Hey! I'm a professional!

Welcome to the new and improved Love & Photo BLOG...it dawned on me yesterday that I needed a new header for this blog which is about me as a professional photographer. So my friend Lo and I headed out on a walk around my neighborhood with two cameras. We ended up at the beach where there are beautiful Fall leaves and I loved how it turned out!

Here is a photo of me taking a photo of Lo taking a photo.... :)

Wedding Video: Leah + Michael Spano

I can finally say the Spano wedding video is finished!!!! Below is the short version I made for the web, here is the link to the photo gallery, and here is the link to order prints online! This video was very trying for me to produce because there was soooo much footage from the week to sort through and of course my iMovie decided to act funky which forced me to completely REDO it in Final Cut Pro. Also, I'm very hesitant to even say Love+Photo does video because I'd rather focus on the photography, but since we fortunately got so much footage I decided to make a video... Enjoy!

Leah and Michael's Wedding Video (small) from Lauren Brown on Vimeo.

Bam Shazam

Rather proud of my Homepage I shot and photo shopped for shopfinenfunky.com and thought I'd share. Happy Monday! Oh yeah, and please follow the blog I write for finenfunky's fashion files! Enjoy!

Photoshoot From My Bday

Here are some photos I took at my birthday photo shoot the other day at my friends Jessa's house on the lake! It was such a fun location to be at, with endless thing to shoot like cool boats, rock work and old sinks outside! We all had so much fun styling all the fab fall clothes we have in store...so check it out and I dare you not to shop!

Ghetto in the Meadow

Yesterday's shoot for Fine"n"Funky went exceptionally well and fast!
We had planned on shooting near the loading dock by the Boatworks mall, but couldn't because Tahoe City was a zoo due to the Farmer's Market. In a haste, I said "let's shoot in my neighborhood, there are some interesting walls around there" and we were there in a split second. We parked right across the street from Bacchi's {my fave Italian joint} and Sara my friend just brazenly changed in the street {maybe it was the mimosas!} which made the shoot go by in a flash! I've been having alot of fun on shoots lately and trying to take things to a different level, more like a look book. Maybe more portrait, less fashion. Anyways, so we are shooting a few blocks away from my house and there were cool walls, wood stacks, bright colored paint and old beat down cars galore and that's when Sara says "Yea that's why they call this the ghetto in the meadow" and it dawns on me...
I live in the ghetto.

Surprise visit from my besty

Yesterday, my besty Matt passed through Tahoe City on his way to Burning Man and I got to spend some cherished hours gossiping, kayaking and cheersing with him! It was so nice to hear about his life in New York, his new 4,000 square foot apartment that he's fixing up all by himself, and his photography career...but it makes me miss our life in Santa Barbara when I would see him multiple times a day. Wow how things have changed, but at least our friendship has stayed the same. See you again soon, buddy! P.S. my dress is Ella Moss.{Here I am making a delicious taco out of my huevos from Firesign!}

{Taking the kayaks to Star Harbor}

Photo of the day!

Here is the photo of the day I shot at my Fine'N'Funky photo shoot today! Our model Maddy was such a great sport and even helped us schlep our rack of fashion over dirt and rocks. Hilarious. And cold!

Wait what I live where bears live?

Today, as I was running errands in Tahoe City, I saw a crowd forming by the lake behind Safeway so I went to see what all the commotion was about. There was a bear in a tree that looked to be about a teenager. Like medium size. But what do I know, I'm just a girl from Scottsdale. :)

Love + Photo Facebook Contest

As an end of the wedding season here in Tahoe we are doing something special... we are doing a promotional contest on facebook to gain more "fans" so we are offering a FREE wedding photography package worth more than $900 that includes full event coverage by two photographers! Click here to see details and to "like" us and be sure to suggest us to your engaged friends!

Double Exposure

Something I love lately is the reality show Double Exposure about Markus Klinko and Indrani {who is my favorite person in the world!} celebrity photographers who are as fashion forward and quirky as their subjects. It's obviously interesting to me as a photographer to study what lights they use and lust after Markus' hundred thousand dollar camera...but it's also inspiring to me to see that Indrani takes fashion so seriously and always looks killer on her shoots. So today, I am going to take a cue from Indrani and spend a little extra time getting dressed this morning even though I'm behind the camera.
P.S. The stylist G.K. really reminds me of my friend Matthew Chaves. hehe.

Photo du jour!

