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Del Sur Portrait Session
Jonathan and Lisa

There’s just something about five years. Life is comfortable at this point in a marriage – or at least familiar. The newlywed years are slowly fading into clothes on the floor, dishes in the sink, and kisses by the fire. Date nights have become cuddling in bed with a movie and ice cream, locking the world outside with the well worn comforter from your registry. This is when the real stuff starts to happen. As in the really good stuff. Jonathan and Lisa will be celebrating their five year anniversary this year, and my favorite thing about photographing couples that are…

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Rancho Santa Fe Portraits
Cory and Jackie

They met over coffee. Not a sit-down-over-a-cup-of-joe sort of thing. No, it was much more romantic than that. Cory was the cutie behind the coffee counter, the soulful coffee shop owner with deep blue eyes and an artists heart toward coffee making. And he just so happened to own the coffee shop where Jackie met with her college group. So it was over bags of rich roasted beans and the whir of the espresso machine that they met eyes. He showed her how to make the perfect cup of delicious, flavorful coffee, and she taught him how to laugh. He…

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San Diego Portrait Session
Jesse and Rena

Rena’s laughter is the full kind. The kind that takes her entire body to produce. When she laughs, it moves everything around her, like when the breeze blows through the branches of a tree and the whole thing sways. We sway with Rena. Jesse’s strength is the soft kind. The kind that allows a girl like Rena to move him with her sheer delight. He’s the branches to her breeze, the leaves to her sunshine. He drinks it up. But when she needs a deep breath, a shelter from all that life throws their way, she finds rest in his arms….

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San Francisco Portraits
Josh, Kate and Beckett

She calls herself the CFO and VP of Life and House Development at Casa de Masthammer. She’s a bundle of sugar wrapped up in J.Crew strolling through Sausalito with an iced latte from Starbucks, her two husky pups, and a laptop for blogging. He’s a producer, a lover of online gaming, and the humblest guy that’s on his way to the top. Seriously. The stories he tells with the most unassuming manner… And now, there’s been an addition to Team Masthammer. He loves to smile, he hardly ever cries, and his deep baby belly laughs could melt Everest in January….

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Philadelphia 1:1 Mentor Session
Ashley, Ryan, and Liz

Sheesh – if this cuteness doesn’t end soon, Jeff and I may up and move to Philadelphia cuz we are now three for three on drop dead fabulous sessions! First, we had Mike and Sarah’s melt-my-heart-romantic country club wedding. Then came Pepa and Isabel’s crazy gorgeous and classic engagement session at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. And now we have Ryan and Liz – a couple that is so melt-your-face adorable that I feel like crowning them as the official King and Queen of Adorableland. While we were in Philly for our four days of marathon shoots, we were able…

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Oceanside Newborn Portraits
Brianne, Chris, & Beckett

I can’t begin to fathom the amount of love a child is born into. Jeff and I have been watching our past couples and life friends have babies over the past three years or so. Couples that nine months prior were in the same duo state as us – just two people in love making their way through life. And then they become three. But that number three is so much more than just a third of the whole. It’s everything. To both of them. The complete and total loss of self into an uncontrollable flood of adoration for a…

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Del Mar Newborn Portraits
Jesse, Bethany, & Kensington

There’s something so peaceful about walking into a home with it’s first newborn. After all of the anticipation, the showers, the gifts, the painting, the decorating, the washing, and the prep – the little bundle of joy has arrived. And if we shoot a newborn session (which is not very often – couples are our specialty), we like to shoot within the first week, so the new parents have literally just become parents. They don’t know who their little person is or will become. They’re just figuring out how to change a diaper, they’re getting spit up in their hair,…

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Lake Tahoe Portrait Session
Dean and Tiffany

They met on a motorcycle ride in Lake Tahoe, and flirted over pizza later that afternoon. His peaceful nature and soulful eyes drew her to him (not to mention he was super cute) so this free-spirited girl revved up her dynamite smile and plopped down across from him at the pizza joint. Soon enough, this thoughtful Reno boy and outgoing Texas girl were married. We met over midnight beignets in New Orleans. Tiffany and Dean sat down across from us with a stack of beignets as we were plowing through our own plate of pastry goodness, and through the cloud…

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Cardiff-by-the-Sea Maternity Session
Danica

Once you’re a Youngren couple, you’re always a Youngren couple. We photographed Chris and Danica’s wedding back in 2008, and three years later their duo is transforming into a soon-to-be-trio. Danica is one of those girls that exudes glamour, grace, and confident beauty, so when she contacted me for maternity photos, I just couldn’t turn her gorgeous self down. She wanted a session by herself to surprise her husband, and it was such a fun time photographing just this beautiful girl and her perfect belly bump. Danica brought along the perfect outfits for the shoot. I’ve fallen in love with…

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