Yosemite Trip

One of the things that I love most is spending time outdoors in beautiful places. When I was younger, I would go with my family almost once a year, and sometimes even more often out to Yosemite National Park- possibly one of my favorite places. This past weekend I was able to take some time off while my parents came up north from San Luis Obispo, and we went out together to Yosemite for a quick family getaway. Over the course of the weekend we saw pouring rain, light rain, fog and mist, wet snow, dry snow and a mixture of other precipitation forms that only the Sierras can bring. In spite of the damp and difficult conditions Yosemite proved to be as beautiful as ever (and I got the chance to put on my cool Mountain Hardwear rain jacket I got myself for Christmas this year). Here's a picture of me in front of Mirror Lake, braving the rain in style.


In addition to some good hiking up to Nevada falls and around the valley, I also had a great time running around looking for some good images. Rain made me worry about my camera, but lead to some really interesting images with a different tone than most I've seen.







I also had the chance to try out some interesting techniques with the creeks and waterfalls that were running in force with all of the rain coming down.





To finish off the weekend in style, we stopped of at the Ahwahnee Hotel for their famous Sunday brunch- one of my favorite traditions ever. I'm now back at home and on to "real life" with a set of weddings starting this coming Saturday. I can't wait to get back to the park though, especially once a little more snow gets on the ground.

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.

Wedding Slideshows

I have now started to produce custom slideshows for all my events that will go online a few days after the wedding and can be shared with friends and family. These are really pretty cool, and I'm really exited about offering them as way to share and display photos in the best way possible. I've put together a sample slideshow from the wedding of Kim and Erick as an example.

Click HERE to view the slideshow.

Cape Town Wedding Photography

Exciting news! I'm just finalizing plans for travel to Cape Town, South Africa for this coming summer. After living in Cape Town this past year for four months, I'll be returning this coming summer to do a combination of tuberculosis epidemiology research, and a number of photography projects as well. I've been to Africa several times now, and it is truly a wonderful place. While this means that I will be unavailable to shoot weddings in the San Francisco Bay Area between the months of June-August, I will be available for South African clients within the Western Cape region during that time. Below is an image taken from the top of Table Mountain, above Cape Town- certainly one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.

Year-end favorites: Children 1

As the year winds down, I thought it would be fun to post some of my favorite photos from my first year with my own business. These images will be from weddings throughout the Bay Area and Central Coast of California, and South Africa. In addition to just the favorites, I wanted to share some of the background and stories behind some of the images. These images for me go beyond the stories that I capture for these couples, and are often other little side-notes that I get to enjoy as a photographer.

I find that some of my best photos from weddings usually involve children. They are so uninhibited, funny, and just so darn cute. My first set of images comes from a wedding that I shot earlier this summer. I find that these three images are some of my favorite children's photos- two flower girls who were best friends, and just happened to be playing together in the best light imaginable during a classic California summer evening. I first noticed this scene as these two girls ran away from a set of informal portraits to go and play. I caught this scene with a long lens as the girls paused to contemplate the next step for their escape from the formality of the wedding day.




Seeing the great light and great shots that could develop, I took off from the reception hall (an old barn in the middle of vineyard and large field) and followed the scene as it developed from a distance. Using a telephoto lens, I let the girls interact without interfering, and watched as the they ran right in front of the ceremony location.



They then paused for a break to play among the big oak trees around the area, where I got this final great shot of the series.



What these images don't shot is what happened next...after providing me with these wonderful images the girls decided that they were completely finished with the formal restrictions of the wedding. They took several roses from the floral decorations around the ceremony, and collected all of the beans that had been laid out on some tables as decoration. They then sat down in the grass to build mini "bean-castles," mounding up the decorative beans and putting flowers around them. The wedding coordinator was horrified initially...but we all had a good laugh soon after, and the girls were put on "helper duty," assisting the coordinator with setting out candles and rearranging the decorations around the tables. They did a good job too.