MDGWeddings

{Daphne & Zach} Engagement Session

2011-05-31T21:20:00.001-07:00

Today I had an Engagement Session with Daphne and Zach - a very cute and lovely couple that I've known for a while now. We headed to Franklin Canyon Park for some beautiful photos and here are some of them for you to enjoy!

Congratulations, guys:)

I can't wait to photograph your wedding in October!

Engagement Shootout at Bel Air Bay Club

2011-05-24T00:29:00.000-07:00

Today I had an amazing opportunity to be a part of a Charity Engagement Shootout organized by Jen O'Sullivan. It was absolutely beautiful and I had a chance to meet wonderful couples and vendors. Here are some of my favorite shots from today!

Linda & Megel

Lily & Pablo

Sandi & Jacoby

Miriam & Bryan

Julie & Eric

Incredibly beautiful couples. Congrats to all of you on your engagements!!! Hope to work with you again :)

Vow Renewal: Kevin & Wanda

2011-05-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

On April 23, 2011 Kevin and Wanda renewed their vows at the beautiful Camp Oaks up in Big Bear, where their love story started 7 years ago! Now, 6 years of marriage and 3 beautiful kids later, they spent this day sharing their love and happiness with family and friends.

Baby {Garrett}

2011-02-27T14:22:00.001-08:00

Today little baby Garrett turned one month and celebrated it with a professional photo shoot :) He is very cute and mellow, and I had lots of fun photographing him! Here are my favorites, enjoy!

Happy one month birthday, Garrett!

Baby Hussein-Miguel

2011-02-23T21:53:00.001-08:00

Amazing chubby cheeks baby is back in my photos! I photographed this cutie-guy today and had so much fun :) He was a little Apple farmer boy at the beginning of the shoot, check out this cuteness!

And this blanket is amazing, it was made for Hussein-Miguel by his Grandma!

Adorable baby-boy :D

Baby Lyle

2011-02-20T18:45:00.000-08:00

"Tiny Cowboy" was my little model today. Lyle just might be the happiest baby I've ever met! He is just so chill and relaxed, not to mention always smiling and giggling :) What a cute little boy. Well, actually, he is not all that little! At almost 3 months and 18 lbs, I say he is a pretty big baby with incredible blue eyes and absolutely adorable chubby cheeks!

I had such a blast photographing this handsome guy. Hope you had a great time looking through the photos :) Check back soon for more adorable baby pictures!

Baby Paige

2011-02-12T19:09:00.000-08:00

What a fantastic photo session I had today with little Paige! She is a beautiful girl and her eyes... well, see for yourself! :)

Cheeks!

Thinking... "when will you let me get back to my nap??" :)

Yup! Beautiful day, beautiful girl, beautiful photos!
Makes me happy :D

Baby Juliana {Part 2}

2011-02-11T19:58:00.001-08:00

If you remember my last photo shoot with Juliana, you may have noticed that a little something was missing from our Hawaiian theme. The Hula Skirt! Well, we fixed it :) Check out the cutest hula baby ever!

Little Austin

2011-02-09T21:45:00.000-08:00

Today I photographed my baby's best friend - Austin! He is an amazing kid with incredibly beautiful blue eyes :) So what did I do to him? Put him in a really cute blue bucket! Enjoy these, he is one handsome baby!

Lovely, isn't he? :)

Maternity: Deidre

2011-02-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I had the pleasure of taking some maternity photos of beautiful my sister-in-law, Deidre. Her baby girl is due in just a couple of weeks, so we had to get some belly shots in before she is born! We headed to the park right before sunset to catch some pretty light. Here are the results!

Future Big Sister hugging her future Little Sister :)

After the sun set, we headed home for some indoor shots. I love the way these came out!

All the best to you, Deidre! Hope to meet my niece soon :)

Baby Juliana

2011-02-03T13:18:00.001-08:00

Photographing babies makes me happy! They bring so much joy to everyone around and make all the sadness go away :)
Juliana is a super happy baby. I had so much fun with her - she was smiling the whole time and sharing her good mood with everyone around!

Look at this cutie! Doesn't she just bring a big smile to your face? :)

Enjoying some sun. Grown-up style!

