Eriksen Family

I have so much to blog! I was excited to finish this one though. ;-) I had the pleasure of working with the amazingly adorable Eriksen Family at their gorgeous home in Alta Loma.

Jamie also was the coordinator for Ryan & Harmony's wedding - she's a crazy cool mom AND a super talented event planner! Jamie & Arne's three kids were a blast to photograph and even her nephew and niece showed up for the party. It was a great - and very musical - day.

Check out my favs of this amazing family!

~Brienne

Ryan & Harmony's Album!

Ryan and Harmony's album is done and I am SO excited. I said it before, but I'm saying it again - my album designer, Sandra ROCKS!

I was so happy with this shoot and design, I already ordered a sample album for my studion from it. ;-)

To see their album design, *CLICK HERE*.

~B

Hernandez Family

I know I'm way behind on blogging due to the holiday rush, but I'm trying to get caught up. ;-) So if I flood my blog, you'll know why.

Meet the Hernandez Family! They were so awesome to work with and had such beautiful daughters! I love working with people of all ages, but there's something super fun about this giggly stage.

Keep in mind that in this first pictures, I had about 4 people behind me banging on water bottles and making all kinds of strange noises. Which was great because then this little cutie started giggling (in that cute "Monster's Inc." little girl way) and flapping her arms like a little chicken.

Here's some of my other favs from the day. :-)

Harmony & Ryan!!!

I have been looking forward to yesterday's wedding for a LONG time - pretty much since I heard about it, but even more so since I found out I'd be shooting it. ;-)

Ryan is my husbands cousin (you can see some of the resemblance) and Harmony is his BEAUTIFUL wife (yup, you're his WIFE now!). Harmony and I went to college together and were both in the school of Music around the same time (which by default meant that we at least were around each other a few time). Harmony has one of the most amazing voices I've had the pleasure to hear live - it literally knocks your socks off.

Ryan is also a musician and has performed with his band "Sevenstone" for several years. He also composes. In fact, he wrote a song to Harmony in order to propose (which was just way cool and adorable). In continuing with that them, Harmony and Ryan took both traditional vows at their wedding AND sang them to each other in a beautiful song co-written by the two of them. It was so beautiful (have I over-used that word yet?).

In any case, I LOVE how cute, funny, and just plain goofy these two are. It was such as pleasure to shoot their wedding and be a part of their pretty stinkin' awesome day. I put a few of their photos here, but *CLICK HERE* to view their slideshow!

Congrats to the new Bathauer family!

~Brienne

Beverly & Erik

This saturday I had the pleasure of working with Beverly and Erik. They were an adorable couple with total star quality. She's a nurse and he works in the entertainment industry, but they totally reminded me of Nicole Kidman and Christian Slater in his "Robin Hood: Prince of Theives" days (or maybe a young Patrick Swayze).

They had their wedding and reception at the gorgeous Calamigos Ranch in Malibu, CA. It was absolutely beautiful - if a bit cold - and offered such a huge range of picturesque places to shoot, I was actually a little overwhelmed at first. ;-p

These are a few of my favorite shots from the day. Enjoy. :-)

~Brienne

Be Still and Know...

I watched this after posting the previous blog post this morning and it really hit home. It reminds me of one of my favorite verses in the Bible where God says "Be still and know that I am God." I think that's so important. Sometimes, you just have to stop.

Take a look at this Photo Minute by one of my heroes, Dane Sanders.

Enjoy.

Saturday Mornings....

Most people who know me know that I'm not much of a morning person. Ok, so EVERYBODY who knows me knows that. What many people may not know is that I have a little saturday morning ritual. I get up at 6:45am, rain or shine. For reals.

And here's the thing - I actually like it. Not the waking up part or the being super tired part, but I actually like the early morning hours. I love that feeling that I'm up before the world. I love watching the sunrise while drinking my coffee. I love coffee. Coffee Coffee Coffee....

There's something about starting my mornings like this, even if it's only one day a week, that gives me perspective. How do mornings do that, anyway? There's something about it that makes me more optimistic and eager to start my day - like I'm excited in a calm way.

I'm not ready to commit to every morning like this yet, but maybe I'm getting there. Maybe come 2008 I'll commit to one more morning a week like this. Maybe. What are you doing that gets you energized?

Farone family fun

This past week, some good friends of my family - the Farone Family - were out visiting from Louisiana and Oklahoma. It was a blast to get to see all these crazy cats again - especially Nicky (sorry to call you Nicky in public, but I have to differentiate from your dad somehow...) who I hadn't seen since he was like 13. And now he's married. For crying out loud, way to make a girl feel old. (You rock my world though Jackie, don't worry!).

Anyway, while they were out here, I did a headshot session with Nick for some new album covers for his upcoming re-releases (with newly remastered tunes an a new album coming this summer). Anyway, some of those shots are in there, plus some pictures from our visit to Balboa Park in San Diego to see the Dead Sea Scrolls (which was AWESOME by the way - they're here till December 31 so go if you can!).

*CLICK HERE* to view the slideshow. Enjoy!

~Brienne