Mark and Viviana's San Luis Obispo Wedding

Mark and Viviana's wedding was last weekend at the Mission San Luis Obispo. You probably remember their engagement session which was shot all around the mission that I posted back in May. The big day finally arrived and they were both really excited. I started with Viviana at the Madonna Inn which is always a trip! If you've never been there, it is the funky hotel with the bright pink sign at the base of Cerro San Luis in SLO. There are underground rooms, nautical themed rooms, western themed rooms and pretty much every other bit of funky-ness you can imagine!
After Viviana was ready we headed over to the beautiful Mission San Luis Obispo, where I always enjoy shooting. It is a beautiful wedding venue and Father Miguel always performs a meaningful ceremony. After some family pictures we headed out for an hour of Bride and Groom session then back to Madonna Inn and got some really fun group and individual shots from inside the hotel.
Thanks so much to Viviana and Mark for having me, I had a great time!

Viviana looking amazing!


This was shot pretty much at the spot where Viviana and Mark met




All the ladies looking amazing at the bar at Madonna Inn


The guys trying hard to one-up the ladies, sorry guys...


I couldn't resist this composition, so surreal!




My take on a classical couple


I love this shot of the cake, it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland and is totally fitting for Madonna Inn!

Brian and Sophie in Carmel

Last weekend I headed up to San Francisco for a beautiful wedding with my good friend John Griffin (more from that wedding later) and stopped by Pacific Grove to meet with Brian and Sophie for their engagement session. The smoke from the Big Sur fires was a concern but seeing as it ended up being super foggy it didn't really matter in the end!
Both Brian and Sophie are Biologists by trade and by lifestyle. They thoroughly enjoy the outdoors and being in nature, being that I am an avid cyclist we all get along really well! Brian is a self described "Bird Nerd" who not only works tracking bird populations but he is also a bird photographer and avid bird watcher. It was really cool to be walking through the forest and he knew the names of every bird we saw and could even identify them by their call. I might just borrow his bazooka of a lens, the Canon 500mm f/4, just to have some fun with at the wedding. Being that the combined weight with my camera would be about 13lbs, I might have to bring a third assistant just to lug it around!

Sophie and Brian were a ton of fun to work with and have such a great time with each other.


Walking down Asilomar Beach


I couldn't resist the comparison to birding, lol






Wasatch leading the way!




In front of the Carmel City Hall

Even time/a couple recent FILM (gasp!) wedding pics

With all the pics of Kyla we haven't seen much of Caiden! Here's a funny one I shot with my trusty Holga film camera. I love this shot, if I ever had a band it would be my band's poster! I have not edited this image, this is how it came out of the camera.



And here a couple shots from a recent wedding with my friend Gene Higa. I have to also congratulate Gene on being named Top 10 Wedding Photographer of 2008!
It was a beautiful wedding out in the Livermore area with a very fun couple, Will and Andrea. I shot a ton (of course) but these are just a couple of my favorites from the film I shot. I find it really funny that I will take 1,000 digital images and yet my favorites are usually from the film though I only shoot maybe 100 frames of film! Part of what I love about film is the amazing and soft skin tones I get. The other part is that you can't look at a LCD to see what you captured so you really have to concentrate and trust your skill as a photographer to get great images! Plus, at more than $1.75 for every time I push the shutter button, you want to be sure that every shot is a great shot!

It was really windy so we had a fun time trying to keep that long veil under control!






I love this shot of the Fathers talking. There is something so amazing about the look of a good and grainy black and white film when combined with a rangefinder camera! I love the mood and feel of this image.


LOL, yes, I even use my $12 Holga camera for ceremony shots!

Hanging in San Francisco

Ok, I hear you...I've been terrible about updating my blog! I know, I know! LOL. I've got several weddings, a couple boudoir shoots, 3 engagement sessions and many more pictures of Kyla to blog about, now I just need to find the time to get them up here!
I'm in San Francisco right now hanging with my friends Gene, Ann and Bogie (above) and had to get a picture of these crazy little Jamaican rum bottles. They're definitely one of those "Only in Jamaica" kind of things (Gene and Ann just shot a wedding there ). I'm thinking they would make good chess pieces... hmm, rum and Coke is sounding kind of good though!