Orange Turtle Photography Website!
This is the Orange Turtle Photography blog! Orange Turtle Photography is Cindy and Daniel Lowe. We love photography, but we especially love weddings and engagements. Being married is better than dating! That's why weddings are so awesome!
Our style is a combination of traditional and photojournalistic approaches to give you the most creative and beautiful perspectives in your wedding day photos. We know you will cherish these photos for a lifetime so we want to capture them in a way that brings out your personality.
San Diego is a great place for weddings. With great locations and weather year round, San Diego is our favorite place to be!
Like I said before, I was really consumed by what was going on that I forgot to take some behind the scene pictures! doh!! But here's a shot of me and Daniel taken by Bonnie T. I didn't know she took a picture of us until I saw it on her site. Thanks Bonnie! 
That was during our 'meet and greet'. We just just standing on the side of the road waiting for everyone to show up.
Hello everyone! It's Cindy here. Last Sunday Daniel and I joined a group of talented, seasoned photographers for a community trash the dress photo shoot at Palm Springs. We brought along 12 couples to model for us. Here's a group pic taken by the organizer Daisy Valey.
Craziness!!
It was our first time meeting other photographers and we were soooo nervous (well, I was!!). I was so overwhelmed by what was happening. Daniel and I got a chance to practice the new lighting technique that he learned few weeks ago, which really helped under the desert harsh sunlight.
Here's the first set of photos we shot early on for Daniel's friends - Steven and Stephanie.
We used flash in all the pictures in this set to reduce harsh shadows on their faces.
I (Daniel) just got back from a 3 day photography workshop by Mike and Jordan at TriCoast Photography.
It was an awesome workshop where we learned how to use fashion/editorial style lighting on the go with wireless flash. I learned so much about lighting. A lot of stuff I had read online and done a little bit in the house with, but never really had a chance to do outdoors. Our style is usually to use ambient light mostly, because wireless flash usually takes so long to set up and adjust just to take one shot. The system they taught us is so fast! Its easy to shoot on the go in a fashion/glamour sort of way. Their off camera flash system is totally different from the strobist method that I had been acquainted with.
Here are some photos I took from the workshop:
Videolight is the new buzzword in wedding photography. Mike and Jordan are masters of videolight. So basically whether its pitch black outside, really bright and sunny, or during the golden hour, it doesn't matter, you can still get great photos with great lighting:
We also learned a lot of photoshop techniques and marketing techniques for the business. I met and made friends with Bobby Earle a wedding photographer based out of San Diego and other portrait photogs from AZ, Portland and Sac town.
One last pic... this model was really good so I took a lot of photos of him:
All in all a great workshop!
Last Saturday we had a wonderful engagement session with Judy and Scott! Even though it was raining, it didn't stop us from having a great time! Scott and Judy are so down to earth! Their wedding is coming up in April and we hope they'll get plenty of sunshine on their wedding day. :)
Location: USC
This picture is taken on the night of Valentine's Day! Bun buns and Hops sure know how to love each other.
We hope you had a good one too!
I'm the coolest wife ever....here's why:
1. I watch football with my husband.
2. I'm a Chargers Fan.
3. I took Daniel to the playoff game!! (thanks to my friend who hooked me up with tickets from his friend!)
We knew it was going to rain on the game day so we searched all over Carmel Valley and Mira Mesa for rain ponchos but they were all sold out! So we went to the game with just a few plastic bags. Before the game, I took a picture of my very excited hubby with our 'golden tickets'.
We went to the Wild Animal Park! We are members and we need to take advantage of our membership before it expires. :) Although we'll probably renew our membership since I absolutely love WAP! If you ever want to take your engagement/wedding photos in WAP, please please let us know! :)
I really love that place. My favorite 'attraction' in WAP ironically though is the petting zoo (haha) because I can get really upclose with these amazingly beautiful deers. I guess they are not that 'wild'.
At the end of the day, the sky turned pinkish purple for a brief moment...it was gorgeous!
Under the purple sky. The color literally disappeared a minute later.
Sunday, after I dropped Daniel off of at his football practice, I was going to go the B&N to do some reading. But it was such a beautiful day that I couldn't let myself spend the afternoon indoor. I happened to have my camera with me so I decided to take pictures around the parking lot. There were so many little surprises around the park. :) Taking random shots of the nature really reminds me that We are constantly surrounded by beauty.
