Mike Larson : International Photography, travel, weddings, life

Good morning, it's Monday.

2008-12-01T05:37:00.000-08:00

Most of my Monday morning posts seem to have water, ocean or warm
California weather. But even while California is 70+ degree during the
days now the rest of the country is in winter wonderland. I'm sitting
here in my plane which I should not be in. The 767 on the way over
was delayed 65 minutes, from a cracked winshield. They gave us a plane
the SF 49ers just deplaned. (or so they announced over the PA) When
we arrived her in Chicago, the jetway ramp was frozen and we sat on
the runway for 30 minutes, for sure I figured I would be late. Not to
mention sll the others on thr plane. Had i been on the back of thr
planr i eould havr missed my flight. But I'm the kind of guy who
never gives up. I prayed that I still may be able to make my
connection, and still ran to the gate. Even though I arrived the
exact minute the flight WAS scheduled to leave, the arriving flight
was delayed and I actually made it. This just reminds me of my buddy
DJ - http://www.davidjay.com/blog always shares his crazy flight
stories. I probably would have called up a friend here, http://www.kennykim.com
and hung out untill I could get another flight, which may not have
been today- due to the volume of weather delays. I'm thankful for
making this flight and I hope your Monday is beautiful.

Ben and Denise- Santa Barbara CA

2008-11-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

Davis Family

2008-11-27T14:19:00.000-08:00

Photo of the week

2008-11-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

Indio, Ca.

2008-11-25T13:35:00.000-08:00

Today starts our family thanksgiving vacation with my side of the
family. We spent the last weekend over with Rachels family. See www.annajoyphoyography.com
(visit he blog) she is my sweet sister in law and has some great pix
and a video. I love the holidays family and cooking!

Rincon surf sesh...

2008-11-22T13:53:00.001-08:00

The weather and waves were amazing today, 3-6 foot and clean. I LOVE
my weekends off! Today kicks off thanksgiving for our families. Food,
games, all the fixins'! You all have a blessed day...

Dan n Chloe

2008-11-20T06:53:00.000-08:00

We had a blast this past weekend with our friends up in in tahoe.
After hiking around and such. I can't belied how beautiful and warn
last weekend was. Almost 70 in tahoe! Felt like a summer/ fall day.

Beautiful lake tahoe

2008-11-16T15:23:00.000-08:00

What a day for a hike!

Jason & Krystal- San Diego, CA

2008-11-14T00:06:00.000-08:00

Brain and Karelisa- SLO, CA

2008-11-13T12:27:00.000-08:00

Midwest Speaking Tour

2008-11-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

I'll be speaking in the midwest At Pictage PUG's Thanks to the other sponsors as well, ShootQ, Kiss wedding books, and California Sunbounce,

I'm going to be giving a mini session of my upcoming WPPI Platform presentation "Leadership & Influence" I'll also be going to talk a little bit about some of the other topics I've been covering in my recent talks around the country.

-"Shoot Right the First time"
-"Simple Business so you don't have to do the Business"
-"Work Hard, Play Hard"

Here are the Dates!:

December 1: Nashville, TN.
December 2: Knoxsville/Chattenooga
December 3: Chattenooga (FULL DAY WORKSHOP)
December 4: Ashville/Raliegh, NC
December 5: Atlanta, GA

These topic and a little shooting demo are in the works. I'm honored to be connecting with photographers in these cities, so if your in or around these cities and these dates and want to sign up contact the Pictage PUG leader or, email me for more infoseminars@mikelarson.com.

Matt and Lacey- SLO, CA

2008-11-11T06:07:00.000-08:00

Couples like you two make my job easy :) cant wait till your wedding next summer!

Arnold and Mona Rehersal : Tahoe, CA

2008-11-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

I loved the light at this time and wanted to post some of these. Mona & Arnold, you guys are beautiful.

Photo of the Week: San Luis Obispo - Bishops Peak

2008-11-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

Highlighted on my mikelarsonphoto.com website (which needs updating) I have been selling these prints. This is from last spring. Bishops is part of the "7 sisters" which runs all the way into Morro bay.

Arnold and mona wedding

2008-10-30T12:51:00.000-07:00

Mona & Arnold were a sweet couple we met a few months back. I was amped to be working with them. The Fabulous Event Designers up in Tahoe: Karin, Kerry & Rebecah from BLUE SKY Events took such good care of them and planned a fabulous destination wedding for the Bay Area Couple. Located in Lake Tahoe, on the south shore, The Edgewood Resort is home to an very photogenic location. Here are a quick pic at some of my fav's. The lighting and the whole event was perfect. Thanks guys for an amazing day. Check out some of the images I posted on my facebook profile.

Josh Garrels Concert

2008-10-26T18:31:00.000-07:00

My wife found this concert online and brougt me here. For those of you
who don't know, Josh is one of my fav artists. Check out his website http://www.joshgarrels.com
. You can listen to his music or buy albums. He's on the iTunes as
well.

Rearview mirror a taxi in nyc...

2008-10-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

Riding to dinner...

Cute wife + 3 year anniversary

2008-10-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

I am so in love with my wife, I think she is more beautiful and I
love serving her more than I did when we were married. This week we
celebrate our 3 years of the most amazing marraige ever...

