“A day without laughter is a day wasted.”~Charlie Chaplin

Don’t forget to upload this month’s free wallpaper art. Just click here for the link and follow the simple instructions. Enjoy!

Do you love guacamole? That’s a silly question, who doesn’t love guacamole? It’s the perfect opening act for most summer dishes. We make it so much at our house at this time of year that I go into Pavlovian-like distress if I smell the coals smoking in the grill and don’t have a bowl of it in front of me to dip into.

I thought I had tasted every possible permutation of this dish until recently when Larry and I stopped into a California Pizza Kitchen after a shoot and spied Sweet Corn Guacamole on the menu. We ordered it, loved it and now I am sharing my version with you.

 Here’s what you’ll need for 4 people to snack on:  
 Two avocados 
Juice of half a lime 
One ear of sweet white corn, uncooked 
Two tablespoons of drained and rinsed black beans 
Three tablespoons finely chopped jicama 
Three tablespoons finely chopped red bell pepper 
Half of a serrano pepper 
Two teaspoons finely chopped scallions, green parts only 
One tablespoon fresh cilantro 
Salt to taste

The beautiful thing about making guacamole is that you can adjust and play with the recipe to suit your taste. For example; if you like it hotter, add the whole pepper. If you’re like me and love cilantro, add it liberally. This fresh, sweet take on a classic is sure to be a winner at your house. It is at ours!

Susan and Jon are getting married at the Montecito Country Club in a couple of months so we thought photographing their engagement session in Santa Barbara would be really fun. Our plan was to hit some of the city’s most iconic places so the Courthouse and Mission were a must. We ended the shoot in a shady wooded park where Jon impressed us with his tree climbing skills.

This adorable bride and groom to-be kissed and cuddled the afternoon away. Larry and I were happy to be there, camera in hand ready to capture every nuzzle.

Susan and Jon, you were not only wonderful subjects, but an absolute blast to spend the day with. We are so looking forward to your big day. We hope you like these fruits of our labor. This is just a teeny taste of what’s to come!

Something dawned on me as I was editing the images from Susan and Jon’s engagement session…we as photographers really do ask a lot of our subjects. Let me use Susan and Jon as an example – Larry and I had just met them a couple of weeks prior to this shoot. While we had a really nice meeting which resulted in their hiring us to photograph their wedding, we were basically strangers when this session began.

Within minutes, we were asking and expecting them to kiss, hug and generally do things they most likely wouldn’t be doing in front of people they hardly know. As photographers, we are not content with just snapping photos of them looking placidly into the camera, noooo, we want to bring to light the tenderness and warmth that makes them unique as a couple. This requires a complete letting down of their guard and a shedding of all inhibitions, which is a weird enough request without bringing large lenses into the mix! Considering neither Susan nor Jon is a professional actor, it really is extraordinarly brave of them to go there with us.

 I’m always a little in awe when an intimate, authentic moment like this one appears in my viewfinder. And I never cease to be grateful for the trust our clients put in us.

We’ll be featuring lots more images from this lovely shoot tomorrow. Please stop in again!