Ahlia

 It is such a great honor to take Senior Portraits. The moment you are capturing is so unique, a phase in some one's life where they are going from being a child to being an adult, and Ahlia is doing tremendously in the transition. She is already making wise choices and is confident in who she is. We had lots of fun as we captured her well, beauty of course, but also her sweet spirit, her joy and her creativity.

Thank you for such a wonderful shoot Ahlia! You are an amazing girl and I can't wait to see what lies in store for you!

My Photography Bucket List

It seems like everyone now a days has a bucket list. I actually have 3! One is my true bucket list (things I wan't to do before I die), one is my "Things I want to do before I move out of LA" bucket list and the third is my "Things I want to do with my photography before I die" bucket list and for all I know before anyone has even read this post I may have a fourth. I just love them, they help me think through what I really want and give me dreams that I can make into reality. It makes me feel like I'm actually going somewhere and accomplishing something when I get to cross something off the list. If you don't have one I would highly encourage you to make one and start acting upon them! So here is my photography bucket list, oh and P.S. if you can help me with any of these and would like to do so feel free to let me know. You can always contact me at beautyheldcaptive@gmail.com or if you know me personally then you can just tell me. So here it is in no particular order:

1. Photograph 5 Major cities at night
2. Make cards with my photographs and use them when I write notes to my friends.
3. Document friends out on the field and the people they are with.
4. Photograph a field with fire flies
5. Photograph the aurora borealis
6. Participate/Lead an event for charity using my photography or by taking portraits
7. Make sure that every middle class and lower, high school student can afford amazing senior portraits if they truly want them (will take trades)
8. Have every one of my FB friends at one time or another use a picture I have taken as their profile pic
9. Do family portraits of my own family, all together.
10. Take atleast one picture that goes completely viral (because it's a great shot of course)

I can't wait to start crossing these off my list and adding new things as I dream of them! My 1st item on the list is 1\5 complete thanks to the photograph below of Paris.

Little Friends

I love making new friends! This past week I was able to make three very cute friends, big sister Elizabeth and twin brothers Brody and Dylan. They were such a pleasure to photograph. We had a great time taking pictures in the park in absolutely perfect weather.

You guys were awesome! Thank you so much for giving me the honor of photographing these fabulous children!!

Mexico

Did you know that not everyone in Mexico speaks spanish??? I found this out three years ago when I was able to visit baja for the first time. This year I was able to return and spent some time with the mexican, mizteca, and triqui people. Feel free to ask me more about my amazing experiences there through my email or FB page, but for now I am going to concentrate on the beautiful colors of Mexico!

I am a sucker for fabric. I love blankets, scarves, curtains and spools of fabric. It was all I could do to not buy every blanket I would never use. Good thing my husband was there! I ended up only buying 1. But aren't they beautiful?

My family and I are mexican and every once in while we joke about our "mexican showing", basically whenever we do things very unique to our culture, like wanting to paint our house bright blue! I would totally have a house this color if I didn't think the neighbors would start a petition to re-paint it beige. This was my favorite house we visited. It was overlooking a beautiful valley and I loved that it matched the sky.

We were also able to visit the beach and it turns out that even the sand in Mexico shares its love for color. The beach was speckled with greens, reds, and blues and the sand was a mixture of white, black, and specks of gold. It was wonderful.

I had a fabulous time in Mexico. The only thing more beautiful then the colors where the people. Everywhere we went we met people full of joy and hospitality. I can't wait till I am able to return.