When I go into a photo shoot, I have an idea in my head of how things should work out. I picture the best possible outcome: perfect weather, beautiful settings, great light.
For Stephanie and John’s Big Sur engagement photos, things didn’t work out exactly as I had hoped. They worked out better.
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Bridget and Amadeo are planning a rock-and-roll themed wedding, so we did our best to add a touch of rock and roll to their engagement session: We shot outside of a couple punk clubs, we hopped a fence, we ended at a bar with a few pints.
Our locations were around downtown San Jose, all within walking distance of our houses. St. James Park, the post office, the court house, Circle of Palms Plaza. Amadeo kept us laughing by quoting funny lyrics and dropping the funniest pick-up line I’ve ever heard: ” You got a number to go with that face?” The talented Conner Jay came along to work my softbox-on-a-stick.
In the end, we came away with a great set of pictures and had a great time. If their San Francisco wedding is half as fun as their San Jose engagement session, we’re going to have a blast.
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When I was planning where to do an engagement session with Christine and Chris, we considered going to a park for hiking or a winery for wine tasting — but in the end we decided to combine the ideas, and hike to some wine tasting on a mountaintop.
We went to Henry Coe State Park near Morgan Hill on a sunny Sunday in late February. On our way to the park, we stopped for photos at a lake and a very pretty barn. But the real payoff was inside the park itself, where we found dramatic-looking trees silhouetted against deep blue skies. We even found a little snow sticking to the shadowy parts of the hilltops.
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Kristina and Andrew picked a memorable date for their Redwood City wedding — October 10th, 2010, or 10/10/10 — and threw themselves a very memorable celebration.
The day started at Hotel Sofitel on the San Francisco Bay in in Redwood City, where Kristina, her bridesmaids and family got ready. After a few formal photos in my improvised studio-in-the-hallway, we set up a dramatic meeting in the lobby for the couple to see each other for the first time. Their nervous excitement was palpable. They met, nearly cried, and walked away together.
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This wedding was full of surprises.
Like the tiny plastic skull hidden in Danielle’s bouquet, or her Spider Man garter, or James’ tie, decorated with icons of turntables. Or the fact that I knew James — or J.P. — from previous photo shoots, when his hip hop group hired me to shoot their pictures.
I was the second shooter for Glen McDowell for this wedding at Chateau Coralini on River Road in Salinas. We were there for just a half day, so time was short, but we made the most of it: While Glen was shooting the group photos, I was setting up lighting for a portrait in the amazing wine cellar, as well as the awesome couch that’s pictured at the top of this post.
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As soon as I met David I thought he looked familiar. Turns out I photographed him years ago for the newspaper when he was an athlete in high school. Made me feel old, but it also made this wedding kind of special for me.
I was the second photographer at this half-day wedding in Hollister with my pal Glen McDowell, who I’ve been working with a lot lately. Glen and I are getting to the point where we can just about read each other’s minds. During the final portrait shoot of the night I held a flash in a softbox at the end of a long extendable painter’s pole as Glen shot photos, each of us telling the other what settings we were using and how to move to make the photos come out just right. The shots look amazing, but you’ll have to go to Glen’s site to see them.
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Jessica and Andres’ wedding had everything: a hot rod, a mariachi band, a Banda group, a photo booth, a chocolate fountain, a DJ, and race cars.
Race cars? Yes, the wedding was held at the famous Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and cars were on the track as vows were being exchanged.
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