Rob and Lisa’s wedding was just as much fun as I thought it would be after their engagement session, there is just nothing like getting to work with people who are passionately in love! We started out at the Claremont Resort for all the getting ready. The Claremont is always a wonderful place to shoot and we were blessed to get some gorgeous weather! Lisa and Rob did their “First Look” at the Claremont Resort then we headed up to The Brazil Room at Tilden Park for the wedding and reception.
I had a great time getting to know both of their families before the ceremony and have to say that the Rabbi was pretty funny! He definitely kept everyone laughing. It was a beautiful ceremony overlooking the mountains and the reception was wonderful. After all the festivities winded down we headed back to the Claremont for some night images that I think came out really well.
Thanks again to Rob and Lisa for having me!

Wow I’ve had a great year of couples! One couple after the next just have this amazing connection that makes my job so much fun! It really is great to get to hang out and get to know people that are so in love.
Ashley, Brandt and I started out at Summerwood Winery, (which is ever so conveniently located at the bottom of my road!) before heading around the Paso Robles for their engagement session. It was pretty windy and a bit chilly, well, actually it was freezing but we toughed it out. Always easier for me to say as the photographer who can wear a hat and jacket lol
Looking forward to the wedding at Robert Hall Winery!

After all the rain at their wedding in November, Desiree thought it would be a great time to do a nice sunny day after shoot back in Carmel. We scheduled and guess what? It rained! So we rescheduled for mid January and, as my West Coast clients know (and my East Coast clients are very jealous of!) it was just about 80 degrees every day!
We met up in Monterey and shot at Fisherman’s Wharf before heading over to Carmel Beach then around Carmel. Desiree and Chris are always a pleasure to work with and we had a ton of fun!

This was just good times!
At the beginning of November I traveled up to Carmel Valley to the beautiful Gardiner’s Resort for Brian and Sophie’s wedding. November is such an odd time in California because you never know if it will be warm, cold, sunny or raining! Oddly enough, we got warm and rain! The other thing about this time of year is that plants and gardens tend to be out of their prime. However, I was amazed at how beautiful the staff at Gardiner’s keep the grounds! I’m not normally a flower picture kind of guy but it was just beautiful and amazing to see at this time of year.
Now, for those that remember from their engagement session, Brian and Sophie are biologists from the Monterey area and Brian is a great bird photographer. Sophie’s actually originally from Belgium by way of Mississippi (I knew that rhyme I learned in 3rd grade to spell Mississippi would come in handy sometime!). Brian is originally from New Jersey so pretty much everyone traveled quite a distance for their wedding! Both their families and all their friends were so much fun, great people all around. We had a great time and the rain held off (mostly) until the reception started so that was perfect!.I went out in the rain at night to get some night shots of the venue that I think are kind of cool. Besides, I need to give my tripod a workout every now and then!
Thanks Brian, Sophie and your families for making me feel so welcomed! And thanks to David Lee who did a great job helping me shoot!

Last week I headed up to Seattle to shoot with my friend Chris of Chris+Lynn. We had a great wedding and then headed up to Chris and Lynn’s place near Vancouver. The first day we headed out to Stanley Park in Vancouver and road bikes around then went to some great places for dinner and drinks. Then next morning we all wanted to go hike so Chris, Lynn, TJ and I all headed back across the border so we could hike around Mt. Baker.
It took us awhile to get there but once we got on the trail it was truly beautiful! We hiked up to the side of a glacier and then just enjoyed the view. Here’s a couple pics from the trip. I’ll post some images from the wedding later this week.

Chris and Lynn just can’t get enough of each other!

There’s about a 200 foot drop just to my right, do I look nervous?

TJ trying out for a job for an outdoor clothing model!

I tried to get them into the water but seeing as that water was glacier about 5 minutes ago it was a bit cold!

Enjoying the view

I should have brought a reflector to fill in those shadows! lol

It was hard to not just sit and enjoy

This is Bob. Bob is our new cat, his brother Tom also lives with us. I forgot what a complete pain in the ass kittens can be! lol

This is one of my favorite images, the beautiful light and the overall feel really help illustrate how passionate Chris and Desiree are for each other

They couldn’t stop having a good time!

Here’s some of that gorgeous light

If you look closely, I think you can see them melting together!

haha, I love how Chris is checking out Desiree here!

Last weekend I headed up to San Francisco for a beautiful wedding with my good friend John Griffin (more from that wedding later) and stopped by Pacific Grove to meet with Brian and Sophie for their engagement session. The smoke from the Big Sur fires was a concern but seeing as it ended up being super foggy it didn’t really matter in the end!
Both Brian and Sophie are Biologists by trade and by lifestyle. They thoroughly enjoy the outdoors and being in nature, being that I am an avid cyclist we all get along really well! Brian is a self described “Bird Nerd” who not only works tracking bird populations but he is also a bird photographer and avid bird watcher. It was really cool to be walking through the forest and he knew the names of every bird we saw and could even identify them by their call. I might just borrow his bazooka of a lens, the Canon 500mm f/4, just to have some fun with at the wedding. Being that the combined weight with my camera would be about 13lbs, I might have to bring a third assistant just to lug it around!

Sophie and Brian were a ton of fun to work with and have such a great time with each other.

Walking down Asilomar Beach

I couldn’t resist the comparison to birding, lol

Wasatch leading the way!

In front of the Carmel City Hall

And here a couple shots from a recent wedding with my friend Gene Higa. I have to also congratulate Gene on being named Top 10 Wedding Photographer of 2008!
It was a beautiful wedding out in the Livermore area with a very fun couple, Will and Andrea. I shot a ton (of course) but these are just a couple of my favorites from the film I shot. I find it really funny that I will take 1,000 digital images and yet my favorites are usually from the film though I only shoot maybe 100 frames of film! Part of what I love about film is the amazing and soft skin tones I get. The other part is that you can’t look at a LCD to see what you captured so you really have to concentrate and trust your skill as a photographer to get great images! Plus, at more than $1.75 for every time I push the shutter button, you want to be sure that every shot is a great shot!

It was really windy so we had a fun time trying to keep that long veil under control!

I love this shot of the Fathers talking. There is something so amazing about the look of a good and grainy black and white film when combined with a rangefinder camera! I love the mood and feel of this image.

LOL, yes, I even use my $12 Holga camera for ceremony shots!