New York City (Casual Portrait Session) Bryan & Maggie

2008-10-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

I LOVE NYC. We met Bryan and Maggie at the Apple Store on 5th. We headed out in Central Park and got lost for a few hours. Bryan has a natural smile, and he loves photography, so while normally I don't chat about the technical side too much, it was fun to chat about what I was doing while I was shooting. Maggie was super fun and able to have so much fun with Bryan. Here are some of the AMAZING color that we captured...

I love my 85 1.2 lens!

Why sit when you can stand. The fall colors make for fires amazing backdrops

Bryan & Maggie are so in love, Rachel and I were talking about how simple, fun and real their relationship is. That totally comes out in the photos.

These areas remind me of Europe. I love shooting over there and NYC reminds me of that. Maybe thats why I love it so much.

Maggie, a bride to be...

Central Park offers some cool rocks to get some aerial shots, mixing up the portraiture.

"Bo" bridge, the famous, the beautifully simple...

Taking a moment to watch the sunset, these shoots are not all about running around and shooting, but about just "being" and hanging out.

The Brooklyn Bridge & the coolest walkway across the East River. Right at sunset when the light is perfect.

Grand Central Station, a 2 second exposure. Life stands still, reminding me of how we need to take the time to spend our time with what is most important.

On the way to dinner we went on another subway, and I grabbed this shot while they had a chance to be alone and share sweet nothings and be themselves.

Maggie, the model on the runway, Bryan, watching her woman closely, crossing Times Square. This shot was fun, but took a couple of runs to get perfect due to light, traffic and the crowds of people.

Such a fun day, I think we spent 9 hours shooting and then eating dinner. That FLEW by. I am stoked with what we got and looking forward until we meet again. It was a pleasure sharing and hearing about your family and your heart for your relationship and your wedding.

The end. (for now)

New York City Workshop - KISS "Get Simple"

2008-10-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

Kevin Swan & I today taught the "KISS - GET SIMPLE" workshop in Manhattan, Downtown New York City. We had a great group of photographers and it was sweet. New York is always a fun spot to work, eat, shoot, and hang out so it made for a great setting to be able to do this seminar. Thanks guys for a good day...

Rachie at Grand Central!

2008-10-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

This is the first time my wife has been here. She looks so cute and
she has been really sweet today helping out with the shoot.

Riverside Connecticut Wedding & New England Area

2008-10-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Good morning, its monday, and Normally I'm somewhere near the beach in California, but across the this is perfect town USA, which reminds me of my hometown, Danville CA. This literally feels like 200 years ago.

Looking into the Long Island Sound, its so beautiful here.

There was this patch of leaves and Rachel and I parked our car and laid down, snapped a shot and moved on. In cali the vineyards will change color like this, but we don't get that much color change as out here. Its crazy, they pile leaf piles as high as people and 20 feet long. Thats their saturday chore. While the little kids play in the middle of it. I must admit, i did drive through a couple leaf piles, it was just too tempting...

Looking up, the color looks as if the trees are on fire!

Rachel picked out her favorite leafs and arranged them on the hood of the car.

They call this the Sugar Maple tree leaf. So I tried to see for myself. It didn't taste like sugar or maple, I wonder why they call it that.

Driving along the the roads, getting lost was super fun, cause you would see this all day long.

They typical house, here, no curbs, fences, just amazing colors, smiles, kids & dogs playing everywhere, as if Rachel and I didn't want a dog enough, this may have been the clincher!

We are heading to NYC now, its been a sweet weekend up here, I'll be positing some of the best wedding images from the weekend, Here are two of my fav's...

Scott & Courtney were such an amazing couple, and the sweetest people ever. It was such a pleasure to serve them and their whole family this weekend. Thanks guys...

Perfectville

2008-10-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

These town roads are so beautiful...

Darin and Libby: Pismo Beach CA.

2008-10-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

Darin & Libby were a fun couple, Darin is the most laid back guy, very cool, collected and fun to hang out with. Libby is an animal trainer and is amazingly talented. She trained a hawk to be part of the ceremony, yeah, read on...

The day started off right with Darin making the perfect todo list for his morning routine.

Libby getting ready with the final touches as her bridesmaids make her laugh...

And the cute little flower girl who was "watering" her flowers with sand moments before this shot, was being silly and loving every second of it. Its funny how much little girls like their dresses. Its almost programmed into most every girl.

They had their ceremony on a bluff in the sand. Atop a dune, surrounded by cool trees, this was an amazing spot to have a ceremony. The evening color was sweet!

This is the amazing part. She had trained the Hawk, "Lupus" to fly in between their arms and deliver the rings to the officiant. It was a surprise to everyone, (except us :)!) Needless to say, this is the most original ring delivery I have ever seen! I was mucho impressed and was glad my Canon shot at 8 frames per second. I max out the buffer all the time and did 2 seconds after this shot.

What I loved about this ceremony setup was how they were up high, on a dune, which made for a very untraditional look to the ceremony, I think it was easier to photograph yet, very original and I was able to get some cool shots...

What a stud with his beautiful new wife. Notice his confident stride and the way he makes her laugh. Its gonna be a good marriage.

First Dance, it was a great reception and Darin was a gentleman with his new wife.

This shot was taken at 1/25th of a second, with my 85 1/.2. The ISO was 1600, and I did shoot in color, but I liked the B+W better. I LOVE pushing my camera to the limits, and it took 18 shots to get this one. 8 frames per second rocks my world. 7,000 images later, this wedding was a hit and we left proud of what we shot. Thanks Darin & Libby, you guys were great. Have a wonderful honeymoon!

Connecticut...

2008-10-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Wow...