Secluded Gardens with Sean + Amber

November 7th 2011:

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Last month Felicia and I headed out to Temecula to photograph Amber and Sean’s big day at the Secluded Garden Estates. The weather was just right and the newly opened venue was a treasure trove of cool locations to shoot at – cactus, oak trees, views of the valley, this place had it all.

Sean and Amber had warned us numerous times that the party was going to get insane and we should be ready. We arrived “ready“, and the beer and champagne flowed immediately and by the reception everyone was at least two cocktails in. The dance floor became a crush of people and I had to dance my way through just to grab pictures of the party (and any of you who have ever seen me dance, know that wasn’t pretty).

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This is my favorite picture of the day, it just says it all. When Sean got the tattoo, the tattoo artist tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t have it.

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California, Corona, County, Estates, Garden, Orange, Pala, Photographer, Photography, Secluded, Temecula, Wedding, Engagement You guys were both amazing and we plan to be taking you up on that offer to buy us beers really soon! Congrats again!

Vegetables?!?

October 31st, 2011:

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Happy Halloween everyone! Today I will blog about something REALLY scary… Vegetables.

During my last year of High School I was torn between going into college for two VERY lucrative professions. I either wanted to go to Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco and learn how to cook, or I wanted to head off to get my B.A. in Theater and become the next Brando. I choose theater school (which eventually led me to filmmaking, which brought me my passion for photography), but the kitchen was never far from my heart. So when Felicia and I recently learned about Abundant Harvest Organics and their weekly deliveries to Burbank of fresh fruits and veggies we got excited. For just under $22 a week we get to go down to Warner Bros. studio every Tuesday morning and trade our empty box for a box of whatever is in season here in California, and it’s ALL ORGANIC. After signing up, we received our first box last week.

Our haul for the week was a variety of 11 fruits and veggies (all harvested in the 24 hours prior to delivery), which filled our fridge and left us scrambling across the internets to find recipes for things like acorn squash and persimmons. All said, radishes and squash aren’t something we would normally buy at the grocery store, but the adventure of finding ways to cook them and knowing who the farmers are that grew them is half the fun (they even include a newsletter with the farmers names, websites and email addresses so you can get in touch if you’d like!). Today is Monday, and after a vegetable filled week, the only thing we have left is a pomegranate, the 3 persimmons (which still aren’t ripe), a little basil and the radishes which will be eaten tonight.

I am excited to see what I get tomorrow!

P.S. – They deliver all over California, so if you are interested check out their site!

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Late Night with Mr. O

October 28th 2011:

A few weeks back we had Mr. O come from Singapore to stay with us in Burbank for 5 nights. On the third evening, in that hazy window of time before midnight but after 3 or 4 vodka-cranberries, I decided to pull out my camera and flash and do some portraits. I plopped Mr. O in a chair and popped off 20 or so images in about 3 minutes, these are a couple of my favorites which were immediately added to his Facebook before we hit that 5th vodka-cranberry and the haze of the evening continued.

Dana Point Wedding of Shawna + Matt

October 24th, 2011:

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Last month was a busy one for Felicia and I – we shot weddings in Napa, Dana Point, Pasadena and Temecula, adding thousands of miles to our little Volkswagon. Right smack in the middle of the month we made our way down to the Chart House in Dana Point to capture Shawna and Matt’s big day. Most of the day had grey skies which provided a giant cloudy softbox in the sky, but late in the afternoon the sun decided to join us which let the out of town guests basked in the glory of our Californian sun. Thanks to Shawna’s percision planning, everything ran perfect and the day went off without a hitch – except the getting hitched part, that is.

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When the sun finally showed itself over Dana Point harbor and I snapped off half a dozen pictures to composite into a panorama of the epic view.

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Congrats again to you both and all the best wishes for your marriage!

Eileen + Trinidad at Highland Springs

October 21st, 2011:

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Eileen & Trinidad are friends of Cassandra & Javier, and I can see why: All 4 of these awesome people are super easy-going and fun to be around!

