Baby Riley- Orange County Newborn Photographer

Last week I went to capture Erin, Jon (you may remember them from their maternity shoot a few months back) and their new addition, Riley Olson. He was so sweet and once his belly was full he was a happy man and did a great job modeling!

Here's a little peak of the session.

Meet Riley.

Erin and Jon- Congratulations again on your little miracle. He's a stud!

To see the entire session visit our proofing site HERE.

Contact me HERE

View our portfolio HERE

Choose your own Adventure

This morning I woke up thinking about these books I used to read as a kid called "Choose your own Adventure." I LOVED to read growing up...like I would read 20 plus books a summer! Yay... I was kind of dorky that way... but I still love to read now and I think that is a good thing.

But these books in particular were awesome because I got to make the choices for how the plot would play out. While being chased by a wild animal, was the main character going to run into the scary, dark cave behind his friend or was he going to bolt the other way and hope for a better fate toward the cliff? SO fun!

Then I got to thinking how much of life is this way... an adventure with options...some exciting and unknown, and some safe and secure. As I look back at my adventure so far I have found myself settling for the "safe" bet rather than the exciting, daring a lot of times. Recently though... I have started choosing the daring adventure... the one that makes my heart race and me a little sweaty, and WOW it has been so amazing!!!

Particularly with business... It has been just over 6 months since Derek left his "day job" to join the photography business. 6 months since we launched "Frenzel Photographers". Derek and I have been living in one of those "Choose your own Adventure" books. So many days we are faced with a choice... do the safe and secure or the daring and different? We are choosing the daring and it has been exciting, challenging, scary at times, wonderful, and amazing! God is guiding this adventure and we are buckled in tight and enjoying the ride! And as we make choices we grow as people, as husband and wife, and as partners. We are learning who we really are and who we really want to become!

I have learned that...

-There is SO much out there to learn and experience.

-I love being creative SO much that I feel bored when I'm not creating or thinking about creating.

-My husband is an incredibly hard worker! He busts his butt every day for us and it is incredible!

-We are made for this! Building a business from the ground up, and watching it take off. We still have SO much to learn and figure out, but the process is crazy fun to us.

-Following my heart and my dreams is the only way to TRULY be alive! Like I said it is scary, unknown and definitely not secure, but it brings me so close to the God that created those desires and dreams and it forces me to be confident in and really push myself.

-Every day has its own mini "Choose your own Adventures." And how much more fun my days are when I view it that way... Will the main character (me) choose to fold laundry while listening to music or empty the dishwasher with her kids help (er.. not helping, but still fun)? :)

Today's adventures include:

*On our way to the grocery store the kids and I stopped by a little free pumpkin carnival. We had free hot dogs, got balloons, candy, and picked out a free pumpkin. Can't beat that!

*A photo shoot a little later with a sweet family

*Perfecting my Chicken Piccata

*Spending the evening with family.

So go, live your adventure!

Are you the daring and bold, or the safe and secure adventurer? Care to share a story of a time in life you chose the daring and bold? Thoughts in general?

Betsy & James- Orange County Maternity Photography

Over the weekend I met up with Betsy and James in the ever beautiful Yorba Linda for their maternity session. They have one adorable little boy and are expecting a girl in just a few weeks!!

Here are a few favs from the session...

Betsy is quite the gorgeous glowing preggers.

So cute!

My favorite shot of the day.

Betsy had all these cute little touches, that made her shoot unique.

A-dorable!!

Betsy & James- I am so excited for you to meet your sweet little Kate! Having a girl is the best!! Can't wait to capture her in all her newborn sweetness real soon!

And to enjoy all of the proof images from this session, check out our proofing site HERE.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Orange County Wedding Photography- Irvine Bridal Show

Hey, it's Derek.

The plague has swept through the Frenzel household. But not one of those normal plagues. The kind that gets progressively worse with each "host" body. First me...I was OK, just pretty run down. Then Sarah... yeah, forget about it. She has basically been a lump the past few days. Then we had an up-til-4-in-the-morning-with-a-104-degree-fever-borderline-The-Exorcist night with Raylee... good times! But we are all finally getting back on our feet and disinfecting the whole house today...

