A New Look

Howdy Everyone!

Please come find me and my new look at http://www.laurennygard.com!

Love,
Lauren's Blog

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La Jolla DOUBLE Wedding

Yes, you read that correctly! Earlier this month, Stephanie Zyga invited me to photograph a very special wedding with her on the beach in La Jolla, CA. She had been contacted by a beautiful bride, Christina, who had met her fiance, Brooks, while they were both at the Naval Academy. As the conversation continued, Stephanie learned that Brooks' sister, Shannon, was also going to be married to her fiance, Robert, at the same time!

The day started at a rental house near Sunset Cliffs, where all three families stayed and got ready together. It was a relaxing morning and you could just feel the love among everyone there!

Brooks and Robert made some mighty delicious mimosas to start the morning off right! Here's Christina enjoying one while Shannon had her hair done.

While Christina was getting her hair and makeup done, Shannon relaxed in the kitchen with a good book.

I love that Brooks was able to watch on as Christina prepped for her wedding day. Check out the smile on his face!

Brooks and Shannon's mom created programs for the guests.

That morning, a skywriter was above to deliver a message: "WE <3 U!" How appropriate!

Christina and Shannon carried gorgeous bouquets!

It's not everyday that a photographer is able to capture TWO sets of wedding rings together!

Robert and Brooks's moms watched as Christina's mother zipped up her dress.

We headed to Scripps Park early in the afternoon to capture portraits of the couples and their guests.

Isn't Shannon just glowing??

Christina was feeling adventurous and hopped up on this rock. Brooks followed suit, so we asked Shannon and Robert to step in too!

 

It was a small, peaceful ceremony on the beach at Scripps Park, followed by an intimate dinner at George's at the Cove. As you can see in the following set of images, the wedding drew quite a crowd!

  

Thanks again to the lovely brides and grooms for allowing me to be a part of their very special day! Congratulations to them and their wonderful families!

Happy Spring, everyone!

xoxo,
Lauren

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Oceanside Beach Just for Fun Session: Sonnia

Stephanie Zyga and I headed back out for a little sunset-time practice last night. I invited my awesome (and gorgeous!) friend Sonnia, who you saw with her amazing family here. This time, we headed to the water at Camp Pendleton's Del Mar Beach.

We were a little strapped for time, so we were moving fairly quickly through the handful of techniques we wanted to practice. We started off shooting with just natural light. The marine layer was headed in already, so the sun wasn't beating down on us. Here you can see that we faced Sonnia towards the sun as it was setting.

This one is still natural light only, but I blew out the sky because I was shooting towards the sun (and converted to black and white in Lightroom).

Then we added a nice, gold reflector to the mix. Yummy!

And finished up with some flash! :)

Now wasn't that fun?!?

Thanks to Sonnia for putting up with us (again)! She's the best! (No, really--she is--she brought me lunch today at work! How sweet is that?!) And it's always awesome to get some Stephanie in my day. :) See y'all soon!

xoxo,
Lauren

p.s. If you love me here, please "like" my business on Facebook! Thanks!! :)

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La Jolla Just for Fun Shoot - Kayla

Is there really any better way to spend the afternoon of a rather unfortunate day than grabbing a couple of friends, heading to the beach, and shooting away? I didn't think so.

I was so happy when my good friend Stephanie Zyga invited me to practice some shots at the scene of a wedding we're shooting together this Saturday! She brought along her friend Kayla, and, well, take a look at what I got! It was so much fun!

It's hard to shoot when you're hungry, so we started off with lunch at one of my favorite spots, Burger Lounge, before heading to Scripps Park to get to work. Here are Stephanie and Kayla in action!

And my take from the side:

Another one of Stephanie at work!

And what I got:

Practicing a ring shot... a.k.a. a reason to throw my engagement ring in the sand. Don't tell the mister! ;)

 So gorgeous!

And simply stunning...

Thanks, you two, for an amazingly fun afternoon!
Happy March, everyone!

xoxo,
Lauren

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Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to take a minute to wish all of you a very happy Valentine's Day! Even though my hubby is out in the field this week, he sent me this gorgeous bouquet! Isn't that awesome?!

And here's a shot of some cupcakes I made to take to a friend's house on Friday. They were a new recipe that I don't think I'll be using again. ;)

Have a great week!

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San Diego Shooting Group - La Jolla Engagement - Cori and Lamont

On Friday, the San Diego Shooting Group had our first shoot of the year! We're a small group that will be getting together every so often to have fun while practicing our craft. If you are a photographer and would like to join our next shoot, please head over to our Facebook page to join the group!

This time, we had a great turn out! A fabulous engaged couple, Cori and Lamont, met up with us at the Burger Lounge in La Jolla, where we caught them enjoying a delicious milkshake. We then walked around several surrounding blocks and took turns posing and photographing the two of them, before heading back to Burger Lounge for a well-deserved dinner!

Here are a few shots of the group with Cori and Lamont.

The following are a handful of the images I captured of the lovebirds! These two met twelve years ago while attending UCLA and remained friends for years before they started dating! Both studied Sociology at UCLA but later decided to follow different career paths: Lamont is now a writer while Cori does interior and graphic design. She's actually the force behind the awesome design and inspiration blog, Pretty Haute Mess! Lamont and Cori joke that creative couples have more fun, and I definitely agree with them!

Isn't Cori gorgeous? And how about that ring?! It is a vintage ring that belonged to her grandmother, Pearl, with whom Cori was very close. I don't think it gets any sweeter than that... ;)

For the next few shots, Stephen Knuth set up one of Shari Barnes' speedlights to create dramatic lighting. She was kind enough to let all of us use the set up to grab some shots! The following image shows the great thing about knowing how to set up off-camera lighting. I used the available sunlight to create the image on the left, and the image on the right was taken using the speedlight that Stephen had set up. As you can see, Cori and Lamont didn't change their pose at all--in fact, they didn't move a bit! The only differences are (1) the introduction of one speedlight off camera to the left and (2) my location. What's so great about this, you ask? I was able to come away with two very different images with zero changes from the couple. Cool, right?!?!

The following is my new favorite shot to set up! It's one speedlight (I use a SB-600) triggered wirelessly from the camera. In this case, I was using the Nikon CLS system because other photographers were able to fire the flash as well. This set up requires a light stand, preferably one that's voice-activated. Thankfully for us, Stephanie Zyga and Stephen were kind enough to be our stands. :)

 

A big THANK YOU goes out to Cori and Lamont for coming down and letting us shoot you! By the way, did I mention what a trooper Lamont was?? He had just had surgery on the Monday before the shoot, so he was on crutches the day! He would move to where we wanted to pose the two of them, then one of us would grab his crutches, we'd shoot, and then give them back. :) I can't thank them enough for spending their Friday afternoon and evening with the group!

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