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Angela ~ Moorpark Teen Photographer

Meet Angela, a lovely young lady that I had the pleasure of photographing last week.  Angela is on the high school swim team and she tells me that she wants to be a teacher after she graduates high school.  In her own words, “I love that I am lucky enough to be surrounded by great people in my life.  I am a Christian and follow JESUS!  My favorite color is purple and blue, my favorite song changes but right now it’s “Live like we’re dying” by Kris Alen, and my favorite movie is Inception. I always dreamed of visiting Hungary in Europe because it’s where our family came from.  And I can’t just pick one bff. And i really love horses as u already know.”

We walked up and down High Street in Moorpark and found lots of cool spots for us to shoot. Thanks for a fun photo session Angela!  I know you will succeed in all that you set out to accomplish!

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Happy Leap Day 2012

‎”Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path of joy.” -Sarah Ban Breathnach.
I’m realizing that it’s really the little things that count… take for instance my one-on-one time with Tristan this past weekend. Grandma came to stay with us for the weekend so I took the opportunity to take my two boys out for their own one-on-one time with Mom. Tristan and I went to the laundromat and while we were waiting for the clothes to dry, we went behind the building and took some photos. [Side note: Please tell me I'm not the only one who conveniently keeps a bag of clothes in the car in case we come upon a great location LOL!] Afterwards, we went to the book store and browsed around for a while. My point is this…. the time that we spent quietly going about our business was precious. We played 20 questions and we had a chance to reconnect, just Tristan and I. I highly recommend giving it a try with your own kids. Happy Leap Day to you… I hope you find joy in whatever you are doing today.

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Beautiful Family ~ Oxnard Family Beach Session

I have been blessed with the most wonderful friends in my life. Take this beautiful family for instance. Tami and I met a few years ago when our boys were taking swim lessons at the local high school. Before we started chatting and becoming friendly, I remember thinking that she had such a sweet and radiant personality, great style and a beautiful smile. Today, I’m thankful to be able to call Tami one of my closest friends, a trusted confidant and an all-around thoughtful person. She is a dedicated mother and wife, devoted friend, a hard working tutor… oh, and the creative and brilliant mind behind Bombshell Kitten, an etsy shop featuring Old Hollywood glamour inspired vintage lingerie.  Tami came up with the idea for Bombshell Kitten not too long ago and has been slowly but surely building up quite a loyal following for her beautiful slips and lingerie.  Please stop by Bombshell Kitten and check out her beautiful pieces.  Posted here are a few of my favorite images from our family session back in the fall.  Love you guys!!

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Personal Post

My oh my has it been hard for me to stay on top of my blog… I’m sure some of you readers out there know this but many of you may not. 2011 was a tough year for me personally and it has been extremely difficult to give the right kind of attention to my beloved photography business. After 9 years of marriage, two beautiful children and lots of ups and downs, my husband and I have decided to call it quits. I’m from the school of “gaman shinasai” which is Japanese for “preservere” or “don’t give up”. I heard this all my life from my Mom: “Toki, gaman shinasai!” which pretty much meant don’t complain, don’t cause trouble, don’t whatever it was and me saying, “buuut Moooooommmm!!!” (whine, whine as kids and teenagers do LOL).

However, enough is enough and I finally found the courage to make a change that needed to be made for a long time. Most of last year was spent making changes to my address, the boys’ school, establishing ourselves in our new community and it kept me very, very busy. Then the holidays rolled around and I was stunned. Shocked by all of the changes that happened so quickly and feeling heartbroken for what was happening, ridden with guilt for the sorrow that my boys were feeling about the divorce.

But the human spirit is amazing… and having loving friends and family around is priceless! Somehow, I am healing from the hurts and learning from my mistakes and desiring to move onward. Some days are better than others but I’m taking it day by day. In the midst of all of this, my babies have been my primary focus and everything else has taken a backseat. I am so happy to see them doing well in school and making new friends. We stay busy with activities and playdates, trying to maintain a sense of normalcy. They are sweet, loving, smart, spirited kids and we’ve managed to quietly adjust to all of the changes. No doubt there will be plenty of difficult moments ahead but I know that we will be okay in the long run. I’m doing best to get myself situated in my personal life but having a hard time balancing my business life… I’ll be honest in saying that I’ve been disappointed with my lack of drive and enthusiasm for my love of photography. But I have faith and trust that my passion will return so stick with me people!!!!

