Salton Sea

Last week, I had the opportunity to take a little field trip with a few of your friendly neighborhood photographers.

Well, they dont ALL live in the neighborhood, but it felt like one big family so you could have fooled me...
6 photographers total...
myself,
Nick Onken from Santa Monica, CA
Sara France from San Diego, CA
Michael Norwood from Riverside, CA
Fred Egan from Dallas, Texas
&
Kyle Barnes from Dallas, Texas

Our trip consisted of driving about 1 hour East of Palm Springs to the virtually abandoned town of Salton Sea. Literally miles of nothingness surrounded by a "sea" that reeks of sulfer & whose shores are littered with junk and destruction. It was pure eye candy for us photogs. The worst part was how HOT HOT HOT it was... we were dripping and sticky and swarmed by flies but it was all about the adventure and that made it bearable!

Here are a few from the day...

I got bored of shooting things without people so I started shooting my friends.... A bunch of good lookin' photographers if you ask me ;)

Off to Cancùn!!

I'm off to shoot a wedding in Cancùn for 8 days! woo hoo!
I will catch up on emails/phonecalls when I return on September 1.
Until then, have a wonderful adventurous week!!

:D

YIKES! My plane leaves in a few hours and Im not even packed! [time to turn the computer off]

I've Been What?!

"You've been tagged!"
"I've been WHAT?!"
"Someone tagged you"
[inner monologue: did someone attack my house with a can of spray paint??]
"Well", I said, "Is that a good or bad thing?"
"good...lol"
"Ohhhh...ok!! Cool... I think"


Haha... I was chattin' with a friend the other day when he alerted me that I had been "tagged" in a blog game. I didnt know what it was at first but, apparently I am supposed to share 8 things you may not know about me and 'tag' 8 other photographers to do the same.... and no, it has NOTHING to do with spray paint!

The following photographers decided I am "it" for this round...

Kelley Walker-Chance
Jamie Delaine
David Baxter

Sooo... since you all wanna know, here goes...

8| YEE-HAW!
I love Love LOVE country music... Maybe its because I was born in oklahoma and the country roots were planted at conception... or maybe its just the fun life and carefree attitude that is exuded through the music?? Regardless of why, all I know is that it always elicites a big smile on my face when I hear songs that express a love and passion for LIFE!

7| GREASE MONKEY
how many girls can profess to doing a header conversion? ... or will admit that the scars on her knuckles is from changing her first tire? hmmm... will you be impressed if I told you it was all apart of helping to completely restore '65 MUSTANG?
ok, so I couldn't do it NOW...but back in the day I was quite the little tom-boy

6| TWINKLE TWINKLE
I have this secret fascination with Sparkly cement... You know the kind you see out front of movie theatre, for example? I get giddy like a school girl!

5| ALIAS
You all know me as "Shyla" but when i was born my mom actually named me Bethany Nicole. The hospital misplaced my birth certificate so she was instructed to fill out another one. She must have been as indecisive as I am because she decided I would no longer be a Bethany but rather a Shyla. So now, 'Bethany' is my alter ego ;)

4| EX-CON
I was once pulled over and frisked because apparently I fit the description of a chick who just eluded the cops after she robbed a bank! hmmm... maybe it was Bethany ;)

3| THE LOVE OF MY LIFE
When asked, I always tell people I have never been in love but that is a BIG FAT LIE! I am currently "in love" with the following men....
Obie-Wan Kenobi
Christian ( move over Satine) &
Catcher Block

Ironically they are all the same man ;) The love of my life is ..... Ewan McGregor. Have you heard him sing?! There is no need for further explanation!

2| MOIST TOWLETTE PLEASE
I, like Kelley, have an abnormal obsession with getting food on my hands while eating... You will never see me eat ribs!
Clay from the potters wheel, paint from my recent project or even baby slobber don't bother me... but food??! ugh.

1| $3.88
Ok this one is embarassing... but.... back in the day I was a runway model in a WALMART fashion show. Yeah, you read that right... WALMART! OK, so I would never associate WALMART and FASHION in the same sentence but I was only 12.... give a girl a break! ;)


Now it's MY turn to tag a few peeps...
* MR. Jasmine Star... I figured he could make a cameo on J*'s blog and enlighten us to a lil' bit about the man behind the STAR!
* Nick Onken... because he's just plain my hero!
* Sarah Barlow.... so much maturity crammed in that little gal, she is inspiring!
* Kathy Carlisle... because I still can't find the chonies!...lol ;)
* Scott Neumyer... maybe he will share his "other job" with our community
* John Michael Cooper... if his life is half as interesting as his creative mind we will all be blown away Im sure!
* Eric Laurits... we all wanna know how you "s:e:ek the joy" ;)
* Shane Melenbacker... your heart capacity far exceeds anything the rest of us could hope for!

