Beautiful Day Photography’s Weblog

I have blogged about Jovina Kelly-Pass before.  Not only is she a beautiful DEAR friend of mine, mother, business owner and wife, but an extremely talented masseuse.  I originally met Jovina and Michael at their wedding.  I was their photographer!:)  Since then, we have become great friends and she helps massage my brides, clients and MYSELF. In exchange I do her photos WHENEVER she needs them:) What a  FABULOUS trade!!  Seriously, I LOVE the old fashioned bartering system.  Recently we shot these photos for her Christmas card. I also wanted to thank Jovina for her kindness in donating her services to my girlfriend’s mom Suzanne who is going through Chemotherapy.  She truly is an amazing person.  I urge ANYONE and everyone to check out Jovina’s services.  Her company is called Total Body Management and she brings her massage table to your house so you can just relax and NOT have to get in your car and drive anywhere after having and hour and half massage….like at expensive spas.  Seriously, its the way to go and she’s VERY reasonable priced!

I just wanted to write a quick note about Suzanne Pitts, the mother of one of my best friends Dr. Cherlin Johnson. Suzanne is SUCH a  beautiful woman and a VERY talented photographer.  Her company is called Pacific Image Photography and is based out of Laguna Beach. She shoots fine art pieces, weddings and portraits and has also been my surrogate West Coast mother for all of the times I have not been home on the East Coast for holidays. Recently, Suzanne was complaining about having headaches, thought it was a sinus infection and went to her daughter/doctor to check it out.  It turned out to be a terminal Brain tumor and since that fateful day she was diagnosed, life has never been the same.

Suzanne is a HUGE traveler such as myself and we share a lot of the same zest and passion for life. She has had this photography trip planned for months to go next year to Africa on safari and is DETERMINED to do so.  Cher and I may go with her now…..I write about this, because it is a reminder to live your life and to have passion EVERYDAY.  I find myself not minding the little things and stresses so much and just focusing on what makes me happy…Photography, Traveling, Love, music…and of course my family and friends.  I thought about ALL of these things that I hold dear and realized that I get to enjoy and encompass ALL of these things everyday through my work and just HOW extremely blessed I am to be young, healthy and getting to live everyday in a job and life that I love. I am in the business of living, celebrating, and capturing LIFE.  It truly is amazing.  I feel that Suzanne is the same way and she is a fighter and I hope that she will be in all of your prayers….Below are a couple of photos that I took of Cher and her mother while we were on an amazing trip to Fiji.  One of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences I will ALWAYS cherish.

Veronica and Mike are SUCH wonderful people.  I felt like I had known Veronica for years from the first phone conversation we ever had and that translated into the wedding day itself.  Not only was I the ONLY person that was there at her house helping her get ready and into her wedding dress, but we had a little adventure and even went on a Starbucks run in her wedding gown before we got to the LA Arboretum for the ceremony…LOL!  She was stressed about the inevitable rain shower that was going to happen and although the skies were gray, I felt that the light was gorgeous and that the colors really were vibrant and amazing that day.  The rain poured, but let up for the length of the ceremony and the reception..and in the end, EVERYTHING turned out perfect.  Mike was so funny, he and all of the guys wore sunglasses the ENTIRE ceremony, giving off the impression that the groomsmen were really a row of secret service men…or just TOO cool for school:)…speaking of school, Veronica is a principal AND they are both runners, so there was a very interesting mix of guests including teachers, athletes and of course MANY lesbians!…Not even joking.  Although, Veronica’s girlfriend Isabel FINALLY realized that she was losing ALL hope of being with her now that she was marrying Mike, that didn’t keep her down long…she was tearing up the dance floor and hitting on ALL the women, including ME!  LOL.

But I HAVE to say that I TRULY LOVE the LA Arboretum.  Honestly, you can’t take a bad photo there rain or shine and the peacocks and gardens make for such a picturesque wedding.  Even the Peacock Cafe, normally very understated, looked magnificent with all of the hanging lanterns.  Since the wedding, I have made a book for the LA Arboretum of the highlights from this wedding and Mike and Veronica took me out to dinner JUST to reminisce about how magical their wedding day was…SO COOL.  I LOVE THEM!  If you want to see MORE photos from this event, please click on this link.

I had the pleasure of helping out Sarajane Landun and Carol Saunders with Grand Events with their event for the Make a Wish Foundation at the Westfields Topanga Mall. The Make a Wish foundation is SUCH an amazing organization. I was privileged to be there. They made a little girl with lukemia have her wish of being a princess for a day come true. It was SO cute, they had a carriage with footmen pull her around the mall in a Cinderella gown. Her family and twin sister were there to support her as well as many other sponsors. It was SO cute to see her playing in the confetti and just enjoying being a happy kid, despite all of the “adult” subjects she probably has to deal with on a daily basis with her illness.

Also I HAVE to say a HUGE thank you to Brandon Hughes with Couture Foto for SAVING ME and helping me shoot this event. He truly is an angel and SUCH a pleasure to work with.

I have to say a HUGE thank you to Carol Saunders and Sarajane Landun with Grand Events and to Carol Rosen for the opportunity to shoot their ISES Meet The Masters Event at Trump National Golf Club. Not only was it one of the most beautiful sunsets and locations (probably due to the many forest fires going on at the time…yikes) but the event itself was so fun and educational. We basically sat and had an amazing dinner while coordinators and business professionals from all over the nation that were flown in for the event played musical chairs and swapped tables while we were eating to answers questions and to give business advice. It was like speed dating, but WAY more productive and enlightening:)

To view more photos from this event, please click on this link.

