Hello new Blog!

After 3 or 4 years using blogspot, I have now switched over to a custom blog. I imported everything to the new blog so please visit my new blog and note that I will no longer be posting here. All the old posts are there as well.
Thanks!

Sarah and Ben in Golden Gate Park

So funny! I've had a couple people tell me they can't access my blog from work because my previous post from Nettie and Leon's engagement photo shoot includes the word "wicked." I guess the work filter blocks it in case it's a cult website! How funny is that?

It was an engagement photo session marathon the other weekend in San Francisco! Somewhere in the middle I had a mountain bike race too (I did well, 3rd place in Cat. 2) so it was a very exhausting weekend! Stephanie was along helping out so it made it so much easier, thanks Steph! We met with Ben and Sarah in Golden Gate Park and while I grew up in the Bay Area and drive through the Park all the time, I haven't actually been in the park since probably the early 1980's! I vaguely remember a museum and something about King Tut then going to the SF Zoo and riding a camel. I was probably 4 years old at the time. Funny thing, when we met with Sarah and Ben the King Tut exhibit was back at the de Young Museum! That's gotta be a good sign!

We explored the park and found some locations that made it look like we ventured far into the outback (Ben in from Australia so I had to throw in an Aussie reference somewhere!) though we were actually right in the middle of things. Ben is a fellow bike rider so we had a great time laughing at all the $7K bikes being cruised around the park as if they are made for such a lowly existence!

Sarah and Ben have a great connection and had a great time just doing their thing. Plus they are both super mellow and wonderfully warm people so it was a very pleasant afternoon. It made me really excited to shoot their wedding, fortunately, I don't have to wait long as it's about 2 weeks away!

A Wicked Engagement Session!

I love musical theatre, I really do. Some people think it's funny but it's actually in my blood as my grandparents were opera singers. When I did a study abroad in London I must have seen 15 plays, it was awesome! Being in San Francisco has the advantage of getting to see lots of show being tested for potential runs on Broadway so we try to get to a couple shows a year. But I have to admit, I pale in comparison to Nettie and Leon! My first clue was the meeting place: the classic Orpheum Theatre in San Francisco. The next was that they brought their own playbills as props. Then I found out they have seen Wicked 17 times! Okay, they win!
It was a really fun day and Leon and Nettie are a gorgeous couple and a ton of fun. Leon I hardly recognized as he's gotten himself super fit over the past few month, nice work! And Nettie just can't take a bad picture, she's just so elegant! They have been together for years and have a maturity in their relationship thats really great to see, I'm very much looking forward to what is sure to be an awesome wedding!











Yes, the hill really is that steep! Nettie is showing off her heel skills here!












Day wouldn't have been complete without this shot!

Mike and Kristina's New York Wedding

Last month I was invited to come shoot Mike and Kristina's New York wedding with my friend (and awesome photographer) Angelica Glass. Angelica is way too much fun so there was no way I wasn't going to make it! I arrived late Friday night in time to have a bit of fun before heading over to the wedding in Long Island City around noon. I show up and was very pleasantly welcomed by Mike and Kristina and all their family members. I didn't start shooting until the ceremony as the festivities were scheduled to last far into the night so it was interesting to shoot a wedding without doing the getting ready part. Of course Angelica shot the getting ready which meant only she had to work the 14 hour day...I guess that's the privilege of being the guest photographer!
After the ceremony we headed over to a hotel rooftop lounge overlooking the East River and the Manhattan skyline, it was stunning! Mike and Kristina were a ton of fun, as were their friends and family so we got some amazing images. Angelica rocked, as she always does and her clients just adore her!
The reception was held out in, well, I'm not exactly sure what they call the area! lol I heard some people call it Long Island, other said Queens and yet I saw signs that said something about Jericho! For those not familiar with that area, apparently though Queens is on Long Island it is still considered part of New York City as one of the five boroughs. Even after several weddings there and having stayed there, I'm still not sure where Queens stops and Long Island starts!
Anyways, the reception was beautiful and everyone had a great time. Thanks so much to Angelica for bringing me out, Mike and Kristina for being such gracious and wonderful hosts and to that cab driver who took me back to the city who informed me of everything that is wrong with every professional New York sporting team LOL!

Lisa and Rob's Berkeley Wedding

Rob and Lisa's wedding was just as much fun as I thought it would be after their engagement session, there is just nothing like getting to work with people who are passionately in love! We started out at the Claremont Resort for all the getting ready. The Claremont is always a wonderful place to shoot and we were blessed to get some gorgeous weather! Lisa and Rob did their "First Look" at the Claremont then we headed up to Tilden Park for the wedding and reception.
I had a great time getting to know both of their families before the ceremony and have to say that the Rabbi was pretty funny! He definitely kept everyone laughing. It was a beautiful ceremony overlooking the mountains and the reception was wonderful. After all the festivities winded down we headed back to the Claremont for some night images that I think came out really well.
Thanks again to Rob and Lisa for having me!

wow, what a month!

