Is it really still summer???

It is now the first week of September and today was a scorching 95 degrees in Tochigi. The dry heat felt like Vegas in July. Luckily though, Abe had the day off so we found refuge in our local Coco's restaurant. All you can drink iced coffee? Yes please!

Aside from drinking all the ice coffee my stomach will allow, I have started working again. Lots of happy little children to sing and dance with!
Oh yea, I also sleep. A LOT. This weather really drains me.

Here's a picture of my cat Ninja (taken on my iPhone) doing what he does best:

Looks like he hates this heat too! Oh autumn, hurry up and get here already!

The Mystery Box

This post needs a little bit of an explanation.

So if you read my blog regularly you know that Abe and I went home as we usually do at the end of last season. We had lots to take back to LA with us so we decided to ship some of our belongings a couple weeks before we left Japan knowing that it would take about a month to arrive in Cali.

So a few weeks pass and we get one package full of our stuff. Then a few more days go by and our packages continue to arrive one at a time.

We thought we had received them all but one more came. As I opened it, I was thinking "Man, Abe has lots of photographs, and I've never seen these baby pics of him before...hmmmm". Abe looked in the box a bit later and started freaking out. THAT BOX WASN'T OURS. It was full of random stuff belonging to someone else. Mixed in this box, however, was a few of our things. A jersey of Abe's, some of my old costume jewelry. But more importantly, there were things that belonged to another Japanese family. A college diploma, old DVDs, a walkman!

Perhaps the most unfortunate of things to get mixed up in this package was a photo album overflowing with the most precious, beautiful images. There were photos of a baby being taken home from the hospital, crawling for presumably the first time, growing up, etc.

Also in the package was a note from the post office (on the other side of the US) that said our package may have gotten mixed up with another one. But there was no way to get a hold of the post office that handles these sorts of things. Abe wrote a long letter to the post office (there was no phone number or email address...seriously?!) and explained the mix-up but we have yet to hear back from anyone.

And so we have their belongings, and they possibly have ours. I'm not even exactly sure what is in our box, but it can't be as valuable as what we got in theirs.

I can't help but stare at the images I've posted in this blog post. There were about 100 photographs, but I just scanned a few to save. I trip out on what beautiful images they are. The photographer obviously was wonderful with the camera. Each shot so beautifully focused and composed. {sigh}

Anyway, I'm glad that the box was sent to my house as opposed to someone who might not appreciate the sentimental value of these photos. I (with the help of Abe's mother) am determined to find out where these pictures came from and can hopefully return them to their rightful owners.

A wonderful day at the park

Just looking through these pictures really makes me miss Whittier. I had so much fun spending the afternoon with this sweet mommy-son pair. Tyisha wanted some photos to capture herself and her adorable son, Jayden...boy did we have fun!


We conquered the slide:





Jayden mastered the monkey bars:






Collected pine cones:





And he and his pretty mommy got to relax...






This one makes me laugh. Look at Jayden's biiig grin when Tyisha told him he'd get ice cream if he smiled nicely for the photos:






And mommy kept her promise.







And ice cream is what he got.







Love this shot.










Tyisha, thank you for inviting me to relax with you and Jayden at the park. I had a wonderful time catching up and hanging out with you guys. You are a wonderful mommy and have such a sweet, adorable son! Hope you like your photos :)

xoxo,
juldog

C.J. and Ralphie

This engagement session was waaay fun. It was totally last-minute, at the beach, and we literally stumbled upon this super cool lifeguard tower as we were looking for a place to pull over and grab some pictures (score!).

I've known Ralphie from my college days. He's brilliant, quirky and a great guy...so it isn't surprising that he found an equally intelligent, gorgeous gal to spend the rest of his life with.







You know how sometimes, things just mesh. You don't even question it, you just know they do? Yea, that's these two.



















Something about this picture makes me happy. Maybe it's CJ's beautiful smile, or how sophisticated Ralphie looks. Or the fact that they just look so comfortable and in love. I don't know what it is, but I love this photo:






Yay for their cute doggy...





and yay a doggy that smiles!










Ralphie and CJ, thank you sooo much for allowing me to do this shoot for you. You guys are adorable together and already make the perfect team. I'm sure your wedding is going to be as amazing as you two are together. Congratulations again on your engagement!!!


xoxo,
juldog

...and doggy makes three!

I've known Kelly for over 15 years. We went to high school together, we dormed in college together, we worked together. Since those times, I'm happy to say that we've managed to stay in touch even with me living on another continent for over 5 years.

Kelly trusted me last year to do a shoot with her and her celebrity puppy, Suzy. And this summer, she asked if I would another shoot with her husband, Glen and Suzy as well. Yay! We had fun...


I adored Kelly's vibrant and fun dress!






By the way, I'm experimenting with editing by trying out some actions. I usually shy away from them but wanted to try something different in these photos.














Kelly's makeup looked beautiful that day...









And Glen looked quite suave...






Somebody's in loooove! :)













Kelly, Glen and Suzy: Thank you so much for allowing me to do this shoot for you guys. I had so much fun bribing Suzy with dog treats and eating delicious dinner! Thank you for supporting my little photography hobby turned business. I can't wait to do more shoots for you all in the future!

xoxo,
juldog

Lucky

Yes, it's been far too long since my blog has been touched. I've neglected it in the worst way. I was going to make the normal excuse that I've been busy. Busy catching up on life since coming back to Japan from LA. Busy adjusting to life as a basketball wife. Busy editing through pictures...blah blah blah...


But as I started looking through the gobs and gobs (is that even a word?!) of pictures I took over the summer, I started to realize how lucky I am. That
I get to go home to a beautiful city every summer with my wonderful husband and relax with my awesome family. I get to take pictures to my heart's content and I have friends who want to be involved in my photography. I have so much to be grateful for and this creating this post really showed my how fortunate I am to be where I am. {huuuug}


Ok, enough mushiness. Here's a preview of what I'm catching up on....

Nice to meet you!

Check out this good-looking stranger some of us photographers grabbed as he was walking by. More photos of him and my pretty cousins soon! :)

Another beautiful family

Wow, how time flies! I remember meeting Apryl waaay back in the day when we worked together at Outback Steakhouse. At the time, she was dating her sweet boyfriend Brandon. Years later, they were married and had a beautiful daughter, Araia and more recently another daughter, Aubrey.

Apryl asked me to take photos of their newest addition to the family and while I was there, also took the opportunity to get them all together for some family photos. Because really, everyone should have family pictures!









Aubrey was so alert for being so tiny!










Araia really takes the job title on her t-shirt very seriously!












I love this photo of Brandon holding Aubrey's tiny little feet:











Apryl and Brandon: Thank you for inviting me into your gorgeous home to photograph you and your beautiful family. I had so much fun chasing bugs with Araia and catching up with you all. I hope you like your pictures!

xoxo,
Julie