This is the dress she was baptized in, she looks like a little princess!

I'm really happy to be doing these free baby photo sessions! Look forward to catching many more great moments and smiles!

Family Portraits: May, Mike and Nico

2010-12-04T23:35:00.000-08:00

My second photo session of the day was with a wonderful family of three: May, Mike and Nico. Nico was a little cutie, at first she was a little shy and was literally running away from the camera, but after a little while she warmed up to me and gave me a whole lot of beautiful smiles! We had a great time exploring the beauty of Woodley Park all together and hopefully it shows in the photos :)

All your comments are always welcome and appreciated!
Thank you ;)

Family Portraits: Mia & Emerson

2010-12-04T13:43:00.000-08:00

Today I had an incredibly fun little session with my dear photographer-friend Mia Johnstone and her little guy Emerson. Oh, and also with "nine billas!" (balloons) :D Emerson and Mia are so much fun to photograph and just to hang out with. Enjoy the pictures :)

Portraits: Green-Eyed Beauty

2010-11-13T21:24:00.000-08:00

Today I photographed Olga, a beautiful green-eyed brunette. We met up in Santa Monica and we knew just the places that we wanted to go. After our short session I have lots of favorites to share with you!

Wedding: Bob & Kathy

2010-11-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

The wedding that I had the honor to photograph today was absolutely wonderful. Kathy and Bob are an amazing couple who have a whole lot of great friends. There were over 300 guests present at the wedding, and everyone seemed to be as one big happy family - so welcoming, warm and friendly. It was not surprising though, considering how great Bob and Kathy are! It was a very emotional wedding filled with tears of joy, smiles, laughter and lots of hugs.

Meet Kathy and Bob - the incredible couple in love :)

I am so happy and lucky to have met this beautiful couple. Wishing you many years of happy life together!

The Lovely Adams Family

2010-11-04T23:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had the privilege to photograph a very beautiful and fun family - Katie, Guy and little William. It was my first Holiday Session this year, and I have to say, it's off to a wonderful start!

Thank you for a great time!

Walking with my Augustine

2010-11-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

Today Augustine and I took a short walk and I decided to take some Fall photos of him :) He looked adorable! Here are just a few of my favorite shots:

I love my baby.

Alina and I testing out my new camera!

2010-08-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today was the perfect day to test out my new camera, and I had just the perfect model for it! My sister Alina and I have been planning this photo shoot for a while now, and finally got to do it. We went to the Travel Town Museum and here's what we got!

We found a train that matched her dress - so cute :)

A couple of my old cameras served as fun props for this shoot!

I am so lucky to have such a beautiful sister :D

Now this and the next photos are my two absolute favorites from today. You are welcome to pick your own, but I'm just saying... :)

Love the big smile!

Yes, it was a bit difficult running around taking photos a week before my due date, but I did it and it was so worth it! We had lots of fun, and I can't wait for my next shoot with Alina :)

Emerson's 2nd Birthday Party!

2010-08-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

Photographing little kids' Birthday parties is so much fun and I had a wonderful opportunity to have that type of fun yesterday :) One of the most adorable little boys, Emerson, was turning two! The party was at the Travel Museum at Griffith Park and it was a beautiful day for photos! Here are some of them - enjoy!

Emerson, the Birthday Boy!

Mia, Emerson's mom. She is one of the most wonderful and happiest people I know! I'm so glad I met her :)

Look at this cute face! I love his huge eyes :)

Emerson's buddy, Riki.

He wouldn't let go of his balloon, carried it with him everywhere - so cute :)

Getting ready for a train ride!

Don and Emerson

The party was a lot of fun. Look at all the happy faces!

Cake time!

And back to the balloon! Love it :)

Mia is not only a great photographer, but also an amazing model!!! She knows how to work the camera.

Awesome party with an awesome family! Thank you so much for having me photograph this very important day for you :D It was a blast!

Mehak & Salil

2010-08-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure to photograph Mehak and Salil yesterday up at Venice Beach in the Little Venice Park. We all were there for the first time and loved it! I met this beautiful couple back in October at their friends' Kinjal and Anand Engagement Ceremony. Mehak and Salil are getting married in September in India, so these are some pre-wedding photos here :) Take a look and let me know what you think! I love your comments :)

Meet Mehak - the beautiful Bride-to-be!

