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 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!