Elisa and Rob's foothills e-shoot

Last weekend, after my Tahoe bike ride, I went back down to Placerville and met up with Rob and Elisa for their engagement shoot. We met up at Starbucks (which is always difficult as there are so many different Starbucks even in a small town!) then headed up the hill to Boeger Winery which was really pretty and had some amazingly red colored vines. There is so much iron in the soil up there that, combined with their climate, it allows some of the vines to have even more intense fall colors than most other regions. The winery was actually first started during the 1850's gold rush so there were some really interesting old buildings to work with, we had a great time and even tried some wine :)
We then headed back into town and had some dinner then headed back out to do a bit of night shooting which is always my favorite time to shoot! I'm really looking forward to shooting Elisa and Rob's wedding here in a couple weeks as they are really fun people and they have an amazing connection with each other.

Like Father, Like Son!

After my last post you all know that I love riding bikes so I had to share these pics from this morning of my son Caiden learning to ride his tricycle. He has been riding in the trailer behind my bike for over a year and loves to push his tricycle around but has only just learned to pedal it.

You can just about see the 'wheels' turning in his head!


"My feet are on but now what?"


He's trying really hard here :)


Now he's rolling along!


He is really getting the hang of it and now is asking me to let him take it on the jumps! I'm sure In no time he will be up on two wheels hitting my jumps, berms and drops!

Lake Tahoe

I just got back from a real quick trip to Sacramento and Lake Tahoe for an engagement session which was a blast! But more about that later :)
I stayed with my long time friends Ian and Casey and their two kids at their home just above Placerville. Ian and I rode and raced mountain bikes together all through high school and both still ride as much as possible. We headed up the hill to Tahoe with Ian's friend Jerry (also an ex-racer) at the wheel to squeeze in a ride before we all had work to do. As soon as we pulled up we knew we were in for a pretty unique experience as there was way more snow than we expected! The ride started at about 7,000 feet, dropped down to the town of Meyers, which is near South Lake Tahoe, then headed up to about 8,500 feet where Mr. Toads trail begins. As we got close to the top the snow went from patches to a solid blanket but was only about 4 inches deep and offered enough traction to still ride.
Truly, the downhill was the most fun I have ever had! The downhill is about 5 or 6 miles long and was completely snow covered 3/4 of the way down. I managed to only crash twice and had the time of my life. All said and done, we rode just about 30 miles with a little more than 4,000 feet of climbing in about 3 1/2 hours which wasn't bad considering how much the snow slowed us down.
I can't wait to ride that trail again though I have a feeling that it will never be quite as much fun as it was yesterday.

Sorry I didn't take more pictures but I was way too busy having a great time! This first picture was what we saw getting out of the car. The snow was pretty patchy so the trail was easy enough.



I was wearing a ton of clothing, I look like a marshmallow but I was warm! It was 25 degress when we got out on the trail and probably about 30 in this picture. If you look real carefully you can see a couple tire tracks that showed us where the trail is. We were very lucky in that someone who obviously knew every corner of the trail had gone through the day before and we could follow their tracks.


Here is Ian showing off his bike handling skills. What you don't see is that he has to make a 90 degree left turn right at the bottom to avoid going off a 30 foot drop-off into rocks!

Scott and Paige San Francisco Wedding!

Scott and Paige did it! With just two months to plan they managed to pull off an amazing wedding! Not only did they get their friends and family from all over the country to their beautiful San Francisco wedding but they also put a lot of their personalities into it. I feel so blessed to have been asked to shoot this wedding as they are both very into the arts and appreciate fine photography.
I started the day with Paige in her suite at the luxurious Hotel Griffon near the Bay Bridge on the Embarcadero. The lighting was fantastic so I was able to really push my lighting techniques to get some amazing portraits! We then headed over to the Swedenborgian Church on Nob Hill for their beautiful ceremony. September is a beautiful time in San Francisco, it was about 70 degrees and sunny, you really couldn't have asked for better weather!
The reception was at the St. Francis Yacht Club right on the water in the Marina. Everyone had a great time and we pretty much closed the place down but not before I got in a few great night shots!
Huge thanks goes to my friend Jason Groupp for flying out from New York to help out!
There are way too many great images from this wedding to post here...so I will put my favorite 30 or so up on my website later this week!


Paige looked amazing, and wasn't the light phenomenal?


Pretty hot shoes :)


Beautiful dress (I'm totally blanking on the designer but am sure I will remember as soon as I post this!)


Jason shot this great image of the guys


Jason's amazing image of the groom just before he headed into the chapel


Paige having a great time just as she is about to walk down the aisle


They did!


We took a convertable down the hill to the Yacht club, it was a perfect day for it


This is one of my favorite images from the wedding, it really shows how passionate they are for each other!

No Posts!

Okay, I know...not enough new posts lately!
I got home from a wedding in San Diego with John Griffin and realized that I haven't had a single day completely off in over 5 weeks! My plan was to take the middle 3 weeks of this past month and have a break by shooting with other photographers but it turned out to be a lot of work with all the travel and shooting so I never really got a break because as soon as I was home I was back to work on my own shoots. Don't get me wrong, it was great to shoot with friends and learn how others approach weddings but next time I probably won't do so many destination weddings without a break! So today I turned off my computer and spent a day doing...well, nothing at all! It was great! I feel so much better!