I haven't done a Photo Of The Day post in a while, so here is the official return! Today, I had a very busy day and here it is in a nutshell:

9am- Photo shoot call time at 9am, meet at store, pick clothes, drive to beach
11am- Rush to hair appointment in Truckee (thanks Lindsey at Urban Angels!)
1pm-meet back at store and return to beach to shoot more clothes and get mud + duck poop on my favorite skinny jeans because I couldnt roll them up that high {they are that tight!}
4pm-get to Rosens to nanny the boys only to discover that it's "one of those days" for little kids to be kranky
9pm- finally get home and start photoshopping the photos I took today

And that leads up to right about now so here is my favorite of today!

Sweet Sisters

My twin sisters Haley and Samantha have been visiting for the last few weeks and we've had so much fun together! They went camping with Kelsen, they helped bbq dinner with me, and they modeled for me for Fine'N'Funky's website {click here to see what's new!} and having two models honestly did make it twice as fast to shoot! I should schedule two all the time! Live + learn. So here they are in 291 Venice, CA on the beach by our house!

New necklace in shop to help the Gulf Oil Spill

Here is a new creation for my etsy shop trying to generate some funds for the Gulf Oil Spill relief efforts by helping all of the animals and wild life that are being damaged. Please visit GreenPeace and click donate if you can! This necklace has a vintage 20 Pence piece I collected while in London a few years ago, before they switched over to the Euro...click here to check out my etsy shop!

LOVE bullet beaded necklace

Almost normal...

I feel like I am still recovering from all of the fun I had in St. Maarten's! I've been so busy this week trying to catch up with work, respond to emails, make some new necklaces, and try to make it to the gym once or twice :) And tomorrow is another big day in Reno collecting all the things I need to complete my wedding invites, so it's off to bed for me. Here is a photo of the back of my head while shooting Leah and Michael's wedding...I'll be dreaming of the Carribean tonight! Bon soir!

St. Maarten Wedding Week Website

&

The website is up and running of the Spano/Thomasson Wedding complete with His & Hers "Getting Ready" shots! Click here to see the website and check back often this week as many more photos will be added and video will be added too as soon as next week :) Enjoy!

"I Do" Carribean style!

We had such a blast shooting this wedding all week and yesterday was the grand finale event! Many more photos to come....

Sandy Beach!

Here are some photos from St. Maartin so far...we are in absolute heaven! Today the entire wedding party went to Sand Island by boats and had beer + lobster on our own private island! Cant wait for tomorrow's rehearsal dinner on the beach then Sundays ceremony! Check back for updates and many more photos + video soon! Click here to see more pics on facebook.

Here is Stefanie and I enjoying the sun and the sea urchin Ty found!

Merci por vous!

Ever since I was about ten years old, I've had a collection of thank you cards that's evolved into kind of an obsession with now a few small box fulls of thank's for all the seasons, monogrammed, birthday, holiday, blank, and most of which are french themed {merci!} but now that it's monday and I'm down to brass tax...I'm completing the last few of my bridal shower thank you notes. Since I enjoy sending them and collecting all that is needed to say thanx in style, I thought I'd share on my blog a few simple things I love.{Personalized stamps are tres chic. You can get them at stamps.com for cheap and since it was for my shower, I sent my photography themed stamps of a photo I took years ago...but I am very excited to get wedding photo stamps for wedding gift thank you's!}{Here is a favorite that's not frenchie themed...a vintage luggage tag}

{One of my all time faves...thank ye by Jonathon Wright & co}

theHORNE private jewelry showing!

Today at the store, I met up with my girlfriend Sara Horne to see her newest designs to get for my mom for belated mother's day since she recently lusted after some photos on facebook from a Trunk show of hers. Anyways, I had so much fun going through her recent treasures that we have a date for tomorrow in Reno to shoot some "artist's bio" pics of her in her work around town. Think urban portraits. Then she is taking me to her bead shop where she gets most of her materials...so so so excited! Sorry it's late, mom but Happy Mother's day...Love ya!Here is the designer in her own designs and...here is my necklace I bought for myself! Love It!

Lens Love

My new Canon 85mm f/1.8 is already paying for itself, baby! Here are the jewelry shots of the new Soixante Neuf rings....love em! And this lens made shooting these so much fun + easy as pie. Can't wait to use it at our St. Martin's wedding in a few weeks! Wohoo!

Mona + Pug Portraits

Just got TWO new lenses today and a new Canon EOS 50D so obviously I've been shooting my dogs for the last hour. Very excited!

Three Amigos

This week, we are dog sitting the poodle Tux and he is becoming fast friends with Bagel the puggle (also known as Basil!). Actually, partners in crime best describes their relationship! He is a very easy going old man except when it comes to the bunnies in our backyard! When his family gets back from Mexico (Hi Rosens!) we need to keep our play dates at Lake Forest beach!

Bath Squared

Here is a photo of one of the chores I did last Sunday.

First Baseball Game

Here are the boys I nanny at Xander's very first Tball game! Go angels!