After who knows how long, we FINALLY designed and picked a vendor for our business cards!  A few weeks back I decided to do a letterpress business card.  Basically rather than just hand out a standard card stock type card, we went with a thicker and more textured card.  We're happy we did because they turned out great!

Our awesome new friends from Dolce Press worked long and hard on our crazy design of a logo and we can't thank them enough!  If you're looking for more of this textured goodness yourself...call Alex.  Not only did she put up with my...oh what's the word...indecisiveness, and/or cluelessness, but she's as down to earth as they come and completely willing to help!  Gotta love those New Yorkers! =)  (did I just compliment myself being that I'm from NY?! haha) Drop us some comment love and let us know what you think!

Crazy week and our poor blog and our blog readers have been the ones thing affected the most!! So yesterday, I looked out the window and noticed that the sky was once again, 1 million and one colors.  So what do I do?  I grab my camera, one flash that's already mounted on a stand, my cybersyncs of course, and my lovely, still in her work clothes, eating grapes out of a bowl, wife...Lauren =) Picture this... a man lying in the middle of the street with this huge camera pointed at his pregnant wife, who by the way is also standing in the middle of the street with a tripod looking thing about 5-8 feet away, that keeps flashing every 10-15 secs...yeah that was us.

  Right around sunset you're always going to battle time because the sun sets so quickly.  So I had to make my adjustments super fast.  Unfortunately, we got out there a little too late and were only able to shoot for a few moments.  Here's crazy Lauren letting me know how she feels about always being my model...haha

 As you can tell, Lauren is starting to show and with only less than 4 months to go she's loving every minute of it...well, minus the fact that her belly is growing. With that said, we're still accepting entries for our Photo/name our baby contest! It's easy, just submit a name along with a picture of something that inspired you for the name to contest@johnlauren.com and if we pick you're name for our baby girl, you get a $100 GC to a restaurant! Worried about the picture?! Don't be!  If you came up with the name in your head just out of the blue...take a picture of yourself! =) No biggie at all...we're hoping for some creative names to name our baby and I know our readers have creative minds! If you have any questions about our contest, feel free to shoot us an email anytime! btw - Part 2 of this post will be after the 18th...our next doctors visit! =) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you want more information on our contest click here!

For our latest Wedding Day Slideshow, Click Here!

If you'd like to inquire about our services, email us at Weddings@johnlauren.com

If you have any questions you'd like to ask us, we'll do our best in answering them for you!  email us at John@johnlauren.com or Lauren@johnlauren.com

For the past two or three years between July and August, Lauren and I like to spend at least one day (i.e. 2-3!) out of those two months indulging ourselves in oh so "deep fried everything and anything you could probably think of" goodness.  What could you possibly deep fry besides chicken?!!  How bout, Snickers, Oreos, Twinkies, White Castle!, Avacados and even Frog Legs?!!!  Ok so we didn't eat ALL of that but they were readily available at the flip of the buck if we chose.  Diet??! What's that?!  As you could imagine that word gets thrown out the door during this day.  And where do we do this?!...the OC Fair!

  Here's Lauren just as we entered pondering what our next trip to the OC Fair will entail...

One of the things I got to do at the fair this year besides eat, eat and eat some more, obviously was take the trusty ole' camera.  **Disclaimer: Although Lauren is pregos, and it appears she is ordering or eating or scarfing all that food, we did SHARE ALL our meals!** =)

 

 

This shot was taken as we pulled into the parking lot.  I was so concentrated on getting in and finding spot that I almost missed this awesome light!  Gotta love the color of the sky when the sun sets!  I was super stoked when we we got this and the best part is that minus a bump in contrast and blacks, this shot is basically straight out of the camera!

See ya later OC Fair...till next year! =)

Check in tomorrow for some Shutter Speed Tips featuring more colorful pics of the Fair as examples!

