Anita and Ted wanted a very low key engagement shoot that was unique to them and their relationship. We captured a bunch of different sides, the sweet, the serious, the funny, and the brooding. Please take a look at their photos below!

A huge thank you to both Anita and Ted for reaching out to me for their engagement photos! Best wishes to you both on the adventure ahead of you :)

Cheers~

 So as I was fast to find out, Ellis adores this wagon.

 Before we get dressed up, let's take some very candid photos!

 I really love how soft everything looks in this black & white.

 To help get Ellis in a fun mood, we blew some bubbles at him which definitely had the desired effect ;)

 I love how happy he looks while trying to catch these bubbles!

 Ahhh what a cutie, his eyes gaze into you

 I'm all dressed up and ready to go!! But first, let's run away!

 I love love love this yellow plaid shirt Ellis had on; it's perfect for a fall afternoon.

 In fact, the whole outfit rocked! Nice job Ellis's mom ;)

 I think it's really pretty cool to see what happens when you get low and put your self in the perspective of a kid.

 I have to admit, Ellis is one happy baby. It made my job super easy :D 

 Oh, red wagon, you complete me.

 Ahhh that smile!!!

 And a newsboy hat!! Too cute!

 Ellis let us take maybe a few photos of him with this hat, but it always ended up on the ground after lol

Alright, now that we've warmed up, let's stage the most fall you can get into a photo (and get Ellis to sit still!)

 uhhhhh.... come back!~

 There go, these next few happened in the span of a few minutes lol

 I feel like this shot could be an album cover haha

 Happy 1 year, Ellis!! :)

 This was my teaser shot and easily one of my favorites from the shoot. I owe a lot to Ellis's parents and friends helping me distract Ellis while I got this.

 One more black and white!

 Turns out these letters are pretty delicious... uh-oh!

 Location swap and return of the red wagon!

 I feel like from left to right is a nod over to the side akin to a super cool nod from the movies lol. You rock that wagon, Ellis!

 Ending with a snap of the happy family~

I would like to extend a *HUGE* thank you to Ellis's parents who had such amazing props and brought their effortless energy to this shoot. These were the best of the bunch, but you can bet we got some interesting things on B-Roll. By the end of the evening, Ellis and I became fast friends as I was on the receiving end of one of the best hugs you can get :)

We're digging back into my vault of unshared photos and taking it back to 2014 before I moved out to the Bay Area. The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze is held every year in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. If you're in the area, I do highly recommend checking it out! I think they put it best so here's there website if anyone is curious: https://hudsonvalley.org/events/blaze/

Anyway, my mom and I got tickets for this and managed to visit before I had to begin my cross-country drive to California (I really should do a blog post on that sometime). It was pretty clear to us even early in the night as we sat down at a pizzeria and grabbed a bite to eat before our time slot that everyone in the area was here for this event. It's really easy to see why too! 

After sorting out parking, we entered and began walking around the area to view the more than 6,000+ hand carved pumpkins all arranged in various scenes, animals, and much more. Join me for a walk down memory lane almost 4 years ago.

This was probably one of my favorites from the whole night. The lights near the ghost scarecrows changed various colors and really helped set the tone.

This haunted house was all decked out with carved pumpkins with a time-synced music show.

Another view of those strobe-lights near the ghost scarecrows.

This picture doesn't really lend the scale I wanted it to, but this was really big! Think about the normal size of a pumpkin and then it may help with scale.

This was the customary instagram spot where you pass through an archway of jack o'lanterns and they also are all along the ceiling of the inside.

Here's a better close up of some of the jack o'lanterns on the ceiling.

Definitely a great spot here for pictures with the family and getting in the festive mood.

I was pretty in awe of some of the scenes they set up, including these dinosaurs!

There was some amazing sculptures all created from jack o'lanterns one by one.

Another one that's hard to understand the scale of, but if you know anything about dinosaurs you probably know how big a brontosaurus is ;)

There was this amazingly intricate jack o'lantern snake on the ground, and what looked like people having a fright lol

Every single jack o'lantern I saw had a different pattern and from what I heard each are re-carved throughout the 2-month long event to provide an optimal experience for visitors.

That was one big pumpkin that was carved into a gravestone, but I love how eerie this shot turned out

And with that our night concludes! If you are in the area where the blaze is held, definitely check it out! Regardless, everyone enjoy your Halloween and seek out something spooky :)

Cheers!~

Immediately I was thrown at how tiny Petey was; I actually had never seen a corgi while it was still a puppy in person before. Talk about bite size cuteness. Oh! and a bundle of energy! Immediately it was quick for me to hop into his fenced off area, with plenty of natural sunlight coming in and start snapping away.

