I love movies. Any kind of movie. Comedy, drama, action, thriller, romantic. I’m a big fan! Of the movies. I could watch movies all day long every day. But there are only a handful of movies that I want to see more than once. You know…those movies that you could take to a desert island and watch only those 10 movies over and over till forever. Well I didn’t mention before that I LOVE MUSICALS! LOVE! THEM! There’s something so magical about a good musical. It takes you to a place that doesn’t exist in real life. In real life people very rarely break out into song and dance in the middle of normal conversation. But in musicals anything goes!

Moulin Rouge is one of my top favorites. I’ve seen that movie more times in the last decade than I care to admit. It transports me to Paris, and a place of truth, beauty, freedom, and above all things, LOVE! Well, if you’ve seen it, you know that it begins with Ewan McGregor’s character typing his story in Paris on an old typewriter. And I’ve been in love with how they incorporated the story telling with the typewriter. It begins and ends with the typewriter and the story in between is the story that his typewriting is telling. So, that’s clearly where the inspiration came for my promo video!

So, I’m totally cool with being in front of a still camera. I think it’s really fun. My girlfriends and I used to pretend we were models growing up, so I just think it’s a blast to still play pretend. But it’s a whole ‘nother story when you talk about the moving picture. Ya know…the talkies. I was TERRIFIED of being in front of the video camera, and even more so, I was afraid of TALKING on the video camera. There was just no way that was going to happen, I hate the sound of my own voice, and I knew I would cringe every time I saw the video. So I had to come up with a solution. And that’s when I decided to have the typewriter keep writing my story along the bottom of the screen. Actually, now that I think about it, Mary Frances said we should have captions and I laughed, but then realized that the typewriter writing would actually work perfectly. So, then it came time for a script. And I knew I wanted it simple. Because I’m simple. I think things clean and simple. So, I thought about the old Dick and Jane books…“Look, Jane. Look, look. See Dick. See, see. Oh, see. See Dick.” And I simplified it even more! And that’s the story of how the Amanda Rae video came to life!

Now, tell me…what inspires you??

PS…there are two quotes from Friends slipped into this post as my subtle way of saying Friends also inspires me.

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When Angela chose her location, I had only ever been there to go hiking not to photograph. I’m so glad we went there because the backdrops were beautiful, and I think it helped that we’ve had so much rain lately.

THE SLIDESHOW <--- click here!

As I was taking this picture. Mike was taking the one beneath it. Can you see why I hired him now??

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Check out THE SLIDESHOW too!

The below are by far my two favorites from this session. So dreammyyyyyyy!

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Interestingly enough, there was torrential downpour the day of the workshop, and a tornado warning. In Southern California. So as I was sitting there getting my hair and makeup done, the rain was hitting the window so hard, and then Chenin comes in from shooting detail shots outside and is soaking wet. I was getting soooo worried that all these people came out and weren’t going to get any good photographs. Then out of nowhere the rain stopped, the clouds parted, and then sun started shining. I’m serious. This is all a true story. So we all headed outside and this is what happened:

This is my favorite picture of Chenin’s. I absolutely loved this dress. I think tea-length wedding dresses are such a cute idea, I like anything out of the ordinary! Definitely head over to Chenin’s blog to see more of her incredible work.

The rest of the pictures I pulled from the workshop attendee’s blogs. They all did such a beautiful job!

This next one is from Christine of C Weddings. I love the close-up on the headpiece with Mike in the background.

This one is by Emily Steffen. The sunlight is dreamy!

Gladys Jem is such a delight! The next two pictures are from my new friend.

This one makes me smile every time I see it:

Kristine Atienza, it was such a pleasure meeting you! I love this picture of us interacting with each other.

So dreamy…by She Wanders.

This next one is from Amber from Zasey Photography.

I love the outfit that Chenin picked out for Mike! The concept was Scientists getting married. So she dressed him up as a nerdy scientist and I loved it! This one of just Mike is from Jennifer Ballard. If it looks like he’s wearing lipstick, it’s because he is. They had us kissing so much that it all transferred over to him!

