Death Valley

Last week I headed out to Death Valley to meet up with my friends for some fun and photography. Meeting me there were Jason Groupp, John Griffin, TJ Cameron and Tim Halberg. It was a great opportunity for a bunch of wedding photographers to get together and do something different! We got there on Tuesday afternoon after stopping at one of my favorite diner's in Mojave, Primo Burgers. Note: when you go to a burger place, stick with the burgers! haha, some of us learned that lesson the hard way! It was pretty overcast and the light was flat so we just kind of setup camp and hung out. I cooked up my "college special" of macaroni and cheese mixed with chili and corn, mmmmmm!
The next day we were up early and headed over to the sand dunes but the light was completely flat, we couldn't even see our own shadows. Most of Wednesday we spent sightseeing by checking out old mines and ghost towns. I got some kind of cool shots in the rain (yes, it was raining!) of one of the towns but it's all on film which I don't have back yet. That night we consumed plenty of frothy adult beverages then woke up at 6am to shoot at Zabriski point the next day.
Zabriski is well photographed but the light was good so we shot away. It was pretty funny to see all the other wannabe nature photogs out there (I definitely include myself in this category!) as people were taking pictures of all sorts of things! It was a total nerd pack! LOL
I had developed a real bad cold by this point so I was taking it pretty easy and didn't really get to shoot as much as I wanted but the light was hit or miss so it was not big deal. That afternoon we jumped in my Jeep and motored out to the Racetrack. The Racetrack is that weird dry lakebed where the rocks somehow slide along and leave tracks behind them. It is a really cool place but there were high winds so we didn't stay all that long. We did manage to get some good shots of all the wildflowers that are starting to bloom which was beautiful. I think I will head back on my way home from Vegas next month as all the other colors of flowers ought to be blooming by then.
If you have never been to Death Valley I strongly recommend checking it out. It is the least visited National Park so you are guaranteed no crowds which makes it worth it right there!

These pics are just what I shot as extra's from my digital camera. When I get my film back I will get some more fun shots up.


The flowers aren't quite all that thick yet, it needs another rain. This was near Salt Creek.


The view from Zabriski Point


Laying on the ground was the only way out of the relentless wind out at the Racetrack!


Some sort of interesting desert plant. I love how everything in the desert is all about texture and form.


Here's a pic of the moon just before the total lunar eclipse. It was pretty amazing, it completely covered the moon for about an hour. It got super dark so the stars became very vivid, it was one of the most star filled skies I have ever seen!

New Look!

If you have been to my splash page or my main website you will probably notice a new look for me. I've been working for quite awhile on this stuff and finally finished the new logo in early January. Then it was a matter of picking out the right colors and then doing the html coding to make it all come together. Phew! This stuff is harder than it looks!
I would have been done sooner but January was an extremely busy month for wedding and commercial bookings so I want to take a moment to welcome all my new couples and clients and say how excited I am to be chosen as your photographer! I am blessed to be shooting some really awesome couples at some incredible venues and also to get to shoot some great products and beautiful models.
Soon I'll be heading out to the desert with my friends Jason Groupp of New York, TJ Cameron from Portland and Tim Halberg of Santa Barbara. John might even join us too! These are some of the top wedding photographers in the country so we are all going out to do some nature photography and enjoy some time shooting purely for fun! I'll be shooting mostly film so it will take a bit to get pictures up but I fully expect to get some great new shots for my office and home, maybe I will even put out some limited edition prints while I'm at it :)

Some fun video

I've never posted video here before (I am a still photographer afterall!) but I thought it would be fun to post up this video of a jump I build behind my house. This is the sort of silliness that I can't do during the wedding season as I don't want to risk breaking my arm! ...As if it's okay to break my arm in the off season LOL!

Caiden's bike

Most everyone knows that I ride my bikes everyday, but did you know that Caiden does too? Wether it is with me in his trailer, his new "blue bike," or his indoor stationary bike/video game, he rides for hours every day!
The attached pics are from Christmas day when Caiden took his first ride. We went almost 2 miles!

Christmas morning- Caiden rode his bike around the living room and kitchen until I could get him calmed down enough to put on some clothing for a ride outside!


Looking down a bit too much!


He's really having fun now, he picked it up really quickly.


We rode a big loop to the park where Caiden was riding his bike from one play structure to the next...and back...and forth...and back...and forth!


