What a wonderful celebration of my littlest nephew Sunday. He was so excited for his First Communion he told his mom the night before, "Tomorrow is going to be the best day of my life!" After a beautiful ceremony with many friends and family in the front row, we returned to my brother's house for a BBQ.

Later that night I asked my cuddly nephew, "Was this the best day of your life?" And he said, "One of them!"

Old-fashioned Kid Fun

I stopped off at my brother's house on the way back from vacation and had an opportunity to spend time with my nephews. My sister-in-law is one of the best moms on earth and I think her kids exemplify this. It seemed like a hot summer day yesterday when they created this game of water bottle rockets to cool off.

Here's a couple pix of my older nephew. Tomorrow look for some cute pictures of my youngest nephew as he experiences his 1st Communion--what a cutie-pie!

Mimi is 80

Can you believe this beautiful lady is EIGHTY years old? Her granddaughter Heather is getting married in May and instead of a private engagement session she wanted to celebrate her Grandmother Mimi's birthday with a family session.
Heather and Mike are getting married in Sonoma in May and it's going to be a really fun weekend. I'm looking forward to the karoeke night since I am the 80s Queen of music!
Hannah is Heather's niece and will be the flowergirl. She's been practicing very hard on how to be a princess, which is very tough to do when you are only two years old.
I've known this family for about 25 years thru my Aunt Lisa, Heather's mom is one of Aunt Lisa's dearest friends and Heather's brother Brendan (Hannah's dad) is my cousin Greg's best friend. Aunt Lisa has a beautiful backyard and I often end up photographing here when I'm in San Diego.

Wedding Pix, Whale Pix and Big Love to Grandma

Here are the photos I promised in my first blog. As you can see, Melissa is absolutely gorgeous and Kevin is thrilled with his catch. Then you will see me and the bridesmaids reacting to their joy :) We had a blast at Mel and Kevin's wedding!

Although my photo biz is wedding photography, I do photograph many other things that catch my eye.

I've attached a few aerials from a recent helicopter ride in Newport Beach; a beach abstract, a stranded fishing boat and three whales migrating up the coast right off the pier!

We have been trying to get my Grandma online so we can keep in touch with her better. Our family gave her a computer for Christmas when she lived in California with my late Grandfather Bohn--he seemed to enjoy the digital age more than she did. But with Aunt Peggy visiting Grandma, I thought I'd try to lure Grandma into checking the computer more often with this blog. Grandma--a belated Happy Birthday and big hugs from California!

Kendra Weddings

Welcome to my new blog! I have been keeping in touch with my bride and grooms via email and with an increasing number of weddings, I decided to start a blog.
I've had some great weddings in the past couple years since starting my photography business, but I have to say the Melissa Cesena & Kevin Strobel wedding last weekend was one of my favorites. This couple was simply amazing--absolutely glowing with joy and love! Throughout the day many of the guests and my photo/video staff had a hard time keeping our eyes dry.
The wedding party was a total blast from Kirk (best man), Ramon (best friend), EJ (fantastic dancer), Howard (Carolina's husband) and Christian, (the junior groomsman with an incredibly touching speech), to Veronica and Carolina the co-maids-of-honor. Melissa had an expert MAC beauty expert with bridesmaid Ronnie. Rounding out the party was Michelle (junior bridesmaid) who looked like a Tiffany doll, and our champ Esmeralda who was incredibly sick the entire weekend but muscled up some REAL smiles for our photo field trip to the park.
I had absolutely no idea that I was going to the Dancing with the Stars wedding--boy, can this crew DANCE! Of course, I always have to put my fisheye lens on and get up close to the dancing---sometimes (OK, most weddings) I have to blend in with the crowd and dance a little so I can get some great action shots... The music was so fantastic, my dancing shoes took off --Kevin grabbed my camera from me and before I knew it, I was doing a little salsa with E.J. (the bride's brother).
I'm usually the last one to leave with my assistant Greg, but since so many guests stayed at the Ayres Hotel and Suites, we only departed when the music shut down. The ceremony was in this darling courtyard which has a European Villa feel to it. Because we were so close to the airport, there was an occasional plane flying overhead during the ceremony--but it made the ceremony even more special--the pastor would pause, the bride, groom, and guests would all laugh, the plane would fly by, and then the pastor would continue.
I will post pictures soon!