Beautiful Day Photography’s Weblog

My sister Elizabeth surprised me with a quick 3 day visit from London. She had never been to Catalina island, so I decided to round up a group of 4 to go today. I had 2 weddings yesterday, but I was THRILLED to have a Sunday free (especially one as GORGEOUS as today) to go do this day trip. I ALSO was thrilled that the ferry also leaves from Marina del Rey, NOT just Long Beach. It makes a difference when you are exhausted and having to get up at 7:45AM to make the first ferry.

We did the FULL tourist thing, renting a golf cart around the island, snorkeling the kelp forests that grow to like 30 feet or so high with these amazing orange fish all over the place, to just PASSING out in the sun, to meeting a group of depressed Europeans after losing a HUGE soccer match and joining them on their boat for some wine and Andrea Bocelli music…YEP, before we got there they were just 4 men sitting alone drinking wine and listening to Andrea Bocelli…VERY depressing indeed:)

There were many memorable moments today, including Courtney’s perpetual hang over and how we found her huddled in the middle of the walkway on the beach, because she was following the moving palm tree shadow during the course of the afternoon…

Also, THANK GOD NOT on film, was our attempt at leap frogging across multiple boats to get to the dock on time to make the last 5pm ferry off the island. It took 4 grown men to help us…QUITE ungracefully and we barely made it without plunging in the water. I can’t imagine doing that after a night of drinking! Overall, we had a BLAST. Next time I plan to scuba dive so I can see some sharks:)

I recently went to Virginia to visit family and then to NY for a VERY good friend of mine’s wedding, Aneesh Lele. He was one of the first people I met in LA and was my partner in crime for a long time. I am SO glad that not only did he find the woman of his dreams in Roona, but that BOTH of their familes are Indian and from neighboring families. It made the wedding ULTRA traditional and FULL of their cultural traditions (with the help of English translations). I have shot a ton of Indian weddings before, but I never understood exactly WHY they have the customs they had until now. Aneesh provided a scroll for all of the guests during the ceremony that explained what was happening and the reason for the tradition. I felt that was a really special touch that would be amazing to have at ANY wedding, no matter what culture or religion it is.

The rehearsal dinner/henna party the night before was a great way to meet the family. They had SO much Indian food there that I think we just pretty much camped out by the buffet table ALL night trying to figure out a. WHAT we were eating and b. Just plain EATING:) Dori one of my best friends from college, who lives in NY, was my housing, chauffeur, and date for the weekend. I brought her a traditional Indian gown to wear (since we were ALL wearing them ourselves to the ceremony), but she of course only took the Sash/ Sari portion of it and wrapped herself in it as her outfit…I told her I can’t be the one to bring “THAT GIRL” to the wedding:)

I have to say that I LOVED the way Roona walked down the aisle. She had her bridesmaids hold a BEAUTIFUL cloth over her head almost like a chuppah. I decided that I am going to HAVE to steal that idea one day when I get married and have my three sisters do the same for me.

After a night of bellydancing and SO much food I had to be rolled out of there, the girls and I decided to go out in the meat packing district in Manhattan. There, while in the bar “One Oak” I saw this amazing mural on the wall and I went to take a photo of it and accidentally leaned into a candle. The next thing I knew, some guy practically tackled me…I soon found out that I had been on fire. I lost about 4 inches of my hair in the process…..I tell you WHAT I go through for a photograph:) Here is the mural…

SO, one of my favorite coordinators, Heidi Mayne (formerly Heidi Asimus), with Red 25 Events, referred me this amazingly fun couple Carrie and Jeff. I am so excited about their wedding, not only because it will be held in a gorgeous, private home in Beverly Park (which is a very private neighborhood at the top of Mulholland Drive), but because they are naturally beautiful, fun, young and their laughter and silliness with each other is infectuous. You will see what I mean when you look at the photos. Our engagement shoot was such a fun time and I can’t wait to shoot their wedding.

I am JUST now finding these photos online (and there were SO many people I was lucky to find these at all. I’m sure Cher and Jill will KILL me for posting these muahahahaha), BUT the day after Christine and Billy’s wedding (which we were up late partying for), I had to get up at 5:30 in the morning to drive down with my team to Camp Pendleton, to run their famous MUD RUN. Our team consisted of my great friends Dr. Cher Johnson, Jill Thirlwal, Courtney (bootcamp instructor), Jai (personal trainer) and MYSELF of course(yep that’s me with my shirt on my head!). The race rules are as follows, EVERYONE must cross the finish line together holding hands, and everyone must finish.

The race was GRUELING, starting off with a crew of fireman turning their high-powered hoses on us right when we started to get us ALL wet and muddied up…running uphill 3 miles (including mud slicked hills where you have to practically crawl, swimming across a river, wading through waist high mud, climbing over walls and jumping into mud pits, crawling through tunnels and the Cous-de-gras after 7 miles of this, was sniper crawling under flags through mud for like 20 yards to the finish line….! The whole race was a 10K and we got GLORIOUS weather. It was a bit crazy having to communal shower at the end with men and women in FREEZING water, but we managed. I felt SO in shape after that run, that we ALL agreed that we had more than earned an IN-N-Out meal. I of course called their 1-800 hotline, located the nearest IN-N-OUT burger and we all caravaned over there. It was SO packed with other fellow runners…quite funny. But I went home, showered and had the best nap of my life. Not a bad day!!