I'm thinking he will have the training wheels off sometime this spring (he'll turn 3 in April). He loves to follow me around the driveway and try to bunnyhop and do wheelies like daddy. Funny thing is that with all this time of cruising around the driveway I'm actually starting to get pretty good at wheelies :)

Busy times...

I thought I would share a couple more modeling shots just for fun. It is only a very small part of the year that I get to shoot purely for myself so I'm squeezing in as many of these as I can manage between meetings with brides (this is the busiest time of the year for wedding bookings).

This February I have some very interesting fashion shoots planned with some very talented designers as well as a trip out to the desert with a bunch of other top wedding photographers to "recharge" ourselves with something different. Knowing the group who is coming, I'm guessing there is going to be some pretty funny blog material from that trip!

I often get questions from other photographers about my lighting so I'm going to start explaining a bit more. Sorry to anyone who isn't interested, you can just skip this part! :)
All three of these images were shot at iso 320
The top shot used 2 lights; one strobe bounced from an umbrella as the key from camera left and a smaller one shot directly at the model from camera right to create the accent light. f/6.3 @ 1/60
The second shot used basically the same lighting but both lights are un-diffused and from the opposite sides. f/7.1 1/50
The third shot used 2 lights, each at about 45 degrees to the model, both un-diffused and shot at about a 1:4 ratio. f/7.1 @ 1/80

A bit of fashion

This being the slow season for weddings and engagement shoots, I figured I would post up a couple images from some recent fashion shoots. Many wedding photographers take the winter months to relax and enjoy some much deserved time off after a long wedding season. However, I find this is the best time to push myself creatively by taking jobs in fashion and doing fine art work for myself, it is kind of like recharging my creative batteries! I really enjoy the challenge and love to continually push myself to be an even better photographer.

A bit of change

I mentioned a couple months ago that change is in the air. Well, after quite a bit more work than I was expecting my new look and some much awaited updates will start happening this week! I'm really excited as these updates will do much to better represent me and to serve my clients.
The first thing most people will notice is my logo update. The background pattern will show up in many places as will the "Colin Michael Photographer" logo. The frame around "Colin Michael Photographer" will be used where appropriate. I really like the background as it has the look of vintage wallpaper to me, I love it! Be aware that the page that comes up when you type in www.colinmichaelphoto.com will soon be changing so don't be surprised!
The next major change is to my client area where I have just introduced a new e-commerce site. The new system is much more user friendly and offers so much more flexibility! I will now be able to offer gift registries, gift certificates, and even albums directly to registered users. Registration is super easy, just name and email so that the system can keep track of your favorite images and any orders you place. If anyone has images saved on the old cart, I can email you the link to that site which I will keep running through mid-January. As a special promotion, I am offering a 20% coupon as a "thank you" to everyone who orderins within the next month, just enter "SLO" into the coupon code when checking out. The coupon will be good for one month from today and can not be combined with other offers.
I should mention that some events are hidden and others are not yet posted. If there is an event you wish to see, please contact me.
I also recently added a couple of new weddings to the site and will be adding a couple more in the coming weeks. I also plan to launch a new website with personal art from my fashion work and landscapes, but that is a bit further down the line.
I'm really excited about all the changes and hope they better serve all of you. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please contact me or leave a message here.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Brenna and Joshua's Pismo Beach Wedding

There is just nothing like a good beach wedding! Don't get me wrong, I completely take for granted that the beach is right here and I shoot several beach weddings every year, but in the end I always love them. There is just something so unique about getting to photograph a wedding at the beach, I always remind myself that it is such a privilege to be able to a photographer who gets such amazing venues to shoot. The light has a magical quality that permeates every image and inspires me. Add two people very much in love and it makes for some great images!
Josh and Brenna were married in Pismo Beach just about a week ago and I had the opportunity to share the day with them. They are a really great couple and are just perfect for each other. Everyone was a bit concerned as the day before the wedding the weather was very cold, windy and a bit rainy, but it cleared up and was a beautiful December day. Everything went really smoothly, the weather was great and their families were awesome! Thank you so much for having me!

Knocked up!

