Awhile back I had the pleasure of meeting up with Niki Papadopoulos to shoot some portraits of her for a design advice article in Better Homes and Gardens. Niki and I attended good ol’ Presentation High School together and I was thrilled to get reconnected with this beautiful and extremely talented interior designer from Atlanta! We’ve both come a long way from our Presentation days and it’s so nice to be able to share our talents with one another. Aside from the article in the magazine, Niki spends her days working at Mark Williams Design in Atlanta and just recently started a personal design blog called Yummy Scrumptious! She has an amazing spirit and was such a peach to photograph- despite the rain and Ontario convention center location we most definitely made it work. Thanks to my cousin, Morgan Cox, again and again for the assistance and company that day!

Last weekend I had the utmost pleasure of shooting my friend Kunal Nayyar and the lovely model/actress Allison Paige. Kunal needed some new editorial shots so along with Heather Kincaid and stylist/cousin extroidinaire Morgan Cox I headed out to downtown LA to have some fun. (Morgan was afraid we’d get “caught in a crossfire” … but everything went smoothly ) This post is long so sit back and enjoy- I had so much fun editing these, all these Operation Get Inspired shoots are really doing their job! Also, you might recognize Kunal from The Big Bang Theory on CBS- he plays Koothrappali – watch it- he’s super duper funny as a nerdy scientist. We stuck with a “nerd actor actually CAN get the girl” theme…

We started underneath an overpass- using strobes and 50mm 1.2 and a reflector…

We moved down the street to a bright blue wall…no crossfire yet!

These next two go together perfectly, don’t they? Kunal looks so suave! One reason I just love shooting editorially is that you really get a chance to tell a story with your models. I want to try to start adding some of those ideas to my engagement shoots.

Timmy’s band used to practice at this old warehouse downtown and I remembered there was access to the train tracks overlooking downtown behind it- we got lucky because someone had already ripped a hole in the fence for us. We almost got caught in the crossfire down here but made it out okay.

*maybe* my favorite shot of the day..

beauty shot!

Well! After 5 days of little to no sleep, great classes and inspiring speakers, friend making like crazy, and both eating and drinking a little too much I am happy to be home and working in our little blue office today. I had the opportunity to hear so many inspiring artists speak about my profession and am so thankful that on a daily basis I love my job! It’s going to be a tough month trying to implement all the things I’ve taken from the convention but in the end it’s experiences like this that make me not only a better photographer but a better business woman and person. I’m not sure there is really any other industry like ours-

Part of what I love about WPPI the most is the lasting friendships I make every year there. It isn’t often that we get out of our little Los Angeles bubble and it is so refreshing to spend time getting to know people from all over who love the same things you do! I happened to be sitting next to Lee Ann Fuller in Jesh De Rox’s super duper inspiring talk about TRUTH,  and she ended up joining us for dinner that night. I am so glad she did because we LOVE her!!! We were hanging out in the room before our 2nd dinner together and Heather caught this beautiful window light- I joined in and we both ended up directing her for about 20 minutes. Love these improptu shoots… enjoy!

  This is my favorite- couldn’t decide between the two. Can you?

Before Christmas my lovely cousin Morgan hired me to do some new shots for her pending new commercial agency. I don’t normally shoot head shots and to be honest get a little nervous when people contact me about them because I know how incredibly picky actors can be and since I don’t have much experience working with agencies I am always afraid they aren’t going to get what they are looking for. But I have just started approaching these shoots just as I would approach a portrait session and so far so good! We sort of pulled this shoot together at the last minute before I left for the holidays, spent a cloudy afternoon hanging around Los Feliz and utilized an empty apartment in our building as a make shift studio for the day. Morgan has such a great sense of style and is always a pleasure to photograph!!! I think she looks like a porcelain doll!

You might remember these little dolls, Lucy and Wilder from this post from what seems like another world. They are such bright, creative little beings- can’t help but get great shots of their adorable little faces! (and of mom and dad too of course!)

We started out inside with some lighting and a wall- I really think the simplicity of these speaks volumes.

Then we headed outside, despite the smoke in the air the lighting was actually really beautifully even.

And some ice cream to ensure the day ended in smiles!