Chris and Katie Humphreys

Montego Bay Wedding on Destination I Do!

Chris and I were so excited to see Jenn and Matt's beautiful wedding  featured on the Destination I Do blog!  Destination I Do  is a great magazine devoted completely to destination weddings, and they have a fun blog that we really enjoy reading!  We are so excited that Jenn and Matt's wedding that took place at Round Hill Resort in Montego Bay made it's way to their blog!

Click here to see their feature!

In other news, we're heading up to chilly Beaver Creek in the Colorado mountains for Tracy and Steve's wedding and we are so excited!!  However, we can't help but laugh at the contrast between this Montego Bay wedding and now the Beaver Creek wedding!  I love that we get to do it all!

Happy Friday! :)

Santa Barbara Wedding: Kevin and Angel

Back in September, Chris and I got to be part of a very, very special wedding.  Kevin and Angel attend the Church that Chris and I go to, and Kevin's dad is actually the priest of our Church.  On top of that, I used to work with Kevin's mom, and their entire family is so special to Chris and I.  When Kevin and Angel asked if we would photograph their wedding, we were truly beyond thrilled and honored.  The entire day was so beautiful, full of laughter, and had two incredibly special families to take part in all of it.  Here's a few of our favorites!

Here's Kevin's dad, who married Kevin and Angel, a few minutes before the ceremony.

I love this one of Kevin and his dad taking a sneak peek of the Church!

Angel, of course, was truly stunning.

Kevin and Angel's reception was at the Fess Parker Doubletree in Santa Barbara.  Their reception was absolutely beautiful, especially thanks to the help of Kelly from Event of the Season - she made everything look just wonderful and the day went off without a hitch! We loved getting the chance to work with her!

We loved this one of Kevin and Angel coming in and seeing the reception site!

To see more images Kevin and Angel's wedding, you can visit their slideshow here!

Kevin and Angel, we are SO thrilled for you two and are so glad we got to be part of your day - it was like a big family reunion!!  We hope you had a great honeymoon and are enjoying life as newlyweds!!

Life Sessions.

Click here to check out a highlights slideshow from some of our favorite Life Sessions.

It's no secret that Chris and I love getting to know amazing people and capture Love.  Not just Love as we see it at a wedding, but the kind of Love that exists between parents, children, and families.  We love capturing siblings playing together, babies giggling (or crying!), and parents exchanging smiles while they watch their kids roll in the grass. 

Because we love capturing this kind of Love, we're shooting what we like to call Life Sessions.  This is our name for family photo sessions because unlike "portraits," we want to capture life as it naturally happens.  We've found that the most beautiful moments with a family happen when they don't think they're posing for the camera.

...because Life is too beautiful to be posed.

With Christmas right around the corner, we're offering some special promotions for families to have a Life Session in time for Christmas cards and the holidays!  Our special Life Session packages are available for sessions that we shoot now through November 10th. 

For more details, send us an email at info@chrishumphreys.com and we'll chat about the details!  We can't wait to hear from you!

Family Photos in Laguna Beach!

A few weeks ago Chris and I got the chance to do another family session for a couple whose wedding we shot back in 2006!  Albert and Alyssa had a new addition to their family a little less than a year ago, and we got the chance to meet their beautiful daughter, Audrey!  We met up at Crystal Cove near Laguna Beach and had a great time getting some pictures of them all playing together!

Isn't Audrey's little tutu to die for?!?! :)

I think this one below is my fav from the day!!

Albert and Alyssa, thanks so much for making the trip to come meet up with us!  We LOVED getting to see you and meeting Audrey!  She is absolutely beautiful and we can't wait for the next time we can all meet up again!

John and Ashton's wedding on Grace Ormonde Online!

You may remember John and Ashton's GORGEOUS wedding from about a year ago.  Their day was absolutely perfect and beautiful beyond belief.  We recently had a photo from their day featured in Grace Ormonde Wedding Style magazine  but also found out that an online feature  of their wedding is now on their website!  We were excited with how it turned out, and loved the cute write-up that Ashton did for the feature, and thought we'd share! 

To check out the online feature and Ashton's write-up, click here!

Social Networking and Small Business...on Photographik!

As we've mentioned before, Photographik  is a site that we love for both brides as well as other photographers and wedding vendors.  They have a great directory for brides, but also publish articles on a wide variety of topics.  Chis recently wrote an article for Photographik about understanding how to use Social Networking effectively for a small business and the article is now published on the site!  We wanted to share it here in hopes that it might be some good food for thought when thinking through the ways that you're using all the social networking resources that we now have access to.  To view the article, visit Photographik here!

Enjoy!

Orange County Engagement Session

I knew I liked Julia from the first moment I talked to her on the phone :)  She is warm, sweet, and so easy to talk to.  After our initial phone conversation, we had the chance back in August to meet up with Julia and her wonderful fiance Tim, along with Julia's mom and dad.  It was so special because even though we hadn't signed on to officially work together, their family welcomed us and treated us to dinner as if we were old friends.  They are the kind of people that really show you what hospitality is.