I've procastinated this process long enough and I've finally done it! I've officially changed my last name after being married for almost 2 years!! Even though some of my married friends had told me that the process is fairly easy, for the longest time I felt like I didn't have enough information to go about doing it. It wasn't until I found this article from SignonSanDiego.com that I was ready to take actions!! This article was straight forward and includes 2 important links to Social Security office and DMV. I wished I had found this web page earlier!! Anyway, I personally visited Social Security office on a weekday morning, 10 minutes after the office was opened. I only spent about 40 minutes there (includes waiting time) and they were able to change my last me on the spot. SS office automatically send your info to IRS so you don't have to worry about that. I went to work immediately after so I contacted my human resources lady, who helped me changed my employee name right away. Finally, last Saturday, I made my way down to DMV (clairemont office). I arrived there 5 minutes knowing that otherwise I would be waiting in line forever. I thought I would be the first 10 people there but no, there were already close to a hundred people in line! Crazy! I thought it was going to be awful and I would get stuck there forever. But to my surprise, I got in, got my number, waited, filed my paper work, get my thumb print and a new picture taken all in 50 minutes. They were fully staffed on Saturday. It was really not that bad considering it's DMV we're talking about. The key is that you HAVE TO get there before it opens. :)
As far as the government is concerned, I am now Cindy Lowe. Of course I'll still have to change my name for my bank accounts, credit cards, health insurnace etc. But that should be pretty easy once I get my new driver license. So hopefully this post is informative for those of you who are planning to change your name after you get married, or have been planning to change your name but never got around to it!! Fear no more ladies!! It's really not that bad. I'm not promoting that all married women should change their names though. I'm all supportive to those who don't want to change their maiden names. Changing one's name is completely a personal choice, not an obligation. :)
one of my fav engagement pictures. taken by felicia chang. processed bysusan yee.
I love the whether right now...the air is cold and crisp...and you just feel extra cozy when you're home. But the sucky part is that I'm sick!! :( I probably got the cold from my hubby, who got it from me a few weeks back (but my previous cold wasn't as bad as this one)! I slept for like 15 hours yesterday because my body completely shut down. I'm feeling much better today though. Hopefully I'll feel well enough this weekend to have some fun though. Sickness - not fun.
Nick and Natalie grew up from the same church. They have known each other for almost their whole lives, but they didn't become friends until they were in college, and didn't realize that they are for each other until post college!
I've known the couple since I moved down to San Diego 5 years ago, and it was such a blessing for me to witness the growth of their relationship. As a matter of fact, Natalie caught my bouquet at my wedding 2 years ago! :)
For this wedding, I had the priviledge to work with Jon Chan. He's a cool guy to work with! All images below are taken for jonchanphotography.com. 
Daniel and Vincent were up to something...
the ushers
little miss lindsy was helping out passing out programs!
here's my hubby - my favorite groomsmen hehe
the groomsmen stayed up til 4am on the day of the wedding to decorate Nick's car!
Nick loves American cars, so the groomsmen decided to put a huge Toyota sign in the front. Such is love.
check out some details inside the car! muahahhaah
this one is dedicated to our general Nick.
jon and john...they crack me up.
Nick's really happy that he's married to a beautiful bride. :)
usually the bride and her bridemaids are the ones who would do this.... but I caught the boys checking out Nick's ring haha! I guess Alex is very interested because soon it'll be his turn. 
here's how we know Nick is a changed man...because even when we did this to him...
natalie!!
a sweet candid moment
while Jon chan took the groomsmen away for some boys shots, I took some of the girls...
and a couple more of dnat...
right after this shot, the groomsmen came back charging toward dnat!! So...silly.
little miss Erin.
Nick's best man Vincent.
those Texans!
me and my old roommate Grace!
congrats Nick and Natalie. And to everyone else, you guys are way fun to hang out with!
It's December already! I'm really looking toward to 2008! It's going to be a great year!
Just a month and a half ago, I shot a last minute engagement session for them. And now they're married!! I've been friends with them since we were in college and I'm really happy for them!! :)
They had their banquet the day after their wedding at a beautiful venue - Murrieta's Well Winery.
love their cake!!
they had these hand made paper flowers as center pieces. They were hand made by the groom and one of his groomsmen!!!
It was such a lovely party! :) To Ben and Marina - congrats again! :D
They had a intimate yet lively wedding at National city! It was really fun celebrating their special day with them.
Here are some of my favs from the day.
