As for Richelle Dante Photography, this was by far the busiest year yet. If you follow me on Facebook, I’m sure you saw a bunch of status updates that had to do with me editing. I don’t think I have ever spent so much time behind a computer screen in my entire life! Luckily, I now have my assistant, Natalie, who helps with booking shoots and replying to emails in a timely manner. There were way too many emails I sent out this year that started with “sorry for the delay”. With a growing company, there have been lessons learned that will hopefully make 2012 even more successful!

I am so thankful for all my clients. Some have been coming to me for 3 or 4 years now and I have truly enjoyed watching their families grow! I seriously feel so blessed to get to work with such a nice group of people. You all make my job so much better and it makes all the hours I sit behind my computer worth it! I’m excited for next year… to continue seeing families grow and meeting new brides and grooms, and families.

For next year there will be a few new additions! DREAM sessions will be added (see my last post for more info). I’m so excited for these and for stretching my creativity even more. I’m also hoping to add more nationwide shoots… whether it is a wedding or a family/newborn shoot. I’ve had so many people say “if you were only closer”. Well, I love to travel and I love shooting in new places so I’m hoping I can make it happen in a way that is affordable for the client and me! There will also be more mini shoots, similar to the Santa shoot I recently did. Hopefully the first one will be in the Spring! To start off the new year, I will be heading to Cambodia and Vietnam. I’m looking forward for some downtime to think about the coming year. Details for the DREAM sessions and nationwide sessions will be announced in late January or February, depending on how bad my jet lag is.

Here is a recap of 2011. EVERY shoot from this year is in here including engagement, couple, weddings, weddings I second shot with friends, maternity, newborn, baby, family and my one senior. I hope you enjoy it! (PS, if I missed your shoot I didn’t mean to but I’m pretty sure every shoot is in here.)

Because I rarely post a photo of myself on here, this is the one I used for my Christmas card this year. If you didn’t get one, I only got about half of the cards out I was planning to send. Something else to work on for 2012. (Special thanks to Kim for the photo!)

To give you an idea of what it could look like, here is a recent styled family shoot I did at the Salton Sea…

A little about Natalie… Besides working with me, she also works for one of the cutest little guys ever, her 5 month old son, Aiden! Don’t tell Natalie but I secretly hired her in hopes that she would bring Aiden with her and I would get to hold and cuddle him. Natalie has been a good friend throughout the years and I’ve enjoyed being a part of her wedding, amazing and miraculous pregnancy with Aiden and now working together. She is super sweet and already gets that I love using smilies way too much in emails (and blog posts). She has also had a couples, maternity, newborn and family shoot with me so she knows how it all works firsthand!

Natalie was so happy about the impromptu photo shoot yesterday.

She’s ready to answer your emails and she loves my first assistants, Sally and Trixie.

Natalie with her beautiful family!

One of the great mysteries when second shooting is what the couple will be like. You never know what they are going to look like, if they’ll be nice, if the bride will become bridezilla, etc. Fortunately, Will and Naomi were so sweet and so exited to have awesome photos. This definitely makes my job so much easier and more enjoyable!

(the bacon was for the dog walking down he aisle)

Naomi’s dress was so fun!

One of my favorite dress shots ever…

When I look at the one on the right I think hipster bouquet. I see a new wedding trend starting.

Naomi is a cook and made all of the jelly for her guests!

Love the details!

Hollowing out books as center pieces = genius!

Coolest tie ever…

Will’s boutonniere was amazing…

I love Naomi’s veil! She looked gorgeous!

Ready, set, time to get married!

The Ace = fun place to shoot!

Abi did an amazing job!

Not only is this diner adorable but they have the most amazing pie I’ve ever tasted. All I remember is that there were bananas and carmel. I crave it all the time!

Love this candid moments…

A wedding is not complete without synchronized swimmers. duh.

It’s kind if creepy but kind of cool. According to Naomi, the cheek meat (if I remember right) is yummy. I will take her word for it!

The best photo booth setup I’ve seen!

We went to the diner with the Sugar and Fluff team when we were done shooting. Of course we had to stop in the lobby and take a few fun shots.

We were worn out but I still had my pie!

Alexis and Luis met us at our hotel and I noticed there were some clouds coming in and the wind was picking up. All I kept thinking was that there really couldn’t be a storm coming in and where would we shoot if there was. I came from Orange County, Luis from San Diego and Alexis from Chicago. I refused to let weather get in the way. From what I knew of desert storms, they can pass through quickly so if they were going to come, I was hoping the would leave just as fast as they got there.

A little about Luis and Alexis… they have been married for about two years but like a lot of military couples they never got to have full wedding and they didn’t have any wedding photos. Luis is a marine stationed in San Diego and Alexis is living in Chicago with their daughter (whose newborn photos I did). For the Fourth of July, they decided to meet up in Vegas and finally get some photos done! Alexis contacted me to see if I knew any photographers in Vegas but since I needed to go out there to scout locations anyway, I offered to drive out. I can’t even tell you how glad I am that I went! They are the sweetest couple and we got some pretty amazing shots!

Okay, so now back to the weather. As you will see in the photo below our drive out to the desert was not a dry one. I think most people would have turned around at this point but I had a gut feeling it would clear by the time we got to our location. Luis had the weather pulled up on his phone and I think he was a little skeptical about my choice to keep driving. Deep down, I think I was doubting my gut feeling also but I figured we had nothing to lose! The rain was coming down so hard at some points I couldn’t see out the window. Lightning was striking all around us. All I could do is nervously laugh. As we pulled up to the first location it wasn’t raining! We got out of the car and shot for about 2 minutes and huge drops slowly started coming down. Alexis was amazing and didn’t freak out about getting a little wet. We hopped back in the car and kept driving to the next spot. We were in a giant dry river bed and all around us were storms but the spot we were in was clear. I was closely watching the lightening striking all around us to make sure it didn’t get to close. It was seriously an amazing thing to see. One side the sky is black and there is thunder and lightening. The other side the clouds are white and blue sky and the sun are popping through. We got hit with rain here and there but nothing crazy like the drive over. The cool thing about all the storms is that it cooled down to 74 degrees!! Amazing!!