What can I say, I just loved the black and whites so much! Congrats to John and Sean for their new puppy and I look forward to photographing everyone again!

Cheers~

I was ready to take my new Sony A7III for another spin and really excited to see how it would do with all the high pigmented colors. After a brief wait outside, we were heading in!

 Fun fact, this was a scratch and sniff wall! Not all pleasant smells, mind you!

 I looove macrons a lot

 Dana in the orange room!

 Meta up in here with picture in picture.

 So many disco balls! Oh hey! If you look closely, you can spot me!

   Oddly being surrounded by blue balloons was not as soothing as I would have hoped. Walls are closing in, Dana!

   Anyone remember lite brite??

 The green room was full of scribbles and this life size green marker!

 After some trial and error, Dana and I timed this one out perfectly.

 Pause for a quick portrait in the Pink stairwell

   Not even going to try to white balance that!

 There was this really cool textured wall where people ahead of us were doing a photoshoot, so naturally, I asked Dana to play along :)

 A room full of paper confetti in all colors, now that's a color pop.

 Getting the timing right on this was definitely not easy!

 I really liked the contrast of the confetti against the light teal background.

   Bringing things home here in the Yellow room with a giant ball pit. You know we got those boomerangs in here!

 Hey... has anyone seen Dana? Oh! There you are!

Thanks so much Dana for a fun trip to San Francisco to visit The Color Factory. For anyone wondering if it's worth going to, I would say it is, it's a unique experience and actually pretty long compared to the Ice Cream Factory I've heard. At the very least it was really fun seeing all the ways they used color!

Cheers everyone!

To start that off is a trip to Filoli Gardens in Woodside! This trip was initiated by my friends Pablo & Angelina who had also not gone to Filoli. So, perfect! We all made a day of it! Now I also know, when it says it's going to be 80 degrees that it will be hotter in direct sunlight, and to really avoid wearing pants. Of course, I had to learn that the hard way. I still had a lot of fun though!

Filoli Gardens - April 2018 Filoli Gardens - April 2018 Filoli Gardens - April 2018 Filoli Gardens - April 2018 Filoli Gardens - April 2018 Filoli Gardens - April 2018

March 2018  Jason

March 2018  Josh

March 2018  Jimmy

March 2018  Jared

March 2018 Kyoko March 2018  Adrian, YearUp intern

March 2018  Marissa, YearUp intern

March 2018  Ty, Stride Center intern

March 2018  Roy, Genesys Works intern

March 2018 Aaron

March 2018  Kevin

March 2018  John

March 2018  Phil

March 2018  Rolando

First up was a visit to the iconic Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, CA

Kicking it off by some simple shots at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, CA. I started a warm up with a few photos against that amazing textured background!

Can I just say how much I loved that blue dress on Karina! What a great pop of color! Can I just say how much I love that blue dress on Karina?! What a great pop of color!

We found this enormous door at the Palace of Fine Arts and it made a great contrast for the blues Karina and Scott were wearing.

You know these two really did make it effortless for me, all I had to do was be patient and let them talk and I caught these intimate glances between them.

[Left] Get that bling! [Right] Loved this sneaky shot through the bushes. All that bokeh~

So near and dear to my heart are black & whites so you'll see plenty of those here.

This was another effortless interaction between Karina and Scott and look at how much emotion comes across in black & white!

Thanks to my photography assistant for the day, Brad, we spotted this bench that set up this amazing shot and the following few.

I can't even decide if I like the color or black & whites more.

A cute kiss and that bling shot all in one!

Another brain child pose of Brad's, and Karina & Scott did not disappoint when they walked down this path towards me.

I take no credit for this one, it was all Scott :)

The Palace of Fine Arts was pretty busy with tourists that day, but even then these two were the only ones there.

These pair of shots in black & white might be one of the most intimate photos I've captured.

It was my first time at Baker Beach and once the sun set I was captivated by the amazing light and epic background of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

When the sun goes down in San Francisco the temperature drops pretty fast and they were definitely prepared for it ;)

But that doesn't mean we didn't have a bit of fun!

Again, loving the Golden Gate in the background as these two were wrapped up in their own world.

Some close up portrait shots with blinggg.

And even more bling!

These two really are amazing and so much of that came through in these photographs.

