Posts Tagged ‘Napa Wedding Photographer’

What a year it’s been so far! Awesome weddings with beautiful people, what more could I ask for! Nettie and Leon were married at the beautiful Saint Patricks Cathedral with their reception at The Intercontinental Mark Hopkins in San Francisco. Nettie and Leon have been together for a long time and really wanted the day to reflect their personalities. If you remember from their engagement session, they are huge fans of the theatre so there was lot’s of little details from shows they have seen and even some super dramatic music from Phantom of the Opera!
The day started at the Mark Hopkins (you know, the hotel with “The Top of the Mark” up on Nob Hill). Everyone was having a great time and I knew it would be a great day when I saw that Taylor Pham and her team were doing hair and makeup. Great makeup not only makes everyone look their best but also makes my job easier!
Everything went totally smoothly and though the fog completely stopped us from getting a good shot of the Golden Gate bridge, we still managed to get some great shots downtown and at the Palace of Fine Arts. Wedding Photographers abound at The Palace of Fine Arts but that didn’t worry me as I always know that the couple’s love and my vision are what makes for memorable shots; the shot below with the red tree against the wall is one of my personal favorites! Not to mention that hot series of Nettie and Leon making out!
Nettie and Leon were awesome hosts and totally devoted to getting great images, thanks and congratulations!
I also want to put out a huge thanks to my friend John Griffin for helping out, thanks John!

My friends Kandi and Ronnie asked me to shoot their wedding in San Francisco at St. Dominics Cathedral and Bimbo’s 365 Club. Kandi is my sister in law’s best friend (Courtney is second from the left in the above image) and the entire Garcia family has been friends with my wife’s family for a couple of decades. Funny enough, Stephanie and I lived just a few doors down from the Garcia’s when we used to live in Petaluma! Because of this, pretty much Stephanie’s entire side of the family was at the wedding so I knew it was going to be a pretty wild night!
We started the day at a hotel next door to Bimbos 365 Club and that was something! Hair and makeup went pretty late so we were in a huge rush to get everything ready in time. The really funny thing was that Courtney told Stephanie and Caitlin (my other SIL) they could get ready in her room, but that turned out to be the room Kandi and the rest of the bridal party were getting ready in so it was a bit of a surprise for them! It all worked out so we then headed over to St. Dominics for the first look with Ronnie. St. Dominics is probably my favorite cathedral in San Francisco as it is just a stunning building and the staff there is always nice to work with.
We got a few minutes to run down to the Embarcadero and get some shots of Kandi and Ronnie but we all knew the real action was at Bimbos so we got back there pretty quick! The night was a blast and everyone had a great time! Kandi really wanted a nightclub-party feel to the reception and I really don’t think it could have gone any better. I’ve included plenty of fun party pictures and will have to put up the even funnier ones on Facebook (don’t worry other clients, I only do this with friend’s weddings! lol).

Big thanks to Riley of A+R Photo in Phoenix for helping with the wedding! Check out his great shot from the garter toss, nice!

San Luis Obispo Wedding Photographer

San Luis Obispo Wedding Photographer

San Luis Obispo Wedding Photography

Santa Barbara Wedding Photographer

Santa Barbara Wedding Photography

carmel wedding photographer

Carmel Wedding Photography

St. Dominics San Francisco Wedding Photography

St. Dominics Wedding San Francisco Photographer

Carmel Wedding Photographers

Bimbos San Luis Obispo Photographer

Kandi Ronnie San Francisco Wedding Photographer

Kandi Ronnie Petaluma Wedding Photographer

Bimbos Club Wedding Photographer

Bimbos San Francisco San Luis Obispo Wedding Photographer

Bimbos 365 Club Wedding Photography

North Beach San Francisco

Petaluma Wedding Photography Kandi Ronnie

night club wedding photography

Sarah and Ben’s wedding took place at Hastings House and was a gorgeous and intimate wedding in Half Moon Bay. Hastings House is a beautiful garden setting and the weather was perfect. Most of the weddings I photograph are 200 or more guests so it’s always fun to get to shoot a smaller wedding where I really get to know everyone and really feel a part of the day. Maybe it’s the intimacy or maybe it’s just because Stephanie and my wedding was very small but I had a great time! After the garden wedding ceremony at Hastings House we did a photo session then drove over to the Garden Court Hotel in Palo Alto. The hotel is a great spot for an intimate reception and the staff was wonderful. Sarah and Ben’s signature drink was flowing and the food was great! Sarah’s family came in from all over the US while Ben’s family came in from his native Australia so I had a great time getting to know everyone and thank everyone for being so gracious with me! And thanks for the VB, that was great! You have to love a bride in a birdcage veil! Downtown Palo Alto I loved the details! The ceiling lamps combined with my off camera lighting make some cool colors! This is one of my favorite Photojournalistic photo’s from the wedding. It shows Sarah and Ben dancing then each of the other couples is their parents, very cool!

A couple weeks ago I headed up to Canada to visit my good friends Chris+Lynn, shoot an amazing wedding (thanks Sonny and Sandy!) and ride my bike at Whistler. The wedding was enormous and a ton of fun, some of the most friendly people I have ever met! Here’s a couple highlights and some fun ones of me doing stupid stuff at Whistler :)

Here’s a couple from Whistler Mountain Bike Park. The first couple days there it was beautiful but we didn’t break out the camera until the weather got really nasty! lol Thanks for joining me Bill!

Jumping in the rain was pretty sketchy, especially as I had so much mud in my eyes that I could barely see!

See, I told you it was a bad idea! Thankfully I was wearing body armor, without this I would have had a broken knee for sure!

Bill going off the GLC drops (about 6 foot drop). A minute later I followed with about $5k of camera around my neck, probably not the best idea ever!

We had a day off in the middle of the 4 days of wedding shooting and it was a beautiful day so Chris, Lynn and I headed to the sea shore for lunch, it was a beautiful day!

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!

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 :)