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T here's no mistake. I'm my mother's daughter. Puerto Rican, passionate, expressive. She was an actress, received a promising scholarship to study theater, but gave it up when she met my father. She can still recite her favorite scene from Oliver Twist from memory, which includes holding an invisible bowl of porridge and incredulously asking, MORE?!
Yes, she's a bit odd. But she's my mom. And I love her and all her pretend bowl holding ways.
I spoke last night for the WPPI Roadtrip in Seattle. I was exhausted and didn't think I'd be able to form a single coherent thought. Lucky for me, the 400 photographers in the room were darn amazing. Together, we made it through and I can't wait to see the changes we'll make to move our businesses forward. I'll also be speaking in Chicago and Washington DC, so if you're in the area, I'd be honored to meet you.
From the appearance of these photos, it may look like I was reenacting my mother's favorite scene from Oliver Twist. I just need to work on my English accent. |
    
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Terranea Wedding : Erica + Brian
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© Jasmine Star. This post cannot be republished without permission. Stealing makes me sad. |
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S he sat on an overstuffed chair, her hair pressed in curls, with tears streaming down her face. She held his letter and lightly touched his hand-written words. He reminded her of their love...he promised her forever...he swore his love and devotion. Erica held the letter in her hands and wiped her tears. Their wedding day had finally arrived.
Surrounded by their closest family and friends, Erica approached Brian at the altar and the breeze brought in new beginnings. The Pacific ocean caressed the sandy shores of Palos Verde and their love seeped into even the deepest crevices of the Terranea Resort. Erica looked radiant in her wedding dress, but a special accoutrement was her mother's ring. After losing their home in a fire a few years ago, Erica's father discovered the ring in a pile of ashes. It was one of the few things that survived the blaze. The amethyst stone was originally purple, but the fire changed it to a soft yellow hue.
Love, much like her ring, changes through life's fiery moments, but still manages to remain beautifully intact when you're willing to search for it amongst the ashes.
Erica and Brian...thank you for the distinct honor of being your wedding photographer. It's been a joy working with you both and I have no doubt life is going to be even sweeter for the both of you. Your day was perfect and I couldn't have dreamt of a better experience. Hope you're having a blast on your honeymoon and I wish you only the best! Much Love and Appreciation... j*
The wedding day couldn't start any better...a pair of Jimmy Choos and Badgley Mischka
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| The florals were designed by R. Jack Balthazar and I was thrilled to work with them again...they're work always blows me away! |
| Erica and Brian just moments before their First Look... |
| Erica and Brian weren't going to see each other before the ceremony, but changed their minds a few weeks before the wedding. Their wedding was full of details and and events, so they wanted to make sure they allotted plenty of time for me to capture everything. I lovelovelove this moment of their First Look... |
| Erica, you're stunning... |
| While I was getting these photos... |
| ...JD was getting this photo.... |
| A classic wedding portrait still gets me... |
| The wedding day was extremely windy and bright at Terranea, but Erica and Brian were troopers and rocked it out...I love them! |
| Erica kept a locket with pictures of her grandparents on her bouquet... |
| Ceremony time along Terranea offers gorgeous views of the Pacific... |
| JD's view of the First Kiss... |
| While JD was getting this photo... |
| ...I was at the end of the aisle getting these photos... |
| After the ceremony, we took ten minutes to capture more wedding photos along the beach of the Terranea Resort...and the sunset light was just perfect! |
| Now onto one of my favorite parts of the wedding day...detail photos! |
| The wedding was coordinated by the uber fabulous CARAVENTS...Erin and Cara did an amazing job with the ebb and flow of the day and I'm extraordinarily thankful to have worked with a team who understands the power of collaboration...love them! |
| When I walked into the ballroom, it literally took my breath away. R. Jack Balthazar rocked it out like none other and I could've photographed every detail for ten more hours! |
| The First Dance with lovely video light from Elysium...my most favorite videography company. Ever. Seriously, ever. I adore working with them! |
| JD captured this photo of Brian and he looks so proud... |
| I HAD to give a MAJOR shoutout to The Spazmatics, a fabfabfab 80s cover band. They kept the party rocking all.night.long...I want to throw a party just so I can dance to their music again! |
| Okay, so these glasses? Makes me feel like this photo was taken in 1987! |
L ast night was a little tough for me. I'll spare all the details, but suffice to know I didn't feel like myself and threw myself a pity party. There. I said it. Ugh. It was hard just even typing it. I've never felt so stretched in my life and pushed beyond my normal expectations of myself. JD even tried bribing me with promises of miso soup and sushi, but even that didn't work.