Styled By: Angel Swanson of Events of Love & Splendor

Floral Design: The Treasured Petal

Stationary: Wiley Valentine

Rentals: Classic Party Rentals

Dress Designer: Joan Shum

Makeup & Hair: All Made Up Team

Deserts & Goodies: Vanilla Bakeshop

Venue: Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club

Happy Valentine’s weekend to everyone!!

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Yesterday was a huge day for me. I launched my promo video and announced that Mike will be joining my team. I was nervous. So nervous. I had this idea in my head and I worked tirelessly for months ensuring that it came together. When I saw it for the first time I loved it, but I was worried that people wouldn’t “get” it. I launched it first thing in the morning. And then I waited. I waited to see what people were going to say. Were they going to like it? Were they going to LOVE it?

In the short time that I have been in the business there have been some amazing people in the photography industry who have come into my life. Well, yesterday all these people showed up and held the door open for me. They not only told me they loved it, but they opened the portal to their world and gave me full access to their friends and family. So I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to Chenin and Jasmine and everyone else who twittered my link for all your friends to see. Thank you to Jen and Scarlett for believing in me before I even owned a camera! Thank you to Scott and Mary of Floataway Studios for being my amazing friends and for producing the video that until a few weeks ago only existed in my head.

If you take a look at the screenshot below, you will see I had just a few more people come to my blog than usual! Many of you said you would be returning and I just want to welcome you and thank you for sticking around. And thank you to all my existing readers too!! Ok, so this is totally turning into a grammy acceptance speech , but I also have to say thank you to my mom who comments on EVERY post, and to BreAnne and Chrissy for telling me everyday that I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn-it people like me.

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Amanda Rae Photography from Floataway Studios on Vimeo.

Soooooooo…did you guess…Mike is officially joining my team! He has been my biggest supporter and now he is my first employee! Well, I guess he’s more of a partner, but I do get to tell him what to do. Mike’s role in the business will be as my permanent second shooter. So from now on, all photography collections will include two shooters. I’m so excited for 2010 and all the weddings we’ll be photographing together!

The video will now be posted on my website. I would love to hear what you think of it!

Also…I just noticed that I hit my 500th blog comment in my last blog post! Thank you Amber for being lucky number 500. And THANK YOU to everyone who has stopped by and given some love. We’ll have to do something really special when we hit 1000!

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This little guy was a huge show-stealer. I very easily could have made this entire blog post about him! Brittany was concerned about how he would handle his ring bearer duties and he did a pretty good job! (With mom’s help, of course.)

The food was absolutely delicious!

We all got these adorable suitcases filled with all sorts of goodies.

They had individual mini cakes for the guests. The before and after:

Brittany and Ian, thank you so much for flying me up to Canada to be a part of your big day!

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Sooooo, the only rule of Langdon Hall is you are not allowed to take a picture of Langdon Hall. Oops. I figured this one was okay because it’s from a distance and the reason they have the rule is because they have a lot of high profile clients and they want to protect their privacy. You can shoot everything else around the hotel except for the front of the hotel.

Little snippets of my room. I’ll show more when I show the bride getting ready.

After the wedding, I put on all the clothes I brought and went exploring. Here are some of the things I saw on my little hike.

Pretty much the only thing I really wanted to see was some icicles. This was the only one I could find!

This totally reminds me of the Secret Garden, aka the best story ever!

I couldn’t believe how red this red twiggy bush was!

The main reason for my exploration was to check out this waterfall.

I climbed back through all the brush to get to the top of it. Took a lot longer than you would think!

At the top of the waterfall you can see the lake that feeds into the water that falls. It’s so cool, that you can see the layer of ice and the water that comes out from under it.

I did not realize when I was taking this next picture that you can see my reflection in the water!

I thought this was cool too…the droplets of water would splash up and freeze together! You can see the water splashing underneath the ice that has formed.

When I turned around and saw the rusty pick axes, I figured it was about time to head back.

I can’t wait to show you the wedding!!!

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