Laguna Beach Family

Montage Laguna Beach is a wonderful destination for a professional photo session because it provides beautiful scenery and an atmosphere that is made for relaxation and rejuvenation. It just might become the place you go when you need to recharge your batteries. Your session will have a rich variety of backdrops to choose from as we meander along the coastal bluff and then descend onto the white sands below.

Annual family portraits preserve precious moments that remind you how quickly your children grow up. This ocean landscape is the perfect setting to play and create artistic portraits while doing so. Here are a few favorites from a recent session with a sweet family of three who traveled from Utah specifically to update their family photos at this Mama’s favorite ocean view! Enjoy! xoxo

Huntington Beach Newborn Session

I am so excited to be sharing this Huntington Beach California at-home newborn session on Christmas Day. What is more precious than the gift of life? And the innocence and divinity of a a newborn baby? This session was especially meaningful to me on a personal level because the beautiful momma and I are the same age— This is her first and only baby. A miracle that was hard fought for and granted. The fact that she had a successful pregnancy and birth renewed my hope in becoming a mother. It was an honor to be a part of this sacred experience— documenting this special time in this family’s life.

At home newborn sessions are truly unique. They provide a laid back, cozy and quiet atmosphere for a meaningful photo session without the stress of trying to get everyone out of the house. Whether we take photos in your forever dream home or your right now home, your space is special. It’s bound to be filled with many milestones and memories of your baby’s life. And what better reason to capture beautiful images that will always remind you of this moment in time? You don’t need a large, perfectly manicured home and yard to have a home session. The following images were shot in a single room. If you’ve been considering having photos done at home and have questions, message me. I’d love to collaborate with you! I give thanks for those who have already trusted me to document their lives! Merry Christmas to you all! xoxo

Social Media Content Shoot Long Beach Arts District

There are so many good things I could say about about The Reverend Doctor, a singer, songwriter, producer, and activist who hales from Iowa, but has made a home in Los Angeles as he continues to evolve in his music career. He’s not in it for fame. It is about fulfilling a higher calling for him. In his own words: “Reverend Doctor is an uplifting and defiantly positive soul pop act which aims to connect people and build community through music...” He uses his artistic gifts and benevolence for humanity to heal the world one show at a time. If you are in Orange County on July 6th he will be opening for The Rembrandts at the OC Parks Summer Concert Series. I invite you to go and experience the magic of his music for yourself! I’ll see you there! (More show info here.) For the latest updates and links to music, videos, and social media created by the Reverend click here. These are some of my favorites from this session!

Long Beach Senior Portraits

Lets applaud all the high school and college seniors who finished out their academic journeys at home, on zoom, in the midst of a global pandemic! Most high school seniors graduating this year missed their homecoming and winter formals, sporting events, spring break festivities, camaraderie with friends, and extracurricular activities they previously engaged in and loved.

These two amazing young ladies decided to make the best of their situation, stayed positive, and completed all the requirements to graduate and gain admission into the colleges of their choice! To celebrate, they got to do a senior photo session! (A BIG thank you for choosing me to be your photographer!!) We had a blast roaming around El Dorado Regional Park! 

Wishing them all the best in the next exciting chapter of their lives!! xoxo

Montage Family Session

Despite the roller coaster that 2020 has been, there have been many beautiful moments. Reconnecting with returning clients who have become friends, is always a highlight! I’m so thankful for the Case family! Please enjoy my favorites from their Laguna Beach family session. Please stay safe and well! And let’s plan to shoot together in 2021! xoxo

Laguna Beach Family Session

This Laguna Beach family session embodies many thoughts and emotions. First, this session was in honor of the long journey Mark and Traci have been on regarding their health. Mark has been suffering from Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for several years now and both of them underwent gastric bypass surgery last year. The fact that Mark was able to stand for more than a minute or two, in broad daylight, let alone participate in this photoshoot was a literal miracle! You can hear him tell part of his story by clicking here. He talks about how undergoing gastric bypass surgery allowed him to lose 190 lbs in less than a year and has helped alleviate some of his (IIH) symptoms. 

The timing of our session was also miraculous! California beaches had been shut down for months because of Covid-19. They had reopened briefly, but were closing again for 4th of July. With the possibility of all of us having been exposed to the virus weeks before our initial session date, we tentatively rescheduled. (Mark and Traci are from Utah and extended their stay in SoCal to accommodate.) After confirming we were Covid-free and setting a new shoot day, the day before beaches were to close for the holiday weekend, our paths aligned and we were able to make beautiful pictures together! I’m so thankful this session came to pass! 😉

Newport Beach Family Session

It’s a pretty great feeling to have clients hire you again to make pretty pictures with them! This Newport Beach family session was my second time working with Rob and Emily, as I had the privilege of photographing their wedding in 2016. We had a ton of fun! I send my gratitude to them and all the families and individuals I have the honor of working with (including those who work as my assistants)! Thank you so much for supporting and appreciating my art! Much LOVE! XOXO!!

