Kristine Atienza Photography's blog » l "Celebrating Moments of Love" l Orange County Children's Photography

Last year Ron and I decided to include “a year in review” when we sent out Christmas cards to our family and friends. This was to let them know what we had been up too!  Alot had gone on in 2008. We were first year newlyweds and had embarked on many trips and adventures including our 15 minutes of fame on the Rachael Ray talk show show. 2009 however, was quite different…

We both had completed our first year of graduate school– Ron at Cal State Fullerton’s Kaiser School of Anesthesia and me at UCLA’s Nursing Administration program. School had seriously, and sadly, taken over our 2009. But, it’s like we’ve said before with our other academic endeavors, short term sacrifices for long term goals. After June 2010, things will be alot different… and definitely, well hopefully, more relaxed.

Ron is still unemployed (due to full time school) and I’m still working part time in the NICU (again, also due to a demanding school schedule). We’ve been living off of student loans this year and our parents have been extremely helpful with providing the household bear necessities.  Because of our financial limitations, we weren’t able to provide as much as we’d like this Christmas….

Additionally, after photographing a few friends and family, this very website and Kristine Atienza Photography was born during the summer of 2009! This was my creative outlet to all the school stressors (Although I must say my MBA electives at UCLA did help a great deal when it came to Brand Management). I spent the year exploring what I really wanted to “specialize” in by shooting different sessions and taking a few workshops to hone in and strengthen my skills. I think however, given my NICU background as an RN, newborn photography just came naturally. And I’m thinking that eventually, newborn photography will be my sole interest in the upcoming future. In 2010, I hope to build upon my brand and continue to be the best that I could possibly be by learning, shooting, and yes, more learning! Thank you sooooooooo much to all my clients from 2009!! Without all of you, I wouldn’t be where I am today! Also, a huge thank you also to all my new photographer friends!! I’m so excited to see what 2010 has in store for all of us! Lastly, I have to thank my husband for supporting me every step of the way.

I’m hopefully that 2010 will be a different year. It’s our last year of grad school, so I know it’ll be uber busy during the first half, but once those rough seas are over with, I’m betting on calmer, and more relaxing waters. I’m also hoping to do more *personal* postings on this blog, so I guess this *2009 in Review* post is a start…

Here’s to 2010! Cheers!

I know Christmas is over, but I couldn’t post without including a picture. There are a few pictures from a private session that I wanted to share because the photographs really made me appreciate that family is what Christmas is all about. They were done with a family in a NICU but because of privacy issues, I am not legally allowed to share them.  Therefore, this old image from 2008 will have to do. Just like those intimate images from the family in the NICU, this photograph reminds me that I have the best career a girl could ever ask for. I’m a nurse by calling, but my heart lies with photography.

Last week fellow bridesmaid Kara and I entered our lovely bride Jalyn into Amelia Lyon’s Wedding Photography Giveaway contest!To our lucky stars, Jalyn and her fiancee Matt, made it to the top 5! Although Amelia has selected a panel of judges to determine the winner, she’d like the family and friends of the contestants to VOTE by leaving a comment and cheering on their couple! That’s where we come in, the campaign squad!

We’ve been having alot of fun with this and it’s been bringing back old memories of high school and campaigning for class office!  It’s been heart warming to see all the support and love that Jalyn and Matt have been receiving from friends, family, teacher colleagues (Jalyn is a high school teacher), and even “Ms. G’s” students! Because Jalyn and Matt are listed as *COUPLE #5* on the contest, one of Jalyn’s colleagues even mentioned the need to make “I VOTED 5″ stickers which was inspired by this year’s events when California began laying off teachers with pink slips. In addition, there was also the “TEAM JALYN + MATT” which was inspired by the Twilight phenomenon!

You can definitely read more about Jalyn and Matt’s story on Amelia’s blog. they are high school sweethearts (going on over 10 years!) who enjoy the simple things in life. The economic situation and unemployment rate has been extremely unkind to this selfless couple, especially while planning a wedding on a time restricted circumstance….. but they’ve trekked on without complaint! Jalyn once said, We might not always have money, but we’re happy, we’re healthy, and we’re lucky to have each other.

So if you could, spare us 1 minute of your time… Please click here –> Amelia Lyon’s blog and cast your vote, love and support for Couple #5, Jalyn and Matt by leaving a blog comment (or 5, hehe!)! Deadline is tomorrow, Dec 31st! Thank you so much!

And because a blog post isn’t that fun without a picture…. I leave you this!

Check out this handsome little stud, Daniel! At 6 months old, if there’s one thing he’s figured out from our session at Dana Point, it’s that he does not like grass one bit! Can’t blame the little guy though right? After all, it is itchy! I had a great afternoon working with Daniel and his parents! Here are my faves from the session! Can you believe this sun on a December day?!

Meet Baby E of Orange County!! This was by far, the quickest newborn session I’ve ever completed! Baby E was asleep the entire time and literally melted in my hands! Now with every newborn session, there’s always one feature that I particularly like. For Baby E, it was definitely her luscious lips! Check ‘em out!

Meet Layla! When you look up the definition of her name, you’ll find, dark haired beauty or dark beauty. And she definitely was… I haven’t done a newborn session with a girl in awhile so I was excited when her mom contacted me! Although I prefer to have my newborns sound asleep during the session, this girl would not have it! I tried every trick in the book with her, but she must’ve been excited about her modeling session cause she kept looking straight into the camera! Needless to say, I was still quite happy with the images we did capture of her!

We were able to catch 10 minutes of this Sleeping Beauty before she woke up again!