Also, our "Great Names Derive from Great Inspiration" contest deadline has been moved!!  I totally forgot about all the holidays leading up to our original Dec 1st deadline to submit your entries so the NEW DEADLINE is now October 1st.  That gives everyone a good two months of inspiration! =)

If you want more information on our contest click here!

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For our latest Wedding Day Slideshow, Click Here!

If you'd like to inquire about our services, email us at Weddings@johnlauren.com

If you have any questions you'd like to ask us, we'll do our best in answering them for you!  email us at John@johnlauren.com or Lauren@johnlauren.com

 

 

We'll be posting our latest Engagement Session real soon so keep an eye out for it this week.  Now on to today's HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT/POST... Last Monday we went to our 21 Week doctors appointment and got a chance to see our baby once again =)  Remember our last post?  Well that was only about five weeks in and now we're 18 weeks in!!  Remember this same shot in the first post?!  Notice how her belly is more of a "belly" now than before... So the baby is definitely bigger, no longer our little Gummy Bear...even big enough to where Lauren, as she puts it, feels it "punch her belly" =)  If you're ever around her enough you might catch her saying "Aw, come on dude, chill out!".  That's her telling our baby to relax =) hahah Can you distinguish the shape of the baby on the monitor?  That's its head to the right... So to the heart of the matter.  As I assumed from the start, with all "signs" pointed to this happening, here's the answer to our family's "gender battle" as well as our new family photo! =) WE'RE HAVING A BABY GIRL! =D  And if you look closely, I'm a little taller than Lauren in the image hahah. So now that you know what we're having...Time for our first ever John Lauren Photography Contest! woohoo! Ever since we found out we were having a baby we have shot blanks when it comes to baby names.  That's where you come in! From now until December 1st, we'll be accepting entries for our "Great Names Derive from Great Inspiration" contest.  Our only rule is in order to submit a name, you need to also submit a photo of what inspired you to come up with that name along with a brief explanation.  Easy enough right?!  We're so excited to hear what you come up with! Because this is such a big deal for us, if your entry gets picked, you, as the winner, will receive a GC of $100 to a restaurant later TBD. Submit your entries to contest@johnlauren.com and remember, you have all the way till Dec 1st! We can't wait to hear what everyone comes up with!  Oh and feel free to use our blog posts as inspiration too...hopefully by now there's enough about us in here that it'll trigger some ideas! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If you're curious to see what type of photography we do, click here! or If you have any questions you'd like to ask, you can email us at weddings@johnlauren.com

OK, so John's totally going to hate me for this one but I HAVE to share!!  It's Monday and we all need a little laugh to start our week! Sorry honey!! =) hahaha

 So, we had an engagement shoot in the lovely Old Town Pasadena and we had such a great time! we had our new assistant with us, teaching her new things with the camera and getting a feel for posing and how John composes the couple for the shoot.

 John is very admitate about me being the "Front Man" for the business, but I get so nervous, I kind of just stand back and let John do all the talking while I get in the zone the way I am used too, by getting a feel for the couple, and when I feel like I am getting a connection through the lens, then I am more vocal. Sometimes, I kind of walk around and scope out the area while John is with the clients.

Well, when you see the slide show of their awesome engagement session, you will see the cool spot I found! Literally, it was perfect!!! It was snooping at its best. No other word can describe the location. Just wait :) But as I turned back to John and the awesome couple to tell them of the cool spot, I can't help but think, what the heck is he doing!!! I was laughing so hard from a distance...

You may not know this, but when John is in the zone, he is so in the zone!

Seriously, does he have to get that close? Isn't that why we have a 70-200? OH, but he gets even closer!

I finally have to walk up to them and get one up close, cause really, those shots didn't really show any justice of the yoga pose that was happening!!!

I was laughing so hard, I almost pee-ed my pants, and being pregnant, it was so possible too!!! This was rip your pants material!!!

I really can't wait for all of you to see the finished product! It was our very first early morning shoot, and is probably my favorite time of the day to shoot. It wasn't hot, not crowded, no sun beating down on us. I really enjoyed it!  I love you babe! hehe =)