I am headed off tomorrow to shoot Scott and Paige's wedding at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco and promise to get images up real quickly as enough of you have emailed to let me know that I'm slacking! I will also be posting some of my favorites from the past month so keep an eye out for those as well.

New York, Take 2!

Last weekend I headed back to the New York area to shoot Mac and Ashley's amazing New Jersey wedding with my friend Jason Groupp. It is so much fun to go second shoot with other photographers because I get to do more experimentation with my shooting than I do when I am shooting my own weddings. Not only that but I also get paid to go to some really cool locations with my good buddy Jason!

Here are just a couple of images from the wedding, there are tons more but I am just too swamped to post any more! I have to admit that as much as I enjoy all this travel, I am ready to get back to San Luis Obispo and a more regular schedule!


The details were really beautiful


This is the kind of experimentation that makes second shooting worth it!


The church was beautiful. It was originally build in 1717 but rebuilt to its current building in the early 1800's.


I love this shot, it shows the emotion and pride the father of the bride goes through on the wedding day.


This shot really cracks me up.


The groom's family is Scots-Irish and went over to Scotland have these kilts made for the wedding.


I have other more "clean" shots of the reception but this one illustrates just how much fun was being had


Thanks again to Jason for flying me out there for this beautiful wedding!

New York...take 1!

It never ceases to amaze me that one day I can be riding my bike through remote vineyards in the mountains above Paso Robles and the next day strolling down Broadway in Manhattan!
This past weekend I headed out to New York to shoot a wedding with my friend TJ and got a few hours to do some exploring. It was a whirlwind trip; left home at 4am on Friday, returned at midnight Sunday, but we still managed to see a bit of the city and shoot a very cool wedding in Harlem.
We stayed at the very hip Hudson Hotel. This place is so hip, in fact, that it doesn't have a sign out front or even an address! At night the entire lounge area becomes a pretty happening club with socialites galore. The first night we just relaxed a bit then Saturday we went out for a run around Central Park (which was just a block away). I got a bit carried away and ended up running a bit further than we planned. So after about 6 miles we grabbed some lunch and headed out to a very cool wedding with Susan and Alan. It was a very nice New Yorker wedding which was so fun to shoot despite the high temperatures and high humidity!
The next day Jason and TimCo picked us up and we all headed down to Jason's studio for breakfast. Haha, I love how New York diners do breakfast! There is definitely no veggie omelet and when they say bacon omelet be assured there will be more bacon than eggs!
Good thing I love to travel and have some great friends to hang out with and shoot with when I'm there because I will be back there in just a couple of days! Stay tuned for more pics from that trip!


The view from our room


Looking over the Jacqueline Kennedy reservoir


I love that you can get just about any meal delivered at just about any time to just about anywhere in the city! And even better that they deliver in "I love NY" bags!


L to R -> TJ, Me, Jason, TimCo

Angie & Brian's Avila Wedding

Nothing is as compelling to me as seeing a truly dynamic and loving couple like Brian and Angie! I have been blessed to get a chance to not only shoot their incredibly beautiful wedding but also to get to know a couple of the most fun and warm people I have ever met. Honestly, being at their wedding was an absolute privilege.
The wedding was a the See Canyon Fruit Ranch near Avila Beach. The location is a beautiful and lush garden set at a narrow spot in the rugged See Canyon, it was a perfect compliment to Angie and Brian's vision for their amazing day.
The connection between these two is what really set the mood as these guys are absolutely in love with each other. The passion and deep connection was totally contagious as so many people were affected by their love, honestly, I don't think there was a dry eye in the house through the entire ceremony!
There are so many great images from this wedding that you will soon see it featured on my website so look out for that. And a huge thanks to Sara Heinrichs for doing a spectacular job (as always!) shooting with me.

Canada

Phew! Tons of fun stuff has been happening these past few weeks, it is really exciting! I just got back from Canada where Stephanie and I spent a couple day up at the Whistler Bike Park then headed down to Vancouver to visit with my good friends Chris and Lynn and to shoot a wedding.
After just 6 hours of travel we arrived in Vancouver around 11am on Tuesday very excited to be there. Whistler is just about 120K (I'm still stuck in the metric system so that's about 80 miles) from Vancouver so we figured that it would take about 2 hours drive on a fairly curvy 2 lane road. I remembered the Winter Olympics are going to be there in 2010 and had heard about the road construction projects but 4 hours later I knew them all intimately! At least it was a beautiful drive.
The first day I headed up to the bike park to do some jump runs and experience a bit of the lift-accessed adrenaline rush that is Whistler. I had tons of fun and got to ride trails that are nothing like what I normal ride. The next day I went for a more normal, for me, cross-country ride of about 30 miles. On the way up one of the trails I found myself riding across ladders and bridges, like you see below, and down some kind of crazy rocks. I forgot how much better my own bike is than the rental I was on when I headed down the narrow spine of a boulder and proceeded to do a swan-dive about 6 feet onto my chest and face! I was SO lucky to land on a very soft spot and not get too hurt!
The next day we headed down to Chris and Lynn's place where another friend TJ Cameron was also hanging out. We had a great time fooling around in Vancouver and having a great time! Thanks so much for letting us stay C+L, we had a great time and can't wait to do it again!


It rains so much that regular trails turn into bogs thus the creation of wooden trails!


Hmm, this sign probably should have been my first warning...



I came down that rock from right to left on the highest point...but ended up at the lowest just outside the frame in front of my bike!