Melanie Monroe Photography

San Diego Family, Senior, and Wedding Photographer – Video Portfolio

admin — Thu, 10 May 2012 20:39:08 +0000

San Diego Family, Senior, and Wedding Photography – Video Portfolio

East County San Diego – Family Photography

admin — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:30:08 +0000

This is part two of my session with Baby “B” and his mom and dad. Our first session got rained out and turned into an indoor session, so we decided to do some outdoor pics a few weeks later…which also almost got rained out! …not having the best of luck with rain lately. If it could only rain on week-days, that would be great for me.

I love how the pics turned out though, so it was definitely worth the wait!

5 Years Old – My babies aren’t babies anymore – Bonita Family Photographer

admin — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:19:37 +0000

Those little tiny screaming babies that I brought home from the hospital 5 years ago have now grown into these two precious, funny, beautiful little girls. They start Kindergarten in the fall and I am firmly in the, “Where did my babies go?” stage of parenthood. I will admit to occasionally getting a little weepy over saying goodbye to my days as a parent of preschoolers. I’m now holding with an iron grip every funny thing they say, every word they pronounce wrong, and every snuggle they ask for. I know they will all too soon be a thing of the past and right now I’m feeling like the homework, slumber parties, teen heart-throb pop-star crushes, and sports practices they will be replaced with in the future are not a good trade-off at all!
Hopefully they won’t mind at least a year or two more of going to the pond to feed the duckies and take some pictures…and if they want to go home after and snuggle with their mama, that’s nice too.

Improvising

admin — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:27:17 +0000

Improvisation tends to be an important skill in this business. Here we have adorable baby “B.” He was right on the verge of learning how to crawl when we scheduled this session. Unfortunately, it rained on our sunny San Diego that day, so we decided to improvise and do an indoor session so we could get some shots before the little dude’s on the go! (The age when babies are sitting up well unassisted, but not yet crawling is one of the BEST times to do photos in the first year.) We’re gonna try again for some outdoor shots soon…hopefully before he’s able to give me too much of a work-out!

Five Years Old – San Diego Birthday Party Photographer

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:20:26 +0000

My twin girls turned five on January 9th! I asked them to stay four (very politely, I might add), but they just insisted on turning five. So, since they were determined to get another year older, we decided to have a birthday party to celebrate. We (meaning ME), decided on a “Unicorns and Rainbows (and dragons for the boys)” birthday party this year. We’d planned to have it in my parents’ backyard as per usual, but our beautiful San Diego weather decided to mess with me, so we relocated at the last minute to My Kids Clubhouse in Bonita. It turned out great! The kids had a ton of fun, the employees were very helpful, and most importantly, we all stayed warm and dry. Fun party details included, a rainbow veggie plate, a combination of cake, cupcakes, and cake-pops for guests to choose from, rainbow fruit kabobs, hand-made decorations, unicorn and dragon stuffed animal favors, and a hand-print art craft.

I know it’s a little too academy awards-ey, but I want to take the opportunity to thank a few people that made this party possible:

Special thanks to:

My sister, Amy, of Amy Gray Photography for taking photos at the party.
My dear talented friends (at least I hope they’re still my friends) Erin (see her Etsy Store HERE) and Greg (Professional Adventurer) for hand-printing 30 kids and making dragons and unicorns out of the handprints…all in about an hour and a half. You guys were awesome.
Pocket Full of Glitter provided all of the hand-made rainbow and unicorn decorations for the party. (Banner, cupcake toppers, cake topper, welcome sign, thank you tags, and die-cuts for invitations) You can find her Etsy Store HERE.
Mapletree 2000′s “Best Little Dress” Etsy store provided my girls’ adorable rainbow dresses for the party. They were handmade and they have lots of room to grow in them.
The birthday cake was delicious by all reports. I couldn’t try it, because it wasn’t gluten-free, but folks say it was yummy and I choose to believe them. It came from Hans and Harry’s Bakery in Bonita.
My mom. Because she is awesome and helped with everything. And my dad because he’s awesome and helped with everything too.
My hubby. He made me the wood #5′s and the cake-pop stand and didn’t freak when he found out I invited 35 kids.

Stephanie and Anthony – San Diego Beach Wedding Photographer

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:02:56 +0000

I had the pleasure of photographing my sister-in-law, Stephanie’s San Diego beach wedding in September. It was full of beautiful, very thought-out, meaningful details, from the wedding dress made from a dress that belonged to her Grandma, to the special hip-hop song written just for them by some of their dear friends. It was a day of love and celebration…and extraordinarily cute flower girls. Congratulations Stephanie and Anthony! Thank you for giving me the honor of being your wedding photographer on your special day!

Spring Valley Nature Preserve Holiday Photo Sessions – East County, Spring Valley Family Photographer

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:07:15 +0000

Downtown San Diego Gaslamp District Holiday Photo Sessions – Urban Family Photographer

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:48:38 +0000

San Diego Holiday Photo Sessions – Balboa Park Photographer

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:19:21 +0000

Zombie Attack Christmas Card

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 19:28:49 +0000

Merry Christmas from the Monroe Family! If you enjoy our Christmas card, click “Like” at the bottom of this post to give me some Facebook love!( No zombies were harmed in the making of this Christmas card.)

If you enjoyed our Christmas card, click “Like” at the bottom of this post to give me some Facebook love!
And be sure to check out my next post – Zombie Out-takes!

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the people involved in making this Zombie Attack Christmas Card happen.

First of all, credit where credit is due. My friend, Nicole Allen (http://yellowhouse-photography.com) was the one who sent me the link to the blog that inspired this.
You can see talented photographer Amanda Rynda’s amazingly awesome zombie engagement session here: http://www.amandarynda.com/2011/08/zombie-engagement-photos/

Next, on my thank you list is our photographer! (…no, I did not take all these with a tripod. ) Thank you to my favorite sister, Amy Gray (www.AmyGrayPhotography.com) for shooting this session for us! She did an amazing job and I ended up editing about 80 photos from the session! She took some really beautiful (normal) family photos during this session as well that I will be giving to grandparents who may not be quite so zombie-friendly.

Next, but certainly not least – OUR ZOMBIE! Our friend, Andy (Guncle Andy to the girls), was the star of the show! I was asked by one individual, “How did you talk your friend into doing that for you?!” It didn’t take much talking at all! I just sent him an email with a link to Amanda Rynda’s zombie engagement session and said, “We want to do a zombie attack family christmas card photo this year. Will you be our zombie?” The response was a resounding, “HECK YA!” He was totally on board even before I told him I’d give him a family session for him and his wife and (adorable!) baby boy. Andy works for KPBS and is an incredibly talented film-maker, video-editor, and monster make up artist. It’s handy to have talented friends! Andy spent over an hour and a half on the makeup, and provided his own costume for this session. You rocked our zombie world, Andy! Thank you!!

To see some of Andy’s work for KPBS, visit: http://www.kpbs.org/staff/andy-trimlett/stories/