So my FABULOUS hair stylist and good friend, Danny M, owner of the Lab Salon in Beverly Hills, asked me to shoot his “cousin’s” child’s christening…which I found out later that everyone calls each other cousins, because they are ALL tight; they are ALL Armenians:) Sophia was the little baby girl’s name and she is SO adorable (it helps that she has HOT parents:). So Armenian Christening’s are like mini weddings….they have a ceremony, first dance, reception, and cake cutting…it’s a pretty big deal (to bad she won’t remember it), but at least she will have FABULOUS photos:) Check out this link to see more!

So you MAY recognize this couple from my VERY first blog about saving the Harbor Seal. Jen MArr, one of my previous brides, referred me this wedding.  Since her wedding we have become close friends and CHristine and Billy are close friends of hers.

Christine and Billy don’t just happen to be neighbors of mine, but I have had the amazing opportunity to shoot them not once, not twice, but THREE times! We had two engagement shoots, because the weather was crazy the first time AND they got engaged in the Venice canals (which is our hood) so I told them anytime they wanted a second shoot at the canals to just call me up. Billy FINALLY got the rings 10 days before the wedding, so he decided to “repropose” to Christine at the canals. We had his Dutch friends in from out of town acting as videographers/assistants and we had a blast! NEEDLESS TO SAY, I was totally looking forward to the wedding

So the site of the wedding is one of my FAVORITE places on the PCH in Malibu, called The Adamson House. There is like a 2 year waitlist to get married there! The property is right on the water and you can see the surfers in the background and enjoy every nook of the property from the cool front patio for cocktails, to the ceremony underneath this HUGE gorgeous tree in the shaded grass, to the back house area by the pool to get ready and freshen up…..there were spots for everyone to relax, explore, and go nuts dancing…SO fun! Their theme was South Pacific, because apparently Billy was born there. It was TOO funny, in his brother’s toast he said, “Billy is the BEST Jewish, Lebanese, Samoan-born guy he knew” (I think it was Lebanese, I may TOTALLY be off:)…Billy is definitely as eccentric as his roots…He and the boys were crazy during the formals and he even crowd surfed at the end of the wedding…Not to be usurped by Jen and Michael Marr’s wedding:)

They even had Tahitian dancers and Poi dancing (without the fire of course)….Christine kicked a** at Poi by the way. I was SO jealous! They gave quite a show and then the Hora dance OF COURSE, where Billy promptly almost took me out and elbow cracked me in the nose….I survived, but I swear I thought I was going to have a black eye…The TOUGH job of being a photographer!! But seriously, those guys were OUT OF CONTROL during the Hora:). But they had SUCH an amazing time, such great fun friends that kept the dance floor open, a FANTASTIC make-it-yourself ice cream sundae bar (which I made use of a few times:) AND of course the BEST coordinator ever, Beth Helmstetter, who specializes in Hawaiian and LA-based weddings…so she was PERFECT for this couple. If you want to view more photos from this wedding, just click on this link.

This past week I had the fun opportunity to shoot the very talented Frankie J for his new album. The shoot started out in a crazy huge mansion atop Mulholland with a perfect white piano and cool old school lighting, making the whole scene look film noir meets Elton John. The shoot was planned to last for about an hour, but after extenuating circumstances led us away from our first destination we ended up going on a wild and crazy photographic adventure till 4:00 in the morning. With a flashy fleet including a Hummer, BMW, Audi, and Prius trailing behind our sweet LIMITED Edition Rav 4, we traveled back to my place for a late night “ghetto fabulous” photo shoot. We ended up getting absolutely incredible shots right here in Venice! In the middle of the street actually… The publicist, the fabulous Rick Martin, CEO of FM2 Inc., wanted a piano in the shots, so we carried my portable grand piano into the middle of Penmar street, and parked the hummer behind it, blasting the lights to illuminate Frankie. we ended up setting up an awesome outdoor studio that produced amazing results. The shoot was a BLAST, we (which consisted of HIS posse AND mine of course…Jessica my intern AND light stand:) and the lovely Mariah Nicole, Make-up Artist Extraordinaire, who is also a fellow Bridal Bar member) laughed our asses off, had way too much fun, and got beautiful shots. Frankie was the perfect model, he was such a gentlemen, and really got into the shoot, it was his idea to put the hummer behind the piano in the first place. I cant wait to work with him again in the future!  To check out more of my Hip-Hop clients that I have shot for Rick, including Cypress Hill, KRS1, Fat Man Scoop, Fameous, and the amazing boxer Fernando Vargas to name a few, just visit my other website www.lxposed.com.

