"Life" in LA with Karen and Minh

Ending the blog silence...

We are finally back from our travels and are excited to share some new images with you! A couple of weekends ago, we had the amazing opportunity to fly down to Southern CA to hang out (and take photos) with our new friends Karen & Minh. They opened their beautiful home to us and we had an incredible time just hanging out and taking photos together. It was Gerald's first time in LA (we've been to San Diego before), so they planned an entire (awesome) day of photography in downtown Los Angeles. Even though it was a little cool and the weather was iffy at times, we had great time and nearly perfect lighing for most of the day.

Here's one of my favorite shots of the day. This was taken in front of the La Placita Church near the market on Olvera Street. I can just hear my mom asking where their faces are... ;)

We started at Union Station and got some cool shots in and around the train station/subway. LA has an amazing transportation system--something that we know nothing about coming from Seattle (where it takes two hours on a bus just to get 12 miles). Thankfully we don't have nearly as many traffic nightmares as LA, but all our driving around up here certainly can't be very good for the environment!

After Union Station, we took a (MAJOR) detour to In-N-Out because Gerald and Minh had both been craving it since the night before. From the sounds of it, Minh would eat most of his meals there if Karen would let him (Gerald too if we lived in CA)! ;) After some burgers and fries, we drove over to Olvera Street, where there is an open market with lots of souvenier and fruit stands, a variety of hot foods and restaurants, and lots of unique shops, all nestled between rows of cobblestone and historic brick buildings. Photographing Karen and Minh in such a busy place drew lots of attention from curious bystanders, and it started raining on us towards the end of our time there (of course it cleared up as soon as we got in our car to leave), but we had lots of fun on Olvera!

To close out the evening, we went over to SM and took photos of each other on the Pier. I love the background and way that the sky is lit up in this image!

After our day of shooting, Karen & Minh took us to dinner at one of their favorite Vietnamese restaurants. If you haven't had authentic Vietnamese food before (aside from Pho), you simply must try it! Thankfully, Minh not only told us what to order, but he ordered in Vietnamese for all of us. After ordering, he told us that we would eat well that night--we had no clue that we'd need to have someone roll us out because of all the good food we had stuffed into our bellies! Wow.

Thank you, Karen & Minh, for such a wonderful time in sunny CA. We can't wait to see you again for your wedding in July!

Airika

Los Angeles Wedding Photographer