Hello everyone! Thanks for stopping by my brand new blog. My name is Masen, and I’m a wedding and portrait photographer working and living in beautiful Southern California. This blog is meant to serve as a journal for me and my photographic life, where I post images, stories, thoughts and opinions from every aspect of my life. I like to think of it as a great way for my clients, friends and fellow photographers to keep up with my day-to-day personal and professional life.
Please take the time to look around and click through all of the links at the top, and don’t forget to add me to your RSS reader! If you have any links or blogrolls pointing to my old blog, I’d appreciate it if you took a minute to switch them over to here. I’ll be happy to do the same for you.
If you’d like to know a little more about me or my photography, please SEND ME AN E-MAIL, or give me a call at 619.244.7627.
If you are a client looking to see your proofs, please do so by clicking HERE.
And lastly, if you are planning on getting married, I’d love to hear from you! Or if you know someone else who is getting married, please send them my info. I promise you won’t regret it! Thanks again for stopping by.
In honor of the launch of my BRAND NEW PORTFOLIO WEBSITE, I’ve decided to do something I’ve never done before. I’m offering new, mini portrait sessions! After you’ve headed over to my new portfolio website to bask in all it’s glory (What can I say, I’m thrilled with it!), check out the details below, and get ready to book your time slot!
In contrast to my standard family/headshot/kids portrait sessions, which start at $375, for a limited time I’m going to be scheduling an afternoon of mini-sessions. For only $100, you get a half-hour of shooting time, plus all of the other add-ons that come with my standard sessions. This is in an effort to encourage many of you who have not been able to invest in the full session. I’m lining up 6 half-hour slots on the same afternoon.
In addition to the photo session you will also receive an on-line private gallery containing all of your proof images, a disc containing ALL of those same proof images in hi-res printable format, as well as one 11 X 14 professionally retouched print of your favorite image. And as a bonus, for every other person/family you refer to me that books a time slot, you will receive a $25 gallery credit for purchasing professional prints!
These session are available to families, couples, children, or headshots. I will happily shoot as many groups or people as you’d like, as long as it’s inside of your half-hour time slot.
I’m going to schedule the first mini session date for the afternoon of Sunday, March 21st, in Balboa Park. There will only be six slots available. If I receive enough interest, I’ll open a second session date for the following Sunday. You must pay for your slot in advance, and there will be no refunds, unless I’m able to easily move you to different, unbooked time slot. Payments will only be accepted via credit card.
UPDATE: I’ve corrected my error in writing that the date was Sunday the 20th, when that Sunday is actually the 21st. Sorry! Also, I’ve pushed back the start times by one hour to take into account the later sunset, allowing for better light. 3 spots left! Thanks!
Here’s the time slot layout:
Sunday, March 21st:
Slot 1 - 2:00pm - BOOKED
Slot 2 - 2:30pm
Slot 3 - 3:00pm - BOOKED
Slot 4 - 3:30pm
Slot 5 - 4:00pm - BOOKED
Slot 6 - 4:30pm - BOOKED
I will be updating this post and the above slot info as they begin to fill up. To book your slot, please send me an email at studio@ma5en.com with your desired slot time. They will fill up fast, so if you’re considering it, get in touch with me as soon as you can! After you contact me, I will give you all the information needed to make your payment, and prepare for your shoot.
I will also update this post if I open up the following Sunday for another block of sessions.
I hope to hear from you soon!
View/Leave Comments (3)My wife Jen, daughter Elliott and I just returned home from a 5 day vacation in Sedona, AZ. I shot an engagement session in Sedona a couple of years ago, and told Jen that it was gorgeous and that I had to take her there some day. We spent our days relaxing, taking in the beautiful surroundings, and enjoying some great food. This was our first trip as a family, and Elliott’s first time traveling in an airplane. She was her usual happy self, and had an amazing time! While I didn’t shoot that many images on this trip (I wanted to do more relaxing than shooting), I thought I would post a few shots from the first couple of days. We started out by visiting Jerome, AZ, a tiny mountain mining town, and then toured Sedona and the surrounding area.