We started off our photo session at a sushi bar where Eileen & Trinidad first met. I love being able to shoot at a place of sentimental value for our clients, and even better yet when they’re on a first name basis with the owner so we get to take pictures before it’s open to other patrons!

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After a run of the sushi bar – and after I had sufficiently manhandled Trinidad’s sushi roll for the shot above, I let them eat this roll – we headed east to Highland Springs Resort for the second half of their shoot.

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Thanks for such a fun day, and congrats again to you both. We look forward to capturing your big day next July!

The Nieces @ Oak Glen

October 19th, 2011:

A couple weeks ago my mother was able to pull the entire family together in one spot for an afternoon picnic (minus my youngest brother, who came down with adult chicken pox – sucks for him).

Me, finally able to relax under a giant oak tree drinking red wine, could barely be bothered to lift my camera and document the day. Although as the light started getting magically low in the sky, I couldn’t help but snap a few pictures of my adorable nieces (including my new Norwegian niece, Oda). I might be a biased uncle about their sheer adorability, but when plied with ample amount of red wine, even the most rambunctious of children can become cute for 1/2500th of a second. After 20 minutes or so of hollering at them to look at the camera, I gave up and returned to the wine and watched the sunset surrounded by the family.

Chrissy + John | El Matador Engagement Session

October 13th, 2011:

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On a gorgeous Sunday afternoon I packed my cameras and wife into the car for a drive up PCH. Felicia and I were on our way to El Matador State Beach to meet Chrissy and John for the first time to shoot their engagement session. They are getting married next July in downtown, so we suggested we meet at this rustic beach for something totally different. What I didn’t take into account was that there would be no less that 12 other photographers on the beach shooting family, engagement, band, scenery and just about any other photography you could imagine. The beach was a veritable studio which fortunately provide enough nooks and crannies for everyone to shoot in. Chrissy and John we’re totally chill and dodged photographers like they were celebrities. Never even blinking at all the cameras.

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It was right around this time when my camera went “click, chunk, click, TH-Chunk!” followed by a series if gasps and weezes before it gave me an “Err 99” and the shutter completely died. I popped the lens off and looked inside to see that the shutter was looking like a wadded up ball of aluminum foil. The last 9 frames looked like this.

For years I have always carried backups for our backups but this is the first time we ever had a piece of gear fail. Figuring it’s just part of the business, I tossed that body in my camera bag, pulled another camera out and kept shooting. A couple days later, I dropped the camera off at Canon in Irvine, they gave me a loaner camera (one of the benefits of Canon Professional Services) and they promised to have it back to factory condition in 48 hours. Sweet.

El, Matador, State, Beach, Photography, Photographer, Los, Angeles, Malibu, Engagement , Wedding

The sunset quickly became epically Californian and as my white skin slowly took on a pink cast our wonderful couple started getting their feet wet.

El, Matador, State, Beach, Photography, Photographer, Los, Angeles, Malibu, Engagement , Wedding

Congrats again to you both! See you again soon!

Natalie + Justin | A Tortured Groom

October 11th, 2011:

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I’ve said before on this blog that one of my favorite things about shooting weddings is that Felicia and I are constantly surrounded by happy people, and we also have the privilege of meeting lots of people from all walks of life, and sometimes, from all over the world. We are indeed fortunate to share great chemistry with Justin and Natalie: We already had so much fun during their engagement shoot earlier this year, and by the time we shot their wedding, it really felt like we were being part of our friends’ wedding day.

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Natalie – who incidentally spent several of her formative years in Singapore – decided to test Justin’s commitment with some traditional wedding ‘door-stop’ games. For those who don’t know what this is, basically, the bride & bridesmaids come up with several challenges to make it difficult for the groom to get to his bride. The groom has to show his sincerity by completing these challenges, and often resorts to offering bribes of money in red envelopes to the bridesmaids in the hopes that they will spare him more torment.

After witnessing what Justin had to go through, all I can say is that I’m lucky Felicia chose to spare me. I’m pretty sure she (and her very evil friends) could have come up with some pretty nasty challenges for me.

