Women Fuck Shit Up Fest 2018 - Los Angeles Concert Photographer

I had the honor of photographing a music festival held in LA recently called Women Fuck Shit Up.

WFSU Fest uses music and art to bridge communities and raise awareness around social justice issues while aiming to create a community of womyn to hone their power and defy the feminine stereotype of “softness’. The space is about diversity, equity and inclusion. It was a very positive and empowering place to be on a Friday and Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Each year the festival benefits a local organization that supports womyn. This year it benefited LA Center for Law and Justice. This non-profit is dedicated to helping those in need with law services, education and awareness immigration status to sexual harassment cases. These services come free of charge for those who meet the poverty threshold.

The line up was awesome, check it out here. Without further ado, here are my favorites from the whole fest that I saw.

If you are interested in booking your band for a studio session or a live show, drop me a line!

Thank you for stopping by. Check out our Facebook and Instagram for daily updates.

xo,
Sarah C.

[Picture Life] with the Stevens Family | Orange County Family Photographer

Amy reached out to me to take photographs on her family including the cutie, Bennett! There’s a great park right behind their backyard so we went on a little adventure, had dinner, and then bed time!

I love capturing a day for a family like this. It shows how everyone interacts together and is a great way to freeze this moment in time to cherish for years to come.

[Picture Life] with the Sanchez Tribe | Orange County Family Photographer

I met Katrina, David, and their oldest daughter Alana when she was about 4 or 5 years old. We met at a church we were all attending at the time and Alana enjoyed when I spun her around after service. We parted ways a few years ago and haven't been in contact too much since, so when I arrived at their ranch (aka Ranchez), it was a warm welcome as if I had been there dozens of times. All the kids warmed up to me pretty quickly and it was a joy to photograph them going about their Saturday morning.

Alana is now 10, Deluca is 5.5, Levi is 4, Xander is 2.5, and August was born in December. They are the sweetest family. Their house is full of love and community. Mama bear Katrina says, "Our goal for our tribe is to love God and love others, and to give our children rich childhood experiences through simple living on the Ranchez and quality home education."

It was a pleasure to photograph this family at home and give them photographs to cherish for a life time. If you are interested in booking your authentic family session, drop me a line!

Thank you for stopping by. Check out our Facebook and Instagram for daily updates.

xo,
Sarah C.

Happy 30th St. Patrick's Gender Reveal Day!!! | Orange County Photographer

Three celebrations at once? Yes, please!! A good friend of mine, Jillian, is going to be a first time mother this year!! I am super excited for her and her husband Matt. My husband and I met them at our friend Michael's Celebration of Life in November. She has quickly become one of my fave gal pals and I was honored to be asked to photograph this special day. On Sunday, March 12th, Jillian got family and friends together for a St. Patrick's Day themed gender reveal/30th birthday party. It was SO HOT out, but it was great to be around good people and good food celebrating.

Food was catered by In-N-Out (yummmm) and friends and family baked delicious treats. Jillian made lucky charms puppy chow. It was delish and straight out of a Pinterest recipe.

Since this was a gender reveal party, guests were encouraged to place their bet by adding $2 to the pot of gold. If the baby is a girl, she will be named Ripley. If the baby is a boy, he will be named Bronson. After lunch, it was time to reveal by popping a giant balloon. Guests were given poppers to pop when Jillian popped the giant black balloon so everyone could be part of the reveal.

IT'S A GIRL!!!

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY JILLIAN!!

CAN'T WAIT TO MEET YOU RIPLEY VALEN!!

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[Picture Life] with The Lynns

Kristen Lynn and I played roller derby together years ago. She retired some years back when she started her family but we have kept in touch through Facebook. A few years ago when her son Harry was only a few months old, she let me come over to try my skills at "newborn" photography. Turns out, I'm not great at posing babies and prefer lifestyle/documentary style. Kristen told me that she never got family photos because she didn't like posed portraits. I was very happy to hear that, since I am pursuing this documentary style full-blast now!

Enough backstory, fast forward to a few Saturdays ago when I went to the Lynn household and spent a few hours with this awesome family, documenting their typical Saturday afternoon. These are my favorite types of sessions because I enjoy capturing the ordinary and freezing everyday moments for parents who can enjoy their babes and look back on these photos forever, to remember this fragment of time. From this session Kristen and her husband Harry will be able to remember when Joey loved playing dress up and would change her outfit multiple times a day and loved to play jungle gym on her parents. They will remember when little Harry was still into Lego's (even though Minecraft is also pretty important to him) and he was in the stage of wanting to show you everything he did with your undivided attention. In a few months, some things may change but through these sessions, we can create art and memories together to last a lifetime.
 

These moments will happen without a camera there to document. I'm honored to give this gift to the Lynns to cherish for a lifetime.  Hope you all enjoyed this session and be sure to drop us a line to book your in-home storytelling session today!

Thank you for stopping by. Check out our Facebook and Instagram for daily updates.

xo,
Sarah C.

Women's March 2017 - Orange County, CA | Orange County Documentary Photographer

Today was one of the best days of my life. It was such an honor to be part of history where in 60 countries around the world, over 3 million people marched on behalf of women. I marched in Santa Ana, CA (Orange County) with over 20,000 people of all ages, race, creed, ability, and sexuality. I was in awe of my community coming together for me and all women.