I had so many favorites from this shoot and here are a few!

Yes, I took this while I was driving… I know, bad. Crazy that it actually cleared up!

This is literally 20 minutes after I took the photo above. I love the colors of Luis’ uniform with Alexis’ shoes and the desert background. Perfection!

Alexis said one of her friends texted her saying there were flash flood warnings. We were standing in a dry river bed. Not the smartest thing but look at these photos! You would have done the same thing.

So, so, so in love!

Storm clouds on the left, clearing skies on the right, gorgeous couple in the middle.

They seriously look like models. I promise, they are a real couple!

Alexis is gorgeous!

One of my favorites…

Alexis wanted to wear his hat so I had Luis hold her bouquet.

My very favorite! I can’t believe we actually had sunshine in between all the storms!

When we were driving back we stopped at this little tunnel one more time. The light was too amazing not to stop!

I made the bouquet and the boutonniere and I have to say it was the hardest one I’ve made yet and I don’t see myself working with succulents for awhile. I pictured a bouquet with succulents, billy bobs, peacock feathers and white flowers. The picture in my head was much prettier then how it turned out but I still think it looked pretty good… at least the front of it did. From now on, I think I’ll leave bouquet making up to the professionals! BTW, Luis didn’t wear the boutonniere since his uniform was decorated (I hope that’s the right term) enough.

With the desert comes unpredictable weather. Somehow we avoided most of the storms although lightening was literally striking all around us. I was constantly watching it to make sure it wasn’t to close. The last thing I would want is to have a client, or myself, get struck by lightening.

Here is a sneak peek for now. More photos and more of the story coming soon!

Look at the storm clouds on the left and the sky clearing on the right. If you did a full circle at this spot you could see storms all around us. Apparently there was a flash flood warning too… and we are in a dry river bed.

And then the sun appeared!

Alex was going to school out of state so I didn’t get to meet him until their rehearsal dinner. I was happy to meet Alex, the wedding party and family before the wedding day! Everyone was so sweet and welcoming and it made me even more excited to shoot their wedding!

If I had to come up with a theme for their wedding I would say it was nature-filled bling. Kind of exactly what I love! There were lots of natural elements (they were married in a garden) and subtle hints of sparkle on the flowers, shoes and jewelry. It was perfect!

The ceremony took place at the beautiful Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden and the reception was across the street at The University Club of Santa Barbara.

A special thanks to my friend, Katie Lewis for coming out from North Dakota to shoot with me!! (can’t wait to shoot with you in Fargo next month!)

Here is a look at their beautiful day…

Love the look of the University Club. The colors they chose, navy and yellow, went perfectly.

Loved the bouquets with a little bit of bling.

The shoe shot… my favorite detail shot!

Love the manly sparkle on the boutonniere.

Loved Shannon’s dress. I have a thing for lace!

I had fun with the cake shots…

I love the feel of the University club and the dining area.

What do guys do when they are “getting ready”? Play pool of course!

So pretty!

Shannon was seriously stunning!

The guys…

The ladies…

My favorite moment at the ceremony. No matter if there is a first look or not, there is always pure joy when a groom sees his bride walking down the aisle.

Garden= pretty place to get married!

The first photo is obviously of Alex and Shannon and the second photo is her parents. It’s one of my favorites from the day.

Mr. & Mrs.!

The garden was a perfect place for their portraits!

Their wedding was the day after the royal wedding so this felt appropriate.

These people know how to party…

With two trips already scheduled for 2011 and some weddings I’m super excited to shoot, including my brother’s (YAY!), I’m thinking this coming year will go by just as fast. I’m hoping to take a few more moments to rest, stop and enjoy the time but to be honest, I work better when I’m busy. =)

Last year I didn’t do an end of the year blog post because I was still recovering from jet lag so this year I thought I would make up for it. If I did a shoot with you in 2010, you are in the slideshow. Every single shoot has at least one photo, including my travels and a few personal projects… all in a 5 minute slideshow! I couldn’t leave anyone out. I couldn’t pick favorites because I really love all the people I got to work with last year. Oh, and if you see wedding photos without the names and date, those are from weddings I second shot. I was lucky to get to work with some very talented photographers this year!

ENJOY! (Make sure HD is on otherwise it’s not very clear)

Richelle Dante Photography 2010 from Richelle Dante on Vimeo.

I haven’t blogged the full shoot of my intro video, only the first half with Avalon. I’m waiting to completely unveil it when I get the video but here are a few I loved when I finally got to go through them this weekend! Thanks to Lauryl Lane for the beautiful bouquet and boutonniere!

I did Sienna’s newborn shoot right before I left for my Dominican Republic/ Haiti trip. I had so much fun during her shoot and editing!

I love giving photos sort of a vintage look. All editing on these photos were done in photoshop with Totally Rad Actions.

Loved this pouty face!

Zac and Meredith’s wedding was back in March in snowy McCall, Idaho. I got to take their rings on a field trip and pose them with a lot of different settings. I totally forgot about this shot until I was editing them this past week. I kind of love it…

Right now, I’m finishing up Audrey’s shoot. For some reason this one stuck out to me…

Such a sweet moment.