Orange County Photography Archives

I love transformation

I think I am slightly obsessed with transformation! I love watching television shows with my family about all types of transformation. Our new favorite is The Deed on CNBC. Not only does Sidney Torres transform old beautiful houses in New Orleans into fabulous new home, but he also helps transform the people who need his help by teaching them to become better real estate developers. My obsession doesn’t stop with real estate, although I do love anything on home design, I also love shows that transform food or even transform people. Another favorite is, The Profit, because I love how Marcus Lemonis transforms business people and helps them become profitable.

For me, March has been transformation month! My wonderful husband volunteered to help transform my Laguna Beach studio into the studio of my dreams. He converted my loft space, which was primarily being used to dump old studio props, into a full on shooting wardrobe space that my clients will be able to use to create the photography session of their dreams. He also utilized the space to build a work station for our fine art printing. It looks amazing and I am so excited to have it fully functional.

He didn’t stop at the loft. We have all new lighting, a new professional hair and makeup station, several new gallery walls and he fixed all of the Ikea furniture that I put together to make it now fully functional (I have to admit, the drawers didn’t work on anything). The cherry on the cake was definitely the new blue roll up door and front door, perfect not only because it is blue, but also because we can now use it as a new shooting area.

March is also transformation month, because we are doing our Mother Daughter makeover special complete with wardrobe, hair and makeup. Here is a sneak peak at the new blue door with the gorgeous Gill kiddos who can now say they were the very first family to shoot on the blue roll up door. Enjoy. More beautiful images of the studio to come, once it has been completed!

Family Photography, Fashion, Orange County Photography, Portrait Photography, Studio photo session

Exist in Photographs

Do you have an excuse about why you keep putting off getting portraits of yourself and your family? Are you waiting to look perfect, have the perfect body, skin, hair, etc.? While you continue to put it off for one more year, your family is missing out on beautiful images of YOU!

That is what exist in photographs is all about. I absolutely understand that there is a lot of work that goes into planning a photography session. Sometimes it seems like it just isn’t meant to be, but believe me it is. Take me for example. My busiest time of year is October and November. I work an average of 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the middle of all that craziness, is my own family that needs portraits for the year. For me, I need to find one of my friends that is a photographer, and also really busy, to agree to take a few images of the whole family together. I can handle the portraits of my kids and my kids with my husband, but I feel like it is really important for me to also get into the portrait every year. I don’t want my kids to look back in 10, 20, or 30 years from now and say, “where was my Mom”. Or, “my Mom was always behind the camera, and looks like she was never around according to pictures”.

I want to make it easy for you to say yes to a portrait session this year by doing the follow:

Having a hair and makeup artist available for you to look and feel your very best.
By having a shooting wardrobe, that I can mix and match with your own clothing to take the hassle out of planning for the outfits for your session.
Creating a fun environment for you and your family where everyone feels comfortable and is actually having fun.
By guiding your posing to make you look your very best. I can take off at least 10 pounds with good posing!
By using photoshop to finish your portrait and make your best just a little better.
And finally, by inviting you to our studio a week after your session for a personal reveal of our top images from the session. These images will be fine art prints, fully retouched, mounted and matted ready to take home that day. All of the prints also include the digital file of the edited image. In addition, we will walk you through the rest of our beautiful portrait products to help design wall art and other keepsakes.

Do you have someone you love that you want to capture forever in portraits? Take advantage of our makeover special this month. For more details, email us at kristin@blueskysstudio.com. Have a beautiful weekend and enjoy this unbelievably beautiful mother and daughter duo!

Orange County Photography, Wedding Photography

Two Weddings, Three Families & A Senior

Some weeks I look back and can’t believe how lucky I am to have such amazing clients in my life and such diversity in my work! Really, this week we photographed two stunning weddings, three gorgeous families and one High School Senior. To me it was a perfect week! My personality is one where I love constant change, I get bored easily with work when I am not challenged. That is one of the reasons I am so passionate about photography. I am constantly learning and meeting new people and getting to be involved in new photography projects.

Still, portrait photography is my passion. I love any type of photography that involves documenting people and telling their story. I was so incredible blessed to be able to tell the story of Aaron and Kylie’s wedding day. These two amazing, enthusiastic and gorgeous people made the day so fun… it just flew by. I started the day with Kylie and all of her beautiful friends at Laguna Cliffs Marriott in Dana Point. It was a perfect spot to get all the girls together and get hair and makeup done. We followed this up by jetting to Kylie’s parents house to photograph the guys. Dad was an amazing Art Director and had all the scenic spots picked out to shoot before I even arrived. Believe it or not, the entire Groom’s session took about 20 minutes. Seriously John…. if you need another job, you are hired!

Finally on the the stunning Serra Plaza to work with LVL Events who did an absolutely amazing job creating a romantic, beautiful environment for ceremony. From the beginning to the end of our coverage of this event, what I can say stood out most for me was how much everyone loved each other and just really wanted to have a great evening. The only tears were tears of joy! Thank you to both families for letting me be a part of your day. Enjoy the sneak peak of just a few of our favorite images from the evening:

Thank you to all of the wonderful people who created such a magical day!

Coordination: @lvlweddings, @arielleeazoff

Venue: @serraplaza

Caterer: @jayscatering

Florals: @latulipefloraldesigns

DJ: @djdrewpierce

Photography: @blueskysstudio

Cake: @itsallaboutthecake

Chairs & Dancefloor: @chiavarichairrentals

Family Photography, Orange County Photography

Behind the scenes for a Blue Sky’s Family Photography Session!

Check out this amazing video, done by the very talented Connor Brashier! It is time to book your holiday shoot! Hurry, we were completely booked by the beginning of November last year!

Engagement Photography, Orange County Photography

Laguna Beach Engagement: Jessika and Pete

Some people you just meet them one time and you know you have a connection. Somehow you feel that they are a member of your same tribe. You chat, and laugh, and feel like you have know each other forever. That is how I felt when I sat down with Pete and Jessika to talk about their upcoming wedding at Red Horse Barn in Huntington Beach. They are really low key, and clearly very much in love. As we got to know each other, somehow Chico State came up in the conversation. The weird thing is that we are all alumni. The other weird thing… they are the third wedding in one calendar year where either the bride or the groom was a fellow Chico alumni…. and that just makes things really fun! Fast forward to the day of their engagement session. Since they are having a rustic/ romantic wedding, we decided that the rusty vintage truck at my studio was the perfect starting point. We proceeded to the “love” tree, then on to the open field (“be careful to shuffle your feet to ward off snakes”) and finally to a very blustery beach finale for romantic sunset. I am so excited for their wedding day! Enjoy.