Amanda's Senior un-portraits

Last Friday I shot a great senior portrait session in San Luis Obispo. Amanda is an ideal client; she told me to just do my thing and was totally comfortable in front of the camera, I really can't ask for more than that! She is very warm and fun to be around, I think that her great attitude really comes through in her images. We mainly shot around the Cal Poly campus, utilizing some of the interesting colors and architecture that is available. Amanda really wanted to do something non-traditional, which is exactly what I love to to, and I think we really collaborated well! Don't worry, I did get some for her mom too!
Those of you who know me well might be asking what I am doing shooting senior portraits!? Well, I had a great time and have decided that I will accept a limited amount of senior sessions with select clients this year. So if you are looking to have your senior portraits done, are looking for something different and are ready to have a good time then give me a call or visit me on Myspace. Sorry, I have the security on my myspace page but I will add you :)

I love this wood wall


I don't think we could get any less traditional of a senior portrait than this!






Yeah, the 80's are back! Amanda had this sweater with her and I found this cool blue light so I thought I would go full 80's with this one.

Richard and Meghan in Paso Robles

Meghan and Richard are a great local couple who's wedding I will be shooting in October out in the vineyards of Paso Robles. It looks like we will get a chance to shoot at the beautiful Villa Toscana before the ceremony so that should be a lot of fun! For their engagement session we actually just cruised around near my house as the light was beautiful and they both enjoy the outdoors. As you can see, they have great chemistry together and were a lot of fun to hang out with, I can't wait for their wedding!

Brian & Angie's Engagement Party

Stephanie and I were honored to be invited to Brian and Angie's engagement party last Saturday. You may remember Brian and Angie's engagement pictures from back in May. They are an awesome couple and just generally fun people to be around so I knew this wasn't a party to miss!
At first I was worried about making it because I had a wedding up in Livermore but as luck would have it, it was a day time wedding so I was able to race home (hope none of my CHP clients just read that!) and just be fashionably late :) Because I had to be in Livermore at 10am I had to leave home by 6am so it was a really long day!
The party was themed around the Rat Pack (you know, Sammy Davis Jr., Frank Sinatra) so we got all dressed up as Frank Sinatra was known to kick people out of bars and parties he was at if they weren't dressed nicely! Haha, thankfully that wasn't the case. The party was a ton of fun, and The Damon Castillo Band was perfect for the mood. Brian and Angie have a great (and very large!) group of friends, I'm really looking forward to their wedding in August.

The house was in this really cool develpment that looked like a Mediterranean village. There were even pathways that weaved through the houses and cobblestone streets. Every once in awhile I get the urge to do some more architecture work...


This picture cracks me up, what the heck is that guy doing in the background?!


Angie's good friends. Sarah, on the right, helped out with Angie's bridal shots, she was great!


Stephanie looking glamourous! The decorations around the house and even outside were amazing!

On 7.7.07 I was on my way back from Arkansas and stopped in Los Angeles for Whitney and Daniel's wedding. I rented a car and headed up to the Four Seasons in Westlake Village where Whitney was getting ready. Well, I actually came up the night before and stayed at the Hilton which was quite a nice place in its own right. While I was killing some time in the gym on Saturday morning there was this huge guy working out with his wife who I started talking to (it was a very small gym). Turns out he was there for a wedding and he is a player for the New Orleans Saints NFL team, kind of cool! On my way back to my room I was in the elevator with some people going to a wedding. I went to a coffee shop and the girl in front of me was a wedding coordinator and the people behind me were talking about the wedding they are going to. Haha, I guess 777 really was a popular date to get married, everywhere I went there were people going to weddings!
Anyways, we started with the ladies getting ready at the Four Seasons before heading over to the ceremony and reception at the Westlake Village YachtClub. It was a beautiful day and luckily there was a good breeze as it was about 90 degrees.
Of course as soon as we started the group shots the wind died and we all started sweating like crazy but it was kind of fun because we were all in such a hurry to get to the AC that we powered through it and had more time for the shots of Whitney and Daniel together. Plus, we still managed to get some great shots like the bridal party shots below.
Whitney and Daniel are a great couple and were very gracious hosts. Whitney told me that it was actually an coincidence that they were getting married on 777 because they didn't even think about the implications of the date, they just wanted to get married the first week of July! After getting to know them I can honestly say that they really don't need any extra luck because there are an awesome couple and obviously already very lucky to have found each other.

Family Vacation to Arkansas

Steph's family is from North West Arkansas near Fayetteville (University of Arkansas Razorbacks, go SEC!) so every couple of years we head out there to visit. The Ozark mountains are absolutely beautiful, it seems like you are in the tropics! The heat and humidity really help with that illusion :)
Stephanie's mother rented a house on Beaver Lake which is just a few miles north of Fayetteville. The lake is huge! I forget exactly how big but it is something like 50 miles from one end to the other.
We had a great time visiting with family and relaxing. It was our first time on a commercial airplane with Caiden and he did really well (better on the plane than in the airport actually) so all went pretty well. He loved the boat! As you can see in the pictures he got "boat head" from all the wind! He really liked it when we hit bumps and would tell me to steer over to where any bumps were from other boats, it was pretty funny.
Arkansas gets so much rain that they can have some really great fireworks without the worry of starting a fire. The are almost like the stuff you see at a professional show. Steph's uncle Rick is a pyrotechnician so we had our own show with up to 6 inch shells, it was wild! I didn't bring a tripod with me so I don't have very good pictures of the show but I have to say that it was absolutely amazing! The entire sky was lit up, neighbors came from all around to watch.
On the way back home I stopped in LA for a 777 wedding while Steph and Caiden went back home. The wedding was up in Westlake Village just north of Los Angeles starting at the Four Seasons then on to the Westlake Village Yacht Club. I will put up some photos from Daniel and Whitney's beautiful wedding as soon as I get the chance but right now I am trying to make up for being gone for a week! Isn't it funny how you go on vacation but you have to work twice as hard to make up for it?!

Boat head!


Trampoline





What are you looking at!?


It was the slowest tube ride in the history or tubing...


These are the tubes the fireworks launch out of. I told you we weren't messing around!



Caiden loves riding the tractor mower. In Arkansas, it rains so much you don't have to water your lawn so everyone has to mow their entire yard every week.


It was more impressive in person :)

What a week!

I have been on a family vacation out in Arkansas (yes, Arkansas) for the past week and am now in Westlake Village for tomorrow's wedding. We had a great time out at Beaver Lake hanging out with my wife's family and everyones significant others. I will definitely be posting some images soon but I'm trying to catch up with the 100+ emails I missed this week! Everyone is going to get a big kick out of the crazy fireworks show we had at Uncle Rick's place! Did I mention he is a pyrotechnician?!