Annie McElwain Photography

I Love My Life

To sum up my more personal blog post week, I'll end with myself. Lately, I've been feeling a certain sentiment:

Life is AWESOME (in every definition of the word).

{Urban Dictionary}: amazing, heart-stirring, wonderful

{Webster}: causing feelings of great admiration, awe

Overall, I feel happy, healthy and fortunate.

I don't tend to share too many personal details of my life, but I feel it's maybe a bit overdue.  Afterall, I'm allowed to capture some of the most intimate moments in other people's life... Basically, I moved into a new place this winter after finding myself newly single.

I really didn't have any furniture, other than a bed, so it was a fun process to create my own space. After a bit, I grew to absolutely adore my new place. It's a quaint one-bedroom in Venice (with parking).  It's sunny and happy and makes me feel good. It's still not finished (haven't done much with my bedroom yet), but I wanted to share a few images of my new digs...

 

That's my pink surf board peeking into the photo-- it's laying against the wall in my bedroom.


 
I've come to realize that this is an amazing time in my life that will be like no other.  There are all sorts of big changes happening around me-- my friends are getting married, having babies, getting new jobs, new outlooks, new growth-- that I am very appreciative of where I am in my life.

At the same time that I was moving into my new apartment, I also moved into a new office / studio space with the inimitable Bash, Please. 

Here are a few photos captured by the lovely Laure Joilet of what we affectionately call the Workstead, which was featured a few months back in Rue Magazine.

And a few more I snapped the other day...

And, lastly, a photo of the photowall that is in the consult area.  This was a bit of a labor of love for me, going through all sorts of photos I've taken over the years...

Again, it has been such a nice journey and it's a welcome feeling to be inspired by colleagues-- which is so important in being a solopreneur. I learn so much from them on a daily basis.

To sum it all up, my thoughts the past 6 months or so have evolved to:

1. I love my life

2. I'm incredibly fortunate

3. I'm so thankful for my friends and family; afterall life is about relationships. That's all we have at the end of the day.

3. You have to go through a lot wrong in order to know what's right

4. Everything is temporary so enjoy whatever stage I'm in.

I hope that wasn't too cheesy for y'all, but I'm a bit of sap. I shoot weddings and babies for a living in case you forgot.  I have more passion than I know what to do with and although sometimes my sensitivity gets in the way, I wouln't trade it in for anything.

There's the update, thanks for listening.

 

Friends and Weddings, Oh My!

As long as I'm sharing more personal stories on the blog this week, I'd like to share a little about my friend Amanda Schull. She and I have been friends for quite a few years now, back when her only acting credit was Centerstage... (you know you watch it everytime it's on tv...). She has, over these years blossomed into a talented and versatile actress whose IMDB page is now too long to keep up with.

A while back, I took some fun promotional shots for her, when her latest film was coming out...

And recently, she got married! It's not often that I get to attend wedding festivities as a guest-- so I'm truly excited to share a few photos from Amanda + George's rehearsal dinner in Hawaii.  She's originally from Hawaii, so her wedding was less of a destination wedding, and more of a return to her hometown.

Aren't they gorgeous?

George and his dad..

Amanda and her mom...

The venue for the rehearsal dinner is hard to beat.

Everyone at the dinner received a traditional lei.



The Aussie's sang a song called "Waltzing Matilda", which is an unofficial national athem of sorts... whatever it was, it was pretty festive.


The dinner was beautiful and I enjoyed myself thoroughly! While I couldn't attend the wedding that followed (I was already booked for a different wedding), I was honored to be a part of the week-long festivities beforehand.

Congratulations Amanda + George!

Audrey, Meet the World

World, meet Audrey.

On Mother's Day I blogged about my friend Phe's pregnancy. Well, Audrey Catalina has arrived (on May 23rd).

I visited mom and (tiny) baby, under 6 pounds. It's been a while since I've been around newborns and there aren't words to describe them. I could sit and watch Audrey all day...

What I love about these photos is that I feel they are truly of the moment.  We didn't plan a shoot, or wait for her to fall asleep and then set her on a stack of towels.  I mean, those are cute, but these photos aren't about that. They are the real moments that happened 9 days after she was born. Heck, we didn't even do any naked baby shots... though I'm sure those will come in time. 

Phe and Miki, congrats again.  And Audrey, it's so nice to meet you.

 

'Tis the Wedding Season

A potential client asked me the other day if there was a "wedding season".  Even though in California we get nice weather year round, the answer is... YES.

Typically, and I'm assuming for weather and light's sake, wedding season tends to begin in the spring and last through the beginning of fall. 

And we're right in the thick of it. 

But stay tuned!  I have a lot to share, starting next week-- some exciting new things in Annie McElwain Photography, and some big changes in my personal life too. For now, I'd like to share just a few hints of some blog posts to come...

Don't you just love this time of year?