Shital and Mehul

I recently had the opportunity to shoot an engagement session for Shital and Mehul at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. They were a fantastic couple, and it was a blast working with the amazing architecture there. It almost felt like I was in Greece half of the time while maneuvering around those huge columns and domes. Incorporating the architecture in with Shital and Mehul and their great relationship together was a lot of fun, and I think that the photos turned out really well. A few samples are available below, with a slideshow available HERE.

Liz and Anthony

As 2006 drew to a close, I headed down to my home town of San Luis Obispo to help my friend Colleen Rosenthal photograph the wedding of Liz and Anthony. Liz looked just gorgeous, and fabulous pictures seemed to present themselves everywhere. We started with photos of everybody getting ready at the Paso Robles Inn, and used their fabulous gardens for some nice portraits. The group then headed back to the bride's grandparent's house for the wedding ceremony. The house is a beautiful old Victorian, where the bride's parents had actually been married themselves. It was a thrill and an honor to be there for such a wonderful ceremony in a place with so much personal history involved for the couple. The ceremony finished after some eloquent and tearful vows, and people then went back to the Paso Robles Inn ballroom for the reception. I was certainly impressed by the amount of love, sincerity, and amazing family relationships at the wedding. This certainly was one of my favorite weddings, and I feel quite privileged to have shared in the experience.

A full slideshow is now available HERE.

Holidays!

Time for the holiday update! After finishing up with editing my weddings from November, I headed down to San Luis Obispo to visit with my family for the Christmas/New Year's break. I spend a few great days on the family ranch resting up and taking a few nice hikes. I also managed to do all of my Christmas shoping during a 4-hour crazed trip around town (very proud of myself). My family then went up to my aunt's house in Los Altos for Christmas itself and engaged in our famous epicurean activities involving copious amounts of food and adventurous new recipes. My aunt is a garden photographer and book writer. I got the chance to talk shop for hours and shoot some pictures with her while talking about lighting and composition (especially as it relates to shooting vegetables). It's amazing the different complexities that go into different fields of photography. I was in charge of cooking up our Dungeness Crabs for Christmas Eve, and managed to get by. I must say that that the pressure to perform well while cooking the main meal for Christmas in my family easily rivals a fast paced wedding. I also got to try out a new recipe for crab dipping sauce:

-Lightly sauteed shallots in butter
-A splash of sherry and juice from 1 lemon
-Add more butter to the pan to suit the total volume needed


Our tree was over-the-top as usual. Buy hey...my family motto has always been "what's worth doing, is always worth over-doing." I've learned to love it.



After Christmas I headed back down to San Luis Obispo (where I grew up) to spend some time with friends. I also did my last wedding of the year in Paso Robles, helping my friend Colleen Rosenthal photograph the wedding of Liz and Anthony. The wedding was quite a hit, a full of love, tears, and two great families. Also a fun addition- as I was invited to the bride's family's New Year's Eve party. It was fun to see everybody in their "normal" getup, and to spend some time with some fantastic people. 2007 brought my first year of wedding photography to a close, and I couldn't have found a better way to celebrate. A big thanks to Sarah and Collin for opening up their house, to Anna for the invite, and to the whole group of family and friends there. I hope you enjoy your pictures. A post with the wedding pictures and slideshow will follow shortly.