Here are a few images, starting with a few from quirky little Jerome, AZ.
A cute shot of my girls, strollin’.
On the second day of our trip we visited Slide Rock, a beautiful spot a few miles outside of Sedona. You can hike down to a shallow section of river and walk along the red rock river bank. In the summer you can actually get in the water and swim, but it was a little too cold for that this time of year.
Here are Jen and Elliott, ready to make the trek down to the river:
Elliott LOVES riding in her hiking pack!
And here’s what we journeyed down to see:
The rocks are so gorgeous!
And here’s a little self shot family portrait next to the river:
We had such an amazing time, and I know we’ll be back in the future. Jen said that she’d easily be willing to retire there some day! Who knows… : )
On a side note for photographers, all of these images were processed using TRA’s Totally Rad Actions. I’m mentioning this for two reasons. One, I’m often asked what I use to process my images to achieve the look I get. I can honestly say that I use at least one of these actions on EVERY SINGLE image I process in Photoshop, and usually several. They are an indispensable part of my digital photographic workflow. Secondly, TRA has released a brand new set of Adobe Lightroom Presets, TODAY! They have created a brand new set of Lightroom presets that closely resemble the same effects that can be achieved through their actions in Photoshop. If you’d like to pick them up (as well as the actions sets I use), click on the banner below!
In the realm of full disclosure, if you click on the link and purchase any of the actions or presets, I will receive monetary compensation as an affiliate. But please note that I would never endorse any product that I did not completely LOVE and use myself, no matter what. These tools are amazing, and I could not work without them!
View/Leave Comments (5)I’m so happy to finally post images from this wedding! I think this is the longest I’ve ever gone between shooting a wedding, and blogging it. The wedding took place the day after Christmas, and with the craziness of the holidays and the new year, I just hadn’t gotten around to it until now. But, it’s worth the wait as I have TON of images to post!
This was about as fun and easy as it gets to photograph a wedding. The bride and groom chose amazing venues (The Immaculata and US Grant Hotel), and factored in plenty of ample time for me to photograph them both before and after the ceremony. We were also blessed with amazing weather and light. I posted some images of the reception photobooth from this weeding in the post below, and now finally, here are some of my favorites from their big day!
I just love this dress and it’s details!
Mom, helping with the finishing touches…
TOTALLY love the classy vintage feel of her ensemble!
I don’t think she was very nervous. That, and I’m an extremely funny guy!
The adorable flower girls:
A few portraits of the gorgeous bride…
I know these two are similar, but I couldn’t choose a favorite, so I’m posting both!
The groom cleans up pretty nice too:
The Immaculata is a gorgeous church on the campus of USD:
A couple from the ceremony:
First kiss!
The happy couple:
After heading down to the reception at the US Grant, we shot a couple of portraits in and around the hotel before the party started.
I know this shot is slightly out of focus, and has a little movement to it, but I think it really adds to the vibe and happiness of the moment.
One more on the street:
The first dance was so much fun. The crowd was super loud, and the happy couple had some classy moves on the dance floor!
The couple hired a full Mariachi band for the dinner hour:
And lastly, here’s one of MANY fun shots during the reception. The couple had all sorts of different props that were distributed throughout the night to keep the guests hopping! Here’s a fun shot with some streamers. I love the groom the left side of the screen covering his face.
Thanks so much for having me out to share in your big day, guys!
View/Leave Comments (5)I shot a fantasticly beautiful wedding the day after Christmas which I’ll be blogging very soon, but wanted to share a few of the photo booth, or “Funbooth” images from the reception. The bride and groom, along with their guests had an amazing time at the US Grant after their nuptials, and these photos were so much fun to capture! Check back soon for images from their wedding day!