So, Sarah and I did our second bridal show a few weekends ago at the Hyatt in Irvine, and we decided to change it up a bit from our last one. Last time people were asking us if we were selling art- our goal was to make a splash, but it ended up being a little "brighter" than we had hoped for. We did meet some great clients there and we have a few other engagement shoots/weddings from the show coming up in the near future- so it was definitely worth it.

This time around I think we were a little more settled into our branding; Sarah and I have always loved the vintage feel, so we tried to show something that was a little bit more our style- being a History major, I have always loved how things were- it was a time when the world was less understood and more explored. We had a lot of fun creating this booth- I actually built it out in our garage the week before as kind of a "dry run" to make sure it would be possible to put together the day of. A couple of trips to the hardware store and 37 frames later, I give you... Magnum!!!!

Our brochures were tied together with these old buttons that Sarah found...

The old suitcase was my Grandma's- she bought it when she went to Juilliard Music School in New York City back in 1939. She'll be 92 this winter...

You know when you go to one of those old school hardware stores and they have everything hanging on hooks? The background panels we used were that white particle board, but I added a little gel stain...

It was a little slow early on, but it gave us some really good time to talk with people we met- we actually booked a wedding right away. Kelsey, her mom, and several of her bridesmaids hung out with us for about a half hour or so. She is getting married at the awesome Calamigos Ranch in Malibu next summer- Kelsey, we are SO looking forward to being a part of your big day- your girls were awesome!

We also made a couple of other friends that day: Chelsea over at the Sea Cliff Country Club and Lindsay with LVL Events- it was great getting to know you ladies- we look forward to working with you in the future!

All in all, after getting our "set" packed up, I'd say we had a very productive day and met some awesome future clients...

Happy Wednesday!

Bethany & Jake- Spread the News!

As we drove down to San Juan Capistrano I knew it was going to be a perfect day. The weather had cooled off a bit, the sky was unbelievably gorgeous, and we were headed down to capture Bethany & Jake's engagement session. Since the first time we met these two over appetizers at the Yard House, we knew we would enjoy being a part of their lives. They both have such a relaxed, sweet, and fun way about them. Not too mention that their interaction is adorable... Jake is all protective, in a super cute way; and Bethany gets this adorable grin on her face when Jake holds her hand or looks at her in a certain way... they are in love and it shows!

So here are some of my favs from our time together...

nice afternoon light, huh?!?

You two rocked it out!

Then we headed back to Laguna Beach for some more fun...

Derek captured this rad pic.

Crazy, beautiful sunset!!!

Beth & Jake- Always fun to hang with you. Love you guys!!

To view all of the proof images from their session head over HERE.

Riverbed Brides- Peek!

This weekend has been a bit crazy with an amazingly fun engagement shoot, bridal shoot, and a bridal show today, which by the way, was awesome!! To all the fun brides and grooms we met- we look forward to meeting up with you and getting to know you all more soon! We have lots of images to share from the weekend, but for now a few of my favs from the bridal shoot I participated in one of our favorite places, the Yorba Linda Riverbed... aka...our old backyard. It was fun to be back over there! I will post more images as well as more details on this shoot later, but for now enough chit chat... enjoy some images...

And for a little preview of the "Spread The News" shoot from Friday check our facebook fan page by clicking HERE!

Tiff & Jeff- Spread the News!

Ok, let me just start by saying... cute, cute, cute!! Tiff & Jeff are stinkin adorable together! The day started with the usual greetings and introductions- Tiff and I had only met prior, so Derek and I were both meeting Jeff for the first time, and I first thought... "He's the strong, silent type," which he definitely is, but as we started the shoot in Crystal Cove, I quickly realized... he had a silly side that was really brought out by how him and Tiff interacted, which made it 1. easy to get great shots, and 2. made it easy for Derek and I to be our dorky selves around them, because they were kinda dorky too. Tiff & Jeff- I mean that in the most endearing way possible! :)

Ok, let's get to the images...

You will see this A LOT! The day was so full of laughter.

Love this shot!

And this awesome shot Derek got too!

Ok, this might be may fav of the day...

Now over to downtown Laguna Beach.

Tiff & Jeff- We had SUCH a blast hanging with you and getting to know you and your love story a bit more! And Jeff, I hope you didn't take my teasing too seriously. We are super excited for your wedding coming up at the end of the month!!