3 generations {part 2}

… And the Castillo Family shoot continued at the beach.

It was so fun to see the smiles on Veronica and Raul faces  every time strangers would stop to say how adorable baby Claudia looked ( and she did), she stole the show!  She is the friendliest baby on the planet, she literally waved and said “hi” to every person who walked by.

With this family it was so hard to choose my favorite shots. All the shots looked so beautiful and natural at the beach.

I was so happy I was there to share the moment when Claudia finally was comfortable with the water. Once her little toes touched that water there was no stopping her. She is now a bona fide beach baby, and fittingly so because the beach is so close to them.

Veronica and Raul were gifted with these matching tropical ensembles by someone very special to them. They wanted to incorporate these in some of their shots and I’m so happy we did because they look so incredibly beautiful. Veronica and Raul look like the king and queen of some newly discoved tropical island.

Thank you Castillo Family for allowing me to capture your beautiful smiles!!

Lifestyle: 3 Generations {Part 1}

I had the pleasure of shooting 3 generations over the weekend. I love when I am able to convey emotions through my photography, and this family portrait session oozed emotions.

Allow me to introduce you to the Castillo Family

When I arrived at Raul and Veronica’s home I immediately felt as if I was home. I was greeted with the warmest welcome by both Raul and Veronica, Raul’s lovely parents, and not to mention, little Claudia the couples one year old daughter.

Our first order of business was to take photos with the grandparents. Since it was a typical summer day here (in the high 90s) we opted to take photos indoors at the Castillo’s home.

One of the first shots of the day was this beautiful moment of Claudia gazing up at her grandmother. I am so in love with this shot. I was able to capture the love through generations.

This little princess is the center of their universe, and rightfully so, look at those doll eyes.

The three most important women in Raul's life.

... and the two most imporant men in Claudia's Life. 

 

After we wrapped up at the Castillo’s home we headed out to the beach, sans the grandparents. Stay tuned for part two of our beach adventure…

Senior Portraits: Izzy Monton

I must admit I was a bit nervous going into this session. This is actually my first senior portraits shoot and I literally couldn’t have asked for a better subject…

Introducing Izzy Monton

This young lady has the world in the palm of her hands; she is graduating with high honors and attending NYU in the fall, not to mention she has the support of an equally amazing family backing her. 

I can honestly say shooting Izzy really had my creative juices flowing. There may or may have not been a bit of trespassing involved (lol) 

This girl cannot take a bad photo

 I am so glad we were able to get this shot; it was literally at the spur of the moment. Izzy sat on the railing just as the tide was passing by. The conductor even had to blow the horn warning us to move out of the way.

As you can see, izzy has such great style (“she gets it from her momma”) but this shot here is the epitome of her modern elegance. She looks so beautiful and mature.

Congratulations on your academic achievement Izzy! Best of luck in the big apple!!!

Princess Spa Party

                                           Welocme to E`mia's Princess Spa Party!

E`mia turned 7 over the weekend and in true princess style, her mother booked a spa party fit for a little princess to be pampered. This shoot was so fun; it defiantly made my girly side smile.

These little divas were treated to full Mani’s & Pedi’s complete with a glittery array of nail polishes, Makeup , hair , a fairy wand building station, and all culminating in a halo ceremony were the ladies were named honorary fairy princesses .

 

The girls were all so adorable in there matching wings and tutus. Once the make over’s were complete they donned their party dresses to sing happy birthday just before letting lose down stairs at the hotels pool!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY E`MIA!!!!

Instagram Love

Insta love

Hello, my name is Rita and I have a problem… I have a slight; make that a major obsession with instagram!

Since I love snapping pics (mainly of my son) it is so easy for me to pull out my phone and take pictures and upload them to instagram in a matter of seconds. So I figured that every so often I would do a weekly ig round up.

p.s you should just give me a follow on

My username is rierun11 (wink wink )

Brace yourself, crazy mom shoving her cute kid in your face in  5…

                               4…

                               3…

                               2…

                               1!

I'm his mamarazzi 

Now that the weather is getting warmer we love going to the beach. This child of mine is obsessed with all seasons; summer he loves the beach, winter he loves the snow, spring time he loves the park you name it he loves it. Since its summer where we live now the majority of pictures clogging my instagram page are “Julez at the beach” pics

… and what better “pick me up” on a hot day than Rita’s. Besides their fabulous name the mango and lemon ice favors are ah-mazing

Not so Terrible Two's... yet

If any of you know me, you know my ultimate obsession is my baby, well not so much a baby any more; I adore taking pictures of my son. My PC probably has well over 2500 pictures of my son Julian alone, from the moment he was born until now. Julez turned 2 a few days ago, and trust me I don't need any excuse to take pictures of him but I took these for his birthday party invitation.
hope you like...

