Sarah & Brian "Ross"

Sarah & Brian chose the Malibou Lake Mountain Club as their wedding site and let me say it's an amazing place to begin a marriage. The lake, the green grass, the lights spiraling up into the trees, the historic club where the reception is hosted... all provide for magical moments. I was lucky enough to capture a few of them this past Friday evening.






















































Sarah & Brian started their marriage off in an amazing way, and I pray that the happiness they experienced that day will remain with them throughout their lives.

Thank you to Meredith at the Malibou Lake Mountain Club for helping put on an amazing wedding and experience for the bride & groom. I look forward to working and playing there again soon.

Melissa & John

Melissa & John are a young suburban couple. They graduated from a rival high school, but I was still able to put aside my rivalry and photographed their sunset wedding in Channel Islands harbor.

Needless to say, they were a young, spunky bunch.
And I encouraged it




























The bride & groom already on their honeymoon chilaxing on the beach.

















Congrats to you guys! I hope you're still on the beach somewhere far away living a Corona commercial!

Molly is 9 days old

One of my fellow Flickr contacts asked if I would be willing to photograph her niece's newborn baby girl, Molly. Gee, let me think.... .I'll be there in an hour!
















I'll be honest, Molly was one of the most well behaved people I've ever met... at any age. She was like putty. Anything we did, she just stayed there. Didn't cry, didn't make a mess... well that's not true. She did squirt out some yellow stuff and ruined a blanket, but that's to be expected. It's unfortunate that today she's already 11 days old and probably too big already! Like kittens they need to stay this small!!

Sarah & Brian - a very beachy engagement

Originally, the plan was to shoot their engagement photos at El Matador State Beach, but with the fog rolling in, we decided to try going up the coast a bit more until we hit Leo Carrillo State Beach. It was windy, but we made the best of it and with some subtle lighting first, and then an intense sunset assisted by the local fires, we got some pretty decent shots.


Here is a video that Gaea produced based on her video and my shots:






Variety wasn't the most important part. We just wanted to take advantage of this brilliant sunset. They were a fun couple who weren't afraid to get wet and dirty, and that always makes my life better. The video that was shot by the videographer I work with will have some snippets of me in the water with them. Got to get wet too.















Their wedding in in mid October at Malibou Lake, and will probably be one of the most beautiful weddings of the year. Looking forward to it, and nice weather!

Maternity of Natalie

Natalie was a really good sport this past Friday morning. We met at 9:30am, and it was already hot. We had smoke from the fires in the sky which cast a red tone on all the photos. And it was hot and she was telling me just how she slept for hours after she got home. I feel bad I worked them so hard, but she loved the photos:













Natalie writes:

So we looked through the pictures and there some really, really awesome shots. I love the solo one of Giacomo and the one's of Roger tossing Giacomo up in the air. I actually really do like the one that we did of me looking in the sky. It just speaks deep to me, like I am dedicating the baby in my belly to God. The way the lighting was and the back ground, I think it turned out really nice.

Thank you again so much! We will definitely have to call you back for the Newborn pictures (and now I am motivated to have you take Giacomo 2 year old pictures for us too!)

Alex

I recently picked up a few headshot gigs so I bought a 3 light setup for my home studio and looked around for someone, anyone to take some test shots for me. It could have been my brother in law, or the kid down the street, but instead I looked to Model Mayhem and found a local girl who said she'd be happy to spend a few minutes and allow me to experiment with my lights. I told her there was no need to have fancy makeup, clothes, etc... Just needed someone there to try out some techniques and get used to my 3 light setup.

here are some of the outtakes of my first session:




YES SHE HAD HER CLOTHES ON! It was a tube top and she wanted to look natural and "island-like"





In any case, I have a maternity, a newborn and 3 more headshot shoots all lined up, which will easily cover the costs of these lights. Plus, I take one of the strobes with me to weddings and events to add extra light, since they're slave strobes.

Yosemite & Mono Lake

I left on a Friday up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas to photograph a wedding in Bridgeport. If you know where Bridgeport is, either you're a hick, or just well-traveled in California. So, I drove up 395 Friday after work, and found a sandy spot to camp out under the stars (below). Shot the sunset at Mono Lake, and then the sunrise the next morning after 90 minutes of sleep. I don't like sleeping alone in the wilderness. I do fear bears, cougars & chupacabra. So everything I heard I expected the worse. I'd kick my tent and growl like a bear to scare off the thwarting blood-sucking field mice and bugs. I do think a skunk went by the tent, but there's also a chance it was me; I had carnitas tacos at the Tioga Mobil gas station an hour or so earlier.









