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.

Here are a few of my faves from our afternoon together. Lots of gorgeous late afternoon sun action going on in these. : )

They’re kinda cute together, eh?

If you’re still interested in having me photograph your family this holiday season, I still have a few dates available. Just send me a message and let me know!

The fee for the 30 minute session is $200, and will include a disc of all the hi-res final images, an online password protected gallery, along with a professionally retouched and edited hi-res file of your favorite image, ready for holiday card printing. If you’d like me to take care of the printing of your holiday cards, I’m available to do that as well! The images will be turned around and sent out quickly, as I know the time to send out holiday cards is getting close!

The sessions will once again take place at beautiful Balboa Park, and the session times for both Saturday and Sunday will be as follows:

1:00 pm
1:30 pm
2:00 pm
2:30 pm
3:00 pm
3:30 pm

Please contact me asap if you’d like to reserve your preferred shoot time. I will do my best to update this post as the session times are reserved. If you can’t make it out this weekend, but would still like to book a session, please contact me to check for availability.

BONUS: If you refer someone who books a session on one of these two dates, you will also receive a free 11 X 14 professional print from your session as a thank you!

I will be accepting payment on the shoot day by either cash, check or credit card. Information regarding the specifics of your shoot will be emailed out once you book your time slot. Please contact me soon, as I’m pretty sure all of these time slots are going o book soon, with the weekend approaching quickly! You can either email me at masen@ma5en.com, or call me at 619-244-7627.

Here are some fun family images from the past few years:

I can’t wait to see you this weekend!

So adorable!

Check out these next 2 shots… one from 2008, when Danika was just a few months old, and the next in the same exact spot 3 years later:

Danika was hogging the camera most of the time, so I let her take center stage on this one… : )

One last sweet family shot:

I’m already looking forward to next year!

So cute together:

We roamed around La Jolla Cove for awhile, and shot some San Diego beach portrait goodness…

The waves snuck up on them when they weren’t looking. : )

And now the “something special” part I talked about above…

I will admit that I had a few tears in my eyes when I shot these next photos, and again when I was preparing this blog post. 3 years ago, Erica and Jake became pregnant with twins. Then, after a visit to her doctor, they were informed that they were not having twins, but TRIPLETS. That right there is enough to send any future parent into a mind warp. But after only a few months into the pregnancy, complications arose, and Erica was put on bed rest. Baby boy number 1 was born at 18.5 weeks, and boys 2 and 3 were born 3 weeks later. Sadly, their 3 little angels did not make it home.

Every year on the babies’ birthday, both Erica and Jake release 3 balloons in their memory. This, year, on their 3rd birthday, I was honored to photograph the releasing of the balloons. They took a moment to themselves to wrote names and messages on the balloons before releasing them. Here are a few photographs from the end of our day together.

If you’d like to read more about Erica and Jake’s story, you can do so over on their personal blog. You can also check out their awesome photography by checking out their website.

Erica and Jake, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this. I was truly honored to be with you on such a special day. You are an amazing couple, and truly wonderful people!

A fun shot before the rehearsal started:

LOVE this shot:

And a couple of portraits outside directly after the rehearsal:

Later in the week, directly after the real ceremony, they had the big celebration at Petco Park! First, we shot a bunch of family portraits on the field:

Then I had a few minutes to shoot a couple solo shots around the edge of the field. How cool is it for a 13 year old sports fan to be photographed in the park!!?!

In the dugout:

On the dugout:

One more:

Adjust a couple shots from the party:

Hora!

How cool is this kid!

And one final HUGE group shot of all the kids at the party!

Here are a some of my favorites:

Sisters!

My favorite:

First, an actual family shot!

And now quickly back to the kids, and the swings!

And some fun tire swing shots…

And one of my favorite shots of Dad and his oldest girl flying high!