It was so hard to pick the actual picture for the card, in the end we decided on this one. Although if you ask me now, I wish I wouldn't of chosen this one. My top choice was the b&w photo. 

Dear Julian,

You might not realize today how much we love you. Since the day you were born, you continue to amaze me. Because of you I am a better person and a great mother. If there is nothing I do right in this world, my promise to you is that you are the only thing I do right 100% of the time. My wish for you is that you continue to grow up with the values and morals we instill in you while having fun and enjoying being a kid! I love watching you grow up and I love you so very much my “juju”

Love,

Mommy

Hand's Full

I have wanted to do something really fun with children lately and when the opportunity arose to shoot the Saoy family I knew I had to put the spotlight on these awesome kids!

Kristella is a young mom of 4, who manages her busy life better than moms twice her age. She is a full time momma and works full time; with her busy schedule she hasn’t had the chance to take family portraits until now.

Allow me to introduce you to the Saoy Family

The star of the show was defiantly Samaya, Kristella’s daughter. Being the only girl in a house full of boys, it was only natural for Samaya to shine a little brighter today.

I had such a blast shooting this fun loving bunch.  Thank you Kristella for allowing me to capture these memories!

Lifestyle: Love, family, & Pride

Being a former Navy Wife, a piece of me was a tab bit jealous when I didn’t think to capture the essence of my husband in his uniform, like I did here in this shoot. If it wasn’t for me, my husband would have thrown away all his uniforms when he retired from the Navy.

Let me introduce you to     Erick and Sharena!

(PLEASE NOTICE THE SHOOTING STAR. THERE WAS AN ANGEL SMILING DOWN AT MOM AND DAD AT THAT MOMENT).

I absolutely fell in love with this family! I couldn’t wait to shoot Erick and Sharena. I just knew I wanted to capture the story of their love. Sharena and Erick have been married over 15 years and the military have been a huge part of their story. During the course of their marriage, Erick has been deployed over 6 times with each deployment lasting between 6 to 12 months long. Currently, he is underway for another 12 months. Needless to say, these two where well over-due to update their picture frames.

Their story goes beyond the military. They are parents to 3 beautiful daughters and grandparents to a handsome baby boy. This post is a definite “to be continued”. Unfortunately, due to Erick’s schedule we were unable to get the whole family in these shots. Stay tuned for part two…

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My main focus was to tell a story and show you the immense love these two share, not only for each other but for their family and country as well.

… And when it comes to love, no one loves this hero more than Erick and Sharena’s youngest.

Thank you Hawthorne family for letting me be a small part of your story!

Couples: Class Superlatives

Class Superlatives

If I gave out superlatives for my friends (which I did, btw) these two, would hands down be “cutest couple” / “couple of the year”
Let me introduce you to Richie and Pi’ilani (“PE”)

After weeks of talking about how nice it would be to have semi-professional photos we finally set a date to take shots for their annual Christmas card. I had such a blast shooting this loving couple and the final product turned out awesome!
Being that PE is native Hawaiian she wanted to stray far away from the typical Beach photos and opted for a more fall inspired shoot. I enjoyed spending over 3 hours together with them in what seemed to be extra cold Saturday in Virginia Beach. We had so much fun and I couldn’t have asked better models/friends.

These two couldn’t take a bad picture even if they tried. I can’t wait for PE and Richie to grow their family. They’ve already booked me for all their family milestones! I love you guys

My intro

Well hello there …
This blog is dedicated to my adventures as an amateur (hence my tagline). Amateur in all sorts of lovely titles as you will come to find out.
 On my free time I love capturing lifestyle photos. You will soon see that my main passion is Photography. The main focus in this blog will be to take you along behind the scenes and share the smiles, laughs, and memories I make with my clients.
I work full time and I am a full time Mommy, those two things along with the other occupants of my life take up the majority of my time, but during my free time I like to consider myself an enthusiast of all things fun and whimsical. I would dare to say girly but these days I find myself making monster cupcakes and wishing I was making princess ones too (maybe one day)

Being a Mom has ignited a fire in me to work even harder and to be the best mom I can be (DON’T US ALL). Sometimes that means epic fails or great success (80% fail 20% success lol) in exploring my creatively in the kitchen to my hot glue gun obsession. I usually love to document these endeavors (follow me on InstaGram)

love Rie`