Posts Tagged ‘Santa Barbara Wedding Photography’

I really do love living in San Luis Obispo county! Snapped this shot with my camera phone on the way out of my office in Paso Robles the other night, what a beautiful place to live!

I just returned from 4 days of bike riding and goofing off out in Sedona Arizona with fellow San Luis Obispo wedding photographer Jonathan from Bluephoto.biz and Arizona photographer Riley of AplusRphoto. We had a great time and you can expect to see a bunch of fun photos sometime next week. I only brought my old Canon Rangefinder film camera so you all have to wait for the film to be processed and scanned…weird right!?
I’d love to be a Sedona wedding photographer so if you plan on getting married out there please give me a call as I’d love to spend more time in such a beautiful place!

Tamara and Joe’s wedding at Fort Mason was such a blast! It was the day before the Fleet Week airshow happened so not only did I get to shoot to amazing people but got to watch the airshow practice session at the same time! Right when we ran out of the Argonaut Hotel to shoot, the Blue Angels made their first pass directly over our heads at about 100 feet! It was absolutely incredible and also incredibly LOUD! The entire session we all had to read lips as we could pretty much not hear at all! They were great and we got some awesome images where you would never know all that was going on!
We then headed over to 1 Fort Mason for the wedding ceremony and reception. The decor was great and the weather was perfect! Gotta love October weddings in San Francisco!
The ceremony was beautiful and very personal to Tamara and Joe. I started seeing the crowd get a bit anxious at one point and looked to see a skunk trying to crash the ceremony! The staff had warned us and had mentioned the skunk is quite friendly. Hmm, friendly or not, I was not going to risk it spraying so I left it alone. Thankfully a guest took charge and gently used a chair to block it’s path from getting any closer (it got about 10 feet from the guests!). Joe was so funny; he just says something like “Just a skunk, no worries” and goes right back to his vows… now that’s cool under pressure!
A huge thanks to Tamara and Joe for having me and I can’t wait to hang out with you soon!

Joe pulls all the stops and gets the Blue Angels out for the wedding!

I heard someone say “at least he’s wearing a tux.” Hmm….

Did I mention Joe is about 1 foot taller than Tamara?

What a great couple Thilani and Darren are! Here are a few shots from their wedding in Clovis a couple weeks ago. Harlan Ranch was a very nicely laid out planned community near the Sierra Foothills to the East of Clovis. The venue was beautiful, Darren and Thilani were great and the timing was perfect for the sunset! Seriously, they were the most laid back couple ever and just so completely in love, it was a blessing to be able to photograph them! I really love being a wedding photographer!


Before walking down the aisle Darren and Thilani had to post “We’re married!” on Twitter! lol!

I love shooting engagement sessions in locations that have real meaning for the couple, Lori and Bobby have tons of history together at UCSB so what better location to shoot? You don’t have to twist my arm to get me down to the beautiful town of Santa Barbara! In the middle of a January heat wave with a hot couple? Even Better! I went to Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara for photography school so it’s always nice to get back there.
Stephanie (my wife for those that don’t know) decided to join me to assist. It was her birthday so we figured we’d go out after the shoot (at Los Olivos Cafe). We met up in Isla Vista and headed right into campus. There must have been 20 new building on campus, it was pretty crazy. Sure would be nice to sit in class and look down the beautiful Santa Barbara coast line!
Lori and Bobby were super nice people and a ton of fun to get to know. We went all over campus and even shot in the library where Bobby worked for several years. Next we went to a couple different beaches (that were packed because of the gorgeous weather) then back to campus for some night shooting.
I can’t wait to shoot the wedding this summer at Gainey Vineyards in Santa Ynez, it’s going to be amazing!


Gotta love night shoots!


Lori looking gorgeous


super wide angles sometimes are fun!


Out in the fields…well, actually not but it looks like it :)


Making out in the library… If only all studying was this fun!


Gotta love sunset in California!


I love this shot, so much fun shooting at night!


This is a totally funky building with all these fluorescent lights that cast some very interesting colors.

We had a blast hanging with you guys and can’t wait for the wedding!

Wow, have I ever been blessed with being a part of some awesome couple’s lives this year! Jenny and Tom’s wedding day started out at the beautiful Wine Valley Inn in Solvang, which is near Santa Barbara, with the ceremony at Old Mission Santa Inés, also in Solvang. Jenny is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and has a great sense of style so we were able to capture some wonderful moments while she was getting ready. She had this great cottage where a lot of her family and friends were getting ready and having a great time. Her family was so much fun and such a big group! The amazing part is just how close everyone is with each other, it was amazing to see all the love!
Tom and the guys were also at the Wine Valley Inn. Tom’s a great guy and a perfect match for Jenny, you often hear people say “they were made for each other” which may sound a bit cliché but is so true for these two! We got some great shots of Tom and the guys before heading over to the Mission for the ceremony. Tom is this burly looking guy but he is also one of the nicest people I’ve been lucky enough to work with, it’s so funny! The ceremony was beautiful and I found a great spot for the family photos out in the courtyard.
After that we headed over to the reception….WOW! Jenny, her family and Alyssah from Save the Date did such an great job with the design! Relatives were at the venue late into Friday night transforming the hall into an exception venue, very good work everyone! Lani at LBPS Events did an AMAZING job with the lighting, everything looked fantastic! Being a photographer who loves using lighting to enhance a scene, I can really appreciate what they did, it made my job even easier! Check out the dancing shot below, that was in the middle of the day which shows how good of work they do, all I had to do was add in some off camera strobes to balance to their accent light and it was beautiful!
The reception was a ton of fun and they even had a Photo Booth which is always a good time!
I will be getting together with Tom and Jenny again in about a week for a “Day After” shoot (yeah, I know, it’s not really the ‘day after’ :) and can’t wait to get to work on their wedding album as it will be delicious! I had such a great time, thanks to Jenny, Tom and their wonderful families!
This is such a small sampling of how many amazing image there are from this wedding! I want to put up more but I think I’ll save it for my website :)

Mark and Viviana’s wedding was last weekend at the Mission San Luis Obispo. You probably remember their engagement session which was shot all around the mission that I posted back in May. The big day finally arrived and they were both really excited. I started with Viviana at the Madonna Inn which is always a trip! If you’ve never been there, it is the funky hotel with the bright pink sign at the base of Cerro San Luis in SLO. There are underground rooms, nautical themed rooms, western themed rooms and pretty much every other bit of funky-ness you can imagine!
After Viviana was ready we headed over to the beautiful Mission San Luis Obispo, where I always enjoy shooting. It is a beautiful wedding venue and Father Miguel always performs a meaningful ceremony. After some family pictures we headed out for an hour of Bride and Groom session then back to Madonna Inn and got some really fun group and individual shots from inside the hotel.
Thanks so much to Viviana and Mark for having me, I had a great time!

Viviana looking amazing!

This was shot pretty much at the spot where Viviana and Mark met

All the ladies looking amazing at the bar at Madonna Inn

The guys trying hard to one-up the ladies, sorry guys…

I couldn’t resist this composition, so surreal!

My take on a classical couple

I love this shot of the cake, it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland and is totally fitting for Madonna Inn!