Here’s some of the pictures after we left the hills:

SO I HAVE to blog about Melanee, because sometimes I feel like she is the ONLY person who reads my blogs…LOL. I first met Melanee when she was working with the Doubletree Hotel in San Pedro. Gloria, Mel and I would “Schmooze” and have lunch and I had the pleasure of getting to know her during the time of her getting engaged. SHORTLY thereafter, she got pregnant so our dreams of boozing it up at her wedding were now over (well, at least TOGETHER…her dad PROMPTLY got me drunk the night before:) So I had the honor of joining her party and her wedding and taking photos at the GORGEOUS Convict Lake, where she and her husband go all of the time. I remember I went into that weekend sad, because I was going through a mini-breakup and usually being around SUCH love and wonderful support is NOT the best remedy for a broken heart, but in this case it was THE BEST medicine. I had SUCH an amazing weekend being a part of this wedding, that I didn’t want to leave and I feel forever attached to “The Chapman’s” AND the Seguras:) They felt like family to me and treated me as such.

I remember I brought a book on how to find the local hot springs (Something Mel had told me to buy and I had NO idea about all of these hot springs all over California). So the day before the wedding I went off by myself with my camera and went on a scavenger hunt looking for hotsprings. At the second one I found, I met an ENTIRE cross country team and they invited me to join them on this long amazing run around Convict Lake. That was my first TRUE introduction to the lake and it’s beauty. It was the most beautiful run I have been on. If I wasn’t SO concerned about twisting my ankle, or keeping up with the team I had just befriended, I would have been able to take in the view even more! That night we all partied with the parents and friends and the next day was the wedding. Although little Ryder wasn’t born yet, we all SPOKE about him as if he were there (well he technically WAS) and I felt like I had already met him….

So this is ALL background, to my first inspiration for the iron-on onesy’s. Once Ryder was born, I went down to the OC to meet him and brought my camera. I took one of my FAVORITE shots from the wedding and had it made into an iron-on onesy for little Ryder. It was a moment RIGHT after they kissed and were pronounced husband and wife and they were beaming out at their families and he instinctively was holding her belly…SO CUTE! So I used THAT photo with the line” I WAS THERE” and their wedding date at the bottom for little Ryder. I reminisce about this now, because I JUST got a photo from Melanee with little Ryder wearing my gift…He’s going to be a STUD just like his Dad!!

So since I have been COMPLETELY immersed in and focused on my weddings this year, I decided to give a little love to my other business LXPOSED Photography www.lxposed.com . Ms. Pamela Spyrs, Publicist extaordinaire, contacted me because I had done a recent ad campaign for the LAB Salon in Beverly Hills www.thelabsalon.com. She convinced me to advertise in the Hollywood Weekly Magazine (which I never do) and they are going to run an editorial article about me in next month’s issue….so that should be pretty cool. So on Friday the Hollywood Weekly Magazine was among a few of the sponsors for this Green/Eco Friendly fashion event held downtown in the Cooper Building near Fashion Alley. I NEVER go down there unless its for photo shoots, because it’s PURE torture to walk through there and NOT buy everything you see. I got suckered into buying a dress and some sunglasses just in between walking from my car to the front entrance of the building!…UGH! The event was SO rad and EVERYTHING there whether it was a clothing line, beverage company or jewelry company..was all eco-friendly or using only recycled materials. The HIGHLIGHT of the event, other than running into some friends I haven’t seen in years, was the lady that walked in with Jackson, the baby kangaroo in a pouch. He is a Red Kangaroo, so he will grow to be over 6 feet tall! Hard to imagine when you see how tiny and cute he is now. Apparently, this woman works for an animal rescue center in Fontana and when baby animals are SUPER young and need to be fed and cared for without their mothers, that they have to take them everywhere with them and take care of them like a REAL mother. I fell in LOVE instantly!! She also told me that the Tiger that used to belong to Mike Tyson is now there. He, being the sick man that he is, used to BEAT UP his pet tiger!!! I mean A. Who even HAS a pet tiger? and B. Who BEATS UP their pet tiger?? SO horrible. I hope to be able to visit this place soon and take photos.

SO I had the absolute pleasure of shooting Margrethe and Alexandre’s wedding…Although I was only there for two hours, we were able to have an absolute blast before, during and afterwards at the Bluffs at Trump National. I AM sad though that I was not able to be there to photograph the reception and check out the dance troup performing. Margrethe is an amazing dancer as well and I am SURE they partied down during the reception in her parent’s backyard.

So the first picture in this post is of Margrethe’s aunt who got married at the SAME chapel, Wayfarers Chapel, in 1960! Not only was her signature STILL in the guest signing book, BUT she brought a photo from her wedding back then where she designed and made her own dress! AMAZING. The ceremony was SO cute, because Alexandre’s family was SO emotional and the entire ceremony seemed so intimate and personal. I think that’s what having a small wedding party does. It’s makes the energy SO nice and relaxing. It was ALSO really funny to have Margrethe’s DAD as “the bodyguard” during their formals. He was so cute standing guard, not just over his daughter and NEW son, but over his car as well!:)