“You are made in the image of what you desire.”
I think that's probably why people that love each other tend to look alike. Don't you think?! They blend with one another and have the same twinkle in their eyes and warmth in their mile wide smile... Wes and Ana are that couple. The couple that gives you butterflies and gets you excited for love and life.
I don't often blow horns, but when its deserved, I feel like its my duty too :) For those of you that don't know Matei, he is one of my best friends. We also work together a lot and so we get to spend a lot of time together. Usually in the car. In LA traffic. Sometimes, in airports travelling to or from fabulous destinations. Whatever the case, fact is...He is awesome. He is an amazing photographer. This Vogue (OMG!!!Vogue!!!) feature just goes to show exactly that. He deserves it. He works super hard. He also sweats like nobody else and its because what he does is emotionally and physically draining. As a wedding photographer you work like a maniac for a lot of hours. You can't stop. There is no 15 minute break in the middle of it just because you are tired. Or because its literally 110 degrees outside and you didn't get to have a drop of water in what feels like ages.
For Jessel and Pavits wedding I had the pleasure of tagging along as his second shooter. It was an adventure! It was challenging in ways I didn't and couldn't foresee at the time.
It was a day in October. I stayed up waaaay past my bed time to get to my overnight flight. I kissed my than 1 year old sleeping baby and had no idea that that hole in my heart will linger for the whole week. I forgot my equipment bag in a crowded Starbucks in the Dallas airport and almost had a heart attack about an hour later when I figured it out. I made really good friends with about 1000 Mexican mosquitoes. (I apparently had something no other had)
Jessel and Pavit were just the greatest hosts and such a beautiful couple!
The whole experience was a dream!
Please click on this link and admire the pictures. Sweat, mosquito bite tears and maybe one or two Margaritas went into the making ;)
http://www.vogue.com/13418245/jessel-taank-pavit-singh-randhawa-wedding-miami
Here is what Matei had to say and some more pictures of the fabulous affair:
http://www.mateihorvathblog.com/weddings/playa-del-carmen-indian-wedding-featured-on-vogue/
...of anything. I have been fantasizing a lot about other places, other spaces. The world is an amazing, beautiful place. It simply asks to be explored. Lately it feels like such a waste of life, living in a large city, crammed up with no space to breathe, no space to let your mind wonder.
They say West coast is the chill coast. But is it? Life moves at an alarming speed here. The daily "hustle" and "goal chasing" is exhausting.( Please stop talking about it... :))
Whenever I imagine where I would like to live, the first thing that comes to mind, now that Enso is around, is him running wild on an open field somewhere, picking rocks and sticks and playing in a cold water stream. Walking with him on a dirt road somewhere and enjoying a nice soft breeze. Second thing that pops into my head is where I would like to drink my morning coffee. I picture the large windows, breakfast nook, morning sun shining through on hardwood floors. I crave the calm and quiet. I dream of it every day- the simple comfort that comes from being amidst beauty... I think our happy places say a lot about us and those we have around. About how we relax. I also think that the things I might take for granted as I write this, are not in other places. And I know that if we ever move away from LA, I will miss it dearly. I will most likely miss the amazing food and beautiful cultures intertwining in the every day. ( Mexican food is so sad everywhere else. I m not sure if I will ever cope with the lack of it.) But I miss the beauty in the everyday more. I don't want to drive around for it for hours. I want it outside my front door.
What is your happy place? I would love to get a conversation started- a conversation about the simple things, the sometimes forgotten but oh so important things in life...
Idena :)
“We can experience nothing but the present moment, live in no other second of time, and to understand this is as close as we can get to eternal life.”
Have you been to White Cove Beach in San Pedro?! No?! You should. Its amazing.
Amazing in the fact that there is plenty of parking and the water is still and shallow. Its quiet. Either not a lot of people know about it yet or it's far away enough where nobody wants to commit to the long drive there. It has been on my "have to go to" list for a long time ( its a loooong list and I feel like I might not have enough lives to cover all the ground listed in there...).
When Asma contacted me for a photo shoot and mentioned the beach as a possible place to get together and play, San Pedro made top of the list for that weekend.
In all honesty, I could have done a better job scheduling this shoot. Between the make up and picking an outfit, I had about 15min to shoot before the sun went away. Deceiving little one... You feel like there is enough time, but really, when you are taking pictures in that beautiful creamy gold light, you feel the burn. The light is just right for about 5 seconds. Erika did a great job putting on the make up as fast as humanly possible ( thank you!). While she was doing that, I was pretty much sending mental sun salutations to all the Gods and the Sun himself, hoping to prolong that fabulous light. I wasn't able to. The Sun was hiding behind the ocean at first slow and at the end, it felt like it just dropped in the water from a million miles away. No warning.
The close up portraits you see here I took in near darkness--- With this opportunity I would like to extend thanks to my camera for not letting me down and performing like a champ... Also, Caroline for holding that pocket flashlight like a true professional :)
There is a certain rush that comes with overcoming situations like that. It could have been bad. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I knew it the moment I saw that first close up on the back screen of my camera. The golden light, the beautiful sunset, the water, nothing even mattered. I had the shot. It wasn't what I thought I went there to do, it was better. It was true to me and my soul. I appreciate the light filled, ethereal pictures I see from other photographers. I can take them but for some reason, as soon as they hit my computer screen they feel wrong. They make me feel like an impostor.
I love how this set turned out. Its dark, heavy and gritty.
Press play :)
““I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again…””
These two amazing humans are my favorites in the whole wide world. I don't know what I would do without them… (most likely take a nap). They brighten my day even when I can't imagine my day brighter. They are my everything...
Press play, life is better with a soundtrack
““He stepped down, trying not to look long at her, as if she were the sun, yet he saw her, like the sun, even without looking.””
Another year gone and done with. Time is moving by so freakin’ fast lately. I would give anything to make it slow down. I have been trying lately to really slow myself down once in a while. To not care as much about the dishes in the sink and crap piling up everywhere. Its hard. Its hard work to let your mind rest. I have about 1 million thoughts a second. There is so much I want to do and at the same time do absolutely nothing. This coming year, I want to be more careful with my words, especially with criticism. I want to listen to what I m going to say with intention, with kindness. And I want to be more understanding. And I could also be more generous with my time and with myself while I am at it!
Some other goals for 2016: print my photos, stay up to date with editing (I am currently 2 years behind on personal projects and that freaks my over controlling self out), do more storytelling sessions and improve my skill. I would also love to travel more and see this amazing planet we call home.
Cheers to a year of learning and growing!
Idena
