Everyone, meet little miss Hannah. A little history, I first met Joely at a Starbucks, April and Tara were also with her. April was Joely’s maid of Honor, and Tara Addeo, is April’s mom, and also the wedding coordinator for Joely. Little Hannah is April’s daughter.  I knew the minute I saw little Hannah I had to have some pictures of her. The next day I insisted on taking some pictures of Hannah in the studio. Hannah has become the poster child for childrens portraits at the studio. You can easily see why. She’s adorable! She’s grown so much just since the first time I met her.

and here’s Hannah at Joely & Rich’s wedding. How can this child continue to get cuter and cuter every day? I don’t know, but she does!

Joely and Rich were married at a her dad’s estate in Christmas Valley (a suburb of South Lake Tahoe, which happens to be just a mile from my house!) What an incredible wedding. I think I was inspired by every element at your wedding, from the colors, to the setting, it was all gorgeous. Joely & Rich, you two are the perfect couple. I wish you both all the best. Thank you so much for having me document your special day.  :)  I enjoyed every minute of it.

quite possibly the most gorgeous and unique bouquets I’ve ever seen. Lori at a Wildflower Florist in Gardnerville, NV did all of the flowers for this wedding, and they were beyond spectacular. Every bridesmaid bouquet was unique.

Every Sunday night our neighborhood becomes the Hometown Buffet for our local bears. It’s always fun to watch them, but they do make quite a mess out of our garbage. Well last night, I startled a bear as she was digging in to some leftover tri-tip and hamburger meat. She spooked, and climbed the tree just next to the deck at our upstairs bedroom. At 400 pounds this bear can still climb a tree in less than 4 seconds. It’s amazing to see how quick and agile these animals really are. Even more spectacular, I found her 3 cubs had also climbed the tree, and were suspended just above her. Her cubs were born this spring and enjoyed a dining on some leftovers with mom. She didn’t like that I was so close to her and her cubs, she would huff and growl at me, but I could not help myself, I had to take these pictures of her and the brood. They were about 5 feet away from me.  She eventually got used to me being there and became much more relaxed around me. They eventually came down from the tree and continued their quest for food while I looked on. My very own bear diary   I will have to document their growth this summer since they will come back every Sunday to eat.

Kristy & David, alas here are some images from you wonderfully, intimate wedding. Erin and I thoroughly enjoyed documenting the day. It was truly beautiful in every way. I’ve never come across a more personal ceremony ever. It was wonderful getting to know you both. Welcome to the other side!

stunning!

I’d like to welcome our newest member of the Studio staff, the lovely Mrs. Mikayla Grant :)  Mikayla is the studio’s Production Manager and will be more than capable of handling many of your requests. Mikayla is an incredibly energetic and creative person, and I can’t wait for you to have an opportunity to work with her. 

Jane & Pedro, you two were so much fun to photograph. Jane, seriously, you could model girl! You are incredibly photogenic. You made my job way too easy. Thank you for being so incredibly sweet throughout the entire process. Erin and I really enjoyed working with the two of you.

Sue & John, you guys are amazing. You perservered through a very tough week! These guys were in real jeopardy of not being able to get married at Valhalla, which was very close to the fire. But our amazing firefighters kept it away from the beautiful, historic site. Thank goodness! You guys really kept it together. You were a complete joy to work with. I’m happy to show a few images from their stunning wedding.  It’s truly amazing, you can’t even tell there was a fire up here at all! What a wonderful weekend!

Nichol and Erec were able to celebrate a gorgeous wedding at the Edgewood up here in South Lake Tahoe on June 30th despite a very hectic week fighting fire on the south shore. The fire clearly wasn’t going to stop a beautiful wedding from happening this day. It was such a pleasure to work with the both of them. I was abel to do their engagement pictures earlier this year so I was lucky enough to be able to work with them twice

Last week South Lake Tahoe suffered a terrible wild fire that sadly claimed 254 homes in our small community. Some of which were very good friends of ours. I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who sent your heartfelt concerns to me. I deeply appreciated it.

My studio was evacuated, and was very fortunately spared from the fire that was less than a mile away. The tireless efforts of over 2,000 firefighters are the only reason I am able to go back to work this week.  A very special thank you to Heather Whiting, an amazing photographer and dear friend, for simply looking after me each day during my moment of melt down. You are an amazing woman Heather. 

I was thrilled to have been able to shoot 3 weddings here in Tahoe in the aftermath of this disaster. All of the weddings went ahead as planned, and each and every one of them went off without incident. Nichol & Erec, Jane & Peter, and Sue & John, I’m so happy for all of you, congratulations again! Thank you for your perservearance through a rough week up here in Tahoe. The pictures are going to be amazing. I can’t wait to post a few from each of your weddings. It was a special week for everyone.

I cannot believe it has taken me this long to get myself into blogging society, but alas, the Christa Hoffarth Photography blog is born today.

Here I will post all things weddings and design as well as the all the latest and greatest with my [studio]. I have lots of exciting new things happening here in the not too distant future and I’m excited to share all of it with you.

Stay tuned for much more updates in the very, very, very, near future.