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Justin was blindfolded and made to consume spoonfuls of the following, symbolizing the ups & downs of a marriage: spicy chili pepper sauce, balsamic vinegar, coffee beans, and honey. Only after he was done with these – without stopping for a drink of water – that he was able to meet his bride and proceed with the tea ceremony. I honestly felt bad for the guy. Especially since he was hurting really, really bad from a killer hangover. [Don’t judge. Justin’s groomsmen all flew in the day before the wedding, so he HAD TO have his Bachelor Party then. And of course, being such awesome groomsmen, they were very generous with the alcohol.]

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Natalie & Justin had their ceremony and reception at the Alta Dena Country Club. The reception space was absolutely awesome with large windows and lots of gorgeous light. Love it.

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Natalie & Justin, congratulations, and we’re absolutely thrilled for you both. Thank you for your friendship, and we wish you both a lifetime of happiness!

Pete + Cindy | Up in Napa

September 27th 2011:

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Earlier this month, Felicia and I drove our little car up north to Napa for Pete & Cindy’s destination wedding at The Chardonnay Golf Club (speaking of driving, I’m disappointed we only clocked 36.25MPG on that long drive).

It was a beautiful day for a wedding, a surprising reprieve from the heat seeing as it was pretty warm the day before, and Pete & Cindy made a wonderful day all the more enjoyable by being their awesome selves. I spent the early part of the day alternating between driving Pete around and photographing him (chauffeuring is another of my many talents), while Felicia zipped around with Cindy as they went on a hunt for Pete’s missing tuxedo shirt studs, so everyone got to go on an adventure!

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Cindy’s little niece, Priyanka, is really fond of her, and was thrilled to have ‘matching’ shoes as her aunt.

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On any given wedding day, I’ve been known to fold pocket squares on the fly, tie ties, pin boutonnieres, but this one thing had me stumped: How to tie a bow tie from scratch.

Thanks to most tux rental places, most of our grooms have the ‘ready made’ bow tie. But Pete had to be all fancy-schmanzy and got a REAL bow tie. Damn. One that needed real tying. One that… neither Pete, nor I, nor the venue coordinator could figure out despite bringing up ‘How To Tie A Bow Tie‘ YouTube videos on my iPhone. Thankfully, one of Pete’s wedding guests is sufficiently stylish to not only know how to tie a bow tie, but how to do it with finesse, so we drove over to his hotel and had him work his magic.

I’m starting to believe that James Bond isn’t trying to look all debonair and casual with his bow tie undone: He just can’t figure the damn thing out.
Napa, California, Vineyard, Wedding, Photography, Chardonnay, Golf, Club, Photographer, Photographers, Travel, Destination

Napa, California, Vineyard, Wedding, Photography, Chardonnay, Golf, Club, Photographer, Photographers, Travel, Destination

Those flowers are made of sugar and completely edible. But they look so good that nobody could bear to eat them. Amazing.

Napa, California, Vineyard, Wedding, Photography, Chardonnay, Golf, Club, Photographer, Photographers, Travel, Destination

Cindy and Pete have been an absolute blast to work with, and as if we didn’t already eat too much while in Napa (more on that tomorrow), they invited us to their day-after brunch with their friends & family where I stuffed myself with lumpia, inari sushi and all other manner of deliciousness. Don’t judge. I worked hard for it.

Congrats Cindy & Pete, have a wonderful life together, and thanks again for everything!

John + Nathasha | A Year Already

September 22nd, 2011:

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How is it that it’s almost the end of September already? It feels like not too long ago, I was making lofty plans to eat better, work out more…

In the same way, it feels slightly surreal to shoot John & Nathasha’s first anniversary session. It didn’t seem like too long ago that Felicia and I photographed their wedding, and prior to that, their engagement session at Union Station.

We met up at Arroyo Seco Park in Pasadena for a casual hike/stroll and took pictures until the sun set, then enjoyed a delicious dinner of authentic Thai food with our happily-married couple.

Thanks for dinner guys! We’ve already been back there once!

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