Archive for the ‘Nature’ Category

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Canada!

October 8, 2008

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

Posted in Nature, Travel, Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Desiree and Chris’s Los Gatos Engagement Photos

August 6, 2008


Desiree and Chris are the kind of couple I just love to be around; when they are together they both just light up and become more than when they are apart. Probably 2 seconds into our session I saw not only just how in love with each other they are but also how much one of them is truly a part of the other! They are that couple that we all say “they were made for each other!”
We met up in Los Gatos, which is beautiful town about 50 miles south of San Francisco and near San Jose. I grew up just over the hill in Santa Cruz so it felt nice to be “home.” We started out by heading up Highway 9 out of Saratoga into the Santa Cruz Mountains until we found a turnout on the side of a stream that had PERFECT lighting! It was right on the side of the road but the lighting was just amazing and the images were beautiful. Desiree and Chris were great, not even caring about the cars driving by with some even honking approval!
We then went just a little ways back down the road to a regional park then to the beautiful The Mountain Winery for an amazing view of the Silicon Valley before heading back to Los Gatos for some night shots downtown. We were expecting it to be pretty quiet, it being a Sunday evening, but downtown LG was hopping! I had shot down there not too long ago for a commercial so knew of a couple cool spots that would be a bit more quiet. Funny thing is, I don’t think Chris and Desiree would have cared at all if I set them up right in the middle of main street! lol
I had a great time with you both and I can’t wait to shoot your wedding down in Carmel!

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!

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Posted in City, Engagement Sessions, Nature, Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Brian and Sophie in Carmel

July 17, 2008

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

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Posted in Beach, Engagement Sessions, Nature, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Even time/a couple recent FILM (gasp!) wedding pics

July 8, 2008

With all the pics of Kyla we haven’t seen much of Caiden! Here’s a funny one I shot with my trusty Holga film camera. I love this shot, if I ever had a band it would be my band’s poster! I have not edited this image, this is how it came out of the camera.

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!

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Posted in Nature, Uncategorized, Weddings, Wineries | 3 Comments »

Shooting Film in Napa with John

May 4, 2008

About two weeks ago I headed up to Calistoga Ranch (which is in the Napa Valley) to shoot a wedding with my buddy John. John could easily have handled this small wedding himself but his wife was due the following day with their first child so I went up just in case he got “The Call.” Luckily that did not happen; John and Jody had their daughter several days later, congratulations guys!
Calistoga Ranch is a beautiful location and was a joy to shoot at. It was super windy but Jenny and Daniel braved the elements and still had an outdoor ceremony. I wanted to post a couple of B+W film shots I took with my new rangefinder 35mm camera. Both these images were shot in almost total darkness inside a wine cave with just a few candles for lighting. It was quite a difficult shoot, technically, but these two image really capture the feel for the wedding.
For anyone curious, I do shoot both film and digital. Both have their strengths and weaknesses but I believe that combining them to only use the strengths gives a much broader look than shooting all of one or the other.

OK, I couldn’t resist posting just one digital shot :)

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Posted in Nature, Uncategorized, Weddings, Wineries | 2 Comments »

Laurie and Alan’s Santa Fe Wedding

June 4, 2007

I got back from Santa Fe last night and I’m exhausted! Thankfully we had a smooth and uneventful flight home and got to stop in Sedona again for breakfast. I still can’t get over how gnarly the landing is there! The 5,000 ft runway is perched on top of a 5,100 ft long, 700 foot tall plateau so when you land you come in over a cliff and when you take off you fly right off the edge! Between that and some really gusty and unpredictable winds and the amazing rock formations It is a pretty wild place to visit.

Laurie and Alan’s wedding was beautiful and they were such nice people, we all really had a great time. I have to thank Jason Groupp again for bringing me out there to shoot. Getting to work with such a talented photographer and one of my good friends is such a treat, I can’t wait to do it again. Did I mention that Jason was recently named Best of Photographers in New York by readers of the Knot?! That is a well deserved honor for him.
We started off the day with lunch at the beautiful El Dorado Hotel with Alan and his brother-in-law Anthony. Both of them are great and genuine people who it was a joy to get to know. We then split up with Jason heading over to the Presidential Suite to shoot Laurie getting ready and me staying with Alan. We shot some getting ready stuff and then headed over to the historic downtown area of Santa Fe for a session with Laurie and Alan together. Laurie had the most amazing Vera Wang Gown, it was beautiful and a perfect dress for her.
We ran all over town and got some great shots, then headed back to the hotel for touch-ups before the ceremony. After the ceremony cocktail hour and dinner were held on the huge patio at the El Dorado Hotel’s Presidential Suite with views of the sunset over downtown Santa Fe, it was spectacular! Cake and dancing were across the street at the Georgia O’keefe Museum where special tours were arranged and the DJ was rocking.
It was an amazing day and tons of fun! I’m looking forward to my next trip out to New York to hang out with everyone again :)




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Posted in Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, Weddings | 1 Comment »

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