Mostly, I felt exposed. Like those dreams when you're naked. In front of your in-laws.
I sat in our suite and worked in silence (let's be real...I'm way sick of hearing my voice) and a couple hours later--after pizza and ice cream--I was feeling better. I woke up this morning and I'm feeling much better. Partially because of the Internet's continued support, partially because today is the last day of the creativeLIVE course, and partially because I'm learning to be okay with me. The flaws, the pity parties, and all. |
| Many thanks to Sachin Kona for this photo taken at Friday's wedding...it truly embodies who I am in relation to my business partner, husband, and best friend. |
I originally had another blog post for today...but...as you might have guessed...life right now is a little crazy. We're shooting a wedding live today, which will be broadcast on the internet. These past two days of the creativeLIVE broadcast have been the most amazing, stressful, exciting, nauseous, fabulous two days of my life. I, however, have never felt so supported. By the crew, by the attendees, by those watching online, by my family, and--especially--by JD.
I will write more about this wild adventure, but for now, wish my luck and say a prayer for one heck of a day in store... |
| Today's broadcast will go LIVE around 3:15pm PST, so if you'd like to join us, you can do so here: creativeLIVE broadcast |
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FAQ : Posing + Choosing Favorites
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I 'm sitting in my hotel room in Seattle listening to the soothing sounds of morning traffic and JD getting out of bed. He always starts his day by swinging both his legs over the side of the bed. I'm a one-leg-at-a-time kind of girl. Left, then right. Anyway, for those who have offered support for the creativeLIVE course, thank you. And then thank you a thousand times more. I appreciate it more than I can express.
Today's FAQ post will deal with something that might be hard for me to fully explain over the web, but I'll try. Like always, these posts are just MY opinion and I'm definitely not authoritative on the matter. Everyone has their own way of posing, selecting, and labeling as favorite...but let's get a little more into it...
Earlier this week, I posted Marie+Charlie's Los Angeles engagement session. An average engagement session yields around 60-65 photos for the couple. About 10 images will be blogged, and about 40 will be used for the slideshow (my 10 favorites are included in the 40 for the slideshow). Obviously, the photos I post on my blog are my favorites and help define my style for future clients. But how do I choose my favorites? What helps me prefer one photo over the other? Essentially, it's a matter of preference.
I'm a photographer...but I'm also a purveyor of style. My style. I will choose online portfolio pieces that fall in line with my personal business trajectory. In any given location, I will likely shoot more than one photo, most of them being quite similar. How then do I choose what I want to feature? Here's an example (and Marie granted approval for me to use her and Charlie as my example)...
This is how I first started the pose. There happened to be two folding chairs on the street (hey, it's LA...randomness is everywhere!), so I placed them against this colorful wall. I instructed Charlie on how I wanted him to sit, as well as Marie. I stood on the street and snapped the following photo (all photos I used the 50mm, 1.2): |
| While I liked the bike racks in the first photo, I suspected they might have been a distraction for someone who'd like a more traditional photo, so I moved from the street onto the sidewalk for the following photo: |
Marie looks adorable in the photo above. I love it. But I also realized that I was not accentuating her body, her form. By instructing her to lean forward, I--essentially--removed her torso and shortened her legs. But I still like the photo. It's cute and I really like the way Charlie is looking at her.
The photo below is an image I blogged. For me, it felt like 100% my style. Charlie looks confident, handsome, and strong (in body formation). By simply changing the position of Marie's legs and asking her to lean against Charlie, I brought back her torso and elongated her legs. In order to make the pose more natural, I asked her to tilt her head against Charlie's shoulder. Once that happened, the photo took on a new life and became one of my favorites from this section of their engagement session. |
I know this is a lot of info and I don't know if I was able to explain myself in the best manner, but I hope it helps a little bit! I'll be talking more about posing and my shooting style today on creativeLIVE, so feel free to join the conversation from 11am-5pm PST!
Happy Thursday! |
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