Los Angeles Maternity Session

Southern California was having a heatwave the day we ventured out for this maternity session! ‘Ave wore the perfect summery dress, and she and Quincey handled the afternoon like pros! It was so much fun working with this sweet couple and I look forward to the arrival of baby girl Kennedy! Please enjoy these highlights from our session! xoxo

Vogue all the waaaaay! #calvinklein

Cerritos Newborn Session

Can there be anything sweeter than bringing a healthy baby into the world and holding that child in your arms?? This Cerritos newborn session was a true celebration of life! Good things do come to those who ask… and wait! Baby Dean was a trooper the day of our shoot and Lindsay and Mike are taking on first-time parenting like pros! Please enjoy these highlights! xoxo

San Pedro Maternity Session

There is a story behind every photograph. This San Pedro maternity session is no exception. When I first met Claudia as fellow Grad students at CSULB, she was grieving the deaths of her firstborn child and father. I was in the throes of my dad’s battle with cancer. Our experiences brought us together and we were able to be a source of strength and comfort to each other.

The shoes above were bought for their first son Sebastian.

You can imagine the joy I felt to learn, two years later, that Claudia was expecting another baby, Santiago! We rejoiced together and this session was truly a time of celebration!

Love this next one!!! Erik’s expression is priceless! I truly love getting to create moments and memories like these!!

Congratulations Claudia and Erik on the new addition to your family! You have been through so much together and are still smiling! Your strength is inspiring! Looking forward to meeting baby Santi!!

San Pedro Engagement Session

This San Pedro engagement session will forever hold a special place in my heart; not only because these are my brother’s engagement photos, but they were taken just two days after our father passed away. I had considered rescheduling this session, but felt our dad would want us to keep our plans and enjoy the day. 

In addition to the emotional charge of the circumstances, this was also a mentoring session for off-camera flash. I had the opportunity, (thanks to Eve Rox Photography), to teach one of the sweetest photographers, Bora Chan; you can find her beautiful work here. 

We courageously fought domineering gusts of wind and the chill of the fading afternoon sun and captured some beautiful images as a result! I am excited for Justin and Tiare’s wedding in September! 

If you are a natural light photographer looking to develop your flash technique and skills, lets connect! I would love to teach you what I know! You can get in touch with me through the “Contact” link above! xoxo

Family Portraits Seal Beach

Another fabulous family portrait session in Seal Beach! I absolutely love working with this family! My first photoshoot with Angel was back in 2012 when I was honored to do her graduation photos. Now she is a beautiful mama to two gorgeous boys and she and her hubby make such a wonderful couple! I love documenting their family as they grow! Please enjoy some of my faves from this session! Much love! xoxo

Venice Family Session

What a lovely way to end 2018, photographing one of my favorite families in the famous Venice canals neighborhood. Once again the rain had poured the week before, but we were given clear blue skies the day of our session. Whether this year has brought you rain or shine, may it serve as a springboard for a brilliant year to come filled with clarity, warmth, and love! Much gratitude to my Creator, family, clients, and friends. You fill my life with purpose and inspire me to keep moving forward. The best is yet to come! Cheers! xoxo

Long Beach Sweet Sixteen Celebration

It was a gorgeous October evening in Long Beach a day after rain had cleansed the earth and sky. Alex looked like an absolute princess surrounded by friends and family as they celebrated her sixteenth birthday. What made this occasion all the sweeter for me was that I was this young lady’s preschool teacher. Being able to reunite with her and her wonderful family, and witness what a beautiful woman Alex is becoming, was truly an honor! Here are some of the highlights! xoxo

Stay Gold! <3

Cerritos Portrait Session &Fine Art Editing

Ask any photographer and they will likely say that the most time-consuming part of photography is the editing process. Of course there are gorgeous presets that offer some one-click fixes, however, presets only make general adjustments to things like tone, contrast, and saturation. I always find that there are certain adjustments I want to make that require intentional and specific choices, ones that a computer would never be able to intuit on its own. At least not yet. 😉

So let me take you through my process; one that I call fine-art editing. It is part of what you invest in when you hire me you create your portraits. And I feel it makes a world of difference.

In this image you will see that Aly’s face is in shadow. I want her face to be there area of focus. In order for that to happen it needs to be brighter. First I selected her face, arm, and hands and brought up the level of “light” using a curves layer. Next I smoothed out skin tones and added a touch of color to her lips. I noticed that there were a few bright highlights on her hair which I found a little distracting so I darkened them. My eye kept getting caught on the space between the two metallic phone booths so I pulled a different view of a single booth from another image and “masked” it in. (This all happened in Photoshop CC). I removed the marks/spots from the metallic booth and took out that tiny speck to the left of the prism reflection (the rainbow curve on the left side of the image). I smoothed out her dress. Finally, I brought the saturation up just a bit on the reds, decreased the yellows, and brought up the overall brightness of the image.