Even my buddy David who helped photograph the wedding with me got in on the action:
Every year around Thanksgiving, my awesome wife Jen plans and runs a charity auction for a local organization. Everyone from her office donates items and services to generate money for a worthy cause. I’m happy that every year I get to donate a portrait session to try and drum up a few bucks for that year’s charity, New Alternatives Group Home, a fantastic organization for foster kids, ages 7 - 11. This year, the portrait session was won by the super-awesome Julie Meditz! She asked if I would be willing to photograph her family during the holidays, and I was more than happy to so so! They’ve been patiently waiting for these photos as I warned them that I’d be taking a few days off before the new year.
So, without further ado, here are some fun family portraits of the Meditz clan shot in one of my favorite hidden locations here in San Diego:
Mom and Dad deserve their own portrait, too!
A few shots of the girls:
And lastly, my favorite shot of the day of the whole family:
Thanks for such a fun time, guys! I hope to see and photograph you guys again in the future!
View/Leave Comments (2)Shortly after I returned from my Army trip last month, in the heart of the holiday season, I had a chance to get together with and photograph one of favorite families of all time. I’ve photographed these ladies several times, but hadn’t done so in way too long. These three have a very special relationship, and it shows every time we get together. Loraine and her two daughters Annabel and Mae, met me at Balboa Park for a fun hour of photos and catching up. They bought special dresses from one of their favorite designers just for the shoot. They looked totally fab, and they always make it easy for me to photograph them. I hope we can make it a yearly tradition!
Here are a few fun shots from my time with these awesome ladies:
Work it, ladies, work it!
Some mood fashionista shots:
Thank you for an awesome session, ladies! I hope to see you again soon!
View/Leave Comments (4)Happy New Year everyone!
After a nice long break from blogging, a vacation at home with the family, a fantastic Christmas and New Year’s, and a nice semi-break from social networking, it’s great to be be back! I’m incredibly excited about all of the things in store in the coming weeks and months. This blog will soon be getting a facelift, and I’ll also be debuting my brand new main portfolio website! I’m also planning on blogging a lot more this year, (including my daughter’s website). I blogged EVERY SINGLE DAY in the year 2007, but have been a bit of a slacker the last couple of years. It’s time to pick up the pace! I certainly won’t be blogging every single day, but definitely more often.
I also plan on networking more in the new year. Getting out and socializing (in PERSON) with my fellow industry professionals is key being successful these days. In fact, I’m going to try to have lunch with a fellow industry friend at least once per week. If you want join me, let me know!
After the most chaotic, and at the same time the most rewarding year of my life in 2009, I’m looking forward to creating more time for friends and family. I’m hoping this year is both a year of growth, as well as tranquility. All of the hard work and stress is meant to give us the ability to enjoy the little moments spent with the most important people in our lives. And that’s what I hope to do this year… to work hard, but to also make plenty of time for my family and friends. That’s what it all comes down to.
I hope you all had a fabulous holiday season, and that you’re as pumped about this new year as I am! I have several shoots and projects from last month that I’ll be blogging in the next few days, so check back!
And because blog posts without pictures are lame, here are a few shots of my daughter from a couple days ago, tearing apart a teething cookie like only she can:
And just for fun, a super-sized image of the queen of the cookie!
On the eve of my flight back to San Diego after a two week shoot out here at Ft. Gordon, I thought I would post a shot the fantastic crew I get to work with while I’m out here. This trip was all about shooting communication specialties, so that’s why I chose the satellite dish as the background. I’m the thug in the middle wearing the hoodie. Home tomorrow!
Before I flew out here to Augusta for my current US Army shoot, I met up with a lovely former bride of mine from earlier this year to shoot a quick bridal session in Poway, CA. Due to time constraints and forces beyond out control, I wasn’t able to shoot everything I would have liked on her wedding day. So, a few months after the wedding we got together to capture a couple more shots of her in her dress. We only had a short time to shoot in the late afternoon as the sun was dipping below the horizon, but I’m still very happy with the images I was able to capture. Here are a couple of my favorites from our get together!
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