Last week I had the privilege to shoot Mike and Beth’s wedding in Carmel, California. I was really excited coming into the weekend because this would be my smallest wedding of the year with less than 10 people. It is so fun to shoot intimate weddings because I really get to share in the day and get to know everyone who is there.
We started out at the Salon at Lincoln Lane where Beth and her daughter Laura were getting their hair and makeup done. Gaspar and Carrie took great care of us before we headed back to the beautiful Old Monterey Inn. The Inn was an amazing location that I can’t wait to visit again and provided a great location for bridal shots! It was so good in fact that I’m going back to shoot a bridal fashion shoot there later in the year.
We then loaded up and headed down to Carmel Beach for the ceremony. Is was pretty breezy but warm enough and the light was gorgeous! It was so cool to have a very free ceremony where everyone was very much a part of the wedding and yet could feel the sand between their toes. Everyone was so happy for Mike and Beth and had a great time, I was totally honored to be a part of such a beautiful wedding.

My friends Tim and Cheryl Halberg stayed a night with us last weekend. It was a quick visit as they had dinner plans Friday and I had a Carmel wedding on Saturday but it was still great to see them. Tim ran up my back hill in flip-flops and got a couple quick pics of me showing him one of my trails. The jump is a little step-down jump that doesn’t look like much but really puts you in the air for a long distance, it’s pretty fun for a little guy. I’m all laid up with a nasty cold right now so I can’t do much of anything, including riding my bike, so these pictures are making me even more anxious to get back out and ride!
And yes, my dogs get to go on rides with me, aren’t they spoiled!

I am often far off shooting destination weddings but last week I had the opportunity to shoot Meghan and Richard’s wedding in Paso Robles at the River Oaks Hot Springs and Spa. It was great to be a part of their day and being just 15 minutes from home was even sweeter!
We started the day at the salon with the girls then headed over to the beautiful Villa Toscana where the girls got ready. The guys went over to the steakhouse for lunch and drinks then met up with us for pictures before the ceremony. I am very respectful of tradition but I also really enjoy mixing it up! In that vein, we had Meghan and Richard meet before hand so that we could shoot more at Villa Toscana and so that we could have the ceremony just before sunset for the best lighting. It worked out really well as the sunset really made for some beautful moments during the ceremony.
A big thanks goes out to my friend Tim Co. for flying all the way from France to shoot with me!

Now that things are starting to slow down a bit I finally have time to catch up on some things…and in the interest of never getting any real down-time…I am now in the middle of a make-over of Colin Michel Photo along with my logo and other branding. I’m really excited about this as I have not really updated my website with new images in almost a year! I am going to do my best to make all the changes over-night and will let you know as soon as it all happens, so keep your eyes out for some exciting new things over the next few weeks!

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.

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!