Nice title, right? :)
So in case you were wondering why my blogging has been so bad for the past month or so it is because Stephanie is pregnant with our second child. Check out that thumbs up in the ultra sound! Uh, at least that's what I see!
We are stoked on having another kid (we find out the sex this week) but unfortunately Stephanie has been having a really hard time having been diagnosed with Hyperemesis Gravidarum. She spent a bit of time in the hospital and has been on bed rest for about a month now. She had it with her first pregnancy too but thankfully this doctor is taking it much more seriously than her last one. She is at 17 weeks right now so hopefully she will start to get well enough to move around soon. The good part is that Steph says the delivery is actually the easiest part of pregnancy!
Anyways, thanks to everyone for the well-wishes we have already received and know that they are very much appreciated!
I also attached an image of Caiden who loves to put on daddy's bike gear and pretend to be a bike rider, it is pretty funny. Walking around Avila Beach in bike shoes with big plastic cleats on the toes isn't easy for a 2 year old!

Yosemite Wedding

A couple weekends ago I headed up to Yosemite to help my friend John Griffin shoot Emily and Will's wedding. I arrived Friday evening after dark and checked into our cabin. After a bit of confusion because of some odd bugs in our beds (yikes!) we switched rooms into the bug free cabin you see in the pictures. We headed over to the Ahwahnee Lodge to meet with the couple, who were incredibly nice people, and to get a bite to eat. When you are out in the woods you don't really think about dressing nicely so we actually weren't allowed into the dinning room because we didn't have collared shirts! The bar suited us just fine however :)
When you arrive in Yosemite at night then wake up in daylight you are so awestruck by the cliffs, it is stunning. The next morning I did the standard, "walk-out-the-door-look-up-stand-with-jaw-hanging" that every tourist does. My intention was to run 4 or 5 miles but I got caught up in the beauty of the place so ended up running more like 10 miles. I can see my friend TJ Cameron shaking his head at that after our extended run in New York City a couple months ago! But it was gorgeous and the weather was perfect, what was I supposed to do!?
What a great place for a beautiful destination wedding! We started off shooting the ladies at the Ahwahnee then headed over to the Yosemite Lodge to shoot the guys. The ceremony itself was by the Ahwahnee with the reception inside one of the dinning rooms. The surroundings at the ceremony was breathtaking. I had a great time and have to thank John again for inviting me along. Thanks to Emily and Will and their families for being such gracious hosts as well.


Front of our cabin


Here is what my run was like, can you blame me for staying out too long!?


Will is 6'5" so it seemed appropriate to frame him with Half Dome!


The view over the head table


The details were perfect


Just a fun portrait


I always get a variety of portraits so parents have something they like too


John posing while I check the lighting setup


The results of the lighting

Bowling and Halloween

It must be in the gene's because Caiden loves bowling! Not that either Steph or I are avid bowlers but back in college we both took bowling for PE credits and used to play whenever it was a rainy day. The only problem was that Caiden doesn't want to wait his turn for his frame so we had to get him his own lane! He played 3 games in the time we played only one!
The other pic is from Halloween night when the downtown merchants in Paso Robles hand out candy for kids. We found Eli and Calista (and their parents of course!) while we were walking around and they all had to stop to try some candy.

Rob and Elisa's Sacramento Wedding

One of the great things about shooting weddings at destinations away from home is finding great new locations to explore, even better when they are not all that far away! Sacramento is overlooked by many on the coast as most people think of LA and San Francisco as being the centers for excitement and urban life in California. Well, I can now add Sacramento to the list of great California cities with nightlife filled downtowns, beautiful and historic neighborhoods and plenty to do.
I headed up to San Francisco the night before Rob and Elisa's wedding and stayed with my long time friend Jen and her husband Rodger (thanks guys!). The next morning I headed out from their place for a quick run down to Baker Beach and then headed out to meet Elisa at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel which is just down from the State Capitol Building. Elisa is part of a large and extremely fun Portuguese family so there were tons of fun moments and everyone had a great time. Elisa is probably one of the funniest people I know and she is so well balanced with Rob, they are perfect for each other.
The ceremony was at a beautiful church in Mid-town, Sacrad Heart Parish. Rob's choir performed all the songs, I wish I would have gotten an recording because they are truly amazing! After the ceremony when headed back to the Capitol Park for some pictures then the party began at the reception.
I had a great time and have to thank Rob and Elisa for having me as well as Chris and Danielle for helping out. I can't wait to head back up there to hang out with everyone again!