I shot my mom

My dad is in the Army and is serving in the Middle East right now. He's based in Kuwait but travels all over... Iraq, Afghanistan, Qatar. He's been there about 4 months and has about 8 left. So with my mom in town I wanted to take some pictures of her to send to him. This afternoon we went down to the beach for a little photoshoot and had so much fun. Mom was kind of shy at first but I don't think I could take a bad picture of here if I tried. At the end of the shoot a couple was walking past us. We got into a short conversation and after I told him that she was my mom he said that they thought that she was my girlfriend! The funny thing is, it's not the first time that's happened.

Halloween fun with the fam

My family is in town for the week from Oklahoma so tonight we got to take the kids out for halloween. They were so funny. My nephew, Jake, was a fireman and Makenzie and my niece, Aly, were dalmations. We took them out to a little festival put on by the city of Aliso Viejo and then to "Hullabaloo", the mother of all harvest festivals, put on by our church, Rock Harbor. They had a lot of fun but came home with a surprisingly small amount of candy. Luckily they're too young to know that they were gyped.

Kids are awesome.

I love kids. I have a 2 and a half year old daughter named Makenzie and she is a blast. So much fun. One of the things I love about kids is that they are completely transparent. What you see is what you get. For better or worse, they wear their emotions on their sleeves. Because I shoot lots of wedding, I get to shoot lots of flower girls and ring bearers and every now and then they just aren't all that happy. Last weekend at Traci and Dan's wedding there were two adorable flower girls. 99% of the day they were perfectly content but for about 5 minutes one of them had a little breakdown. I was lucky enough to be standing nearby and caught a couple sweet shots. This is my favorite.

Marlene and Mario... the wedding

Saturday was Marlene and Mario's wedding and just like Friday's wedding there were so many great details that Marlene put a ton of thought and work into. We got a couple of hours between the ceremony and reception to shoot with the wedding party which was awesome. For all of you guys planning your weddings, make sure to build in plenty of time for pictures. The reception was held at a really great restaurant in Anaheim called The Catch. Thay had mariachi's to kick the party off and about 3 hours of non-stop dancing to close it out. I've never seen anything like the dancing that went on that night. It was insane.

Here is the slideshow!

Traci and Dan... the wedding

Friday night I got to photograph Traci and Dan's wedding at Redlands Country Club. It was one of the most intimate and sincere weddings I've been blessed to be a part of. Traci put a TON of work into this wedding and it really showed in the details. From the favors to the cake to the lighting and design of the courtyard where the ceremony was held. It was such a beautiful day and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it.

Click here to view the slideshow.

Traci and Dan

Monday night I drove over to Riverside to shoot Traci and Dan's engagement pictures at the incredible Mission Inn. I've shot there several times but this was the first time I was asked to leave. Oh well, there are lots of great places outside the hotel as well. We had so much fun I can't wait for their wedding in a few weeks! Oh yeah, on the way to my car I got stopped by this guy who was apparently a volunteer tour guide for the Mission Inn. He was a nice enough guy but oh my gosh, he talked my ear off. I was stuck sitting there listening to him talk about the hotel for about 25 minutes... I think I could give tours now.

Matt and Katie

Friday night Travis and I made our way down to Laguna Beach to shoot Matt and Katie's engagement pictures. It was a perfect night with amazing light and you really can't find a bad place to shoot in Laguna. We started off downtown and shot there for a while and then we made our way over to Shaw's Cove, an absolutely incredible spot just north of main beach in Laguna. I have so many favorites from the shoot it was really hard to narrow it down, but here you go... enjoy!

Wedding Dresses Magazine

A while ago I told you guys that a wedding I shot was going to get published. Well, last night I picked up a copy of the magazine. I'm so excited.

A few years ago I had a similar experience while playing in a band. Several "Border's Books and Music" stores in the Houston area began selling our album. It was such a trip to walk into a huge bookstore and see my CD there. When when random people I met asked where they could get the album, I would say nonchalantly, "just look for it at Border's". It didn't make us any better of a band but it kind of legitimized us to a lot of people.

So that's kind of what I feel today. I know I'm not a better photographer now that I've been published but it's pretty cool to see "photography by Michael Norwood of M.Norwood Photography" in print, and be able to tell people they can go pick up the magazine at any Border's or Barnes and Noble.