Rosanna | bridal fashion

I LOOOOOVE shooting fashion....love love love it!
I've been workin' for Mike this week and yesterday we had the opportunity to shoot for Nazzy Nazari (gown designer from Newport Beach) at the Montage resort in Laguna Beach. I was seriously in heaven because we not only had beautiful models and dresses, but we had beautiful weather. Not that we dont ALWAYS have beautiful weather out here in Cali, but the marriage of the three factors made it sooo fun!

I think I have a new addiction because I shot ALL black and white!!
Here are a few images from the shoot....

Meet Rosanna's boyfriend Devin... I think it should be illegal for pretty people to date pretty people...**sheesh**

(ps) the word of the day was....' YUMMMMMMAY!!!'...haha

Mia & Ryan | wedding

My first model gets married! Ryan modeled for me waaaay back in the day before I ever got into wedding photography. So, when he asked me to shoot his wedding, I was more than honored.
Here's one from our very first Rollie film shoot....


I got to travel home for a day to Portland to shoot this wedding and it was so great!!! Ryan and Mia got married at this cute lil' chapel near Oaks Park with a small intimate ceremony :) Here are a few images from the day...

Tryin' out the tilt shift lens!

Played with a New Toy Today!

I played with a new Camera (D2Xs) today at Mike Colòn's.... These are in camera B&W and straight from the camera (no editing) :)
Whaddya Think??

Home.

Instead of Red ruby slippers, they were brown Abercrombie flip-flops but I simply clicked my heels three times and chanted... "there's no place like home, there's no place like home" and the next thing I knew, the plane was preparing to land at the Portland Airport. As I looked out the window,a feeling of peace overwhelmed me... I WAS HOME! :) There is just something so incredibly satisfying about the feeling I get as soon as I walk off onto the sky bridge. I feel as if my face lights up and instantly feel 10 lbs lighter from the stress I left behind in LA.
Once outside, you can't help but take long deep breaths for the air is so crisp and clean. I guess you could compare it to my love for crisp starched shirts... its the same joy!
My flight got in really late last night but I came home to my lovely momma preparing me a bowl of vanilla ice cream topped with blackberries picked earlier that morning....I made my way downstairs and there was my old twin bed with covers already pulled back beckoning me to "come hither" :)
I was too excited to go to bed so my brother and I jumped in his car (I didnt even grab my shoes) and we sped down the Old Evergreen Highway with my arms stretched out the sunroof and feet out the window, I smiled because I felt like a kid again. A quick run through the Burgerville drive through and I was complete...
Even though I am only home for a day, there truly is NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

English Now Magazine

Last year I did a photoshoot for an upcoming musician named Rebekah White. She has recently been touring as management on the Fergie tour and has even opened for her a few times. Needless to say this girl is doing great things! A few months ago I got an email from her saying some of my images were published along with an article in a magazine out of France that centers around what's HOT now. I got my copy in the mail today and was excited!! :)
Luckily the interview was in both english and french...otherwise I wouldn't know WHAT they said! haha ;)

All is Well

We now return to our regularly scheduled program...

After being down for 24 hours, the server is alive and kickin'!
To all the clients who emailed me, your slideshows are now back online... :)
Thanks for everyone's patience during the hiccup!

[ps] Can I just say I have the most awesome designer/hoster? He takes such good care of me when things go awry!

Deborah & Caleb | wedding

I was so stinkin' excited to shoot Deborah & Caleb's wedding. I had been looking forward to this for a few weeks now and the day finally arrived! Caleb and I attended college together and I always told him he reminded me of Chris Carrabba from Dashboard Confessional ... ( at least in this shot)
... and yes, Caleb is a musician too! Not only are the bride & groom both beautiful but they are both musically talented! ( My favorite type of people!!)
During the ceremony, the pastor mentioned it wasn't fair that two such beautiful people/souls marry each other and not share the wealth with the rest of the world...LOL

Deborah and her family are from Argentina so there was plenty of dancing at the reception... it was soooo fun! PLUS, her wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses were entirely handmade my Deborah's grandmother.

So the marriage of two amazing families began yesterday, here's a glimpse of the day...

Deborah gave Caleb this longboard as a wedding gift...we had fun with it! :)

and the slideshow.... ***CLICK HERE***

Trash the Dress | part 2

Here are a few more images from our Trash the dress shoot last week. Ken and Cindy have only been married three weeks and they were the first couple I met. Cindy's adorable smile and cute personality made me stake my claim on this couple early on!
Here is a screen shot from the video posted at the Orange County Register of Ken jumping over Cindy. I made the poor guy do it like 5 times!

Thanks for being so fun guys!