Someone please tell me what movie this line is from (paraphrased): "I thought I was just lazy but it turns out I have Mono!"
Yeah, good times! After 6 weeks of having a cold and Kyla getting a skin rash when she took Amoxicillin, I realized we all have mono! Steph got it real bad this past week and also got strep throat (and pink-eye!), which is when we got a verified diagnosis so it all came together. I spoke with my doctor yesterday who said he just diagnosed another guy this past week with mono and how odd it is to see an outbreak in adults. Haha, great!
So please forgive me for the lack of blog updates! I have some awesome images from Rob and (E)lisa's wedding, Mike and Kristina's wedding out in New York with my friend Angelica Glass and several model shoots so keep an eye out for that this week.
And if you get a sore throat that won't go away and you are sleeping a bunch... good luck!

Ashley and Brandt in Paso Robles

Wow I've had a great year of couples! One couple after the next just have this amazing connection that makes my job so much fun! It really is great to get to hang out and get to know people that are so in love.
Ashley, Brandt and I started out at Summerwood Winery, (which is ever so conveniently located at the bottom of my road!) before heading around the Paso Robles for their engagement session. It was pretty windy and a bit chilly, well, actually it was freezing but we toughed it out. Always easier for me to say as the photographer who can wear a hat and jacket lol

Melanie and Nick

Had a blast last weekend with Melanie and Nick shooting around San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay and Cayucos. They are a great couple who are a lot of fun to be around and obviously very in love. We started out at Cal Poly as the light was perfect for a shoot in some of the buildings around campus. It was spring break so campus was like a ghost town! We then headed over to a cool spot on the beach where I broke out my lighting and got some cool sunset images before heading to Cayucos to the Cayucos Tavern for some pictures and a few drinks :) The wedding is going to be in Cayucos on the beach so it made sense!
I'm really looking forward to their wedding and know we will all have a ball!

Advanced Point and Shooting

The above shot was taken by my Leica D-Lux4 point and shoot on my road. Not bad for a point and shoot unedited image!

Okay, before I can dive into the features you need on your point and shoot we have to talk photo basics: f/stop (aka aperture), shutter speeds and ISO. I really wanted to write these tips and reviews in the most basic way but I quickly realized that without this foundation a novice isn’t going to really know how to work their Point and Shoot in order to get better pictures. I’m gearing this towards amateur photographers who really want to understand their camera’s better so a little of the techie stuff is necessary.
At least for me, I’ve found that understanding the theories behind concepts is often more valuable than memorizing the actual concepts! What’s the saying “Give a person a meal and they will be fed for a day, teach them to farm and they will be fed for life.” Hopefully I can break it down to the most basic level so you can take better pictures and better understand when to use those special modes your camera can do.
So here it is: f/stop, shutter speeds and ISO all control how much light comes into your camera. I find it easier to think of light in the same way you think about water. Instead of thinking of light coming through the lens of your camera, think about water coming through a pipe. Make the hole smaller (f/stop), less water gets through. Open the pipe for a long time (shutter speed) more comes in. F/stop is the hole, shutter speed is how long the hole is open. I’ll talk about ISO later.
Shutter speed is pretty self explanatory, shorter (i.e. 1/2000th of a second) lets in very little light, slower speeds (i.e. 1/10th of a second) let in more.
F/stop (aka aperture) is the size of the hole inside your lens. The number is actually a ratio of the length of your lens to the diameter of the hole. Smaller numbers (i.e f/2) are actually bigger holes than bigger numbers (i.e f/16). Lame right? Yeah, obviously some mathematician came up with this system! But photography is all based on math so it actually makes sense, it’s just not very intuitive! Some photographers think in terms of golf where smaller scores make bigger money :)
Okay, you don’t need to memorize f/stops or anything but you need to understand the relationship of f/stop and shutter speed in order to properly expose your photograph and to understand their effect on an image. Obviously, shutter speed and f/stop have a inverse relationship; if you open up the f/stop to make the hole bigger, you are going to need to shorten the shutter speed in order to maintain the correct exposure. Pretty simple.
Thankfully, ISO is a very simple concept. ISO refers to how sensitive the the little digital chip that records the image is. A low number like ISO 80 means it’s not very sensitive, a high number like 1600 means it’s really sensitive. So, if you increase the sensitivity of the sensor, you are going to need less light so you can use a faster shutter speed, then why not use a high ISO all the time then? The answer is something called “Noise.” A little noise is fine, too much can be bad. On Auto ISO mode, a good P&S camera will keep your ISO low enough to not make objectionable amounts of noise. Noise is also one of the main things to look at when buying a camera, I’ll talk about that more in future reviews.
Now, why would you want to change any of these controls? And that takes us to the entire point of this discussion! Yay! You can actually understand what all those special modes (like “Sports” and “Night Portrait”) actually are! It will also lead us into knowing how to use the most valuable tool on your P&S camera; Exposure Compensation and how to not take blurry pictures. More on that next time (I know, what a tease!).

Lisa and Rob (Too!)

I had a blast this past weekend shooting Rob and (E)lisa's engagement session up in the North Bay! They were so much fun to hang out with and get to know, not to mention their connection is so strong it made my job a breeze! And yes, for those of you following my work for awhile, they do have the same names as Rob and Elisa! How funny is that? Plus, you gotta love facebook because now they are friends!