Well, after almost 72 hours of what felt like being locked up in a 1980's motel room, fully equipped with a 13" tube TV and VCR, we're finally home with our newest addition.  Despite our rooms lack of audio/visual technology, we were put in pretty big room and the hospital staff were top notch. The sleepless nights have already begun but I can't express how amazing it is to hold my little girl in my arms.  I'm sure all the parents out there know exactly what I'm talking about =) Meet our little Haydn Lohren born Dec 21, 2008, 5:15pm at 7lbs 6oz and 19.5 in long.  These were taken just minutes after her birth... [Ok so for "photography talk"...during pretty much the entire time as Haydn was coming, I shot with one of our hotshoe mounted flashes and just bounced the light off the ceiling.  But for this hot, I loved how the light coming from the machine made everything else in the room seem to not matter...how Haydn was lit while everything else were in shadows.  So I turned my flash off and shot it as is.]

 

  [Here's a good example of what bouncing light can do.  If I had point the flash right at Haydn, you wouldn't have seen the wavey folds in her swaddle.]

 

And finally, this morning, as the sun peeked through the hospital blinds, I caught this special moment between mom (Lauren) and baby. =)

 

Everytime I hold her in my arms, I can't help but fall in love with her more and more.

 To our little Hayden Lohren, we love you more than you can even know, in ways that we're still discovering each new second with you.  And don't worry, even though we're two days away from Christmas, you'll always get two gifts from us =)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

 

John & Lauren

 

Hey everyone! Happy Friday! We just wanted to let everyone know that yes, we're still alive! =)  We know it's been a long time since our last post but things have been so CRAZY lately that we've haven't even had an opportunity to post anything...but at the same time, there's so much to share!! Just on a quick note, Lauren is doing great and we both can't believe how big she's getting!  Just last night I woke up to find her sleeping on the couch because she said she was having a hard time getting out of bed =(.  Can you imagine how bad i felt/feel...even right now?!!  We're now getting really close to the final stretch (no pun intended hun) of the pregnancy and we can't believe how fast it's gone.  I feels like just yesterday that we were doing her 6 month shoot.

 

This weekend also marks our first ever Baby Shower =) So, more from our "Taco Man Baby Shower Party" next week! If you don't know what a Taco man is...just wait and see!

Besides all that we still have our last wedding we still need to share and dont' worry Dina & Chris...we haven't forgotten about you!!

 If you want to shoot Lauren a quick note any tips or just to say hello, you can at lauren@johnlauren.com.

 Have a great weekend!

Last week we mentioned that we'd post about our recent Joshua Tree outing...sorry for the delay but here it is =)

 

Our good friend Joe planned this trip for us to go to Joshua Tree this past August, and I was hesitant being pregnant and all, but John insisted I would really like it, and I am so glad I decided to go. It was so freakin' awesome! Granted, I was only able to walk around and not do any of the fun climbing, I still had an amazing time! I was so glad I went. Oh, I had the worst leg cramp of my life, but other than that, slept so well! I was shocked. Much love to the air matress! Even though it was just a one night trip, it was awesome because it wasn't too far from us, but nice to get away at the same time!

Here are just a few pictures to wrap up our trip...

 

 

They did some climbing, and bouldering, and some other technical rock climbing stuff... but really, Christy was amazing!!! She really put her legs to work and I was so amazed! The hubbster...

 The teacher...

 Christy, the awesome climbers husband, Rob

JP who I think got the coolest picture of the trip.

 

 

 

Ending with some shutter speed fun... plan a trip to Joshua Tree... you won't regret it!

 On Friday we'll post more awesome NIGHT photos we took our first night there.  It's amazing what a tripod can do for you! =)

 Remember this shoot from a few weeks ago of our friends from Red5Studios?!  If not, click here for a little history.

 

I mentioned that it was for a speacial project that they were working on and well that project is now complete! =)  What was the project?! See for yourself!...

 

 The project was for a featured article on Red5studios in Event DV Magazine!  Not sure what to expect or what photos they would use or even how they would use them, we took Loyd, Hazel, his crazy gear and shot away.  And finally yesterday, I get word that the article is up and he's on the COVER!!!

 When you get a chance, read the article and be inspired.  Whether you're a photographer, a videographer, a musician...whatever it may be, it's always great to hear someone elses' success story.  Don't forget to check out their blog too and leave them some comment love!

So I was thinking...will this give us more recogonition? mmm, maybe.  Will more Brides be inclined to book us because of this?? mmm, probably not.  BUT are we super stoked that one of our images is on the cover of a magazine PERIOD?!  YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!!! =)

 CONGRATS RED5STUDIOS & THANKS FOR LETTING US BE A PART OF IT!!

As many of you know, we hired Richelle Jean (she's RJ to us fyi..haha) to help us with our biz and so far she's been awesome!  We wouldn't know what we'd do without her! So what's she do exactly???!!!  First she helps keep us organized!, second, she helps with our post process and on occasion, more importantly than anything, I get to pull her away from all that stuff and have her do dumb things like this... =)

She's such a trooper!!  The only reason why she looks so serious in the picture is because I asked her to and for the split second that she was able to pull it off, that's what we ended up with =)  We like off camera lighting =) Just in case you're wondering, that shot was taking right outside of our house on the street.  We used two lights, one right behind her and one in a softbox about 4 ft to her left.  Besides bloching out a few specs of light from the background, this shot is straight from the camera.  If you'd to know more, just ask in the comments! There are more pics of our dear Studio Assistant RJ but we'll save those for another time ;) Happy Birthday RJ!! =)