When Alwyn & Alvin contacted me about an engagement session, they immediately started a fun dialogue about props. They really wanted the session to be vibrant and dynamic, colorful and sweet, and to most of all, show their personalities. We tossed around a few ideas and in one email, Alwyn suggested water balloons and a bat. Upon reading her suggestion, I did a little happy dance in my seat, and then started brainstorming other ways we could incorporate exploding balloons of awesomeness. On the morning before the session, I bought a sweet pink umbrella from Target (how I got out of Target without buying 571 other things is entirely beyond me), and as you’ll see below, it made for some fun photos {before it met its end at the hands of one especially overzealous water balloon}.

Alwyn & Alvin were SUCH troopers, not minding one bit that they were basically drenched by the end of the session – in fact they happily forged ahead into the second half of the session, where we skipped over to Chinatown for a romantic night shoot. Stay tuned!

I’m a wee bit envious of Mai & John who live in the heart of downtown LA. Everytime I pass through downtown there is a new amazing restaurant, collection of lofts for sale, wine bar, line of shops – it would be quite dreamy to live in an airy loft near Little Tokyo, being just a few steps away from ramen, or fancy schmancy hot dogs, & tons of perfect cafes. The next best thing though, of course, is to shoot there :)

I love the arts district and Mai & John worked it so well! We found lots of great spots before heading to Union Station to finish up. Such a fun afternoon – so excited for their wedding come July!

P.S. This has never happened before, but we randomly bumped into 3 (3!) photographers that we knew during this session – Serena, Dave, & my sister. We bumped into the last one first, and as I was chatting with Mai & John, explaining, “yeah, the arts district is really popular for photoshoots”, Scott goes “um, I think that’s your sister.” Crazy!

There are a million and one reasons why I so love and endorse engagement sessions, but the top 4 must go something like this: (1) you get to show the world who you are, (2) in your favorite personalized locations, (3) in your unique “you” clothes, (4) with your best friend and most favorite person in the world (usually your fiance, but I don’t mind if you give me that title too :). And what Nina and Erick showed, lovingly and wholeheartedly, is that they’re Laughers. They laughed from the second I pulled out my camera, as we were chatting in between shots, whenever they caught one another making a silly face – and I would be telling a bold-faced lie if I didn’t say that I LOVED every minute of it (and that it was horribly infectious).

I really adore all the kinds of expressions that seem to come up in a shoot – the serene shots, the sweet smiles, even a more serious moment or two, but my favorites are always the ones with the big, honest laughs. The kinds that remind you of why you’re doing this whole marriage thing in the first place… because who doesn’t want to spend the rest of their life with the one who makes you giggle until your sides hurt & milk comes out of your nose? (The latter didn’t happen on the shoot, but it’s totally happened to me umpteen times, usually with painful things like juice and maybe soup.)

We met up with Nina & Erick in downtown LA, starting off at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, making a detour through the tall fountains of the music center, and ending by MOCA. Thank you Nina & Erick for an afternoon filled with laughter and love!

I love this sculpture in front of MOCA. Totally reminds me of something out of a Studio Ghibli movie.