Customary moment where I let myself get photographed lol. Many thanks to my assistant and very good friend, Brad, who helped me change lenses and set up shots. I couldn't have gotten some of these without you! And last but not least, thank you to Karina and Scott for letting me into their world for a few hours and trusting me to convey their love in the best way I could. I hope you guys enjoy your photos and I can't wait to hear what everyone else thinks!

Congrats on the engagement and upcoming wedding in October, Karina and Scott!~

Now let me get to work on those Save the Dates ;)

-Hanisha

To start things off I found a few indoor spots that had interesting Box culture aspects...

I tried to get everyone to loosen up and carry out individual conversations while I had Jason as my focal point of the photo.

  I think some took the cue to be goofy a bit too seriously :)

Then we took a trip outside to the patio at Box and thanks to a hazy cloud cover I had some excellent diffuse light available.

  Got it! This was the shot I was happiest with and ended up widely distributed on a Medium article via Jason :)

March 2017  Kelvin

June 2017  Norlito

June 2017  Michael, Stride Center intern

June 2017  Vanessa, Stride Center intern

July 2017  Rommel, part of a trio that works in CorpNet

July 2017  The newest member of CorpNet, Rick

July 2017  Last member of CorpNet, Zhen

July 2017  Nestor, YearUp intern

July 2017  Rolando, YearUp intern

July 2017  Sam

Day of we drove out to where Gloria was to meet Ray. Turns out Ray had organized a Bay wide scavenger hunt for her to relive some of their favorite moments together, all leading her out here to the cliffs near Route 1 in Santa Cruz so Ray could propose :)

 Anxiously checking his phone to make sure things were on track

 It was actually pretty windy that day, so I kept my distance from the cliffside

 All smiles with a dapper bow tie

 She's almost here!

 Finally approaching, Gloria starts to get an idea of what's going on and spots me

 Well naturally she said yes!!

 Big smiles from the bride to be :)

 This was one of my favorites, utterly candid and just pure joy

 Loved this abandoned track with all this moss growing on it!

Congrats Ray and Gloria! It was an absolute honor to be part of such an intimate moment and wishing you both all the best!

July 2015  Aaron, our new IT support tech in Austin 

July 2015  Mike

July 2015  Peter

March 2016  Pablo

March 2016 Kevin 

April 2016  Sohail

One of the first projects I took on in my new job was the creation of our IT Wall near the Help Desk with everyone's photos from IT including the answer to the question "Describe yourself in 10 words or less." The idea had been to rotate this question but that has become a static component of the project instead. My goal behind photographing, editing, and printing photos of the whole team was to increase visibility into who we are and what we do.

I know prior to this many people were unaware of who was on IT and what they looked like. The project serves a visual cue to those coming up to the desk to accurately mention appropriate people in tickets and generally know who they are speaking to; to humanize the IT Team. My project for the upcoming quarter is to update this wall with our new hires to be updated in Part 2.

I focused on black & white portraits as a callback to my Rutgers film photography class where I used only black and white. There's an honesty and character I feel that comes through when you're not seeing colors. It seems almost more raw to me which is why I am partial to black and white :)

Jan 2015 My fellow new hire that started the same day I did! Brad - "SCREAMING INTERNALLY. Smiling politely"

Jan 2015 Ben

Jan 2015 Dana - "It's kind of fun to do the impossible"

Jan 2015 John - "Focused, easing going, problem solver"

Jan 2015 Kailee - "Anime is love. Anime is life."

Jan 2015 Mark - "Curious, ambitious, confident"

Jan 2015 Mike - "Azn. Beautiful. Humble. Filler words for requirement"

Jan 2015 Olivia - "Outgoing, outspoken, people-person with a dose of East Coast sass"

Jan 2015 Phil - "Part-time megalomaniac, full-time nerd"

Jan 2015 Will - "Will: It's what I do, it's who I am"

Stay tuned for Part 2!

This photo is one of my all time favourites, the smooth tones and expression I caught on Anthony were perfect.

Thinking it out...

What can I say? I love photographing at wide open apertures.

Let's break up all that seriousness :)

That's a wrap on Central Park with Anthony.

Cheers, Hanisha

Without further delay I present my photo session with Alexa. If she looks familiar to you, she should, she's my best friend Gretchen's sister ;) and you will certainly remember her E-shoot with Brian. Alexa was kind enough to let me photograph her for practice. We started out with picking out her outfits and accessories. It was wayy too windy in Holmdel Park that day, but this was a small taste of what we got accomplished before we called it a day. Oh and it's certainly be fair to say this is not the last we see of Alexa on my blog!