Shot the wedding, and then it rained all Sunday morning in Bridgeport. Got on the road around 2pm and got to Tioga Pass road. Should I? Is the weather good? Oh well, I had no real reason or ambition to head home, so I headed up the road, paid the $20 and went into Yosemite.


Didn't really take any shots right away, because this time I realized that getting a camp spot was more important. Got into Camp4 campeground 35 and shared it with 4 others. After sharing some hot dogs and Pringles, we all went to sleep.



At 5:15, everyone in the camp (probably about 200 people) were woken up by other campers yelling BEAR!!!!! Bear!! Get out of here bear!!

After the bear lumbered out of the campsite, I cleaned up and shot the sunrise at Cathedral Beach (see reflection).



Shot for a little while longer, and then started my 6 hour drive home. More fun to come.

Elana & Eric

Ahhh, the beach in Southern California in the summer. Warm, loud, perfect sunsets.... uh, not always. Sometimes it's heavy fog and reminds me of the UK during... well, any time of year. But they were good sports and we did get to squeeze off a few shots before we all fell victim to hypothermia.



















I'll be shooting their wedding in a couple of weeks!

Tania & Vince

Once in a while a photographer gets blessed with shooting something that they know is just beyond beautiful. They know it when they're there, and they rush home to work on the photos right away. The wedding of Tania & Vince last weekend was one of those events for me. They spent a little more for nice venues, great florists, and really paid attention to the details, and it showed. I just hope they're as happy with the photos as I am. Here are just a few of the photos:



























I'm exhausted just looking at them. But wow, what a night. An incredible night for all involved. I just pray they continue to keep this love through their marriage and their lives.

Tiffany

Tiffany was the makeup artist we used to do a special boyfriend shoot for two girls whose boyfriends were being sent to Iraq to fight the war. She herself had modeled and we stayed in contact until the time presented itself to shoot.

Her concept was to use the scotched, burnt hills of Santa Barbara as a backdrop to showcase clothing she had created herself, and did all her own hair and makeup! Talk about a triple threat. Here are our creations:




















I referred Tiffany to my buddy Jeff & Rosie who are getting marred in August, and will be doing the makeup for them as well. Pay it forward!

Eileen & Kelly

Ojai is only a few minutes from where I live and where I grew up but honestly I've probably only been in the city itself maybe 3 times. And that's hard to believe considering the city's natural beauty. It's small and quaint, but makes you feel like a million miles away.

Eileen is one of my good Flickr contacts and she asked me to photograph her wedding several months ago, which I took as an honor. When another photographer asks you to shoot their wedding, they must have considerable appreciation of your work. So I did my very best using the tools and skills I have to capture the moments of their day... as I saw it:


































Congrats you guys!! And how random is it that I was photographing a sunset in Ventura last month and randomly bumped into them.

The Maternity of Allison

I was contacted by Allison's sister because she is getting married next year, and subsequently found out she was pregnant as well. So they wanted to get some maternity shots prior to the wedding, which was scheduled for February 2010.

She was a trooper, heading out in almost 90° weather in the high desert of California.

















She is a real trooper for many reasons, but most of all it was nice to meet her and her fiance and sister and look forward to working with them all again very soon.

Cindy & Andrew are in Loooooooooooooooooove

Cindy & Andrew were probably the hardest pair of people to get schedules coordinated in order to shoot. She's a student and he works some crazy hours in sales. We've tried a bunch of times to schedule their engagement shoot but have been always thwarted by a difference in schedules, inclimate weather, etc. Finally this past Sunday evening it all worked out.

We met in downtown Ventura at the Mission there. Snuck inside for a few shots and then raced to the beach at sunset.

Here are just a few.





























The water was cold, the beach was cold, but they were up for ANYTHING I asked, and I think their photos reflect that giving, carefree spirit.

Their wedding is in June at the historic McCormick Ranch in Camarillo.

Stephanie & Isaac

Of all the people to find me on Facebook, my second cousin Stephanie sends me a message a few months back re-introducing herself after like 15 years and says she's getting married in April. So they had me flown out to rural Wisconsin to very close to where I was born to visit family and photograph their big day. After meeting most of them during the rehearsal, we ended up with some very nice weather and ended up with some quintessential Wisconsin wedding photos!









She sang at her own wedding!









It was a modest, mid-west wedding....






Thank you again Stephanie & Isaac for having me come out to not only photograph your wedding but to re-meet all the extended family I knew I had and have lost touch with. I hope it will be sooner than 13 years before I'm able to come out again!

Madison

She only stopped by for a short time.
This is all in about 5 minutes in our parking lot









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