I journeyed out to Quail Hill in Irvine last week to take engagement photos of some good friends.  It was their 1st engagement photoshoot and mine too!  I don’t know what I’m doing, but I found something I enjoy: taking pictures of people!

The Bride: Jennifer, full-time beauty, part-time lab tech, originally from the bay area, who finally moved to the south to be with the love of her life.
The Groom: Steve, graphic designer to the children’s toy market, avid automotive enthusiast & racer (who happens to be one of our best friends of mine & Benson’s for probably 10+ years now.)
Wow: they had a baby just about 7 months ago!  They both look so well rested!

We showed up to Quail Hill, later than we hoped to and had just 45 minutes to shoot.  It was a challenge straight out of a TV show.  In 45 minutes I set 20 different scenes, broke the ice and had them kiss each other probably 50 times!

What I learned from this shoot:

• start earlier
• put extra memory cards in my pocket (rather than leaving them with Ben)
• give the couple enough time to break the ice with you
• bring more props
• change lenses
• bring a chair or something I can stand on to get different perspective
• bring a tripod for the low-lit shots at the end

Like I said, I don’t know what I’m doing, but I sure had a lot of fun.  I hope to get the opportunity to do this again.

Kissing is key to breaking the ice!

Brought a red blanket to pop out of the grass

One of my favorite shots, they look so comfy!!

Jennifer's legs look fab in this shot

When I was shooting these, I wasn't sure if they were going to come out!

Another set that I was taking a chance on. Chance well taken!!!

Thanks for reading.  Happy Easter!

I was watching Jasmine Star, a genius wedding photographer doing a class on CreativeLive.  She only started shooting 4 years ago…but has become a sensation and an inspiration to many (including me).  Its crazy to me how once again I’m inspired to take on another hobby, which could easily turn into something more if I just put my mind to it.

10 years ago I was working towards a career in professional car racing (drifting).  It proceeded to take all the fun out of racing for me.  8 years ago I switched gears (to reality) and founded Drifting Pretty (a woman’s car racing school).  Since then its been going strong!  In 2005 I became an expert (especially on paper/invitations) and got married, grew my family, got a safe 9-5 in finance, and became an expert in real estate and bought a house.  I find things like racing, wedding invitations, real estate and they all interest me so much.  I want to learn everything there is about them and embrace it all.  I don’t ditch things when they get boring, I just keep them on the plate and keep nibbling away at them.  Is that is a weakness or a strength!?

I took up photography officially when Benson & my buds got me an SLR last October.  Since then, I’ve taken 7,000 shots and have been learning so much.  I’m having so much fun taking portraits of my friends, and their kids especially and even my students in Drifting Pretty.  My cats have been loving the attention too.  Where is all this headed?  Another “hobby” or more?

Hi I’m Nadine, I love racing cars and teaching women how to do that.  Oh yah and I’m an aspiring photographer?  I have to let this all soak in.

For now, I’ll leave you with more of my journey to figuring out what the heck I’m doing with the camera.

Clouds
I put on the polarizer again after a stressful day at work.  This is how I de-stressed:

This is me aiming the camera straight at the cloud covered sun.  The pics turned about more amazing than they looked on the SLR screen.  I thought they were going to suck, so I switched to taking pictures of Vera Wang.  She was the challenge.  Constantly following within 3″ of my camera.  I learned to run in front of her really quick, turn around, lie on the ground and snap 3 quick shots before she made it to my lens.

I work in old town Pasadena.  My office is nestled among lots of prime photo-ops.  The entire back of our building is even a mural (shown in photos 2 & 3).

I ordered a polarizer on Amazon a few days ago…I THOUGHT it was coming in today, so I brought my SLR to work.  UPS failed me, but heck, I still took my SLR out during lunch.

Lately I’ve been trying to challenge myself by trying to get great shots…without the help of photo-editing software.  Here are some raw photos from today’s 20 minute lunch shoot…

Much appreciation to my photo subjects…mysterious Accounting guys, who “hate” getting their pictures taken.  Doesn’t look like you’re hating it much guys!

You'll find us here at Starbucks daily at 3pm

My cup leaks? View of our mural & a solar panel tracker thing we're testing.

I got rainbows coming out my butt and don't even know it