Salil - very charming Groom-to be

I loved their clothes for the shoot! I always love a lot of colors and this was perfect :)

I'm wishing you guys all the best. Have a beautiful wedding and a beautiful life together!

Mia & Don at Pasadena City Hall

2010-07-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

Today I had my very first shoot in Pasadena! I was very happy to photograph Mia and Don at the City Hall. I met Mia a couple of months ago at the charity engagement shootout in Malibu, she was one of the photographers working there that day. We stayed in touch and recently she asked if I would photograph her with her boyfriend - I was so stoked! It was a huge compliment for me that another photographer wants me to take her photos - amazing :) We met by the City Hall in Pasadena (I have to admit, Mia picked a beautiful place) and started having fun!! Here are some of my favorite photos from today!

Don and Mia are seriously one of the funnest and happiest couples I have ever met! They are so full of love and every time they looked at each other they just couldn't stop smiling - I loved it!!

Cheek to cheek :)

I had an amazing time! Thank you, Mia and Don, for making it so incredibly fun :)

Aimee's Quinceañera

2010-06-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I shot my very first Quinceañera! It was amazing, and I really had a wonderful time. Aimee looked gorgeous and the whole party was a huge success with great music, a lot of dancing, super fun people and yummy food! See it for yourself:

Happy Birthday, Aimee!

Portrait Session: Aimee

2010-06-23T19:56:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I photographed a beautiful young girl who is about to turn 15! I will be taking photos of Aimee's Quinceañera this coming Saturday, and I am really excited about it :) It will be my first time photographing Quinceañera. This was a portrait session before the event so that we could get some fun shots for Aimee. These are the ones I really liked while looking through all of the photos this morning. Enjoy!

San Fernando Mission - it's really beautiful there!

It was kind of difficult getting through all of those rose bushes in her poofy dress, but we made it in and out without any damage to it! Yay :)

Love the shoes!

Ah, it was a lot of fun. I really look forward to this Saturday to take more beautiful photos of Aimee!

Maternity Shoot: Elizabeth & Cory

2010-06-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

(Continuing from last post)

Next up was Elizabeth, a beautiful first-time mommy-to be! She is Valerie's friend and their due dates are only a week apart - how exciting is that :) I was very happy to meet Elizabeth and her husband Cory, and super excited to take some belly photos for them! Here are some that I really like :)

Beauty :)

I love this photo! Her silhouette is just so pretty :)

Super happy mommy and daddy to be! Can't wait to meet the little guy :)

Maternity Shoot: Valerie & Zackery

2010-06-21T20:39:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I had a very exciting maternity shoot in Pismo Beach. I took photos of two beautiful pregnant girls who are just so much fun! First up was Valerie, who I met about three years ago when I was first starting to get into professional photography. I took family photos for her, her husband and their four beautiful girls. Now they are expecting girl number five - baby Bella :) Here are some of my favorite shots from the shoot - enjoy!

Loving daddy :)

Precious belly

"America's next top pregnant model!"

Just another month to go. All the best to you and your little baby-girl! Can't wait to see and photograph her, too :)

Wedding: Chelsie and Scott

2010-06-12T22:44:00.001-07:00

I met Chelsie and Scott back in January when they were starting to plan their wedding and trying to get all the things in order. Today, the big day has come and it was absolutely beautiful! They celebrated this amazing event at the beautiful Hidden Hills home of one of their friends . I had the honor to photograph Scott and Chelsie's wedding and I enjoyed every minute of it! Here are some of my favorite photos from today:

Yes, the place was gorgeous!

Scott and his mom

Maid of honor and the best man

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Silveira!

Chelsie looked so beautiful!

Scott - the happy groom (actually, husband at this point!)

Newlyweds :)

It was an absolutely beautiful wedding.
Congratulations, Chelsie and Scott!!!