I HAD to post this.  Someone sent this on the internet to me and I HOPE its not real, but I’m pretty sure it is….It’s SO horrible that you have to watch it like 10 times in a row!! LOLdone

SO Nish TOTALLY knows how to be on my best friend list:)  She surprised me with Madonna Tickets since I am paying for our hotels while we are in Bali, Indonesia next month…WHOO HOO!!  I have ONLY been wanting to go see Madonna for like 29 years!! Sarah, my intern, YET AGAIN, pulled through with the donation of an outfit and she lent me her totally 80’s hot pink stretch pants and leg warmers.  I went ALL out rocker 80’s with hot pink eye shadow and a head band and I was WORKIN IT. We had SUCH an ordeal getting there though.  Between Nish’s car sputtering and we thought it was going to break down, to the Gay Prop 8 riots to the Madonna Concert Dodger Stadium traffic, the odds were DEFINITELY against us to make it to this concert.  We  prevailed though!  After 2 hours in the car, we gave up and parked about a mile shy of Dodger Stadium at Jack in the Box and decided to walk and eat fast food chicken (AT THE SAME TIME) since that would be FASTER AND cheaper than waiting in traffic and buying Dodger Dogs.  Granted, when I had the brilliant idea of wearing a my hot pink stretch pants, I NEVER factored in walking a mile through the straight -up GHETTO to get to Dodger Stadium.  I was getting cat-called like a street walker, but mostly people were giving compliments…but seriously, talk about attracting attention in the WRONG part of town! We made it though and DANCED and SANG OUR BUTTS OFF. Later after the concert, Nish and I of course found the bizarre West Side Rentals guy and this crazy Cholo Mural and decided to have our own little photo shoot at 1 in the morning…singing ALL of the Madonna songs along the way that Madonna missed at the concert.  TOO funny!

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OK….YES I was Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska for Halloween…although I am a furvent OBAMA fan ALL the way.  So my intern Sarah donated this crazy 80’s hot pink evening gown that went PERFECT with my idea.  So basically I poofed up my hair like hers and wore the tiara and glasses, I made a sash that said “Miss Alaska” and on the back it said “Runner-Up”, then I changed my Obama button to say “NOBAMA”, carried a shotgun and strapped a “special needs” baby to my hip and VOILA!  I was Sarah Palin.  My boyfriend, Rob, added the BEST touch to my costume during the night….a price tag on my dress that said “$150,000″ …. LOL.

Rob of course had NO clue what he wanted to be and he WOULD NOT be McCain OR Sarah Palin’s Red Neck Snowmobilin’ husband…instead he told me to buy him a kids costume…SO I made him the Cat in the Hat.  We had to cut the sleeves and legs off so he could fit into it…THUS creating a sort of Chippendale’s look that had the girls drooling all night…OF COURSE!….THEN, the cutest of all was Emily being her OWN 30th birthday cake.  She went all out creating her costume from scratch….I was collecting her candles all over the floor all night while she was spinning away on the dancefloor…and we had a BLAST…So much so that I somehow lost my glasses, baby doll shotgun AND earrings by the time we went for late night pizza….YEP, I had a couple of drinks:) Happy Halloween!!

I had to show you guys a few photos from my friend Dr. Dan’s Halloween Extravaganza 2008.  Dr. Dan is the business partner of one of my best friends, Dr. Cher Johnson.  EVERY year Dr. Dan throws an INSANE Halloween party, early for the kids.  He transforms his house into a haunted house and just goes WAY above and beyond what most people would call “decorating”:)  I, unfortunately, could not be there to shoot it this year, since I was at my boyfriend’s sister Emily’s 30th birthday celebration in San Diego (Yep, she was born on Halloween).  Instead, the FABULOUS Jennifer Jasso filled in for me and did OF COURSE an amazing job.  I will be posting more Halloween photos from my San Diego adventure, but if you want to see the rest of the photos from this event, just click on this link

I first met David Minkin at an ISES networking event in Pasadena. I went with my girlfriend, Tara Dowburd-Luftman, the fabulous make-up artist, and we had SUCH a blast. We played poker with HUGE cards and I won this great gift basket…but inside there were a few magicians roaming around. After being wowed by some coin tricks and having my driver’s License levitate before my very eyes!, I decided to go visit Mr. David Minkin in HIS hood, at the Magic Castle. I have been wanting to go to the Magic Castle in Hollywood for YEARS! I used to live right next to there, but you have to either be part of some Magician’s Alliance, or KNOW a magician to get inside. So David provided that “inside connection” for me and a group of girlfriends the following week in exchange for doing photos for him in the future. What a great trade!

Two weeks later, David called me up to fulfill my end of our trade by coming to photograph his Magic and Wine event in Malibu, California. They hold this wine tasting every few weeks at The Beau Rivage Restaurant in Malibu and showcase wines by the local Malibu winery, Rosenthal. The wine tasting is on the upstairs patio, and then the magic is in the dark, crypt-like wine cellar in a very intimate dark setting downstairs. It was perfect and I had SUCH a great time shooting this event. I brought my girlfriend Summer with me and she was the one called up to help with the tricks. SO cool! I have to admit that I tried to take a million photos, hoping that I could catch a slight of hand trick on film….but NOPE. David is THAT good! The magic was still magical, even on film! For those of you that love Magic and wine or just an unusual evening I HIGHLY suggest going to see David Minkin, Magician, at either the Magic Castle or at the next Wine and Magic event in Malibu!