When we first started talking with Julia and Tim about their engagement session, I absolutely LOVED how excited they were about doing the photos!  Julia told me that they had really envisioned doing their engagement session with an old mustang and making their shoot a little "theatrical" as she put it :)  Chris and I LOVE these kinds of sessions and couldn't wait!   We were so excited for their session and when we met up a week or two ago, we had a total blast!  Not only are they incredibly photogenic, but they are so fun and relaxed - Chris and I hardly did any directing with them because they were so good in front of the camera!

We started out with this AWESOME mustang!!

After we got some fun shots with the Mustang, we went down to a nearby beach and really lucked out with some absolutely beautiful light!

Julia and Tim, thank you so much for meeting up for a great engagement session and for making our job so dang easy!  :)  You both are just wonderful and we can't wait for your big day!!

San Diego Family Pictures

As part of our crazy trip a week or so ago, we also had a chance to meet up with Dominick and Jessica, and their sweet baby, Zeah!  We shot Dominick and Jessica's wedding back in 2007 and it was so wonderful to see them again AND get to meet the newest addition to their family!

Shooting family photos is always so special because it's incredible not only to document the stage of life the child is in, but also to really document the incredible awe and love that the parents have for their new child.  It is so amazing to see their newfound love as they play with their baby and and I LOVE that we get to be there to document it!

Chris and I like to set up our sessions in the family's home environment, if it's possible, so that we really can just sit back and observe the family as they play together in their own home.  In this case, it worked out that we were able to start at Jessica and Dominick's home, and then we all went over to a nearby park that they love to play at!

Introducing...Zeah!!

I absolutely LOVE Zeah's nursery, and this adorable mobile that hangs above his crib!!

Dad and Zeah together :)

And here's mom and Zeah!

And here's everybody playing together :)

After grabbing some pictures at the house, we all made our way over to the park that they regularly go to, and where Zeah had his first birthday party!

I love this one of the three of them together!

What a happy little guy!!

Dominick and Jessica, it was SO wonderful getting to see you two again and finally meeting Zeah!  Thank you for letting us spend the morning with you and capture your incredibly special family!! We can't wait to do photos again in a year or two and see how much he's grown! 

Thinking of you all!

The King Family Photos in Santa Barbara!

Chris and I had a whirlwind trip last week in CA and we were everywhere from Santa Barbara to San Diego (and in between)!  We did about 6 shoots in the course of 5 days, so needless to say, things were a bit crazy!  However, we were so excited to get to shoot family photos for the King family!  They are an incredibly special family who Chris and I know through our Church, and we were really honored to be able to capture them all together!  They seriously have some of the sweetest kids we know, and we had so much fun!

When we arrived to meet up with the Kings, we were greeted by their son, Adam, telling us he was ready to go play on the playground!  We obliged, and started out with all the kids just playing on the playground - we barely kept up with them, but did manage to grab some fun shots of them in action!

Mom and daughter!! :)

After we finished playing a little more at the park, we went over to a different grassy spot to do some pictures with the whole family.  When Chris and I shoot family photos, we really try to keep things relaxed and casual - even if we're having a family "pose" for pictures, there's no reason the mood has to turn too serious!  By keeping the mood fun and silly, tthe session is just more fun this way!  Second, the pictures always turn out better when everybody is having fun and is relaxed because we're able to capture real smiles from everyone! (After all, we all have our real smile, and then the fake smile that many of us plaster on when we get into "formal picture mode!")  Chris and I were really thrilled with these pictures we captured of everybody together because they all look so relaxed and happy together!

What an amazing family they are!  To the entire King family: truly, thank you, thank you for letting us spend the afternoon with you to capture these fun pictures of you all together!  We can't wait for next time!!

Just because it's Friday....

Just because it's a Friday and seems like a fun day to share something a little different, I wanted to post up some pictures of two of our most important family members.

Our kitties. (Aka "The Girls").

"The girls" are the closest thing we have to kids at this point and I have to admit, Chris and I have spoiled them rotten beyond belief.  Our home is filled with boxes to play in, balls to chase (Gracie is more like a dog than a ca!), and special blankets that they consider their own.  Shy and Gracie were both shelter kitties and I think that subconsciously this always helps me justify the fact that Chris and I spoil them. :)

Those who know us well know that Shy and Gracie are an integral part of the family, so I figured that since we haven't posted up any pictures of them for quite a while, that today would be as good of a day as any!

So, without further ado, here's a few recent pics of "the girls." :)

Here's Shy (appropriately named!)


And Gracie, the diva of the house :)
 

Grace loves playing catch when we throw her ball for her, and we caught these goofy shots while we were playing!  She can jump!

Happy Friday!!! :)