Engagement Shootout: May 11, 2010

2010-05-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

Recently I took part in the Charity Engagement Shootout organized by Jen O'Sullivan. It was an amazing event in Malibu, where I met a lot of great wedding vendors and of course some beautiful couples :) Here are a few of my favorite shots from that day:

I had a wonderful time with these couples! They were all so much fun and just full of love for each other. I really hope to work with them some more in the future :)

Bubble bath, anyone?

2010-05-06T13:01:00.000-07:00

I was organizing some of my photos today, and I came across a folder with a bunch of photos of my friend (who's name is also Marina) that I took last summer in Kazakhstan, just a few days before leaving. I never got a chance to edit them back there, and it was great to look through them today and remember a fun afternoon I had with my friend. Here are a few of my favorites!

True story: the apartment we were at belongs to her sister and it's brand new. There was no hot water at the time, but Marina really wanted some "bubble bath" photos... The water in the tub was freezing cold, but somehow she managed to look like she was actually really enjoying sitting in there :)

Good times :)

Maternity: Eva & Luis

2010-04-16T22:42:00.000-07:00

Bzzzz! Today I photographed an amazing couple - Eva and Luis. They're expecting their baby-boy very soon! When I got to their house I had some time while they were getting ready, so I went into the baby room and took some shots :)

Eva drew and then painted these cute bees on the walls herself :) They are adorable!

And this is the light in the room - just like a flower on the ceiling :)

Bee pillow. Our mommy-to-be is very talented!

Beautiful Eva

After taking some photos in the baby room we headed out to the park for more fun!

I had a fantastic day hanging out with my friends! I'm very excited to meet their baby-boy in June :) Thank you guys for being so amazing!

Wedding: Lilly & Matt

2010-04-08T22:58:00.000-07:00

The first Saturday of April was pretty great this year :) I had a chance to assist my friend and fellow-photographer Santiago Valencia (http://santiagovalencia.com) at a beautiful wedding in San Gabriel. The location where the ceremony took place was beautiful. We got there a little early and took some photos before everyone arrived.

Meet Lilly - the Bride!

And the groom - Matt

While Santiago was taking photos of the bride and the girls I was taking photos of the guys! Matt had a great group of friends there and it was a lot of fun shooting with them :)

The setting was absolutely gorgeous. The flowers made everything look amazing :)

Lilly and her dad. She told me he never smiles for the photos, but hey, that looks like a great smile to me :)

One of Lilly's beautiful bridesmaids

The flowers, the music, everything was ready...

One last touch-up before walking down the aisle

Here comes the bride!

What's the matter?

...uh-oh!...
it fit after all :)

I love how happy they look!

Time for some guests shots after the ceremony!

Lilly's mom

The reception was a lot of fun with dancing, toasts, great food and of course the cake cutting!

Yet another awesome wedding. I love my job :)

Wedding: Albert & Becky

2010-03-31T11:48:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday I had a great opportunity to assist Shay Thomason (http://shaythomason.com) at a beautiful wedding in Santa Clarita. As an assistant, I had a lot of fun playing with all the details and it was great to be watching and learning from another photographer again :) Thanks, Shay! Anyway, here are some of my favorite shots from the day.

Becky - the beautiful bride - right before her dad walked her down the aisle

...or shall I say down the stairs? :)

Meet the groom - Albert

After the ceremony the bridal party headed to Bridgeport Park to take some photos

Tables at the restaurant were set up beautifully :)

Very fun day and lots of great memories!

Cara - Maternity Photo Session

2010-03-24T23:11:00.000-07:00

Recently I decided to expand my services to include Maternity Photography. I think it's a beautiful stage of a woman's life that needs to be captured in photos :) So today I was trying out this new area for me, and I really loved it!

I was lucky to start this journey with Cara, who is absolutely beautiful and really fun to be around! We headed to the UCLA campus and, since neither of us had been there before, we explored it together :) It was a great day and I really, really enjoyed it! Here are some of the shots we got:

...baby steps...

Thank you, Cara, for this incredibly fun shoot :) All the best to you and your growing baby-boy!

Senior Portraits

2010-03-13T23:58:00.001-08:00

Today I had one of the most fun classes ever! 5 photographers and 6 models were all working on super fun senior portraits under the guidance of Jen O'Sullivan. It was great and I met a lot of new amazing people :) Not to mention the location was absolutely beautiful - Mentryville Park in Newhall, CA. Here are some of the shots I got!

