...more from the California trip! Justin and I arrived in San Diego and had a couple hours to kill before the photo shoot was scheduled, so we went to Point Loma, some kind of cool historical overlook. I found a lighthouse, which for some reason is always exciting to me. I'm never quite sure what I'll do with photos like this, but at least it's pretttty :)
On our way back down, we were trying to find access to a beach somewhere and figured we'd turn left at the next spot since the water was... somewhere over in that direction. (I discovered I've been really spoiled with Utah's directions... you can always see the mountains and know that that's East. From there I can figure it out, but in California I was getting really turned around!) Back to the story though, apparently the next left turn was into some Naval base! I was "greeted" by a suspicious and heavily armed Navy guard wanting to know exactly why we were turning in there and what we wanted. I tried to assure him that we were just tourists looking for the beach! But it took a little while before he was convinced. Maybe it was all the camera gear that made him nervous, I'm not sure, but I sure was intimidated! After that, we gave up on trying to find a beach and found a very small park to sit and wait instead.
And then Jeremy showed up, the man that made this trip happen. I met Jeremy back in December on the cruise with Jasmine. Just for kicks, here he is wiping out on the simulated surfing back then:
Jeremy had 2 reasons for the photos in California. The first was head shots of him: personal, approachable, and authentic. Sure, he wanted a new Facebook profile (who doesn't?) but primarily, he wanted these for his efforts in the cause for childhood cancer. Jeremy spends a lot of his time working with kids with cancer and I've loved the opportunity to see that perspective of learning about and giving time to a community and a cause. I get so caught up in my own life, sometimes I forget how many people out there could use some help - or even just a smile. Thanks Jeremy for that example! You can read about what this means to him and look through the rest of his website here: http://www.jeremybliler.com/childhood-cancer/ The second reason for the photos was business, and you can see those photos (with the San Diego skyline) tomorrow! But for now, here's Jeremy.
Jeremy grew up in Denver, but has lived in San Diego for several years. He chose all the locations for the photos on this trip, and I was impressed! Today was at Sunset Cliffs.
The photo to the right here is what we call the "Jasmine" pose (named for my older sister). Because she was there when I met Jeremy, we wanted to give a tribute to her. She's always been more confident posing for the camera and she just has fun with it! I would much prefer to be taking the pictures than to be in them, and Jeremy was also learning the art of being himself during the photoshoot. It's always a challenge! We often teach kids to smile and say "cheeeeeese" which turns into photos with cheesy smiles and shows very little of their personality, I prefer to see people laugh or find a genuine smile. I'm glad we could take a que from Jasmine and have some fun with it.
(This is a flashback from 2010 to give you an idea of just how much fun she has...)
And back to Sunset Cliffs-
Jeremy always wears his "sTAY strong" bracelet, and he wrote a blog post about the story behind it here: http://www.jeremybliler.com/2012/02/09/stay-strong/
