Last week was one of my favorite weeks of the entire year….WPPI Las Vegas!!!! 🙂  My mom and I had a BLAST at the convention.

On our first night, we were cool kids and went to Hakkasan!!!  We met some fun new photographer friends and danced the night away in the VERY croweded club!

Day two started with a window selfie (becuase we all need a good selfie every once in a while.)

We saw some amazing speakers, my mom won an iPad, and one of my prints scored high enough to be hung in the print gallery at the convention!!! (I’m rollin with the big boys now!)

We had a blast learning new things, walking the convention floor, running into friends, and buying new toys!!!!  My mom and I got to go to my favorite restuarnt, Texas de Brazil, with Misty and Scott, where I possibly ate my WEIGHT in meat….and of course, no trip to Vegas is complete until you watch the fountains at Belagio.

As any good professional photographer does at WPPI, I hauled along my professional camera….but I slacked off and only took pictures with my iphone.  Honestly, I wasn’t the only one and it’s quite a funny site to see a ton of professionals using their iphones instead of their cameras….but I guess we all need a break sometimes! 🙂  Below are some of my instagram and phone pics from WPPI 2014! Can’t wait for next year! Knowledge is power!!!!

Wowwwwwie!!! I can’t believe that it is my two year blogiversary!  In celebration of this epic feat, I thought it would be fun to re-do my “this is my first blog post so I’m going to write about me” first blog post!  So, here we go…

For those of you who don’t know me, HI!!!! I’m Ashley!!! Photographer and goof ball extraordinaire!

I have been photographing people for seven years now….SEVEN!!!! (Did anyone just catch that Friends reference?)  I specialize in weddings, under water fashion, styled fashion shoots, and boudior/figure study photography.  (I know, that’s a lot of things!) I have a passion for story telling (which might explain my addiction to Disney) and my favorite thing in the world is a good, sweep me off of my feet, fairytale.

Growing up, my dream was to be an animator for Disney and I was an art major before I studied photography.  Nothing sounded better in life than creating the thing that gave me the most joy…fairytales.  (Just call me a hopeless romantic).

I did not know I wanted to be a photographer until my sophomore year of college.  I attended and graduated from Brooks Institute with a Bachelors Degree in Commercial and Portrait photography.  After graduation, I came home and started Ashley dePencier Photography.  So here I am now, in my fourth year of business, still telling those Disney dream stories, but, instead of creating fictional fairytales, I get to tell the real ones (which in my book, is even better!).

Just in case you wanted a few more random trivia tid bits on me, below you will find 10 things you might not know about me!

1. I am addicted to 90s television and hip hop music (I might know all of the words to the Fresh Prince theme song)

2. Luigis on Thursday is my favorite Italian restaurant in town!

3.  I am a VERY loyal Dodger fan!  (In fact, my first sentence was “Go Dodgers”)

4. Drink of choice: beer or whiskey

5. I studied abroad in Italy for a summer (vore ritornare a Italia….I’m rusty at best but I’m pretty sure I said I want to return to Italy)

6.  I have lived in Bakersfield for the majority of my life and am a Garces Memorial alum

7.  When I was 10, I got my hunting license (yes, I still have it)

8. Who is my favorite Disney princess you ask?…it’s a toss up between Belle and Cinderella for the classic category.  And I’ll take my two girls from Frozen and Rapunzel for my newer Disney princess faves!

9. SNES is still my favorite gaming system (for all you youngins…that means super nintendo!!!)

10. My favorite spot in the world….the wishing well next to Snow White’s castle at Disneyland.  Why?  Because everyone picks right in front of the castle….the wishing well is more secluded and feels like it’s just for me!

Well, I hope this post has been informative and you have gotten to know a little bit more about the rambling, self-proclaimed Disney freak, hopeless romantic that is me!  And hey, if you have questions that were not answered here, you know where to find me! 🙂

Happy wedding planning my friends!

Adrienne and Brandon’s November wedding took place at Riverlakes golf course in Bakersfield, California.  Their use of bright colors in their flowers and decorations showed off their fun and exciting personalities!  Never a dull moment with this group, we had such a great time taking some goofy photos along with all of the classics.  We were so excited to tell Adrienne and Brandon’s wedding story!  Check out their photos below!

Flowers by: House of Flowers

Same Day Wedding Coordinator: Fairy Godmother

Venue: Riverlakes Golf Course

Dress alterations: Sew Elegant, Mary Rita Nommenson

DJ: FeeStyle Event Services, Mike Broida

There is nothing like the smell of salty sea air, the feeling of sand between your toes, and the taste of ocean water in your mouth.  (Haha, okay maybe not the last one!)  Engagement sessions at the beach are my favorite so I was pretty excited when Gino (my cousin) and Tiffany (my soon to be cousin) wanted to do their engagement sesion in Pismo.  Not only did we photograph on the beach, we also wandered around town and took some photos at a few local spots.  We somehow managed to get to Splash Cafe witout a line! Yippie!

Remember when you travel to the beach, the ocean and sand are a fantastic backdrop, but don’t be afraid to find some fun spots in town as well.  Please check out Gino and Tiffany’s engagmemnt session below!

In case you were wondering, I travel mostly to Pismo/San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and San Diego, but I will travel to pretty much any beach to photograph your engagement session!