Chris was my first model. I absolutely fell in love with his hair!! :)

Taryn - gorgeous and so much fun to work with!

Taryn and Olivia - they are super cute.

Beautiful Olivia

I had a blast with Brian! What a fun guy :)

Carly had really beautiful eyes and the biggest collection of bracelets on her wrist - amazing!!

Cari - so sweet and pretty :)

It was getting chilly by the end of the day, and Taryn just looked so cute in Brian's jacket!

It was an amazing day! Thank you to everyone who made it that way :D

"Growing Up Fresh!"

2010-03-12T13:07:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine recently asked me to take some photos for the "Growing Up Fresh" event. "Growing Up Fresh" is one of the "Kids In The Kitchen" events that will be hosted next month by the Junior League of Los Angeles (JLLA) and Meet Each Need with Dignity (MEND) here in the valley. The goal of this event is to help fight childhood obesity by introducing healthy foods to children and their parents. Volunteers from JLLA and MEND will be teaching kids from poverty-level families about the nutrition and healthy lifestyle, and demonstrating to the parents how they can make delicious and affordable meals. One of the places that can be a great source for fresh and inexpensive nutritious foods is your local farmers' market! That was exactly the place we headed to on a beautiful Sunday morning to take some photos of fresh fruits and vegetables!

Here's a post to a healthy lifestyle for all! :)

Yelp.com event in LA!

2010-03-02T16:14:00.000-08:00

On February 24th I had the pleasure to photograph the event for Yelp.com with Santiago Valencia. It was an evening of smiles, great mood, amazing food and wine! The setting at the restaurant was beautiful and all the people were just so much fun! Here are some of the shots I got that night.

Santiago :)

There was live music and dancing, too! So great :)

I had so much fun and met a lot of great people! Love my job :)

I'm back :)

2010-03-02T16:01:00.000-08:00

So I haven't blogged in a while, and I really missed it! Let me tell you, moving takes a lot of time and effort! But I'm back now, and hopefully you'll enjoy my new posts in the coming days :)

~ Marina ~

Nikki: Let's trash that dress!

2010-01-13T00:40:00.001-08:00

Today I had my first official "trash the dress" shoot! It was incredibly exciting!!! Beautiful girl, beautiful dress and a beautiful day out in Santa Monica. Here's Nikki!

The dress was very white when we started!

I love her smile - so lovely!

feet

The sky was really pretty today

Oh it was cold! But fun overpowered the cold :)

Nikki loved playing in the wet sand and covering the dress with it!

...Walking into the sunset...

Thanks Nikki for being so brave and playing in the water in January!! I had an amazing time with you today :)

Eva & Luis: The Wedding Day

2010-01-11T14:06:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, January 9, 2010 I had the absolute pleasure of photographing my wonderful friends' wedding. Eva and Luis are a beautiful couple and their special day was just as amazing as they are. I think there is something absolutely great about mixing cultures and marrying a person with different customs and traditions (I'm in one of those marriages myself, so I know first hand). Eva is a Russian girl and Luis is an American-Colombian guy, and they decided to throw in a little from both cultures which made it a fun, exciting and beautiful wedding!
I arrived there at 9am and we started capturing the day right away. Eva was at a hair salon where Genevieve, a wonderful hair stylist, little by little made our Bride's hair look amazing.

Then it was almost time when the groom was supposed to arrive, so we hurried home to get ready. Her beautiful dress was waiting...

Getting ready and waiting for the groom

One of Russian traditions is to decorate cars with ribbons, flowers and balloons for the wedding. The fun begins when you take this decorated car to the freeway and all the flowers start flying off and into the cars behind you :)

The beautiful bride is ready

Did he make it? Yes!

The groom and his best man arrived with a bunch of goodies that they will need to get the bride.

