My first Celebrity Wedding!

I got the chance to shoot Wendell and Jaime’s wedding at the beautiful Dancing Horse Ranch in Paso Robles on June 8th, 2006 . Ok, who is the celebrity you ask? Well, you may not have heard of him yet, but Wendell is going to be big-time. He is the star running back from Fresno State who was just drafted to play for the Minnesota Vikings. Congratulations to Wendell, that is quite an accomplishment! He was a really nice guy even standing in his tux in 106 degree weather!
Jamie was absolutely wonderful to work with, she and her bridesmaids really put themselves at ease with me and the camera so I could catch some truly genuine moments. I am so happy when brides are able to relax and enjoy their own weddings!

4th of July...just a bit late!

I know I am a few weeks behind on this but I have been super busy with weddings. Afterall, this is the height of the wedding season!
Stephanie and I tried to go watch fireworks with our 1 year old Caiden this year, but gave up at 10pm when nothing had happened. Of course they started just as we were driving away! It was too bad as I think Caiden would have really enjoyed it.
I didn't get any good images so I had to pull out a few images from years past; here is one of my favorites from Morro Bay on a very rare clear evening. This was shot on film and scanned in, no retouching or manipulation was performed to alter the original image. It is one of my favorite images of the Central Coast because I think it really speaks to the beauty of this area and how fun it is to live in paradise!

Awesome Beach Wedding

Wow, this was quite a wedding! I shot Jesslyn and Reineer's wedding with Dennis Swanson, what an amazing day. The wedding planner skipped town, so Dennis and I had to take care of a few last minute changes such as finding a DJ with just 2 days to go as the previous DJ was the planners husband! Luckily, Rob Robertson, who is one of the best DJ's on the Central Coast, was available.
Jesslyn and her family were amazing people. They could have been totally stressed out by the whole situation but they were absolutely wonderful! I don't know if I have ever worked with such warm and caring people. I truly felt like I was one of the family.
The ceremony was held on Avila beach on Friday, June 30th--the Friday before the 4th of July. The beach was packed and it was about 92 degrees plus the humidity from the ocean; I was tempted to test the weatherproofing on my Nikon D200 by shooting from the water! Jesslyn was totally dedicated to getting great images, and I think it showed. Oh, and don't feel too bad for Jesslyn in the cake picture, she worked Reineer with his piece--I thought a food fight was going to break out!

I love my job...

For those who don't know, I used to work in the wine industry and still do some photographic work with some wineries. I just finished up shooting and editing bottle shots for my friends Jason and Meghan Haas at Tablas Creek Vineyard. I shot their entire lineup as standard bottle shots, but also had a little fun playing with some angles and wine glasses. I am really happy with the results and I think they will like it too. Plus, I had to drink the wine that I poured into the glasses, I couldn't let it go to waste! You got to love this job!
For anyone who hasn't already tried Tablas Creek's wine, you need to check them out. They are one of the best wineries in California, if not the world. They consistantly score in the 90's from Wine Spectator and Robert Parker, if you give much consideration to scores. My personal favorites of their current release are the Esprit de Beaucastel and the Cote de Tablas (both reds). For whites the Esprit can't be beat, it is one of my favorite wines of the world, and the Picpoul Blanc is amazing. Check them out at www.tablascreek.com/

Stoked!

I found out that this image was chosen to be displayed at www.admiredbybeckstead.com !!! Go to the site and look under "Bride and Groom." AdmiredbyBeckstead is a site created by an amazing photographer, David Beckstead, that displays what David feels are images that will inspire other photographers to take better photos.
This is an incredible honor for me to be included among great photographers like David Jay and [b] Becker (what a great idea of Becker to do that [b] thing). Anyways...I am going to go celebrate by doing some commercial photography for my friends at Tablas Creek Vineyard. Okay, maybe after that I will drink a glass of wine. Celebrations just aren't the same when you have kids!

What a year so far!

Here it is July 17th, just over half way through the year, hard to believe really. I am so excited by all that I have gotten to do this year and all of the beautiful and unique weddings I have been able to shoot. A special thanks has to be said to Dennis Swanson at Studio 101 West (who took the shot in the bottom right of the above layout) for hiring me as a contract shooter without ever seeing my wedding work! I am so glad that he took the chance on me having only seen my commercial work and some photojournalism. What a great guy he has been to work with. I am totally blessed by all that has been going on.
Here is a couple pictures from my first wedding this year, way back in March. Maria and Leonard were really fun to work with and had awesome families. Maria's father is the head chef at The Cliffs in Shell Beach (where the reception was) so it goes without saying that the food was fantastic! Some of the best I have had all this year. I am really excited to see thier finished album that I created for them, it is at the binders right now and should be back in the next couple of weeks. I will post some pictures of the finished book so you can see just how nice they are.