Family Photography Los Angeles Elysian Park is always a great place to photograph family sessions. There are so many wide open spaces and children especially love all of the different sounds from parties, cars driving by and dogs running through the park with their owners. During a recent family session I even got the family to lay in the grass, as you can see, the 10-month-old especially loved it!

Family Photography Los AngelesChildren and Family Photographer Naheed Choudhry photographs in her studio in Echo Park and outdoor sessions at Elysian Park Here I captured some good times with the baby and his papa. It took them awhile to warm up but once they got started we had a great time photographing warm moments they can look back on and really cherish.

Family Photography Los AngelesChildren and Family Photographer Naheed Choudhry photographs in her studio in Echo Park and outdoor sessions at Elysian Park We started out the photo session at my studio and had a blast trying to get this little guy to laugh as much as possible. Just imagine three grown adults acting like buffoons trying to entertain a ten-month-old, that was us!

Kaunis Skin Care Product photographed in Los Angeles by Naheed Choudhry. Today I photographed some product photography for a skin care product called Kaunis, which means beautiful in Finnish. We wanted to go for a very clean look so kept it simple and my client wanted the photos to be bright so I definitely overexposed slightly. These shots were all taken in my studio in Los Angeles.

Kaunis Skin Care Product photographed in Los Angeles by Naheed Choudhry. Kaunis Skin Care Product photographed in Los Angeles by Naheed Choudhry. The product is laid on top of the face and then sits there for a few minutes while it works its magic. It is not a perfectly smooth mask so we didn't go overboard with the Photoshop to make it look perfect.

Kaunis Skin Care Product photographed in Los Angeles by Naheed Choudhry. Kaunis comes in packs of six in a pretty pouch which is in an even prettier box with black ribbon. Actress, model and owner, Anna Easteden has the product available on the website shopkaunis.com. The mask is vegan and doesn't have any fragrances or preservatives.

This past weekend we made the trek from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara to visit a relative that recently moved there. We left Los Angeles around 5 PM and had such a great ride watching the sun go down and kiss all of the sweeping vistas as we drove by. I was shooting through the window and captured this shot of some beautiful vineyards with a mountain range behind. I love driving through California! I love how you can find so many different landscapes in such a short drive.

This past weekend I photographed the wedding of Jasmine and Bradley in Pasadena. It was fun and relaxed with a special guest, Raleigh, Jasmine's dog! Above he enters with a cute little lady as the guests react to his fast pace.

The bride warned me they hate posing for photos, exactly what I like to hear ;) It was a hot day in Pasadena and we only had about 20 minutes for posed photos before the ceremony but we made the best of it. I really loved their old time flair. If we would have had time I think some old architectural backdrops would be perfect.

After the ceremony the bride gave her bouquet to the longest married couple in attendance. They ended up being married for 61 years and the bride asked her for any advice she had for the newlywed couple. Below the couple dances with two cuties toward the end of the reception.

This past few weeks have been a great adventure in visual art for me as DP for a film about the Latino Artist Collective Asco. Since I got my Canon 5D Mark iii I have been delving back into the realm of video, after taking a long break. Oh how the time flies! Capturing video again has me reflecting back on my roots in cinema study classes and as a college aged documentary film maker.  Myself and the director have traveled throughout Los Angeles, from Echo Park to LACMA, to film Asco members and critics. It has been great to get to know the artists and create art telling their story. The portrait above is of Asco member "Gronk". His paintings surround him in his loft in downtown LA. It was literally shot in the dark so has some grain but I like this raw approach to portray Gronk, his style and painting are anything but glitzy. The Asco film will be shown during a retrospective of the art collective at The Nottingham Contemporary Museum in England.

You can learn more about the exhibit at:

http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/art/asco

I recently did a cupcake photo shoot for Cake Shop LA and had such a great time. I got to work all day with the cake master Anna Thane and Jesse Linn to create some fantastic imagery. I did all of the styling and shooting myself but Anna and Jesse were there to make sure they got exactly what they wanted. I love when my clients can be with me on food and product photo sessions because there is no mystery as to whether it is perfect. This was a difficult shot to come up with because we wanted to show the full cupcake but also wanted to show what was inside the cupcake in an artful way. We tried quite a few setups and then I finally came up with this, I'm so happy I did. Doesn't this make you want to devour the cupcake!?

They have lots of unique flavors and also some classics. Pictured below is: Chocolate peanut butter, Lemon Lime, Almond Espresso and Chocolate with blueberry/raspberry filling. Pictured above is a Vegan Chocolate Orange Cupcake with lots of delicious flavor. (The photos have yet to be retouched so please forgive me!

I photographed an engagement portrait session at The Los Angeles Arboretum last week and it was a soulful enriching experience. It was my first time photographing there and I was not prepared for its spectacular beauty! Amidst waterfalls, the San Gabriel Mountains and Kyoto style bamboo fields are large green meadows and huge forests where the sun trickles through in so many beautiful ways.

I was hired to shoot Rose and Alex's wedding photos next April and they opted for a package with a wedding engagement session. They wanted a special location for their engagement photos and booked the Arboretum. They had never been to there either. There was another commercial photo shoot going on at the same time and we had about two hours of light left in the day so time was of the essence. The Arboretum provided a driver for the photo shoot who was very nice and super helpful. She carted us around since the Arboretum is so huge, 127 acres according to their website! I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday evening.

On my last trip to NYC after I photographed a wedding I headed to Union Square to meet up with some friends. When I arrived I was so happy to get one of the best break dancing shows I have seen in a long time! I ended up photographing the dancers with no flash using my 5D Mark iii and 16-35mm f2.8 lens, I am very pleased with the results! (far from perfect, a bit grainy, but still, no flash!)

I created a slideshow of the images and edited it to The Four Tops, "I'll Be There". Here's to having a blast photographing dance movement sans flash in the dark, and to my hometown, Motown!