Even better New Best Friend!

Okay, so here is my real new best friend, my new bike! I got it today and took it for a ride on my trails and will get up real early tomorrow for a real ride. I will be traveling for some family vacation and then off to Whitney and Daniel's amazing wedding at the Four Seasons Westlake Village over the next couple of weeks so I won't have much time to ride. I'm going to have a ton of fun but I will be ready to get home and put in some miles on this guy!

I have to give photo credit to Stephanie for the above shot. We skipped the lesson on focusing and went straight to artistic flare usage! :) And please no comments about my cool outfit, it was first thing I could find, I just wanted to ride!

My new best friend (for the moment)

Meet my new best friend, the Samsung SCH-u740... catchy name right!? It is the same size at the Motorola Razr but can fold out sideways and has a complete QWERTY keyboard for quick typing of text and email. The keyboard looks really small but it is actually easy to use even with my big hands because the keys stick up pretty well. Ok, I admit I haven't figured out the email bit yet but I'm getting there! Steph and I were both due for new phones and Verizon had a promotion going so we got both this one and a new LG 5300 for free, can't beat that price! Now I just hope the weird hinge that allows the screen to fold out like it does can handle two years of my abuse!
I have been crazy busy lately. I had a super fun wedding up at Cline Cellars in Sonoma a week ago. Check out my portfolio for Bridgetta and Mike's beautiful winery wedding. This past weekend I shot a wedding for another photographer who was unable to make it. Clients often ask what happens if I have an emergency and can't make it to their wedding and I tell them that I have a great network of talented photographers I work with who all cover for each other. This was my turn to help out someone else, hopefully I never need the favor returned!
I also have another bit of very exciting (to me) news...my new Santa Cruz Nomad mountain bike will be here Friday!!! I have been waiting for almost a month and it looks like it will finally be delivered. I built a couple new jumps, berms and drops on my trails behind my house in preparation for this day! Too bad I will be gone so much in the next month that I will hardly get to ride it :( I will post up some video as soon as I have some, hopefully there won't be any crash sequences!
I will be traveling all over the country over the next few weeks so I will try to get that phone email working in case some of the remote areas I am headed to don't have WiFi!

Good advice!

In general, I can say what needs to be said without resorting to spelling it out for the viewer but this was just too funny! Check out those shoes too, how fun are those!?

Roller Derby

The past few days have been really busy...I know, what else is new, right?
On Thursday Steph and Caiden joined me for a trip up to the San Francisco Bay Area for few shoots and a little time with Grandma and Pop's. On Friday I shot the Sonoma County Roller Derby Girls for a cookbook they are making, Saturday I had a wedding at the beautiful Cline Cellars (keep an eye out for more from Brigetta and Mike's wedding), then Sunday we finished up the Roller Derby shoot at a great dive bar in Sonoma County. Thank goodness for Red Bull!

Here are a couple of my favorites from the Roller Derby pics. The ladies were all a ton of fun and we got some great shots. I am looking forward to coming up in the fall to watch them in action. From what I understand it is pretty serious competition!

Erin and Sam Tie the Knot!

Last Saturday I shot Erin and Sam's wedding at Palmdale Estates in Freemont, CA. We started out at a local hotel with what must have been every relative of Erin and Sam possible! I swear there were 30 people in the room at times, it was hilarious! Despite being a cheerleader and totally gorgeous, Erin is a bit camera shy so I had to be gentle :) It was actually pretty funny, especially given how outgoing all her bridesmaids were, we had a bunch of fun! Erin really warmed up to the camera and totally forgot I was there in no time, I was very pleased with out getting ready shots, I love the one above, what a moment!
Sam and his buddies were just down the hall in another suite and in typical guy fashion were totally late and in a huge rush after their golf game took longer than expected. They were so fast to get ready that we ended up having plenty of time to just hang out before the girls headed out. It was "rush, rush, rush, WAIT!" Sam took it all in stride and was super fun to work with. Did I mention that Sam was the star football player and Erin was the head cheerleader? Yeah, disgusting, I know, LOL!
The ceremony was beautiful and everyone was super excited to see a long time couple (7 years!) tie the knot. I have to say the reception was off the hook! Everyone was dancing and having a great time, it made for some great shots and even I got into the groove....no pictures; your welcome :)
There and tons more great images from this wedding that will soon be up on my website...whenever I get a chance to to an update that is!