Now let me tell you some more about one of the traditions of the Russian Wedding. "The ransom of the bride" is a huge part of the wedding. Bride's family and friends hide her somewhere in the house. Before the groom can get to her he has to go through a lot of challenges, answer questions about his bride, and if he fails at any questions - he has to pay the friends and family either with money, or with candy, alcohol or anything he has on him. The groomsman is a huge support, he is the one who carries all the goodies and the one who has to give money to get the bride in case the groom runs out of it! Luis did pretty well in his challenges, now it was time for his family to help out.

The apple had a bunch of toothpicks in it, and all groom's family members and friends had to pass it around and pull toothpicks out one by one. They were looking for a short one which would end the game, but until they found it, with every long toothpick they pulled out of the apple they had to say something nice about the groom. I'm sure he liked this game :)

One of the other challenges was to walk up the stairs and with every step he had to tell us one of the sweet words he would call his future wife. It was very sweet and I liked that one of the words he used was "Evgeniya" - which is her real name, and not a lot of people can pronounce it :)

He finally found her! In the bedroom closet :)

Then it was time for snacks before heading to the ceremony

Eva talking to her Dad on Skype before making this huge step in her life

Here we are - Edwards Mansion in Redlands - just a few short minutes before they become Mr and Mrs Zapata!

It was a beautiful place to get married!

A little touch-up on make-up before she walks down the aisle

Gorgeous bride is ready :)

Groom's and Bride's moms

Luis waiting for his beautiful bride

Alina - cute little flower girl

Here comes the Bride!

The Kiss

Meet Mr and Mrs Zapata!

Celebrate!

While the guests were enjoying themselves I stole the bride and groom to take some photos. Here are some of my favorites...

And they were off to keep celebrating at the Magic Lamp restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga!

The setting at the restaurant was beautiful

First dance as husband and wife

Eva has amazing and talented friends - Valeria is one of them. She is a belly dancer and the President of Valeria Entertainment and has her own school of dance in New York. She put on a whole show for Eva, Luis and all the guests as a special gift for the newlyweds!

Time to cut that beautiful cake!

They were very nice and did not smear the cake over each others faces :) I was really hoping they would though...

The girls didn't seem too eager to get married any time soon...

The guys, however, were a lot more enthusiastic about it!

It was a long and beautiful day. The happy couple was pretty tired by the end of it. But it was absolutely worth it! It was definitely one of the most beautiful and fun weddings I have ever been to! Congratulations to you guys and I wish you many many years of happy life together!

Testa Family Photos

2010-01-05T13:16:00.001-08:00

A little before Christmas I took photos of this beautiful family - Joe, Bridget, Brooke and Trevor. I have taken photos of these adorable kids before, but this time the whole family got together for some Christmas photos!

Brooke is such a beautiful and happy girl - love it!

Last time I took photos of Trevor, he was only a week old! Now he is three months old and all grown up :)

This was a pretty dangerous shot, I think Bridget was extremely nervous about Brooke holding Trevor so far away! But we did it and nobody got hurt!

Those beautiful blue eyes!

Brooke was getting tired of photos and wanted to be done, but as soon as she started playing with those leaves she got this new flow of energy and excitement! So much fun :)

I had an amazing time :) Thank you guys!

Ferrante Family Photos

2009-12-15T20:06:00.000-08:00

Today I took some family portraits of Ferrante family - Bret, Joy, Sierra and Bryce. They are an absolutely beautiful family and I had an amazing time with them! We met at Serrania Park in Woodland Hills. I have never been there before and I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the park was! After making sure all of the family was ready to go, without losing a minute we started having our fun!

Beautiful Sierra

Bryce and his Mommy

He is one ticklish kid :)

Joy told me a little secret - when kids get fussy, you just have to turn them upside down, and they're happy again! I thought it was a great trick :)

Having so much fun!

Proud and happy Dad

Bryce had the cutest little mohawk I have ever seen!

I loved how they dressed up all matching! Very cute :)

Two beautiful girls

I just realized I was smiling as wide as they are just looking through these photos. Oh, what a great time we had!

So precious!

Bryce fell on the grass. I guess he just wanted to be upside down again!

Beautiful couple

Play time!

Little Sierra and her pretty smile!

This girl has beautiful hair! I love the curls :)

All done, time to go home now...

Thank you guys so much! I had a blast with you :)