Here is a very cute, fun engagement shoot I did for my friend Autumn and her fiance, Chas! We went to Downtown L.A. and had a little fun around the FIDM Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising campus and park. Rain was in the forecast so I brought an umbrella, but luckily we missed a downpour and just used it as a prop. Since both Autumn and Chas are performers, they are really great in front of the camera. Makes my job easier! A big “Thank You” to Adrienne Trewolla for doing the beautiful makeup on this shoot.

Enjoy the Slideshow

So who doesn’t like cupcakes?

They are everywhere! But here is something cool and new to put around your cupcakes!

Dress My Cupcake makes these gorgeous little wrappers in a wide variety of styles and colors so that your cupcakes can look fashionable as well as yummy. They are perfect for weddings, as you can get any shade in the rainbow to match your color scheme. The wrappers are easy to use, they just fit around a cupcake that is already made and in its bakery paper.

So much prettier than what you usually get!

Thank you to Dress My Cupcake for sending me some wrappers, and a BIG thank you to Andrea at SUPERFINE BAKERY in Studio City, CA for making me some cupcakes to shoot!

People in this business talk a lot about giving back to various causes, and charity projects always seem to find me! Our school and parish has a big Fall Festival, and some of the top items that go into the silent auction are projects done by each of the grades in the school.
So I got a request from the 4th grade room mom to help her out with the 4th grade project. And since they had a pretty good concept, I thought it would be fun to do. We took individual photos of each of the 4th graders (and thank goodness they were all there that day), and their teacher, Mrs. Hurlbut, and put them into a “Brady Bunch” looking grid. Greg Barnett designed the project, even approximating the “Brady Bunch” type face, and taking color cues from the shirts the kids where wearing.

Then we sent the file off to Costco for a canvas print to be made. Costco did a great job, getting the canvas back to us quickly and looking really good. The project got a few hundred dollars at the auction, with that money going back to the school. I was happy that we did a great job, which always makes us look good. And of course it helped out the school, also good!

Well, what IS new? School is back in session, Mom back in the studio. Festival at St. B’s, done. 4th grade project for Festival, done. Now we get ready for Halloween. And Miss C has been ready for Halloween since February! Finally got her costume ordered (Classic Alice in Wonderland), got the invites out for the Halloween party, and starting to plan that. Menu, cocktails, decorations have got to get done! We are making cute party favors out of toilet paper rolls (hey, we saw it in Martha Stewart, so it has to be good)!

Also… got approval from the Daddy Man that Miss C can have a KITTEN! So she is very excited about that. Actually, if anyone in the L.A. area does have a kitten available, we would be interested. But just one please, Mommy does have allergies (achoo)!

Getting ready for the Holiday Portrait season as well. You know that the earlier you get this done the earlier you can get your holiday cards made, so call us. Right now, a $350.00 portrait session is $275.00 if booked before December 1st, 2010. That should still give you enough time to get cards ordered for the holidays. Come on, when was the last time you had a great family portrait? And I can do some individual shots as well, so that you have a good pic for Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Networking lunch today up at the Woodland Hills Country Club. Always a nice place to spend some time! Have a great week!

I love going to get my hair done! Who doesn’t? But what make it really great is that I get to hang out with a great hairdresser, Micheal John! He is really the best around, and just a cool person to spend time with. I’ve known him about 10 years, so when we get together we always have a lot to talk about: families, work, politics, and celebrity gossip! And hair too, of course. This is the after photo from my most recent visit with him. His color is perfect, and if you are in need of a great hairdo for a wedding or a big event, he does the best styling around.  I was going to be really brave and show the before shots, but I don’t need to scare people off. Lets just say it didn’t look as good as this.

Michael John and me after my hair cut and color *yay*

Michael John Derricott
MJ Hair Salon
310.659.8877
912 north la cienega boulevard
suite c
west hollywood, california 90069

Barnett Lifestyles in buzzworthy events Los Angeles Magazine

I alway think its cool when you see your work get published. I was just reading our copy of Los Angeles Magazine and noticed that our friend Ian Blackburn’s Learn About Wine‘s event Stars of Cabernet was mentioned in Buzz Worthy events and said to myself “Hey! thats our shot, and we have a photo credit too”. It was a wonderful event, and I always love being a part of something special that people enjoy and help a good charity like the T.J Martell Foundation.

Here is our Flickr gallery of the whole event. We are wine makers too and loved chatting with so many great makers of wine. Good times! Enjoy.

Last night I went to a Pictage User Group meeting (PUG-silly) and got to meet the wonderful Joe Buissink! What a charming man, and a great photographer. To say he’s probably one of the top 10 wedding shooters in the world is no exaggeration. He has the kind of career many of us envy, with many celebrity weddings to his credit. But he is about a lot more than just weddings.

He showed us images from a book he is doing called “Autism Heros“, which is about families living with autism.

Mr. Buissink has two autistic boys of his own, and to say that this project is close to his heart is an understatement-it IS his heart. The images were beautiful and moving. You could see his passion for this project as well as his own devotion to his children. His desire and need to give something back was very inspiring.

It was also interesting to me how doing something other than just weddings keeps the fire burning to keep on doing weddings. No one want to get stuck in a rut with any project, and weddings can be repetitive. By doing something totally different, you come back to your work with a fresh eye. And that is what every bride and groom wants, a photographer with a fresh perspective.

So thank you for an enjoyable evening, Pictage and Mr. Buissink. Hope to do it again soon.