Tom and Jennifer's Santa Ynez Wedding

Wow, have I ever been blessed with being a part of some awesome couple's lives this year! Jenny and Tom's wedding day started out at the beautiful Wine Valley Inn in Solvang, which is near Santa Barbara, with the ceremony at Old Mission Santa Inés, also in Solvang. Jenny is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and has a great sense of style so we were able to capture some wonderful moments while she was getting ready. She had this great cottage where a lot of her family and friends were getting ready and having a great time. Her family was so much fun and such a big group! The amazing part is just how close everyone is with each other, it was amazing to see all the love!
Tom and the guys were also at the Wine Valley Inn. Tom's a great guy and a perfect match for Jenny, you often hear people say "they were made for each other" which may sound a bit cliché but is so true for these two! We got some great shots of Tom and the guys before heading over to the Mission for the ceremony. Tom is this burly looking guy but he is also one of the nicest people I've been lucky enough to work with, it's so funny! The ceremony was beautiful and I found a great spot for the family photos out in the courtyard.
After that we headed over to the reception....WOW! Jenny, her family and Alyssah from Save the Date did such an great job with the design! Relatives were at the venue late into Friday night transforming the hall into an exception venue, very good work everyone! Lani at LBPS Events did an AMAZING job with the lighting, everything looked fantastic! Being a photographer who loves using lighting to enhance a scene, I can really appreciate what they did, it made my job even easier! Check out the dancing shot below, that was in the middle of the day which shows how good of work they do, all I had to do was add in some off camera strobes to balance to their accent light and it was beautiful!
The reception was a ton of fun and they even had a Photo Booth which is always a good time!
I will be getting together with Tom and Jenny again in about a week for a "Day After" shoot (yeah, I know, it's not really the 'day after' :) and can't wait to get to work on their wedding album as it will be delicious! I had such a great time, thanks to Jenny, Tom and their wonderful families!
This is such a small sampling of how many amazing image there are from this wedding! I want to put up more but I think I'll save it for my website :)

Website Update

For everyone who hasn't already noticed, I'm in the process of updating my website. Seeing as it has been several months I figured it's about time! I just switched out all the intro slide-show images and added a gallery to the weddings section, I think it's much more representative of my total body of work. I'm going to be changing over the whole look of my website in the next few weeks (don't worry, the blue is staying) so that's all the changes for now but once I do the big change then you can expect to see several new weddings and a new engagement sessions section. A big thanks to my friend TJ for introducing me to "Buddy," the band who plays the first song on my site.

Dajin & Cecylia's San Francisco Wedding

Dajin and Cecylia's wedding on October 4th was so much fun, I LOVE San Francisco weddings!
We started out at the Marriott on 3rd st with Cecylia and the rest of her bridesmaids in a beautiful suite overlooking downtown. I actually parked over at The Palace Hotel as we would be headed over their later but I had no idea that I would have to cross the Love Fest Parade! haha, you just never know what's going to happen in that town, that's what makes San Francisco such an awesome place! So after wading my way through thousands of people in various levels of undress, I headed up to Cecylia's and got to shoot for a couple hours before heading back to The Palace Hotel to shoot the guys and then Dajin and Cecylia's meeting.
They were so funny when they finally saw each other and their connection was so apparent that random people who were walking through the hotel were stopping and making well-wishes. I love it when we can have the bride and groom meet before the wedding because it gives a relaxed time for them to talk and admire each other. After we finished up at the hotel we headed over to Notre Dame Cathedral where Dajin and Cecylia were married. It is a beautiful Catholic Cathedral with so much great detail and they even let me set up a flash (very rare) to get some fabulous light!
When the ceremony was completed, we spent about an hour around the area shooting before heading over to one of my favorite restaurants, E&O Trading Co. The food was fabulous! The funny thing is that I have always wanted to shoot in the basement at E&O and I finally got my chance!
Dajin and Cecylia were such gracious hosts and super fun to be around. Thank you so much for having me! We got so many great images that I don't even know what to do with all of them! lol

Yes, I shoot weddings!

Haha, I was just reading my last post and then looked back and was laughing because it looks like I shoot everything BUT weddings! In the past five weeks I have shot 5 weddings (and will hit my limit of 25 for the year in just a couple more weeks) and have shot various commercial and portrait jobs as well so it's funny to not see any wedding images here! I've been super busy getting all these weddings and other jobs turned around in a timely manner so I've been slacking on my postings. I also had a wonderful couple a few weeks ago who'd images I can't post because of the grooms job but I have 2 more weddings that I will be posting up her in the next few days.
I often am asked where I find inspiration and truly I find that the best inspiration comes from within when you feel challenged. And what better way to feel challenged than to shoot with some of the best photographers in the business? I don't get to do it all that often but I really love second shooting with friends as the pressure is off me and I can just experiment and try things I would never have the time for when I'm shooting for myself. Wether it's setting up 3 off camera lights for a reception or just finding new angles that I wouldn't normally try, second shooting can be awesome. Combine that with the fact that I am super fortunate to call some of the worlds top photographers my friends and that's a recipe for some great times! They challenge me to push myself and I usually end up quite inspired! A big thanks to all of my friends who have invited me to join them at some amazing weddings!

Here are a few images from Jennifer and Ming's wedding with Gene Higa. To all the Photographers who read my blog: GO SEE GENE SPEAK! It will help your business so much you won't believe it! I know he and Jason Groupp are having a workshop in NYC in just a few weeks and I think there is a spot or two left!
This first one is from the garden area in front of San Francisco City Hall (where the ceremony and reception were held).




Outside the beautiful St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco.




Jennifer and Ming's reception was AMAZING! Top SF coordinator Michelle Martinez showed why many consider her the best coordinator in the Bay Area.




This is from Shannon and Barney's Seattle wedding with Chris of Chris+Lynn. They were such a great couple! Not to mention that the wedding was at the most beautiful cathedral I've seen outside of Europe!


I had to throw in some night shots! We were at a beautiful members only club just up from the waterfront and the building was just too gorgeous not to include!


This is from much earlier this year when I shot with my good friend John Griffin. Charles was THE MAN! He was a ton of fun and really liked this "Godfather" look!


I shot Craig and Mary's wedding a couple months ago with the incomparable Ann Hamilton. I LOVED shooting with Ann, she is so laid back and it really puts everyone at ease! Craig and Mary were totally game to do just about whatever so we threw them behind a broken down street car on The Embarcadero in San Francisco and they really worked it!

Canada!

Last week I headed up to Seattle to shoot with my friend Chris of Chris+Lynn. We had a great wedding and then headed up to Chris and Lynn's place near Vancouver. The first day we headed out to Stanley Park in Vancouver and road bikes around then went to some great places for dinner and drinks. Then next morning we all wanted to go hike so Chris, Lynn, TJ and I all headed back across the border so we could hike around Mt. Baker.
It took us awhile to get there but once we got on the trail it was truly beautiful! We hiked up to the side of a glacier and then just enjoyed the view. Here's a couple pics from the trip. I'll post some images from the wedding later this week.


Chris and Lynn just can't get enough of each other!


There's about a 200 foot drop just to my right, do I look nervous?


TJ trying out for a job for an outdoor clothing model!


I tried to get them into the water but seeing as that water was glacier about 5 minutes ago it was a bit cold!


Enjoying the view


I should have brought a reflector to fill in those shadows! lol


It was hard to not just sit and enjoy


This is Bob. Bob is our new cat, his brother Tom also lives with us. I forgot what a complete pain in the ass kittens can be! lol