And voila!

In this next image you can see that Aly’s face and hands are a bit overexposed. The first adjustment I usually make to an image is in relationship to exposure. I do this by adding a “curves” layer which adjusts the brightness of the area you select. When I felt I had an even skin tone, I moved on to smoothing the skin. I usually take several versions of the same image in case eyes are closed or squinting– that way I have options to work with. Aly’s left eye was out of focus in the primary image I was working with so I brought in a left eye from another image that was in focus. (Sounds kinda funny doesn’t it?) During the session I had adjusted Aly’s hair giving it a bit more volume in one image in this series. I brought her hair into the primary image that had the expression I liked best. I added eyeliner. Finally, I removed background distractions including really bright highlights, dimming them down, and filling in the top left corner with flowers.

Here is the final edit:

This last image was a slightly more complex process because I used three images to create the final edit. In this first image I liked the way Aly’s right arm was covered by the curtain. I also liked that I could see more of her dress at the bottom of the frame and more of the curtain to her left because I was standing further away from her for this shot. I used this image as my base. (You will notice the big yellow circles in the center– I had been experimenting with twinkle lights and two of them are very prominent here.)

I pulled Aly’s face and dress from this image as Aly’s face was mostly free from harsh highlights which were in abundance because she was standing right next to french doors.

Sometimes I reframe an image if I feel the subject is too far to one side and I feel centering the subject would look best. I centered Aly by creating parts of the curtain that weren’t there to begin with. I used the cloning tool to do this after making a copy of the image and shrinking the size of the top image so Aly had more space surrounding her. Imagine two identical images stacked on top of each other and then shrinking the upper image down so you can see the borders of the image underneath it. Aly now appeared to be centered and smaller within the frame. I merged the two images together, created extra curtains to cover up the border of the bottom image and then went to work evening skin tone, smoothing skin, removing harsh highlights on her dress, and giving her a touch of lip color and eyeliner. I then brightened selective areas of the image…. Light, airy flow!

I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about my editing process and that it helps to give you added understanding to the value of the work photographers do after they’ve taken your photos! xoxo

Echo Park Family Session

Creating these family portraits in Echo Park was so much fun! This stylish young couple have the sweetest baby girl who was full of smiles and giggles throughout the entire session! We had a great view of the DTLA skyline and the weather was perfect. Such a great shoot! xoxo

Next time you schedule a portrait session for your family, why not use it as an excuse to update your headshots for your business profile or website?

Lighting Workshop Arts District dtla

I hosted my first off-camera flash Lighting Workshop (1.0) this summer. The following are images created during the practical application (2nd half) of the workshop. According to the attendees, the only thing they would have changed about the overall experience would be to include ice cream. (Loved that! :D)

If you are a photographer who has been wanting to learn off-camera flash, or is struggling to figure out how to evolve your approach to low-light situations, I am now offering 1 on 1 mentoring sessions and a bi-annual workshop. If you are interested in attending or scheduling a mentoring session, please email me at: daltiercreates@gmail.com

The next workshop is slated for January 2018! Stay tuned for announcements and more info! Thank you to all who helped bring this wonderful event together! xoxo

Los Angeles Wedding and Quiet Canyon Reception

This beautiful L.A. June Wedding was brimming with tender moments; misty eyes, warm embraces, and heartfelt sentiments. Two favorite moments came when the speeches were given at the reception. The groom, a non-Spanish speaker, prepared a message in Spanish, the bride’s native language. I caught a few words, but the bride’s expression spoke volumes! So much LOVE! The brother of the bride also spoke and shared that the only tears the groom has caused are tears of joy! I am so happy for this sweet couple and so grateful I got to be a part of their special day! xoxo

Many thanks to the amazing team who helped bring this wedding to life…

Venue:  The Quiet Canon Event Center

Makeup and Hair: @la.petite.artiste

Florist: La Mirada Florals

Floral Backdrop: @bloomindream

DJ: David Real @  www.dizzleit.com

Palos Verdes Portrait Session

Palos Verdes served as a gorgeous afternoon backdrop for this SoCal portrait session with the vivacious and beautiful Wren Barnes. The dramatic California coastline and salty sea breeze carried us from one lush setting to the next. Between acting, traveling, consulting, and some big film projects in the works, Wren is truly taking the world head-on and making her dreams happen! It was a pleasure creating these images with her. Thanks for reaching out to me on Instagram Wren! xoxo

Griffith Park Engagement Session

It’s true that the best sunsets follow the rain. This Griffith Park engagement session started off with stormy skies and some serious drizzle. We were pumped to adventure out in the inclement weather, but I have to say that I was grateful when the sun burst through the clouds and the sky “caught fire”. Seriously the best sunset on a shoot yet! And so glad we got to catch it with this sweet, laid back couple. Looking forward to their wedding in June!