As one speaker proclaimed, "This was a coming out party for the allegiance of social justice warriors."

I didn't see any "official" press at our event. Surprise, surprise. So I took part in documenting and being the people's press. It's important that our voices be heard, and our ideas shared.

Enjoy and please share!

Thank you for visiting and supporting.

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Be good to one another.

[Picture Life] on Friday the 13th

"Friday the 13th" brings up different thoughts for everyone. For some, it's horror films, and others fear it will be an unlucky day. Some people just go about their Friday normally.  For me, I think about $13 tattoos! For the past few of years I have gotten 4 of these simple design tattoos. So yesterday I met some friends at a tattoo shop in Costa Mesa for some tattoo fun!

Now, I realize I didn't get any photos of the final tattoos (except mine) but I really wanted to focus on the energy of the day. I hope you enjoy!

Agape Art Collective - Costa Mesa, CA

Jon with Aaron behind

The boys patiently waiting. We waited a total of 3 hours! [L to R: Jon, Jeremiah, Aaron]

Aaron stole my camera and took some photos including this one.

This is our tattooer, Sal. He was rad and down to earth.

Aaron stole my camera again and snapped this of me.

I always love checking out tattooer's stations. The artwork on their wall tells a lot about what kind of artist/person they are.

And now the prep begins for my tattoo!

Thank you Aaron for snapping away while it was my turn!

yum! I have a deep love for pizza and I am pretty stoked on this new tattoo :)

Thanks for checking out my blog. I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of my personal life!

I am available for hire in little adventures like this so drop me a line and we can discuss working together.

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Until next time!

[Picture LIFE] The Evans Family

I met the Evans family just before Christmas through Jaclyn's sister Cat. Jaclyn and Colin have been married for over 4 years and have two beautiful little girls: Karaleigh age 2, and Aria age 4. When I met their girls, they were all about performing, poking, and playing. Normal kid stuff. Cat had told me about her sister Jaclyn's wonderful massages and her family's unique lifestyle. She mentioned that Jaclyn enjoyed bartering services and well, I can't resist a good massage so Chris (my husband) and I reached out to Jaclyn about trading a photo shoot for massages for us. I was intrigued by the lifestyle that they lead and couldn't wait to document it and spend more time with them.

The Evans family lives at the summit of the Santa Cruz Mountains in a 500sqft home that has a bedroom, a bathroom, and a kitchen/living room combo. This September will mark 5 years in their humble abode.

Jaclyn describes their lifestyle as, "Rewilding; transitioning from a lifestyle of relying on society to being self reliant. Every change in perception and choice makes a big difference, and successful changes fuel that fire to continue on. Whether it be composting, foraging, fire making, or making our own soap." 

Karaleigh is on the left and Aria is on the right. I arrived soon after they woke up that chilly winter morning.

Colin makes his family butter coffee and butter hot chocolate. 

Even his girls drink the coffee sometimes. 

Karaleigh was not a fan of the "gooey egg" that daddy boiled and made momma eat the gooey part. 

First, Aria wanted to show me their fort.

And then it was Karaleigh's turn.

Jaclyn: Come sit and drink coffee with me. We do that together.
Colin: I don't like to sit by you *jokingly*
Jaclyn: You can squat. You like to do that. 
Colin: I can do that :-)

As part of their organic and natural lifestyle, Colin and Jaclyn only drink water from springs, like ones they find here. 

Even though the girls haven't seen the Disney princess movies like most little girls, they know all of the songs by heart and enjoy playing with their dolls. Rapunzel is Aria's favorite. 

Karaleigh is quite the ham and loves performing for anyone. I predict she will be an actress or performer of some kind when she's older. In this photo she is "pinning" (spinning). She can't pronounce her s's yet. I can't handle how adorable these two chickies are.

While dad makes a fire in their bedroom, the girls practice their hand drill skills that they learned at a nature awareness program in Felton called Fox Tracks. The three of them attend every Monday.

“Our inspiration for parenting comes from the old tribal mindset. Our culture is not set up to support this but we do what we can to bring it back to the roots of togetherness, songs, story telling, and following our children’s natural desires and passions rather than imposing those things. This is a reason we have chosen the unschooling route.”

— Jaclyn Evans

Time for some archery Aria got her own bow and arrows for Christmas. 

It was a wee bit chilly outside at 10:30 am in the mountains. 

Ilford 400 - 35mm film

Karaleigh was looking for some help with Aria's bow and arrow.

Every parent needs their own space. This is Colin's star jointed annex that he built himself

The bottles on the floor were collected to store fresh spring water.

Colin's standing workstation helps improve posture and focus when working on the computer.

Jaclyn wanted some photographs of Colin on his slack line. Have you ever tried walking on one of this things? It's hard! 

“Our house is small and can get messy. We get make trips to Goodwill often as we aspire to live in a yurt one day with more space to pursue our lifestyle dreams. In the meantime, while our kids are real little, I like to remember the quote ‘cobwebs be quiet, dust go to sleep, cus I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep’”

— Jaclyn Evans