I have always wanted to try photographing in the rain with a nice colorful umbrella. This came close, but we had a lot of wind issues lol.

Alexa has a great sense of style and this new white sweater we picked up a few days before was perfect for this chilly day. Loved her owl necklace!

Outfit change and this is definitely my favorite outfit of the session. The colors in the plaid just popped! Plus I've now converted Alexa to the wonders of plaid.

The photo on the left is definitely my favorite of the session and on the right we found this great bridge along the path around the lake.

Peaking through the leaves (I've been wanting to do different angles and perspectives)

Easily my second favorite, look at that plaid against the greenery! Goofing off with Alexa got me this great smile out of her. Thanks Alexa for indulging me and I'm looking forward to our next shoot! :D

Cheers!

Hanisha

Farah looks absolutely stunning in this mint green!

These decorations, cupcakes, and cake definitely deserve a little love. Such a great presentation! Cute little cookies as parting gifts for guests too!

Bring out that bling!~

Engagement party success! Loved this impromptu fist pump! Let's bring on the engagement photo session...

With no prompting from me Farah coordinated Tarek and herself. I love how it looks against all that beautiful green!

Snapped a few of these while they were walking, you got to love spring!

Thanks to some freakish weather, spring has been confused and many blooms were already gone. However, we found this awesome tree with red blooms. Love!

One of my favorites from the shoot and the teaser shot ;)

I spotted this great willow tree and bench on our way into the park and I knew I wanted to grab a few shots there.

Love all the blooms!

A great (and unexpected) find was this foot bridge hidden away on a path. A close second on my favorite list!

After some snooping around we found this great rustic door and stoop in the park.

... and even an old barn!

Wrapping things up, popping up that collar and putting on shades :)

Thanks so much Farah and Tarek! Best of luck on everything! :D That's a wrap folks!

Cheers!

As I've learned from the wonderfully talented JP Elario at Elario Photography, always plan a backup date for your shoots. It was a good tip because this shoot was on the back up date! We lucked out with gorgeous weather, mid to high 60s and light winds. Most of you know that the weekend before, which was our original date, was ridiculously windy with gusts upwards of 30mph! Yikes! Well, considering my nerves going into this shoot, the weather cooperating on April 12, 2014 was certainly a calming factor.

Gretchen & Brian met at Rutgers University in NJ six years ago, and for this shoot they wanted to return there to a place of emotional significance and I was happy to oblige. Cook and Douglass campuses offer a great deal of open space and nature, compared to the hustle and bustle of College Ave campus for instance. Once we had parked, we found this small little brick building and immediately I loved the texture of the brick. Now, admittedly it did take a few shots to get into a groove but once initial nerves wore off the real fun began...

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 I absolutely love the colors in this one with the contrasting brick!

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 That blue against the brown of the brick just popped so nicely!

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 Perhaps one of my favorite shots of the shoot, which was taken on a bench near the Douglass path. Oh, those balloons? 4 balloons to celebrate the month they met as well as the recurrence of 4 in their life.

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 Ahh loving it!

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 There's that bling!

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 Love the colors in this one too! Especially that green and purple!

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 These were taken near the field Gretchen graduated on as part of Douglass College, amazing green open area. We had to dodge a few sunbathers but found a nice shady patch under this enormous tree.

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 The great thing about Cook/Douglass campuses is the casual benches and shade provided by trees which made snapping this on a shade covered bench a breeze!

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 Gretchen holds the balloons while I plan my next shot.

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 Bubbles time! These two were so patient with me as I attempted to get the perfect shot...

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 Bingo! The bubbles didn't last very long because someone was having too much fun. *cough* Brian :)

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 At the end, I asked them to let go of the balloons and due to the wind they ended up flying towards me instead of straight up. Whoops!

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014 I really like the soft greens in this, the token ring shot.

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014

That's a wrap! Rarely am I in front of the camera, but of course for my bestie and her fiancé I wanted to remember this moment. So excited for both of you and thank you so much for trusting me with this! I also want to thank the wonderful people at Elario Photography (JP, Joe, Jamie, and Jenny) for their guidance and support; I know much of my foundation would not exist if it wasn't for them! (My goofy faces aren't nearly as nice looking as JP's so I'll be avoiding that).

Till next time! Cheers, Hanisha.

P.s. Don't forget to "Like" my page on facebook! :)

Gretchen & Brian's Engagement Shoot on 4.12.2014