Erin and Sam, I wish you many more years of bliss, you are great people and are an even stronger couple.


Erin's dress was amazing!


But putting shoes on with a dress like that is a job for three!


Sam and his boys


Erin's mother was awesome! Such a sweet lady and she had a great group of friends


Beautiful first dance

Marathon Weekend

I just finished up yet another long weekend of travel and shoots; I love it but I need some more sleep! I drove up Friday to San Francisco for a engagement session with Jon and Gina at Baker Beach right near the Golden Gate Bridge. We had a ton of fun in the typical foggy evening and then I headed over to my old friend Jen and her husband Rodger's house to stay. They were very gracious to have me at the last minute and even took me out to dinner with their friends, it was really fun!
The next morning I jumped on my bike, road road across the Golden Gate to the Marin headlands then had some breakfast in the beautiful town of Sausalito. I love my job though I have to admit that it would have been even more fun if Steph and Caiden could have been there. I can't complain too much though as it is still 10,000 times better than a desk job!
I then headed down to shoot Erin and Sam's wedding in Freemont. It was a beautiful event and everyone was really fun. Let me tell you, there was some serious dancing at the reception! I am a bit behind in my other work but stay tuned for some pictures of both the shoots and be ready for some crazy fun stuff in the next week! I have a fashion shoot with a rollerderby team who is doing a cook book, it ought to be wild! They really want to go all out and get some edgy shots, it is going to rock! I also have a wedding at Cline Cellars this coming weekend that is going to be amazing.
Lots of fun stuff!

Laurie and Alan's Santa Fe Wedding

I got back from Santa Fe last night and I'm exhausted! Thankfully we had a smooth and uneventful flight home and got to stop in Sedona again for breakfast. I still can't get over how gnarly the landing is there! The 5,000 ft runway is perched on top of a 5,100 ft long, 700 foot tall plateau so when you land you come in over a cliff and when you take off you fly right off the edge! Between that and some really gusty and unpredictable winds and the amazing rock formations It is a pretty wild place to visit.

Laurie and Alan's wedding was beautiful and they were such nice people, we all really had a great time. I have to thank Jason Groupp again for bringing me out there to shoot. Getting to work with such a talented photographer and one of my good friends is such a treat, I can't wait to do it again. Did I mention that Jason was recently named Best of Photographers in New York by readers of the Knot?! That is a well deserved honor for him.
We started off the day with lunch at the beautiful El Dorado Hotel with Alan and his brother-in-law Anthony. Both of them are great and genuine people who it was a joy to get to know. We then split up with Jason heading over to the Presidential Suite to shoot Laurie getting ready and me staying with Alan. We shot some getting ready stuff and then headed over to the historic downtown area of Santa Fe for a session with Laurie and Alan together. Laurie had the most amazing Vera Wang Gown, it was beautiful and a perfect dress for her.
We ran all over town and got some great shots, then headed back to the hotel for touch-ups before the ceremony. After the ceremony cocktail hour and dinner were held on the huge patio at the El Dorado Hotel's Presidential Suite with views of the sunset over downtown Santa Fe, it was spectacular! Cake and dancing were across the street at the Georgia O'keefe Museum where special tours were arranged and the DJ was rocking.
It was an amazing day and tons of fun! I'm looking forward to my next trip out to New York to hang out with everyone again :)

On my way to a Santa Fe Wedding

Yesterday I flew out to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for a wedding I get to shoot with my friend Jason Groupp. My father offered to fly me out here in his small plane so we headed out pretty early as it takes about 5 hours. We had a smooth an uneventful flight out to Sedona Arizona (where the below picture was taken) but then had a very bumpy ride from Sedona to Santa Fe! I should mention that in the above photo the thing going into my fathers nose is his oxygen supply as we were flying at 13,000 feet.
I had never been to Sedona before and would love to spend more time there soon, it was an amazing location. The rock formations and contrasting green vegetation were stunning! I did manage to get a good breakfast burrito though!
Santa Fe is a another gorgeous South Western town! I shot some of the rehearsal dinner last night and will be scouting locations later today in preperation for tomorrow's wedding with Alan and Laurie. I also get to ride my mountain bike all through the hills this morning, which, at almost 7,000 feet, ought to be really hard!
More to come...