What do you do when a photographer friend comes into town and has only 1 morning to spare?  You wake up at 3am, drive across town to pick him up and then drive 2 hours south to Lake Elsinore to take advantage of the sun rising over this gorgeous poppy field!  Right??  ;)  I have just been head over heels in love with the super bloom we’ve been experiencing this season as I have never seen California so green and colorful and I’m 110% obsessed.

A huge shout out to our gorgeous model, Kylee, who happily woke up at the crack of dawn to come out and model for us.  Can you believe she’d never modeled before this week?  She absolutely killed it and did I mention she’s an incredible makeup artist as well?  Check her out on Instagram HERE.

I had a blast experimenting with natural light and off camera flash during this shoot.  I’m always looking for ways to improve my work and take my creativity to the next level and this shoot was actually the reason I finally took the step and invested in my first strobe; the Flashpoint XPLOR 600… (which I ended up using a ton in the stunning “Woodland Fairy Styled Wedding Shoot” that I just shot yesterday.  It was a total game changer and I cannot wait to share those images with you!)  But, before I get too ahead of myself, I wanted to share some of the photos from this portrait session with Kylee.

We had so much fun during this session and it was amazing to be able to shoot with such a unique backdrop for Southern California.  There are still a few fields where these poppies are lingering, if anyone would like to take advantage of the blooms while they’re still here, reach out to me ASAP and let’s plan a portrait session!

Lake Elsinore Portrait Session Photos

Model + Hair + Makeup //  Kylee Brubaker

Love,
Stefani Ciotti