We got a new puppy yesterday!!! She's a black lab, 3 months old and the sweetest thing ever. I love her! She hasn't had her first formal photo shoot (trust me- this will be the most-photographed dog ever), but we did snap some pics during her first bath yesterday.

She's a cutie!

Welcome to our family, Denali! :)

Yesterday I had the privilege of photographing Dr. Stephen Earle, D.D.S. and his team outside of his office in La Mesa. I just joined a networking group with Dr. Earle, and his services come highly recommended! So if you're looking for a great dentist, be sure to pay him a visit!

Deven's grandma, grandma Sally, turns 90 years old today!!! We celebrated with a big party on Sunday afternoon at her church. She has lived a long good life and we wish her many more years!

 

The woman herself:

 

Grandma and great-granddaugther Cheyenne:

 

SALLY.

 

The ladies in the family:

 

The great-grandchildren:

 

Two of Sally's kids (Deven's dad):

 

Grandchildren:

 

The whole party!

 

The family:

 

Telling Sally why we love her...

 

Congratulations and HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sally! We love you!

I just saw today that Kelli & Sam's backyard wedding has been featured on the Southern California bridal blog Green Wedding Shoes! You can view the whole post here!

Here are some more images from Becky and Jimmy's December wedding!

I photographed the Reed family- Christy, Dave and little Danica- on Saturday afternoon at Mission Trails Park. There was quite the river flowing through there! Danica, almost a year and a half old, is just too cute!

We just had the most intense hailstorm I've ever seen in San Diego!!!

Look how much there is!

GIANT!

This is our fence that blew down. :(

Hail stuck on the cars...

That was AWESOME!!!

Well, we lost power at the house for the second time this week yesterday... and we were tired of sitting around the house bored so we decided to take a drive to the mountains! It was AWESOME. We didn't find the snow I was hoping for in Cuyumaca/Julian area... so we drove back through Sunrise Highway and it was definitely snowing! Check out some fun pics!

The clouds were moving SO fast through this meadow here:

This was THE shot I wanted to capture yesterday... unfortunately, I packed the tripod and forgot the tripod adapter for my camera.  :( Soooo... I had to hand-hold this shot at f/22, 0.3 shutter speed. Not bad if I do say so myself!

It was SO COLD! The truck temp. said about 35 degrees or so... but I think the wind chill made it feel like 15!

Starting to snow on the road!

These pictures were at a lookout off of Sunrise Highway... seriously the windiest spot in Southern California! It must have been gusting 60mph+. It was rocking the truck back and forth! (I did not get out!)

So beautiful.

I LOVE THE SNOW!

I photographed my good friend Ashley (nickname: Tre) and his beautiful fiance Miki yesterday. Tre and Miki met online... and it worked! They are so great together! Miki currently lives in New York and was just in town for a few days, so we had to fit this engagement session in yesterday and force the weather to cooperate with us! We did the shoot in East County... you may recognize some spots... but if you don't, it's a secret!  :)

Only a girl from Minnesota could dress like this in the rain!

Congratulations, Miki and Tre!

This is a sample "favorites" book that is featured in my "Adore" and "Treasure" packages.

Here are some images of a sample album I created from Kelli and Sam's wedding. This is my signature Tuscany album. Enjoy!

Please read the following exciting press release!

San Diego, California – January 19th, 2010 - WeddingWire, the nation’s leading wedding technology company, just announced that Acres of Hope Photography has been selected to receive the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™ for wedding photography!

The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ recognizes and celebrates excellence in quality and service within the wedding industry, as determined by recent reviews and extensive surveys from over 500,000 newlyweds.

Acres of Hope Photography is among the top five percent of all vendors in the WeddingWire community, which includes over 100,000 wedding professionals across the US and Canada. Awards were given to winners across 19 different service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers.

“We are excited to recognize and honor the success of the top wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Community” said Timothy Chi, WeddingWire’s Chief Executive Officer. “The annual Bride’s Choice Awards™ program has given us the unique opportunity to highlight the best wedding professionals in each region as reviewed by brides and grooms who have utilized their services in the past year.”

We are happy to announce that Acres of Hope Photography is among the very best wedding photographers within the WeddingWire Network, which includes WeddingWire and Martha Stewart Weddings. We would like to thank our past newlyweds for nominating us for the 2010 Bride’s Choice Awards™.

For more information, please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today!

Soooo... I just found these pictures on our little camera- a little old- this was an overnight camping trip to McCain's we took back in December. Very cold!

Me riding the KDX- not my favorite bike.  :(

Tough trail!

Bike won't start.

We went to Ocotillo Wells this past weekend for some camping and riding... had a great time (kind of).  :)  Other than Travis' bike catching on fire and Teisher's truck getting stuck on the trail (all in the middle of nowhere)... it was an awesome trip! Haha...

Friday night:

Saturday morning:

Breakfast around the campfire:

Saturday's ride to Pumpkin Patch:

Pumpkin Patch!

Just after Travis' bike caught on fire:

Poor Travis. :(

Sunday's ride... Deven tearing it up:

Such a fun weekend! Can't wait to ride again soon!

I was recently selected for a personal portfolio review by (amazing & famous) photographer Mike Larson. As I explained to Mike, the task of picking my "ten best images" EVER seemed like a colossal task. I couldn't choose! My clients' favorites are different from my husband's favorites which are almost always different from my favorites- so I just picked ten of MY recent favorites.  :) That being said, my favorite thing to shoot is couples; my favorite thing to capture is emotion. I love getting shots that exude either excitement/laughter, deep love, happiness, trust, longing. I rely more on emotion than on technicality to produce images that my clients love (and is my style).

Anyhow... here are the images!