By the way, my Mom now says to me, “Toki, life is too short to ‘gaman’… I now realize that you need to do whatever it takes to be happy, healthy and productive!” I love hearing my 72 year old Mom saying that to me now. Pretty cool!

My sweethearts turned 8 on January 29th and I wanted to do a little session to commemorate their birthday. So we found this awesome spot down an alley in Hollywood and had a fun little photo shoot. They are growing up so darn fast!! I love them SO much and they inspire me to do my best every day. I am so very blessed with all of the love that I receive from my children, my family, my friends… I love you all!

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Awesome Trio ~ Moorpark Family Photographer

It was my pleasure to photograph these siblings at one of my favorite local spots. I first met their Mom several years ago when I joined the Simi Valley mothers of twins club. By the way, if you are a mom or dad to twins (or triplets!!) and live in Simi Valley, you will want to check out the club. They were a great resource during those first challenging years of being a new mom to not one but two babies! I met so many wonderful families, many of whom are now my friends. Anyways, Mom asked me to photograph her kids for holiday cards and while the session was short and sweet (I think we shot for 20 minutes), we still managed to get some wonderful shots. It’s not too hard when the kids are good sports and beautiful to boot.

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A Family I Heart | Thousand Oaks Family Photographer

I heart this family…. they are so down-to-earth, cool and fun! Mom has a fantastic sense of style and is crazy creative, plus she is so sweet, beautiful and kind. She’s a great cook and is always baking something healthy and delicious for her family. Dad is an uber talented and successful DP (director of photography – check out his website) and he’s an all-around nice guy who gets everything on the “honey-do list” done. The kiddos are a joy to be around and as you can see, they are extremely comfortable in front of the camera. Overall, such a terrific family and I do heart them so. Thank you guys for a fun family session… the location you guys picked out was fantastic and I hope you are off to a great new year. xoxo

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My Favorite Family ~ Los Angeles Family Photographer

I love, love, love this family…. SO MUCH!!  I’ve photographed these little kids since they were in their mama’s belly.  I’ve recently realized that one of the reasons why I pursue family photography as a profession is the joy that I feel when I get to be a part of your family’s growth and I so enjoy the task of documenting the various stages of your life… from pregnancy to birth to the 1st year milestone and so on.  It is a tremendous privilege and I cannot thank each and every one of my families for trusting me to be the lucky one chosen to document these momentous life events.  It is truly a delight for me to look back and reflect on one of my favorite sessions of 2011 and certainly one of my most favorite familes ever.  Just look at these cuties at 2 years old…. … and one year old… … a couple of weeks old…
… and in ther mama’s belly!

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2012 Is Here!

Happy New Year to all of my friends out there!  I hope you are off to a good start as we dive into 2012.  I have a million thoughts running around in my head that I’d like to share with you and at some point, I’ll sit down and write it down… but for now, I’d love to share with you a few sessions that I never had a chance to post, beginning with Miss Ava.  I have photographed this precious girl once or twice a year since she was 4 years old and I always enjoy hanging out with her.  Here she is…. looking so grown-up and ever so beautiful.

And here is a cute shot of Chase with Ava… it had been a couple of years since they last saw each other and yet they took to each other immediately.  I probably shouldn’t say this but Chase cried when we were saying our good-byes….

 

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Product Review ~ Flourish Actions & Presets by NicoleV

Nicole Van is the brilliant mind behind Flourish, an emporium for photographers. I  regularly use many of her actions including the Urban & Texture set and the Color Pop set. Her actions are easy to adjust so once you run the action, you can go back and tweak each layer to your liking. I also use her BW & Vintage presets for Photoshop quite a bit. It takes only seconds to adjust each image where it would probably take a good 20 minutes to do manually. Not only do I save time, I absolutely love the look of these presets! I could keep talking… or how about I let the images do the talking instead…

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NicoleV Workshop Giveaway

The extraordinary Nicole Van is giving away one free workshop! If you haven’t heard of her, you must visit her WEBSITE and then go HERE to find out more about the giveaway. Good luck to you and me both! Here is a gorgeous image created by Nicole Van… her images are just dreamy…

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